RAMBLE ON: "Jolene" by Dolly Parton

There’s a viral Tumblr post, pretty well-known by now, where Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is rewritten so that Jolene is some unspeakable, Lovecraftian monstrosity who portends the apocalypse. You know it; “We cower here beneath your gaze, that sets the earth and sky ablaze, have mercy at the end of days, Jolene.” People have added what must be hundreds of verses to this, recorded their own versions; it’s one of the finer moments of Tumblr lore (at least as far as I can tell, never having used Tumblr much).

That’s a good bit, but to me this isn’t just a solid laugh; I would call it one of the most astute pieces of music criticism I’ve ever heard. It's funny because it captures something that was already there; “Jolene” basically already was a horror song. Right from the opening notes, the tone of the song is overwhelming dread -- the tense, stuttering guitar that opens it; the ghostly wail of “Joleeeeene” that closes it out. There’s something very dark and chilling and Southern Gothic about it, something eldritch in its construction, that makes it sound like it’s about something much more serious than a jealous wife and an infidelity that hasn’t even happened yet. You half expect the song to end in murder.

With Dolly having basically ascended to modern sainthood, it’s interesting to look through that lens back at “Jolene,” her most iconic hit. It’s kind of an odd pick to become Dolly’s signature song. It’s too good not to be, obviously, but it’s easy to argue that one of her other hits should hold that spot, are more important to Dolly or fit her better; “I Will Always Love You” is integral to her life story, and “Nine to Five” cemented Dolly as “Dolly!” “Jolene,” meanwhile, was early in her career – it wasn't quite her first country hit, it was her first crossover to the pop charts – and Dolly hadn’t become the icon we know and love yet. In the clip above, you can see the young Dolly being introduced by her mentor/Svengali Porter Wagoner; his tone is almost condescending, and Dolly (though already wearing her trademark big hair and makeup) seems humble and even nervous. Her relationship with Porter is music legend at this point, but it’s still jarring to see. Music biopics like to show the Year One early days before the future legend finds their footing (see Bohemian Rhapsody where Freddie fumbles with the mic stand in his first time on stage). Hollywood cliché bullshit? I always thought so, but you can see it happening in real life, in that clip of “Jolene.”

An insecure Dolly sings that song above, just like an insecure Dolly wrote it (according to legend it was inspired by a bank clerk flirting with her husband). Around the time she released “Jolene,” Dolly broke free of Porter’s control, and then a few years later moved from Nashville to L.A. to realize her ambitions. (“Here You Come Again,” the song that announced the new Dolly and her very most sellout track, is my favorite of hers.) But before all that she wrote “Jolene,” and the writer of that song is no movie star. That woman isn’t just jealous of Jolene, isn’t just scared of losing her man – she’s absolutely wrecked by her powerlessness. She is sick with horror at this woman – described indeed like an all-powerful goddess, who has already woven her spell and bewitched her husband – and how easily she could destroy her marriage and her life. Of course Jolene is all-powerful; why else would Dolly be going to her to try and save her marriage rather than her husband? “My happiness depends on you”?? Good god.  That was fifty years ago, and Dolly has sung this song over and over in the decades since, even though she spent the intervening years becoming the kind of larger-than-life sex bomb that could steal a man, not lose one. (Her first country hit, "Coat of Many Colors," is even more humble, and it's honestly shocking to compare the Dolly that sings it to the Dolly she became.)

There’s another piece of Internet lore that’s sprung up around “Jolene”: the alternate interpretation that Dolly is attracted to Jolene herself, and maybe even imagining her husband’s attraction, projecting her own onto her husband. That’s certainly not the intended subtext of the song, but it’s a valid reading; Dolly’s descriptions are… a lot. (“Your voice is soft like summer rain”?) And yeah, this could be some sublimated gay yearning, or for that matter many other displaced emotions; “Jolene”’s intensity can be extrapolated into a lot of places. Here’s one I came up with on my own. I don’t know if anyone has made this observation, but have you ever noticed there is no indication whatsoever that Jolene has any intentions on Dolly’s man? Or even knows who either of them are? For all we know, Jolene is just at the grocery store minding her own business, and then this weeping wife comes out of nowhere to confront her. I like to imagine a confused Jolene saying, “He talks about me in his sleep? …I’m sorry, who is this again? Have I met him? Who are you?” (I made this joke on Twitter, and a couple sex workers said they’ve gotten this kind of email from wives of their OnlyFans subscribers.)

Yeah, yeah, I realize that you have to play along with country music. “Before He Cheats” requires you to believe that Carrie’s boyfriend is in fact cheating on her, Morgan Wallen’s “Thinking About Me” is him taunting his ex that she still thinks about him and you have to just accept that he’s not completely imagining it. I’ve never bought either song, but honestly, I think that’s on me, I’m a snarky asshole and these things are funny to me. I like my interpretation of “Jolene” though. Again, the narrator of “Jolene” is just emotionally wrecked on all levels, with jealousy, with despair; there’s no reason to think that paranoia isn’t in the mix also.

Dolly looks and dresses the way she does because – this is one of many stories she’s told over and over – when she was young she saw a woman described by the respectable people of town as the local tramp, and she thought this trashy woman wearing too much makeup was the most beautiful she’d ever seen and wanted to emulate her. Is that also the woman she thought about when she wrote Jolene? I think it probably was. Dolly clearly has thought a lot about femininity – that’s probably why this song is addressed woman to woman rather than Dolly talking to her man. Jolene sounds so much like the larger-than-life figure she aspired to be and eventually became, and yet for all that Dolly has achieved – an instantly recognizable icon, a movie star with her own theme park, a charitable saint seemingly beloved by all – her image remains humble and down to Earth. But there’s obviously a difference. When she says she hopes you like this next song, everyone knows she doesn’t actually have to hope for that. Once upon a time she meant it. Once upon a time she had to beg strange women not to destroy her family. And look what she became. Truly, Jolene is an inspiration to us all. All hail Jolene.