# Another old song question. Copperhead road **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [October 15, 2021, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535 "2021-10-15T04:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/1 "2021-10-15T04:42:41Z")
Another good old 80’s song. Had a discussion with a dude about the early verse… > Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad > He headed up the holler with everything he had > It’s before my time but I’ve been told > He never came back from Copperhead Road I had always assumed the Revenue man was the one who never came back. But was talking to a guy who was sure that it was Granddaddy who never came back. I gotta admit it isn’t fully clear, and with the general sense of family tragedy in the song, it does seem on theme. How did you understand it? Who never came back _Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/1))_ ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/2 "2021-10-15T08:01:07Z")
Well, I’ll be. I selected “Granddaddy” and then I went an checked out [the article on Wiki about the song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperhead_Road_(song)). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/3 "2021-10-15T12:00:10Z")
It’s the revenooer that didn’t come back. Similarly, in “Amos Moses”: > Well, the sheriff caught wind that Amos > Was in the swamp trappin’ alligator skins > So he snuck in the swamp, gonna get the boy > But he never come out again “He never come out again” refers to the sheriff, not Amos. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/4 "2021-10-15T12:37:20Z")
As long as Grandaddy is coming to town about twice a year, it ain’t Grandaddy. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/5 "2021-10-15T13:02:04Z")
Well all I know is the once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top looking for a moonshine still. Them two strangers never came down from Rocky Top, reckon they never will. Its what happens when you get your corn from a jar. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/6 "2021-10-15T13:08:38Z")
In the 1880s, some preachers on their way to a religious conference were murdered in Arkansas by moonshiners believing them to be revenuers. I always understood it to mean that grandad took care of that revenue officer. ---
**Author:** ![Dinoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@Dinoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinoguy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/7 "2021-10-15T14:18:26Z")
If you’ve seen the video, old granddad was seen swiggin’ 'shine from a jar while driving (in an old car with no automatic, how did he do that?) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/8 "2021-10-15T14:31:32Z")
The grammar of the verse suggests the revenue man doesn’t come back. He is the “he” referenced earlier. In addition, the grandfather was at Copperhead Road, while the other man was arriving from elsewhere, so “never came back from” implies the latter, as the grandfather didn’t go to Copperhead Road but was already there. ETA: Driving a stick doesn’t require your hand except for shifting. Plenty of time to swig hooch. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/9 "2021-10-15T15:46:41Z")
He knows the history of his granddaddy but he can’t say whether a revenooer actually went up in the hills or that he came back ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/10 "2021-10-16T10:18:51Z")
Considering the overall theme of the song, I always thought it was his granddaddy who didn’t come back, but it also makes sense that the revenue man wouldn’t have come back. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/11 "2021-10-16T11:53:02Z")
The revenuer is the subject of the first sentence, and Granddaddy is the direct object. Therefore, the revenuer is the implied subject of the following sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/12 "2021-10-16T15:03:07Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Well all I know is the once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top looking for a moonshine still. Them two strangers never came down from Rocky Top, reckon they never will. When I was a kid I used to think this verse referred to a pair of wayward adventurers who had such a grand old time partying with the mountain folk that they decided to stay. The darker meaning was slow to dawn on me. As for Copperhead Road, I always assumed it was the Revenue Man who never came back. Wikipedia, though, is not a definitive source. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/13 "2021-10-16T15:31:49Z")
Revenue Dude didn’t come back. Hilbillies may not be immortal, but you don’t win on their turf. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/14 "2021-10-16T15:34:57Z")
Nothing in the complete lyrics suggests harm to the distillers/growers other than flashbacks to Vietnam, and there is a stated threat to outsiders for which the story of grandpa and the revenoor serves as an object lesson. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/15 "2021-10-16T16:14:53Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Nothing in the complete lyrics suggests harm to the distillers/growers other than flashbacks to Vietnam, and there is a stated threat to outsiders for which the story of grandpa and the revenoor serves as an object lesson. That I disagree with. His Daddy clearly crashed and died runnin 'shine and… > [@](#): > > You could smell the whiskey burnin’ down Copperhead Road ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/16 "2021-10-16T17:57:25Z")
Yes, but not because of the revenue man. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/17 "2021-10-17T22:25:10Z")
> [@susan](#): > > and there is a stated threat to outsiders for which the story of grandpa and the revenoor serves as an object lesson. Yep, later in the song, when he starts growing weed along Copperhead Road, he talks about the DEA having a chopper in the air, and how he’s “Learned a thing or two from Charlie”, which clearly means how to win a fight in the wilderness against a force with superior technology and resources. It’s definitely the revenuer who didn’t come back in Grandpa’s day. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/18 "2021-10-18T03:09:04Z")
There are shots in the [official video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEJzoaYZk) of a newspaper with the headline “Moonshine Raid On Copperhead Road”, and shots of barrels and stills being destroyed. That implies that The Law had some success there, rather than just disappearing. However, I voted that it was the revenuer, not grandpa, that met with an untimely end, based on the lyric’s syntax and the tradition of vanishing lawmen in country songs (discussed in previous posts). An official video doesn’t always tell the same story as the song. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/19 "2021-10-18T05:47:35Z")
We could crash the boards with questions like this about **Drive-By Trucker** songs ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535/20 "2021-10-18T07:05:45Z")
I’d always took this to mean he’d learned how to _hide_ things from helicopters etc not how to win a fight. You don’t win firefights against the DEA. And if you do initially, you just cause them to come down on you harder. > [@wolfman](#): > > That I disagree with. His Daddy clearly crashed and died runnin 'shine > and… I’d always assumed the police had simply _caught_ his daddy, and then burned the moonshine. But I suppose it makes more sense your way. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-old-song-question-copperhead-road/952535.md?page=2)