I’ve never been much of a country music fan, but I’ve always been a Dolly fan. Great songwriter, philanthropist, and seemed like a genuinely nice person. RIP, Dolly, you were one of the greats.
Her vocals were exceptional, too. One of my favorite videos I've randomly come across on YouTube is "Jolene" slowed down to 33 RPM [0]. The comments are hilarious as well, but the clarity of her vocals and the vibrato that carries through to a slower tempo is really something special to hear.
She's one of those crossover performers, such as Kenny Rogers and Taylor Swift who escape Country music as a genre and get mass appeal. Whenever I comment about a Dolly Parton song playing in a public place I hear things like "She's a national treasure!"
My ex-wife was a big Kenny "The Country Version" Rogers fan. I chuckle to myself every time I watch The Big Lebowski and hear Rogers singing his psychedelic "Just Checked In" and wonder what the ex would think of his origins.
The guitar is also immaculate slowed down and that was her too. I always thought it was some hotshot Nashville session musician. One of the best guitar licks of all time.
Dolly wrote the lick herself, and when she was in the studio with the session players, they wanted her to show them how to play it [0].
She ended up having Chip Young lay it down on the record since her long fingernails made it difficult to nail consistently. This is also why if you watch videos of her playing guitar she plays in open tunings [1].
I still carry the rather 20th century idea that a performer of almost any kind also ought to have some sort of other talent in addition to their main one. The versatility of that sort of thing is one of the things that should separate a pro from the rest. I generally count "professional level musician" on more than one instrument as fulfilling that contract... perhaps one of the easier of the options, but it still carries that versatility advantage. Another example that I'm quite fond of is famous comedian Steve Martin performing Dueling Banjos with Kermit the Frog. The combo of two professional entertainers playing off of each other combined with the music skills creates the opportunity for a creative routine.
Agreed. The climbing voice in Jolene was my favourite of her vocal range. She was a pretty good singer too; not as good as e. g. Ariana Grande in her own prime (before chasing bulimia) but quite good nonetheless.
She was a loving wife to her husband and a great entrepreneur in addition to being a prolific artist. It's hard to find someone so well rounded at so many things before even adding that most of the jobs she created were/are considered positive contributions to society, evenly spread between entertainment, hospitality, foodservice, and adjacent industries. I think I heard she was directly responsible for about 20k total jobs which is INSANE.
What a positive legacy to leave - good example for others.
I wouldn't ever say I was a fan per se. But she was always the go-to example of "this is what billionaires should be doing with their money". So I respected the hell out of her.
Of course, she also proves the very point of there being no ethical billionaire, being "only" worth some 450 million instead. Likely because she gave so much of her wealth back to her communities instead. RIP Dolly, indeed.
Also not a fan of country/folk, but today I learned about her special albums trilogy: The Grass Is Blue, Little Sparrow, and Halos & Horns. Quite different music!
Daughter loves getting these in the mail, and this paragraph is absolutely right!
>> That year, Parton explained that as well as improving child literacy, “it’s the fact they get recognised. They get this little book with their little name on it in the mail, and they feel special. They start taking pride in themselves, and they know that somebody out there is thinking of [them].”
I'm in a borough of London, and did a bit of a double-take when they told me that Dolly Parton would be sending my daughter a book every month. But indeed she did, and it had exactly that effect, and now she's an absolutely avid reader.
Thank you, Dolly. That meant a lot to us, and millions upon millions of other people too.
As a kid growing up in Tennessee I was the beneficiary of several of her reading programs. They really helped to foster a sense of curiosity and wonder that live with me to this day. Dolly was a real one, she'll definitely be missed.
How much do you remember these books your family was gifted before you were five years old? I thought it was more of a program to increase literacy. Personally, I remember books from when I was pre-kindergarten, but I don't typically think of them as "fostering a sense of curiosity and wonder", though, ultimately, I guess they did.
I just think it is an interesting topic in the framing of content policing and what not, it would be interesting to know what you took from the program.
She also had a program that gave a free book to elementary school kids every year (as a part of the local book fair). The first technical book I ever owned was a very basic intro to html that I received as a part of that program.
Yeah, it is such an amazing program that was just executed in the right way. She didn't see it hit the billion books like she wanted to in her lifetime, but I'm sure they will get there. I would love to know other examples of philanthropy like that are similar in impact?
My toddler gets a book a month in the mail from Dolly's Imagination Library and we keep reading some almost every day. She's made an impact in so many families <3
I think any dissent has to be from the kind of person who just has to find something wrong with everything. I cannot imagine a legitimate criticism of her program to give free books to every kid.
I agree but I came across Dolly Parton syrup in the grocery store once. Had to say for all the good, that felt a bit odd, strange and out of place with Dolly’s character.
To me, apart from her amazing music and philanthropy, what Dolly Parton represents is something that was (emphasis on past tense) at one time truly exceptional about the United States - that someone from a very humble background (poverty in East TN) could have a tremendous impact on the culture of the world - the other example in entertainment being Michael Jackson (from Gary IN).
Admittedly the US music industry was among the few where this phenomenon happened, although definitionally very few reach pop stardom.
In contrast, much of the world exports only its "elite culture", not the culture of common people.
Don’t you still see this with hip-hop to some extent?
I also think a lot of the difference is that a much smaller percentage of the population grows up as poor as she did. A person from a similar wealth/income percentile today mightn’t seem to have had such a difficult start.
Obviously lots of other things are different today – it’s easier than ever to access a wide variety of music but that’s not what people tend to do (iirc); there’s less money to be made selling music; there’s perhaps less interest in more ‘rural’ genres of music.
That is “the people” isn’t it? It is the consequence of democratization and openness.
I am not sure if superstars were good representatives of what most people wanted. Often, I am sorry to say, it was the lowest common denominator. Now common people can actually enter the arena and represent their corner of the population.
But, almost by definition, if you are part of “the people”, you don’t get to stand out much.
See also Britney Spears, who's mom ran a small daycare. Taylor Swift's an in between story, middle class financial services parents, hard to say if they were paycheck to paycheck or not...
Its not necessarily the best thing that big companies have a business model of taking advantage of poor, or relatively poorer, people, particularly attractive young women. See our global Epstein class and global Weinstein class.
> Its not necessarily the best thing that big companies have a business model of taking advantage of poor, or relatively poorer, people, particularly attractive young women. See our global Epstein class and global Weinstein class.
I agree. But are those kinds of abuse a requirement of a system that raises the voices of poorer people, or is it that we have permitted them?
I don't know if Taylor Swift endured similar hardship in her rise, but if she didn't as other replies have suggested, she's an example of how the system should treat those who are less privileged than she was.
Calling Swift middle class and that they were possibly paycheck to paycheck is laughable.
Her father had a huge role to play in her success with his business deals and would largely be considered upper middle class if not higher. If anything, Taylor’s story reinforces the idea that families with wealth offer easier paths in life for their children.
I'm from Pennsylvania and a proverbial stone's throw from where Taylor Swift is also from. Trust me when I tell you that there's nothing "middle class" about her. Her parents are wealthy and this gave her a big boost into the entertainment industry, with lots of expensive coaching, music lessons, and trips to Nashville.
IIRC he worked for a large financial services company (Merrill Lynch?) and was able to transfer to the Nashville office so that Taylor could be closer to the music scene.
No offense, but "the idea that families with wealth offer easier paths in life for their children" - like isn't this obviously the case?
The amazing thing about America is that there are paths for those not as wealthy, but of course they are harder, as much as we might not want them to be... no?
Does a great job interviewing Dolly and discussing with her (and those two are around her) who she is, her life events, her thoughts on life. I knew people loved Dolly Parton before I listened but didn't really know why and the podcast helped me understand a bit more of it. It features a LOT of one-on-one time with Dolly in a way that I don't often find docu-series do. It's fantastic!
My favorite Dolly story that she sometimes tells in talk shows was when she heard about a Dolly Parton Look Alike contest and entered it. She came in second place.
One minor fact about Dolly I've always found fascinating is that she was married to the same dude for almost 60 years, until he passed away recently. I mean, being as famous as she was as an entertainer - that just seems like an extreme anomaly.
I guess the fact that I'm not mildy surprised that people can be married for 60 years says something about how different our cultures are? Even though we're on HN discussing so many other things we have in common.
I think money, fame, celebrity status, etc. often creates pressures on the relationship.
Kind of like how it sometimes pushes people into drug addictions. That's a stereotype that we've all heard about since kids, but it wasn't until relatively recently that I thought about it seriously that it occurred to me that a touring celebrity musician's life can be stressful and the drugs can be (or start out as) a pressure valve release. I think that part of it clicked to me when I heard a musician being interviewed about it, I forget which. Maybe it was a Beatle talking about their early amphetamine days.
Re the drug addictions - another thing to note about touring musicians is that there's a lot of downtime. New cities every day, not much to do until your show in the evening. Pretty easy to slip into unhealthy habits.
I had a friend in the mid-90s that was in a mildly successful band. They did a few national tours as opener for bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I met up with him once while he was out on tour. I was thinking he was living his best life, like he was gonna brag about the lifestyle. Just the opposite. He hated touring, said it was very stressful, and that he just wanted to eat a home-cooked meal and sleep in the same bed more than two nights in a row. And yes, he said industry folks were constantly pushing free drugs.
It's not unheard of. But I guess it's a mix of several small factors:
1. divorce rates have been rising for decades.
2. 60 years is a very long time, and that means Dolly would have had to marry around 18-20. Marrying that young these days for my generation very much is an anomaly, and people are putting off marriage more and more these days.
3. Celebrity culture in particular has a much more tumultuous relationship. In a number of cases, marriage may simply be another influential tool to manage fame and wealth rather than an act of love and caring.
Do we have actual data on whether or not celebrities have more volatile relationships?
My gut feeling says they may very well be. But I feel it could also just be the media being bloodthirsty towards celebrity drama skewing our perception of it.
> Do we have actual data on whether or not celebrities have more volatile relationships?
Yes, they are legitimately more volatile [1]
> I find that the overall divorce rate for celebrities during their first 16 years of marriage is 52%, compared to 31% for the UK population as a whole.
>Celebrity first marriages fare worse than subsequent marriages with 57% versus 47% ending in divorce within 16 years, compared to 35% and 28% respectively for UK
George Benson is probably a better example. Like another commenter points out, though, it might just be bias due to the media reporting more on drama than celebrity wedding anniversaries. But, I must admit, I do often look up biographies of entertainers I like and it is quite unusual for them to have a "normal" romantic life.
Except for the part where they try to inject their woke agenda into it by trying to suggest Jolene is a lesbian song. Nothing wrong with LGBTQIA+ but that part was super cringe as it was clear they were inserting their own adgenda rather than just interviewing Dolly Parton
I put her in my pantheon with Johnny Cash. Turns out Cash introduced her on her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1959, when she was 13. She killed it. Parton said later she was best friends with Johnny and June.
Let’s not get carried away. Dolly was brilliant, inarguably. But no one is 1000x the songwriter of Johnny Freaking Cash, who was also estimated to have written over 1,000 songs for himself and for others.
Let’s just agree that they’re both S-tier writers.
When Michael Jackson died, reaction online was so sudden it made Google search backend stumble... They didn't have a solution to auto-hotspot-protect half the planet searching his name suddenly.
I'll be interested to see if the mitigations hold today.
“Dolly Parton makes an impromptu appearance at Páidí Ó Sé’s pub in Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry and takes to the stage to entertain the locals.
While on holiday in Kerry, singer Dolly Parton paid a visit to former Kerry footballer Páidí Ó Sé’s pub, where she performs her song ‘Coat of Many Colours’ accompanied by musicians Steve Cooney and Seamus Begley.
Dolly signs off at the end of her performance,
Thank you very much and welcome to Dinglewood
This episode of Cursaí was broadcast on 1 October 1990.”
What a way to recognize her! I get the same feeling when she stormeed Glastonbury in 2014 - pure class. When you think about it, she had all of the virtues of a "national treasure" in the British sense.
I am from the wrong continent to be inculcated in country music from an early age, but I read books distributed from her program every week to the niece. So that's probably her more durable contribution to society, I think.
Something tells me that the songs and films will outlast the books program, but hopefully it's making a difference in the lives of kids. There's no telling how far reaching that can end up being.
On the flipside, how many individual lives have been changed by the books provided to families for free? Impossible to quantify but I'd argue extremely important.
You cannot separate that ideology (like any ideology) from the practitioners, and the biggest practitioner was unquestionably Sam Bankman-Fried. I'm not a fan.
The US's only secular saint. Her memorial service will need to be held in a football stadium to handle the number of people who want to pay their last respects.
Dollywood can hold more people than a football stadium. Probably will.
Its a nice theme park. She bought it because she thought it would be cool to have a really awesome theme park in TN. She was both correct and successful. It's pretty cool.
I still remember how hard I was struck by the scene in The Orville, where someone from another planet hears a Dolly Parton song playing and asks who it is. He goes on to say, "She speaks with the might of a hundred soldiers!"
Within her family friendly choice of language, she wasn't shy of making jokes about her own appearance:
“I make jokes about it, but it's the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Momma used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.”
In the 80's there was a relatively famous Canadian comedy duo that did a song called Dolly Parton's T*ts. Definitely there was an obsession with them. I still remember David Letterman joking with her about them, too.
I wish other celebrities did as much as her. Her Imagination Library (https://imaginationlibrary.com) is just one example of her giving back to the community.
My mother was a die hard Dolly fan. We even visited Dollywood when I was a kid. One of her favorite movies was with Dolly and Sylvester Stallone called Rhinestone. She watched it repeatedly, and there are quotes from it that are taking up precious space in the ol' memory banks.
If you've never heard the 45 of Jolene played at 33, give it a listen.
Rhinestone! I just watched for first time the other day. I had made my partner watch Rocky to see a different side of Stallone, and she is a huge Dolly Parton fan.
Rhinestone was hilarious and great to watch just because Stallone and Parton were having _so much fun_ together. No sense of sexual attraction, just having a damn great time having fun. Could not help but enjoy that, separate from it genuinely being a fun movie.
The more & More I learned about her over the years, It felt like she just never seamed to give into the system and always found a way to keep give back to the world that corrupts so many.
Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that. Its actually nice to know that Dolly got to hear/see/meet Sierra.. One of a few who might be able to haul a chunk of Dolly's influence forward.
Outside of her impact on the music industry she also had an outsized impact on families with young children.
She started a charity called Imagination Library [1] that sends free monthly books to children under six in the US, Canada and even expanded to the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. I will always be grateful for this.
RIP. We went to Dollywood last year and I highly recommend it! It was a fun, family-friendly park, and one of the things I was impressed by was how helpful and happy to be there all the workers were. Seemed like a bunch of friendly veterans who took our tickets and let us in.
More focus on the ride theming makes it a standout park in the USA. Also no students being exploited as interns for work programs which is a nice change.
I grew up in East TN, and this feels like the death of Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, and your favorite fun aunt all rolled up into one. Except no one had a bad word to say about Dolly. She was beloved around the world, but she was an institution back home.
I grew up in Kentucky, so Dolly still felt like a sweet distant aunt that nobody ever had a harsh word about. Went to Dollywood several times as a kid.
My hope is that people will try an emulate her charity and compassion.
It's heartening to see tributes and obits in publications worldwide. All respectful, and genuinely bereft. One obit, though, stood out to me from the dozen or so I've read so far. It's this one [0] in the FT, which I think deserves a wider audience [1].
Feynman was apparently a fan, too. His name for quarks was "partons".
She just played the dumb showbiz blonde, or as she said "it takes a lot of money to look this cheap". Others in this discussion have more to say about this, but - she was obviously a super nice and thoughtful person.
Dolly Parton was an incredibly savvy business person, talented songwriter and performer, and an outstanding human being. One in a billion.
I will always remember her appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert where she moved him to tears with an a cappella song: https://youtu.be/R91VssUiGiY
She was a kind soul and I could sense she was extremely battle hardened, the perfect combo. A true philanthropist. For those who may not know, she originally wrote and sang Whitney Houston's biggest single 'I will always love you'
Shameless plug for the Dolly Parton Book Club, for which you can register your child (even not yet born) and they will send them a free age-appropriate book every month until they turn 5. https://imaginationlibrary.com/
If you are curious to know more about Dolly, I wholeheartedly recommend the podcast series “Dolly Parton’s America”. One of the best podcast series I’ve listened to and gave me so much respect for Dolly. The world is a little dimmer without her in it!
The only thing I have in common with Dolly Parton is living in the USA and I grew up seeing her as a big sister and the best of what we can be. I wish I had 1% of the love she carried with her. This news is much more difficult than I would have expected. I guess that might be specific to 70s and 80s kids.
You know how, sometimes, you downright think "that is impossible!", with certain people, when you hear of their death. And then, of course, you realize ...
Wow. I knew she was close but still. She has always held her in a special place in my heart as I am sure so many else do. I hope there is a national day of mourning. And parades. She would've like parades
Her playing at Glastonbury here in the UK only seems like the other day, but I just checked and it's been _12 years_! She played her most popular songs and the audience treated her like the star she was. What an incredible, talented, kind-hearted woman. An inspiration to so many for all the best reasons.
In an odd coincidence, Jolene by Dolly Parton played on YouTube Music as I drove home with my daughter. When we got home, my wife told me Dolly Parton had died. I don't listen to much of her though I'm fond of this song, and we get the Imagination Library books. Seems like she was good person, and a great singer and songwriter.
Stars who were born into poverty sometimes struggle with being generous (Charlie Chaplin for example). But that certainly didn't seem to be an issue for Dolly. What a life.
My wife is at an eye appointment. I have no idea what to expect when she gets home. After Dolly's super bowl performance my wife (and her mother) were crying at just the thought of her passing away.
Others have mentioned Sierra Ferrell - she seems to be the most obvious and vivid wildlife which is native to the ecosystem in which a huge gap left by this passing.
And Sierra is a very sharp and kind human being from what I can tell. We've had the good fortune to hang out a few times at IBMA and once in Tennessee. She has always been very fun and curious and easygoing with my son, and she radiates a continually inspired view of the future of the music "industry".
I don't know her super well, but she runs in my circles of friends who are interested in a radical rethinking (for many of us, an abolitionist view) of IP. I have no idea her views in particular, but it feels notable to see the kinds of folks coming up through that scene.
An occasional co-writer of hers, Melody Walker, also seems to be a thought-leader on questioning industry (and also societal) norms. I strongly suggest her content (and if you're not familiar, their beautiful co-written ballad, American Dreaming).
I don't recall if I've spoken to Sierra about IPFS - I think I actually have, when describing the release process for my second record - but it's an interesting synchrony to have Dolly leave us (and for many of us, to instinctually turn to Sierra for inspiration) and for IPFS lose its primary maintaining org in the same day.
It's obvious that the long-term future of traditional music is as the lifeblood of peer-to-peer topologies and communities.
Here's Sierra summoning the energy of Dolly last Sept:
I remember in the early-80s, maybe 5th grade, being taught fractions, specifically the "Dolly Parton fraction", where the numerator is larger than the denominator. I've got a feeling they don't teach that anymore.
People suspected the health news in the last ~months before to be more serious than initially alleged to not be serious at all. Now they were confirmed.
Of all her songs I think Jolene is by far the most interesting. Several copied the song, such as Miley Cyrus, and while not bad, it seems to not quite capture the underlying idea of the song. I have a hard time Miley being as plausible in the "please don't steal my man just because you can" compared to Dolly. It's like a whole generation in between and the lyrics just don't really fit much at all to Miley, even if one reasons that it is the melody that is more important - but even then, Miley's voice seems to fit to other songs better than happy-go-lucky country songs.
She did so much for children's literacy, underserved children have benefited from her reading program. I support her book club because it makes humans smarter. The world really lost a great spirit.
Even if, say, hypothetically, that I agreed with you, we don't need to bring up that name in association with this perfect angel of a lady on this sad day.
Let's just say that she's a wonderful person and an excellent example and leave it at that.
the unifying power of dolly actually forced him to transcend even that. apparently he had nothing but nice things to say about her (and nothing about himself) on truth.
Don't you see the irony in complaining about a hypothetical scenario in which Trump makes Dolly Parton's death about himself under a submission completely unrelated to Donald Trump?
0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA
https://chipmunkson16speed.bandcamp.com/album/vol-1
She ended up having Chip Young lay it down on the record since her long fingernails made it difficult to nail consistently. This is also why if you watch videos of her playing guitar she plays in open tunings [1].
0: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/31/dolly-parton-r...
1: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/how-does-dolly-parton-p...
What a positive legacy to leave - good example for others.
I don't really like country music, but Dolly always seemed somewhat down-to-earth and pretty decent.
Of course, she also proves the very point of there being no ethical billionaire, being "only" worth some 450 million instead. Likely because she gave so much of her wealth back to her communities instead. RIP Dolly, indeed.
Some songs I added to my playlist :)
Amazing contributions to many aspects of life
>> That year, Parton explained that as well as improving child literacy, “it’s the fact they get recognised. They get this little book with their little name on it in the mail, and they feel special. They start taking pride in themselves, and they know that somebody out there is thinking of [them].”
Thank you, Dolly. That meant a lot to us, and millions upon millions of other people too.
I just think it is an interesting topic in the framing of content policing and what not, it would be interesting to know what you took from the program.
[1] https://imaginationlibrary.com/ [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/01/589912466/dolly-p...
https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/mw22vh301
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02702711.2019.16...
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rrq.7010...
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Judith-Butler/publicati...
Admittedly the US music industry was among the few where this phenomenon happened, although definitionally very few reach pop stardom.
In contrast, much of the world exports only its "elite culture", not the culture of common people.
I also think a lot of the difference is that a much smaller percentage of the population grows up as poor as she did. A person from a similar wealth/income percentile today mightn’t seem to have had such a difficult start.
Obviously lots of other things are different today – it’s easier than ever to access a wide variety of music but that’s not what people tend to do (iirc); there’s less money to be made selling music; there’s perhaps less interest in more ‘rural’ genres of music.
To some extent yes, but I suspect that is declining also as the genre becomes corporatized.
That is “the people” isn’t it? It is the consequence of democratization and openness.
I am not sure if superstars were good representatives of what most people wanted. Often, I am sorry to say, it was the lowest common denominator. Now common people can actually enter the arena and represent their corner of the population.
But, almost by definition, if you are part of “the people”, you don’t get to stand out much.
Its not necessarily the best thing that big companies have a business model of taking advantage of poor, or relatively poorer, people, particularly attractive young women. See our global Epstein class and global Weinstein class.
I agree. But are those kinds of abuse a requirement of a system that raises the voices of poorer people, or is it that we have permitted them?
I don't know if Taylor Swift endured similar hardship in her rise, but if she didn't as other replies have suggested, she's an example of how the system should treat those who are less privileged than she was.
Her father had a huge role to play in her success with his business deals and would largely be considered upper middle class if not higher. If anything, Taylor’s story reinforces the idea that families with wealth offer easier paths in life for their children.
The amazing thing about America is that there are paths for those not as wealthy, but of course they are harder, as much as we might not want them to be... no?
It is, but people often act like it isn't and everybody has an equal chance. Therefore it is necessary to frequently restate the obvious.
Does a great job interviewing Dolly and discussing with her (and those two are around her) who she is, her life events, her thoughts on life. I knew people loved Dolly Parton before I listened but didn't really know why and the podcast helped me understand a bit more of it. It features a LOT of one-on-one time with Dolly in a way that I don't often find docu-series do. It's fantastic!
Kind of like how it sometimes pushes people into drug addictions. That's a stereotype that we've all heard about since kids, but it wasn't until relatively recently that I thought about it seriously that it occurred to me that a touring celebrity musician's life can be stressful and the drugs can be (or start out as) a pressure valve release. I think that part of it clicked to me when I heard a musician being interviewed about it, I forget which. Maybe it was a Beatle talking about their early amphetamine days.
1. divorce rates have been rising for decades.
2. 60 years is a very long time, and that means Dolly would have had to marry around 18-20. Marrying that young these days for my generation very much is an anomaly, and people are putting off marriage more and more these days.
3. Celebrity culture in particular has a much more tumultuous relationship. In a number of cases, marriage may simply be another influential tool to manage fame and wealth rather than an act of love and caring.
My gut feeling says they may very well be. But I feel it could also just be the media being bloodthirsty towards celebrity drama skewing our perception of it.
Yes, they are legitimately more volatile [1]
> I find that the overall divorce rate for celebrities during their first 16 years of marriage is 52%, compared to 31% for the UK population as a whole.
>Celebrity first marriages fare worse than subsequent marriages with 57% versus 47% ending in divorce within 16 years, compared to 35% and 28% respectively for UK
[1] https://marriagefoundation.org.uk/research/celebrity-divorce...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcfyzJW-BA4
I don't think I've ever seen the interwebs talking about one thing as much as right now.
But Dolly was 1000x the songwriter that Johnny Cash was.
Let’s just agree that they’re both S-tier writers.
I'll be interested to see if the mitigations hold today.
“Dolly Parton makes an impromptu appearance at Páidí Ó Sé’s pub in Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry and takes to the stage to entertain the locals.
While on holiday in Kerry, singer Dolly Parton paid a visit to former Kerry footballer Páidí Ó Sé’s pub, where she performs her song ‘Coat of Many Colours’ accompanied by musicians Steve Cooney and Seamus Begley.
Dolly signs off at the end of her performance,
Thank you very much and welcome to Dinglewood
This episode of Cursaí was broadcast on 1 October 1990.”
A humorous response to whenever someone says "country music" is: "Which country?"
The public will not mourn any EA the way that Dolly is being mourned.
It is your silly assertion that is what is entirely fucked up about techbros and politics today.
Its a nice theme park. She bought it because she thought it would be cool to have a really awesome theme park in TN. She was both correct and successful. It's pretty cool.
Way bigger. Dolly was beloved by millions, if not billions of people worldwide.
You'd need an area the size of Tennessee itself for the memorial service.
She did. She is one of our species' great poets.
"Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)
In the end I think her generosity outshone her other famous attributes.
"and some say she's just a big pair of tits"
“I make jokes about it, but it's the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Momma used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.”
and:
"It costs a lot of money to look this cheap"
I wish other celebrities did as much as her. Her Imagination Library (https://imaginationlibrary.com) is just one example of her giving back to the community.
If you've never heard the 45 of Jolene played at 33, give it a listen.
Rhinestone was hilarious and great to watch just because Stallone and Parton were having _so much fun_ together. No sense of sexual attraction, just having a damn great time having fun. Could not help but enjoy that, separate from it genuinely being a fun movie.
My coat of many colors
That my mama made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
Well, I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My mama made for me
Emmylou Harris does a great one also.
She started a charity called Imagination Library [1] that sends free monthly books to children under six in the US, Canada and even expanded to the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. I will always be grateful for this.
[1] https://imaginationlibrary.com/
And the rest of the world is envious!
My hope is that people will try an emulate her charity and compassion.
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/c57569fb-c1ee-476a-aa31-d402e2f3b...
[1] https://archive.is/9nHs1
Here's my favorite track of hers, Todd Terje mix of "Jolene": https://youtu.be/Xkl36pu8aLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTLXYJGvhI4
I will always remember her appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert where she moved him to tears with an a cappella song: https://youtu.be/R91VssUiGiY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(film...
R.I.P. Dolly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPdwWzTTi8
Simple, direct philanthropy that helps any/all kids:
https://imaginationlibrary.com/
I was at Dollywood a few weeks ago. I highly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance. She has a fantastic legacy in more ways than one.
Long As I Can See The Light: https://youtu.be/tMgyIUvz9ak?si=zZq0yHRHmGl7LsFB
This.-
That's an amazing contribution to literacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExeQM08TwbE
We're worse off.
And Sierra is a very sharp and kind human being from what I can tell. We've had the good fortune to hang out a few times at IBMA and once in Tennessee. She has always been very fun and curious and easygoing with my son, and she radiates a continually inspired view of the future of the music "industry".
I don't know her super well, but she runs in my circles of friends who are interested in a radical rethinking (for many of us, an abolitionist view) of IP. I have no idea her views in particular, but it feels notable to see the kinds of folks coming up through that scene.
An occasional co-writer of hers, Melody Walker, also seems to be a thought-leader on questioning industry (and also societal) norms. I strongly suggest her content (and if you're not familiar, their beautiful co-written ballad, American Dreaming).
I don't recall if I've spoken to Sierra about IPFS - I think I actually have, when describing the release process for my second record - but it's an interesting synchrony to have Dolly leave us (and for many of us, to instinctually turn to Sierra for inspiration) and for IPFS lose its primary maintaining org in the same day.
It's obvious that the long-term future of traditional music is as the lifeblood of peer-to-peer topologies and communities.
Here's Sierra summoning the energy of Dolly last Sept:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeV6-hTLe6U
I'm sure she'll do a generationally-relevant tribute in the next week or two, as will Billy Strings.
(Reminder: Both Billy and Sierra have released their entire catalog DRM-free: https://pickipedia.xyz/wiki/DRM-free)
Here is her families statement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9govup-IG3c
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...
For real. If there is a heaven I’m sure the red carpet was rolled out for her.
Of all her songs I think Jolene is by far the most interesting. Several copied the song, such as Miley Cyrus, and while not bad, it seems to not quite capture the underlying idea of the song. I have a hard time Miley being as plausible in the "please don't steal my man just because you can" compared to Dolly. It's like a whole generation in between and the lyrics just don't really fit much at all to Miley, even if one reasons that it is the melody that is more important - but even then, Miley's voice seems to fit to other songs better than happy-go-lucky country songs.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america
Let's just say that she's a wonderful person and an excellent example and leave it at that.