I've been playing the Dolly Parton CD (The Grass is Blue) every day since I bought it a week and a half ago. Sometimes a couple of times a day. Some days more than that. It is a superb piece of work, let me tell you.
I love what Dolly did to Billy Joe's "Travelin' Prayer," for one thing. Not only did she grass is up quite a bit, but she put a little something else on it as well . . . a certain irony. Mostly in terms of vocal delivery, but also, for instance, in one lyrical shift: whereas on the original version Billy sings (oh so sincerely 1 ) "Try to keep her away from pain / Because my baby hates to cry," Dolly changes it to "Try to keep him away from planes / Because my baby hates to fly." It's just a little thing, but I think it's funny, and instead of just being A Stupid Thing A Singer Did To A Song For No Good Reason (such as virtually every song that Steven Tyler sings live with Aerosmith), I think it both subtracts and adds to the song--it subtracts a kind of trite, cliched, and shallow line and adds a touch of humor and personality. My baby hates to fly. Heh heh.
And as for the rest of the album . . . well, I just keep playing it over and over, and it keeps holding up, and I keep wanting to hear more of it. I'll leave it at that.
But here's the thing. I was so excited about this album that I couldn't help sharing, and when I had coffee with a friend of mine, I told him about it. This friend is a guy I've known for almost thirty years, and he's a gentle, good-hearted fellow. But after first scornfully dismissing Dolly Parton--on the basis of I have no idea what, since when I asked for clarification it was obvious that he knew almost nothing about her music and had never spent any serious time listening to her--he told two jokes. "Jokes," at any rate.
"Joke" the first: Do you know why Dolly's feet are so small? Because things don't grow in the shade.
"Joke" the second: How can you tell Dolly's babies? Their mouths have stretch marks.
Now, I'm glad to say that I didn't even fake laugh at that stupid shit. But I'm sorry to say that I didn't say, "Those are idiotic jokes, man. What the fuck is wrong with you?" I just waited for him to stop laughing at his own dumbass jokes and moved on to another topic, since it was obvious that there was nothing for me in this one.
And that was wrong, of course. It just didn't seem like it was worth the effort, though, and I imagine that the very most I could have achieved there would have been to make him feel a little bad for a few seconds. And probably not even that.
But this is a man who would never behave in a sexually inappropriate way to a woman in real life--either in word or deed. I am absolutely sure of that. So what makes it okay (in his mind) to make such stupid jokes about Dolly Parton? Well, I think it's pretty much the same thing that allows The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders to jump around on the football field bouncing their tits out of their blouses, flashing their ass cheeks and occasionally a bit of camel toe.
And I'm kind of sick of it.
I really wish that men would grow up. And women, too. Men need to stop thinking about women primarily in sexual terms. And women need to do the same goddamned thing.
For fuck's sake.
Is most of America thirteen years old? So sex-starved that they can't think of anything else? Sheesh.
1 And I LOVE Billy Joel's version, I hasten to say. In fact, did I not have such great love for his version, I probably would never have picked up this Dolly Parton album.
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