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The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Late Night Respite Open Thread: Dolly Parton, Rock Star

Late Night Respite Open Thread: Dolly Parton, Rock Star

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It’s hard to choose extracts, cuz this whole interview is so good! From NYMag, “Dolly Parton on the Most Prolific and Invigorating Music of Her Career”:

Dolly Parton has always been a rock star, even if it took her a bit of time to weave that title into her coat of many colors. It began last year, when she held a contrarian view of her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination: Parton rejected it — a very Sex Pistols move — believing she wasn’t worthy of the honor. However, she would go on to warmly accept her induction at the annual ceremony, which culminated in the promise of recording a rock album to affirm her acrylics-on-electric-guitar finesse. That opus, Rockstar, features 21 covers and nine original songs with just about every name in the classic canon. (Hell, she reunited the living Beatles.)

The new album is also, somehow, the 49th in Parton’s discography. But her sprawling, decades-long career doesn’t mean we know everything. Rather, the country legend and entrepreneur prefers to channel most of her emotions and beliefs through her songwriting. “If you want to know about me and my life, you’ll find every piece of me in a song,” she explains. “I always write a little bit of something about me without realizing, because it is me. I’m all in, wound and woven in and out of my songs.” This ethos has affected every stage of Parton’s career, dating back to her 1967 Nashville debut, Hello, I’m Dolly; her late-’70s crossover to Hollywood stardom; and now her arrival at Rockstar. And while her succinct Dollyisms might make us smile — as does her exaggerated style, favoring rhinestones and sky-high hair — when it comes to the craft, Parton knows how much of a prolific storyteller she really is. “A lot of people can sing,” she says, “but not everybody can write and make up stuff for other people to sing.”…

Song that cemented your creative freedom
I started making songs before I was able to write them down. My first story of “Little Tiny Tasseltop” goes, “You’re the only friend I got, I hope you never go away, I want you to stay.” It was my little cob doll. I was born with the gift of rhyme, so I knew early on that I was going to love making up songs and doing rhymes and all that. I learned how to play the guitar when I was 7 years old, so after I started writing very serious songs. I love to sing them, of course, because I’m from a musical family, so it was always natural to sing. But as the years went by, I realized when other people recorded my songs that I was more excited about having them sing songs I wrote than I was about singing those songs myself.

I realized in my teenage years how seriously I was taking myself as a songwriter. “My Tennessee Mountain Home” was one of my first big songs early on in my country-music career. But, I mean, they’re all important to me. My songs are like my kids, and I expect them to support me when I’m old — and some of them are. I feel that way about it because when I write a song, I’ve left something in the world today that wasn’t there yesterday. It’s something that will live on…

Album you sacrificed the most to make
That would have to be New Harvest … First Gathering. It was the first album I did after I left The Porter Wagoner Show, and I had such a struggle trying to get to a place where I was actually out on my own and doing my own thing. I wrote my song of deliverance the day I finally departed the show for good. When I left Porter’s office on my way back to my house, I started writing “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” in the car. It just meant a new day was coming, and the album was my first gathering of songs of my own. I thought New Harvest … First Gathering was a perfect title for that. I had been dying to get to work on my own albums, produce, and get involved in having the freedom to be on my own. It took longer because I savored every minute of it and I wanted it to be good. That’s my album of deliverance and sacrifice, and I’m very proud of it…

Most ambitious thing you have left to do
I’m doing my life story as a musical on Broadway. I’ve written all the songs, and we have the script. We’re hoping to be on Broadway in 2025. That’s very ambitious because there’s about 30 or 40 pieces of music in it. I’ve been involved in writing the book as well as choosing all the songs. I’ve been working really hard on it — about ten years’ worth of work. I’ve really buckled down over the past two years, and we’ve got it pegged down. We’ve just been in the studio recording the music. Once we get it on its feet, we’ll have to cut and change some things and whatnot. I’m so ready for it.

From the New Yorker, “Dolly Parton Salutes Rock and Roll”:

… When we spoke last month, Parton—done up in nylon and lace, and seated before a glittery silver star—discussed gender and tradition, and characteristically sidestepped politics. She explained how “Rockstar,” which comprises nine original compositions and twenty-one high-voltage covers, pushed her to grow as a writer and a vocalist. It was clear that she also approached the rock genre as a fan. She collaborates with several male artists, including Elton John and Paul McCartney, and just as many women. Brandi Carlile and Pink (not Mick Jagger) join her on the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”; she sings “What’s Up?” with Linda Perry, of 4 Non Blondes, and “Magic Man” with Heart’s Ann Wilson. The album, in this way, dovetails with recent feminist historiographies of popular music, such as the NPR series “Turning the Tables” (less so with efforts to recover the role of Black women in music, although Parton had hoped to team up with Tina Turner prior to the singer’s passing, and Lizzo plays flute on Parton’s cover of “Stairway to Heaven”). Yes, Parton is a singular icon. But our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, reveals that she also sees herself as part of a collective: a foremother of, and a sister to, other ostentatiously ambitious and experimental women in music.

During our first conversation, in 2020, you said something that has stayed with me: that it’s not true that you’ve never been afraid, that you do experience fear, but your desire to do something has always been greater than your fear. What, if anything, scared you about this project?
Well, if you’re gonna take on a thing like this, you gotta make sure that you’re gonna do it good. Just making the decision to do a rock album was made easier when they decided to go ahead and put me in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I didn’t feel like I had earned it, but they told me that I had. That’s when I thought, Well, I’m going to have to at least have something to say now that I’m in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I had thought years ago that I might one day do a rock album, and it’d be more like a Linda Ronstadt-type album, with some girls singing great rock songs. But this [project] just opened up every window and every door in the world for me to call on some of these great artists who are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I wanted the rock people to be proud of me. I don’t want them to say, “Did you hear Dolly’s rock album? It’s O.K. She did O.K.” I wanted them to say, “Did you hear Dolly’s rock album? Man, she killed it.” So I went through those kind of emotions more than a deep fear. I was determined I was going to do it. And I thought, I’ll cover up any fear I might have by bringing on some of these great people who I know will make it great…

Do you feel like you can be a little freer to take those risks now, at this stage in your career? Like, you might not have gone for it in the studio however many years ago, but you’re willing to do it now?
Yeah, I think there’s a whole lot of freedom that comes with getting older. And, when you’ve done everything, you don’t have to answer to other people. It’s, like, why wouldn’t I be allowed to do this? You know, at my age—I’m seventy-seven years old, and I’m a rock star. I get a kick out of it. The title of the album—it was a little tongue-in-cheek. I thought, What am I going to call this album? Well, I’m going to call it “Rockstar,” duh. Anyway, the whole thing was just kind of fun for me. I took the music serious. I take my work serious, but at the same time I enjoy it.

Remember when I said earlier that I had often thought of doing a rock album? But, as the years went by, I thought, Nobody’s going to take me serious now, you know, getting older. But then it was just laid right in my hands when they put me in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And I am not one to miss timing. Timing means everything. And I always think [with] these things that a higher wisdom is speaking to me, saying, “Just do it. You got your chance. If you ever had a thought about doing it, do it now.”…

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I’m doing my life story as a musical on Broadway. I’ve written all the songs, and we have the script. We’re hoping to be on Broadway in 2025

    Oh man, no one is going to be able to get tickets until 2035.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    After the rock album, I hope she does a hip-hop album.

    Maybe a collaboration. Snoop Dogg and Dolly P.

  4. 4.

    Splitting Image

    The biggest knock against the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is that they seem to also want to be the Pop Music Hall of Fame, and have always acted as though these two things are synonymous.

    Dolly’s music has always blurred the line between pop and country, but never seemed to me to cross over into being rock and roll. Grandmaster Flash and Kraftwerk probably don’t belong in the Hall either, giants though they may be. There is a point where trying to shoehorn all these types of music into something called “Rock and Roll” starts to undervalue what they are actually doing.

    That said, Dolly seems to find the whole thing funny, and I want to hear that “Stairway to Heaven” cover.

  6. 6.

    ceece

    Since Xitter is such a dumpster fire these days, I have moved to BlueSky. It seems to have some of the functionality of old Twitter without the trolling and desperation of  Eau d’Elon.

    Some other jackals are there, and I have gotten a couple of invite codes so far. Let me know if you are interested and I can send them to you.

  9. 9.

    thalarctosMaritimus

    I’ve been keeping my laptop streaming Sirius 510–they’ve been running a temporary Dolly Parton Rockstar program. It’s been fun listening to it, and the music makes me happy.

    Dolly, too, it would seem–she seems like she’s having loads of fun with it.

  11. 11.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    WOW! listening now. What an amazing talent. A treasure to be sure. I have always thought of the ‘rock & roll hall of fame’ covering modern music.

  12. 12.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Chris T.: If you go far enough northwest at just the right angle, you’ll hit Broadway in Fair Lawn (NJ). So it’s true, one can literally go far enough off Broadway to end up back on Broadway, even without going around the world.

  14. 14.

    Bnut

    As a Nashvillian, she is a spirit animal for our town. Dolly has a Tennessee license plate because of her library charities. She could run for office tomorrow and win with 99% for any office, it’s remarkable. She is a national treasure.

  19. 19.

    raven

    It was a shame what they did to her making her sing that awful “Rocky Top” at the UGA-Vols game!

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    I had to run out this morning and on my way home I saw snow on the Blue Ridge. First time this year.

    We just got a lot of rain down here. We needed it, too.

  25. 25.

    Ramalama

    “My songs are like my kids and I expect them to support me when I’m old.”

    Anyone else think Dolly’s statement was a rebuttal to Elmo’s recent tweet:

    “There’s an awful morality to those who deliberately have no kids: they are effectively demanding that other people’s kids take care of them in their old age. That’s messed up.”

     
    EDIT: Might be the other way around. She said it first. He posted later.

  26. 26.

    Mousebumples

    @HumboldtBlue: love the Imagination Library! My kiddos have gotten some books from there, too.

    We also have her book, Coat of Many Colors – I’m not sure if all the song lyrics are there, but it’s most of them.

  27. 27.

    Coyoteville

    Dolly had already covered “Stairway to Heaven” on the third album of her bluegrass trilogy, “Halos and Horns”.

  28. 28.

    cmorenc

    Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” is her best song she’s ever done or will do – comes straight from her heart and speaks to the listener’s better angels.  Impossible to listen to without experiencing happy tears for the girl wearing that homemade coat proudly, and contemplating that the song comes from a true story from Dolly’s childhood.

  30. 30.

    Kosh III

    I recall once on her short-lived TV variety show  87-88 she would have a segment where she answered questions from the audience.

    Once someone asked what she’d be if she’d been born a boy. Her reply” “honey, I’d be a sissy.”

  31. 31.

    RaflW

    So now I’m trying to figure out whose cover of Clear Blue Morning I can hear a snippet of in my head, but g*-gle is failing me.

    I’m thinking mid-90s, female, in the Indigo Girls sort of timbre but maybe a solo woman singer?

    Help! :)

    Also, good morning!

  33. 33.

    RaflW

    @Another Scott: Thanks, I listened to that a bit ago and while lovely, that’s not what’s rattlin’ round in my brain.

    I actually wonder if I heard it live with a female artist some time. Anyway, just thinking about that song while reading the main post kinda gave me a chill (of the good kind). It’s a beautiful song!

  34. 34.

    Steeplejack

    @RaflW:

    I looked around a bit and didn’t find anything likely, except perhaps Maggie Thorn.

    If you Google “Light of a Clear Blue Morning covers” you will get a long list of videos to pick through. Maybe something will jog your memory.

  35. 35.

    RaflW

    eta: I figured it out! (And thanks for the efforts, jackals)

    I actually listened to the whole Dolly Parton tribute album Just Because I’m a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton this past summer (dang my memory is swiss cheese) while on a sunset pontoon ride with my honey. The cover by Allison Moorer is what I was thinking of. Released in 2003, so I was a bit off thinking it was ’90s. It’s sweet, simple arrangement and her voice on the chorus really sticks with me.

    My BF was a bit taken aback by “Two Doors Down” by Me’shell Ndegeocello. It is an oddball cover, check it out of you want an earworm.

  38. 38.

    Paul in KY

    @Mo MacArbie: I think she’d do a damn fine hip hop song, if she ever put her talents towards doing one:

    “I’m the D O Double L Y, and I’m here to drop my rhymes from the sky…”

  41. 41.

    pluky

    “I expect them to support me when I’m old.”

    Reminds me of an interview she once gave where the interviewer tried to start something by asking her if she was bothered that Whitney Houston’s cover of I Will Always Love You did better on the charts. Her response: “Sweetheart, have you ever heard of residuals? Miss Houston can cover any of my songs she wants.”

  42. 42.

    StringOnAStick

    Screw Elmo and his “the childless can’t expect other people’s kids to support them”.  It’s proof once again that he doesn’t understand what civilisation and the social compact even are, typical for a libertoonian.

    I remember an old friend’s statement when they decided to have kids: “of course you have to have kids, so they can take care of you when you get old”.  I was taken aback, like he was making future personal slaves.  They had two, had a nasty divorce and she got away with burning their remote McMansion to the ground.  He’s one of the wealthiest people we know, but the last time he visited I realized he has a definite problem with needing alcohol all the time, and demanding those around him join in the party.

  43. 43.

    Ramalama

    @StringOnAStick: My parents used to claim they had us kids so that they themselves didn’t have to do chores anymore. Making coffee. Doing the dishes. Other stuff. Used to stick in our craws. It was real but it was also a joke. Nonetheless, by the time they needed us, we were glad to stop shizz and take care of them. My brother quit his job and managed their care. I left Canada and lived in a spare room for 6 months, twice. Other siblings came and went. However our parents did it, they trained us well enough.

    I wonder if Elmo is dumb enough to try picking a fight with Dolly Parton.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    @Splitting Image:

    If Rock and Roll becomes rather limited then a lot of people would likely have to be relisted as not rock and rollers.

    Things change, things grow, and real talent has to be recognized. Dolly may not be your star, she’s not really mine, but she’s got pipes and a career bending the rules, not a lot but bending none the less. She’s very good, even is she’s not your style (and I have no idea if that’s right or wrong) nor is she my style, but then rock and roll isn’t just like it started out decades ago. Life goes on, it’s never just one way or locked into very specific paths. It evolves, it dissolves. Rock and roll isn’t what it was, and likely won’t remain what it is. And the world goes on and is often better for it.

  46. 46.

    RaflW

    @StringOnAStick: Flipside of that crap is that I never had kids. But I’m fine with paying local school taxes because a decent society takes care of educating everyone who grows up in the community.

    I don’t ask “well, I paid property taxes, will these kids help me” (in the broadest sense, they probably will. I’ll need care when I’m old, and those PCAs, aides and nurses will likely be graduates of public schools)

  47. 47.

    sab

    @Debbie(Aussie): Dolly doesn’t belong there in RockandRoll Hall of fame. That is more on them than on her, but including her demeans  her not them.

    She has been musically all over everywhere in America. Not smothering or controlling. Just loving and understanding and singing and writing so well, in many genres.

    Rock and Roll has just been pissed off young men who hate country music and most women. Including Dolly Parton.

    Sigh.

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