Let’s start with a haiku.
When Dolly Parton Gets To Heaven
There’s no need to knock
Jesus greets her in person
Fast tracked to sainthood
Dolly Parton now resides and rides in that great pantheon in the sky with others who shattered ceilings and borders and brought positive change across the globe. And she did it all with the utmost upbeat charm, authenticity, enthusiasm, and camp.
Outpourings of quotes and words with be flowing over the coming days, weeks, maybe even months. Drag Queens across the US will be serving over the top tributes in the biggest wigs know to mankind. Nashville will be glowing with candles for days. And in all of this my voice will merely be one of many…
And as is the case with any music icon who passes I can’t really discuss them on an academic or even social level. I can only discuss them in terms of my relation to their music.
I have no first memory of Dolly Parton’s music. But like many kids who in their youth leaned more pop in the 80s and 90s, it was probably the song 9 to 5. The quasi disco/country banger that become a clarion call to women everywhere about getting the short end of the stick in the daily grind.
In the 90s when I was wrapped up in listening to “oldies” radio and dipping my toes in 90s country like Brooks & Dunn and Pam Tillis, Dolly Parton was still present but not landing the hits on the country charts like she had from the 60s-80s. So she just wasn’t on my radar outside of Whitney Houston making THAT version of THAT song an unstoppable ballad that still refuses to retire. And great it is indeed. But now I am older I am very much aware of Parton’s music in both the hits and beyond. And her original recording of it, written for her duet partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, has a much more bittersweet tone that you can only get with pedal steel and twang and having lived that relationship. The epic and bombastic defiance of Whitney’s pop version lacks the intimate tone of Dolly’s original, which sounds like somebody talking to a lover in a private booth at a bar before making the hard choice to walk away and live life on their own terms.
Outside of 9 to 5, I’d say her Trio album with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris was the first real deep dive into her music and more traditional country music in general that I did. I know I LOVED the song Wild Flowers but outside of that it was… too country for me at the time, anyway. I have certainly come around.
Side Note: Outside of a few 90s country songs here and there is was Linda Ronstadt’s work in the 70s that got me further down the country rabbit hole. And then through Trio Dolly got me even further. And Dolly was one of the great ambassadors of the genre, both in respect to the elders and the past and in respect the the apprentice’s coming up the ranks. Like Linda for me Dolly was a gateway drug to country music for many people.
And while I know the importance of the entire being that is Dolly Parton as a person, brand, icon, trailblazer, feminist, charity saint… as always for me it is about the music. If a musician can and does great work beyond their chosen realm fantastic. But I look to the music as my church and place to find solace and comfort and seek those troubadours and preachers who are spreading the truth. And Dolly certainly did that. It is not common for an artist of any length to have a song for every occasion. But Dolly Parton had song for every kind of mood in every era of her career. Here are just a few examples:
Acceptance: I Will Always Love You (1974)
Authenticity: Wildflowers (1987)
Camp: Romeo (1993)
Don’t Let The Door: Shinola (2008)
Get It Together: Better Get To Livin’ (2007)
Giddy: Getting Happy (1977)
Gratitude: Coat Of Many Colors (1971)
Humor: I’ll Oilwells Love You (1968)
Nostalgia: In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (1969)
Something Stinks And It’s You: Dumb Blonde (1966)
Perseverance: Little Sparrow (2000)
Side note: I regularly sing Shinola at karaoke and it goes over every time. That one is a banger.
And then there were her covers that also covered every mood and that she managed to make her own and make into hits.
Butterflies: He Drives Me Crazy (2009) originally Fine Young Cannibals
Disco Party Banger: Downtown (1983) originally Petula Clark
Gospel Banger: He’s Alive (1989) originally Don Francisco
Seeking Guidance: Shine (2001) originally Collective Soul
And there were songs penned by other famous songwriters that she made hits before anyone else:
Codependency: Here You Come Again (1977) written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
Enduring Love: Islands In The Stream (1983) written by Bee Gees
Longing: Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You (1980) written by Patricia Sebert and Hugh Moffat
Love At First Sight: I Really Got The Feeling (1978) written by Billy Vera
New Beginnings: Starting All Over (1980) written by Donna Summer
Regret: Heartbreaker (1878) written by Carol Bayer Sager and David Wolfert
Temptation: Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That (1989) written by Bob Carlisle and Randy Thomas
And of course hits other country legends had with recordings of her lyrics:
Healing Heartbreak: Hank Williams Jr – I’m In No Condition
Friends In Low Places: Bill Phillips – The Company You Keep
Love: Waylon Jennings – Waltz Me to Heaven
Passion: Skeeter Davis – Fuel To The Flame
Sacrifice: Emmylou Harris – To Daddy
But her own songs reached far and wide beyond country music and connected to many artists in many genres. And as some great cover versions do they flip the story on it’s head, or change the tone to change the meaning, or reinvent the song entirely in a sound you’d never expect. So below you can find a special Attack of the Cover Versions Dolly Parton edition.
So much more will be said about her but it cannot be understated just how trailblazing, tough, and radical she was in the 60s onward, especially in country music where women were few a far between. She, along with Dottie West, and Loretta Lynn fought sexism and misogyny head on within the system itself at a time women could not speak up, let alone play country music and control their careers. And in doing so changed the game for women (and musicians as a whole) not just in country music but all popular music. She didn’t talk about the rigged game, she fought it and beat it.
She also said one my of my favorite quotes by anyone ever. A quote that, in my 30s, I used when I was asked by a former teacher to talk to his college math class about authenticity and following your dreams.
What else can I say? Even if you are not a country music fan go and listen to Parton’s music, watch live performances from throughout her career, she never phoned it in. She never gave 50%, 75% or even 99% it was always 100% in everything she did. She set a standard. And if one of the artists that has mad jadedin regards to thinking most modern mainstream music has lost quality control overt he last 10-15 years.
All that said I think the best way to end this is by “borrowing” the opening lines of a tribute by Triggerman at Saving Country Music.
Congratulations. You lived in the time of Dolly Parton.
Yes I did. Thanks Ms. Parton for everything.
1. Tina Turner – There’ll Always Be Music
2. Shelby Lynn – The Seeker
3. Percy Sledge – Here I Am
4. Joshua Ray Walker – Joshua
5. Strawberry Switchbalde – Jolene
6. Robbie Williams – 9 to 5
7. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
8. Me’Shell N’Degeocello – Two Doors Down
9. Sinead O’Connor – Dagger Through The Heart
10. Bettye Lavette – Little Sparrow
11. Emmoylou Harris, Dolly Parton, & Linda Ronstadt – After The Gold Rush (Live)
FAVORITES OF SET:
Shelby Lynn
Robbie Williams
Bettye Lavette
