Jolene by Dolly Parton
You know what? This is Dolly Parton’s world, and we are all just living in it. And you know what else? I’m not mad about that— hell, I’m ecstatic that I am lucky enough to be alive at the same time as her. Like, how does one even begin to describe the importance and resonant effect Dolly Parton has had on this world? She wrote some of the most widely known songs in modern music history, she has her own theme park, Dollywood, she recently donated more than 1 million dollars to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, and, she is literally worth 600 million dollars and is still reportedly widely regarded as one of the most modest and down to earth people. Dolly’s discography is rich and wonderful and all the amazing, iconic things about her as a person only enhance the already astounding quality of her voice and music.
I decided I wanted to write about one of her most well-known albums, I think it has a lot of interesting material to unpack even if the songs have are some of the most recognizable works of modern country or pop music. I’ll be talking about the title track, “Jolene,” the heart-wrenching, tearjerking jig about her childhood puppy, “Crackerjack,” and the short and sweet “Someone Wants to Leave.” So, here are my thoughts on Dolly’s famous album, Jolene.
I think something important to note before I get started is that I’m widely acknowledged as a huge Dolly fan within the walls of my family dynamic, so many of my Christmas gifts this year had a hint of Dolly-ness to them. Alongside a sweatshirt that has “Pro Science, Pro Dolly” printed across it, I received her new book “Songteller: My Life in Lyrics” which analyzes many, many, many of her songs and why/how she wrote them. It’s full of beautiful pictures and captivating anecdotes, so I’ll try to include a few things I’ve picked up from the book within this post.
The first song on the docket for discussion is the title track “Jolene.” Whether you are a country-fan or not, there is a 98% chance you’ve heard this song… and there’s an even higher chance that you’ve not only heard it, but enjoyed it. The song is considered to be her top hit, and really the song that broke her into the massive status of fame that she sits at now. “Jolene” as a song is literally the definition of a classic.
Nothing about it is complex, or earth-shattering in terms of the chords and theory— it is quite literally just a song in Am that plays the 3 chords over and over again. I mean, there is that awesome finger-picking part that up until a year or two ago, I didn’t have the chops to play. But other than that, the song is simplistic in terms of the technical music part. Not to say that there is something wrong with that, either. Just because I occasionally enjoy looking at music that is difficult to play or understand absolutely does not mean that I don’t think it’s a beautiful thing when a song is able to achieve such a status and such an iconic, sound without having to break the mold. And that’s exactly what “Jolene” has done.
The simplicity of the music technics here also really allows us to be absorbed into the amazing lyricism of this song. Dolly is really living up to her self-given title of “Songteller” here, and she proves that she is one of the world’s greatest songwriters by creating a whole story for a listener to get invested in within a 2 minute and 42 second song. And not only is this story that she’s singing about interesting, it’s relatable. That is really what seems to captivate Dolly’s audience, myself included. Everyone has that “Jolene” like girl in their lives, who they just feel is prettier, sweeter, better than them. In her book, Dolly says that she based off some girl that worked at the bank who was said to be flirting with her husband, but the name “Jolene” came from a little girl she met while playing a show one night. I love the way that Dolly is able share anecdotes like this for nearly every song she’s written, it allows her to achieve that reliability which seems to be very important.
Because she really is writing about her life, or the lives of others, and I think no matter how individualized one might be, we can always relate to the range of emotion that a Dolly song might convey. I think my sense and ability to relate to songs is low, and I attribute that to really liking the feeling of understanding the music, but Dolly is just different. She sings at a level that I am able to understand, and the voice and emotion in what she’s saying is so hard to ignore that I’m able to transcend my weird want to understand music, and I’m just able to feel without thinking to much into the technical. It’s amazing. And that’s what I think is so awesome about Jolene, it reaches such a large crowd but it also has this amazing amount of artistic integrity.
The next song I want to talk about is the little tune titled, “Crackerjack.” This song is the sweetest, wholesomest, purest song to ever grace anyones ears. I swear. It’s about her childhood dog and (this probably goes without saying but,) he was named Crackerjack. Yeah, it’s another song with only I-IV and V in it, but that’s just what a good portion of country is. Also, sometimes I believe it’s not even about how awesome the chord structure is, it’s about how awesome the musician playing the chord structure can make it. The band behind her is tight, as it consistently is, and I’m sure every artist playing on this record just had outstanding musicianship—you just had to be since we didn’t have the same “fix-it tools” in 1974 as we do now.
So anyway, over the Is and IVs and Vs, Dolly recounts her first encounter with little lost puppy, Crackerjack, and she talks about his scraggly appearance and how janky this little guy looks after living outside on his own. She creates the most beautiful aural picture as she describes how her friendship with her new pup has grown. It’s so wildly endearing to envision Dolly in her childhood making friends with a scrappy little puppy. The part that always ruins me is when she says:
“Cracker Jack would run to meet me
After school each day
He'd jump and wag his tail
And look at me as if to say
"I love you and I've missed you and I'm glad you're home again"
I knew just how you felt
'Cause me and Cracker Jack was friends”
I think anyone with a dog can relate to how adorable that feeling is, and her voice makes this sentiment 10 times more endearing. So there Dolly' goes again (ha ha, Dolly-pun) making a relatable story for her listeners to fall into. It’s wholesome and it’s authentic and it’s genuine, and I think there’s real novelty in it.
I specifically saved this song for last. The song we are talking about now is the second track on the album, “When Someone Wants to Leave.” This song, like “Crackerjack,” is a tearjerker disguised as a cute little country tune. The chords are basically I-IV-V, rearranged to be I-IV-I-V-I, so it’s simple. It’s the lyrics in this case that get me. Now, I know I’m 17, and my heartbreak and relationship troubles are pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but I’d like to think that I know what it feels like to be dating someone who seems to have lost feelings for you. It hurts really bad and it sucks, right? Well, this song is literally the verbal embodiment of that feeling, and it’s honestly amazing how Dolly bluntly yet poetically verbalizes this kind of situation. I pasted the lyrics down below so you can give them a read, if not a listen:
“When you love somebody with all your heart and soul
And you want to keep them with you, but you know they want to go…
What do you do? What do you say?
When you know they want to leave
As bad as you want them to stay.
And there's nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love,
When one doesn't care at all and the other cares too much.
It's a sad situation, I must say
When someone wants to leave
As bad as you want them to stay.
You know how much I love you,
But I know you don't love me,
And I know it's just a matter of time before you leave.
But I do, I stand aside and just let you walk away,
But I know you want to leave
As bad as I want you to stay.
And there's nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love
When one doesn't love at all and the other loves too much
It's a sad situation I must say
When someone wants to leave as bad as you want them to stay
Oh, it's a sad situation I must say
When someone wants to leave as bad as you want them to stay.”
And this is Dolly’s greatest asset at work. Her lyricism and plot-like lyrics are moving and make me get emotionally attached to the song. Sometimes I think that Dolly could just sing me the contents of a phone book and I’d honestly be almost as moved, but something about the combination of the sweet, slinky steel guitar, her darling voice, and these story-telling lyrics are literally a recipe for the most severe heartbreak. It’s the lyrics here that are most important, and as I stated earlier, that is rarely, if ever, the case for me. I may be exposing myself as a cold, non-feeling robot right now, but personally, I find it incredibly hard to relate to lyrics. Not to get introspective as I write about Dolly Parton, but when I reflect on the way that I deal with grief, stress, or depression, I seem to keep everything at bay like water under the ice on a frozen lake. And, as myself and others skate over the thin ice covering the water of my emotional lake, we risk cracking that ice that is keeping the freezing waters below from bellowing freely. However, Dolly’s music and stories sort of transports my mind to a warm summer’s day where my frozen-solid lake of emotions seems to melt into itself and everything is still for just a little while. The lake that once seemed so fragile has allowed its chilled barrier and its bitter underneath to melt into one, and the water is not bellowing or churring unsettled, rather it’s quiet, and calm, and is allowing for meditating between internal conflict and reticent optimism. For some reason, Dolly’s music resonates in the deep waters of my mind and body, and I think it’s mostly about the honesty in her words, the ability she has to build a story that I can wholeheartedly envision, and the simple, dulcet tone of her voice. Her lyrics are some of the few that really touch me so deeply, and I think for that she deserves a mass of credit.
To avoid ending this post on that deeply poetic and vulnerable note, allow me to share my attempt at a Dolly Parton costume that I wore this year for Halloween. Dressing up as her really gave me a much-needed confidence boost, so now I can really understand the appeal of the Dolly look. Like she says, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!”
The costume was atrociously last minute, but I tried to get all the Dolly aspects down to the best of my abilities…
This here was one of my reference photos…
Funnily enough, I had this belt tucked away in my closet. I had received it years ago as a birthday present and on the back of it, the name “JOLENE” is crafted into the leather. I could have never guessed that such a belt would ever come in such handy…
And here I sat, trying to figure out how in the world Dolly is able to play guitar with finger nails this long. If you haven’t seen her perform such a trick, go on Youtube and search through her performances until you find one of her accompanying herself. How she’s able to do it, I don’t know. It’s one of the biggest mysteries out there, I think the CIA is still trying to crack this one…
This is really why I dressed up as Dolly for Halloween. I’ve always wanted to recreate this picture of her, and I saw this as my chance. I’d say it’s not bad.
-Sophie
