Not long ago, a post crossed my timeline featuring a black-and-white, heart-stoppingly gorgeous photo of Dolly Parton in the Sixties. The caption read, simply: “What the hell did Jolene look like?” One can only wonder.
As a musical artefact, “Jolene” is hard to top. It’s an epic bit of Americana, the karaoke song of choice for many an amateur show-off, as well as a favourite for professional artists who want something to cover. What makes it fascinating, however, isn’t just its challenging melody, but its message: the narrator of “Jolene” knows she cannot compete with the song’s titular antagonist, and has no intention of doing so. Instead, she makes a plaintive appeal to the other woman’s sense of decency, and maybe even her vanity. “You could have your choice of men,” Parton sings, “But I could never love again, he’s the only one for me, Jolene.” (That the man in question isn’t exactly a catch is never said outright, but heavily implied; this is, remember, a guy who talks about other women in his sleep.)
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