Whisky in Songs and Folk Music

In 1792, Robert Burns told John Leven that he had sung a song about the Devil carrying off an exciseman at an Excise Court dinner. Burns was himself an excise officer. Few moments capture whisky's place in song more neatly: conviviality, authority and mischief sharing the same table. [4][5]

From Burns to Alabama Song and Whiskey Lullaby, the drink can stand for friendship, national identity, resistance or personal ruin. The richest listening begins with three questions: who wrote the work, what whisky means within it, and what later performers brought to it.

What whisky in songs can mean

Whisky can carry a political argument as readily as a drinking chorus. Burns's Scotch Drink addresses the drink directly; The Deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman makes an officer of taxation the target of a joke. Much later, Whiskey Lullaby places drink at the heart of a story of destruction. A list of titles alone misses these sharply different meanings. [1][4][11]

The names behind the music matter too. A song can sound traditional and still have a known writer. A familiar voice may belong to its most memorable performer, not its originator. Following composition, performance and recording separately reveals how these works travelled, and how their settings changed along the way.

Burns: friendship, barley and national identity

Scotch Drink and John Barleycorn

“O Whisky! soul o' plays and pranks!” Burns gives the drink a lively personality in Scotch Drink, written in 1785. Yet conviviality is only part of the poem: it also mourns the loss of Ferintosh. The direct address draws the reader in; the wider argument gives the celebration its edge. [1][5]

BBC commentary describes whisky's “symbolic and fiscal significance” for Burns. Reading the poem alongside The Author's Earnest Cry, the BBC interprets it as an expression of his dislike of London taxing Scotland's national drink. That political reading belongs to these poems, rather than explaining every whisky reference in Burns. [1]

In John Barleycorn: A Ballad, barley becomes a person whom three kings swear to kill. Burns wrote his version in 1782, and it first appeared in the Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scots Dialect in 1787. He acknowledged composing it partly on the plan of an older song with the same name. [2]

Burns is therefore both author and adapter here. His handling of John Barleycorn belongs firmly in the story of whisky and song, while the character reaches back beyond his version. The distinction lets the reader appreciate his contribution without losing sight of the song he inherited. For the poems' wider context, see Burns and whisky.

A song shared by three friends

Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut brings three named friends into the room. Written in 1789, it opens, “O Willie brew'd a peck o' maut”. Willie was William Nicol, Burns's friend, who made the malt; Allan Masterton was the third companion and wrote the music. [3][5]

Where Scotch Drink addresses whisky as a national subject, this song remembers a particular gathering. Its warmth rests in that specificity: Nicol made the malt, Burns wrote the song, and Masterton supplied the music. These are companions with distinct parts in the occasion, not anonymous figures gathered around a drink. Their names give the song its personal setting. [3][5]

Verdict: Documented. The song records a gathering with Nicol and Masterton; Nicol made the malt and Masterton wrote the music. [3][5]

The exciseman's own song

The joke in The Deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman cuts especially close to its author. Burns worked for the excise, yet his song has the Devil carry away the hated exciseman. In a 1792 letter to John Leven, he said he had sung it at an Excise Court dinner. [4][5]

How he came to write it is less certain. FolkWorld recounts a story of Burns composing the song while waiting in wet marshes to board a French brig, but flags the account as uncertain. The tune is disputed too: the University of Glasgow names Madam Cossy, while FolkWorld names the Hemp Dresser jig. [4][5]

Story box: Burns sings against the exciseman

Claim: Burns said he sang his song against the exciseman at an Excise Court dinner.

Verdict: Documented.

What the record shows: His 1792 letter to John Leven records the performance. The song appeared as number 399 in volume 4 of the Scots Musical Museum.

Evidence against or gap: The performance record does not establish the circumstances of composition.

Source: University of Glasgow, editorial account, checked November 2026.

The dinner needs little embellishment: an excise officer singing against the exciseman to an Excise Court gathering is striking enough. Burns's letter documents that performance. The wet marshes and French brig belong to the more colourful legend of the song's composition. [4][5]

Alabama Song: from stage work to rock recording

Before The Doors or Bowie recorded it, Alabama-Song belonged to the theatre. It comes from the Mahagonny Songspiel, first performed on 17 July 1927 at the Deutsches Kammermusikfest in Baden-Baden, directed by Bertolt Brecht. The Kurt Weill Foundation credits the German and English text to Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann. Another number in the same work, Benares-Song, concerns a town without whisky. [6]

Its English words were part of the design. English National Opera explains that Alabama Song was always intended to be sung in English, although most of the full opera is in German. Jenny sings it in Act I of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Lotte Lenya appears in the original Songspiel cast photograph and, according to ENO, later sang Jenny in Berlin. [6][7]

The Doors recorded the song on their debut album, released in January 1967 on Elektra. The Library of Congress describes it as the album's “less expected Weill-Brecht theatrical standard”. Bowie released his version as a single in 1980, reaching number 23 in the UK. Both recordings mark later chapters in the song's life. [7][8]

Listening in that order changes the perspective. What might first sound like a familiar rock recording began as a stage composition, with its own setting and credited creators. Calling it a Doors original loses that history. Its passage from theatre into two rock performers' recorded work also makes a natural bridge to whisky on stage.

When a folk song has named writers

The Rare Old Mountain Dew sounds at home in Irish folk music, but its writers have names: Edward Harrigan and Dave Braham. SecondHandSongs dates its first performance to 26 August 1882 and lists John Griffin's February 1927 recording as the earliest recording in its entry. [9]

Those dates describe different events. The 1882 performance belongs to the song's documented stage history; February 1927 identifies the earliest recording listed by that database. Keeping the distinction clear gives each milestone its proper place, without turning a database entry into a claim that no earlier recording could exist.

The song's later identity as an Irish folk song sits comfortably alongside its writing credit. “Folk” need not mean “writer unknown”. Here, a documented stage performance precedes the familiar folk setting, and knowing Harrigan and Braham's names adds another layer to the listening rather than taking anything away from it. [9]

Copper Kettle: the narrator is not the songwriter

Corn mash, a copper kettle and coil, and work by moonlight give Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight) its vivid setting. The family in the song makes whiskey and claims not to have paid whiskey tax since 1792. These are details of the narrative, not a history of the writer's family or of a particular distillery. [10]

The writing credit is straightforward: Dylan's official website names A.F. Beddoe. Dylan recorded the song on Self Portrait, and a version also appeared on The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait in 2013. His recordings are part of its performance history, while Beddoe's credit identifies its author. Neither an anonymous traditional origin nor Dylan's authorship should be inferred from the sound of the song or the familiarity of his recording. [10]

Whiskey Lullaby: a destructive rather than celebratory role

Drink and lost love destroy a couple in Whiskey Lullaby, as its co-writer Bill Anderson described it. Anderson and Jon Randall wrote the song in 2000; Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss recorded it as a duet. Its emotional world is far removed from the friendship remembered in Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut. [11]

Anderson recalled that the subject was so unfashionable that he “practically had to persuade” Randall to record a demo. He also said the Dixie Chicks put the song on hold. His account offers a glimpse of the song's reception, rather than a complete history of every response to it. [11]

That contrast with Burns's gathering deserves to remain sharp. The presence of whisky in a title does not give these works a shared message: each narrative decides what the drink means. Here, alcohol is part of the tragedy, not a solution to distress.

A short chronology for listening

Follow the dates, but also the events they describe. Writing, a first performance and an album release each mark a different step in a song's life; familiar recordings tell only one part of that history.

• 1782: Burns wrote John Barleycorn: A Ballad. [2]
• 1785: Burns wrote Scotch Drink. [1]
• 1882: The Rare Old Mountain Dew was first performed on 26 August. [9]
• 1927: Mahagonny Songspiel was first performed on 17 July. [6]
• 1967: The Doors' debut album was released in January. [8]

Where to go next

• Robert Burns and Whisky: Scotch Drink, John Barleycorn and the Exciseman: explore Burns's writing in greater depth.
• Whiskey in the Jar: The Irish Ballad and Its Recordings: follow one ballad through its recordings.
• Whisky on Stage: Plays and Theatre Adaptations: continue with whisky in theatrical works.

Sources

1. BBC Arts, Robert Burns. Scotch Drink. Checked November 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/scotch_drink/
2. BBC Arts, Robert Burns. John Barleycorn: A Ballad. Checked November 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/john_barleycorn_a_ballad/
3. BBC Arts, Robert Burns. Willie Brew'd A Peck O' Maut. Checked November 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/willie_brewd_a_peck_o_maut/
4. University of Glasgow, Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century. The Deil's awa wi' th'Exciseman (SMM). Checked November 2026. https://burnsc21.glasgow.ac.uk/the-deils-awa-wi-thexciseman-smm/
5. FolkWorld. The Sound of Whisky: Robert Burns. Checked November 2026. https://www.folkworld.eu/39/e/burns1.html
6. Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Mahagonny Songspiel. Checked November 2026. https://www.kwf.org/works/mahagonny-songspiel/
7. English National Opera. The History of the Alabama Song. Checked November 2026. https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/articles/the-history-of-the-alabama-song/
8. Library of Congress, National Recording Preservation Board. The Doors. National Recording Registry essay, checked November 2026. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TheDoors.pdf
9. SecondHandSongs. The Rare Old Mountain Dew. Checked November 2026. https://secondhandsongs.com/work/218648/all
10. The Official Bob Dylan Site. Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight). Checked November 2026. https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/copper-kettle-pale-moonlight/
11. The Tennessean. Story Behind the Song: 'Whiskey Lullaby'. Checked November 2026. https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/story-behind-the-song/2014/11/02/story-behind-song-whiskey-lullaby/18390139/

This desk researched article draws on the site's verified fact sheet, separating editorial scholarship, institutional accounts, recording documentation and attributed songwriter testimony.

Last checked: November 2026