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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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/
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.
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!"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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].
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
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
> 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.
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'
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.
Others have mentioned Sierra Ferrel - she seems the obvious native wildlife in the gap in the ecosystem 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 kind and curious with my son, and she seems to have a very inspired few of the future of the music "industry".
I don't know her super well, but she definitely 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's notable to see someone arise from that scene (at least as I perceive it) to such prominence.
I don't recall if I've spoken to her about IPFS - I think I actually have - but it's an interesting synchrony to have Dolly leave us (and for many of us, to institutionally 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:
mikestew | 11 hours ago
jihadjihad | 10 hours ago
0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA
PaulHoule | 10 hours ago
jimmySixDOF | 9 hours ago
tomcam | 7 hours ago
pseudosavant | 5 hours ago
kevin_thibedeau | 9 hours ago
mikestew | 9 hours ago
shevy-java | 8 hours ago
chimbles | 7 hours ago
sollewitt | 7 hours ago
Joeboy | 7 hours ago
jihadjihad | 4 hours ago
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...
jerf | 3 hours ago
bluesounddirect | 7 hours ago
https://chipmunkson16speed.bandcamp.com/album/vol-1
alyandon | 6 hours ago
bluesounddirect | 5 hours ago
markdown | 7 hours ago
slim | 5 hours ago
tombert | 9 hours ago
I don't really like country music, but Dolly always seemed somewhat down-to-earth and pretty decent.
CGMthrowaway | 9 hours ago
johnnyanmac | 8 hours ago
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.
4d4m | 4 hours ago
4d4m | 6 hours ago
What a positive legacy to leave - good example for others.
EugeneOZ | 2 hours ago
Some songs I added to my playlist :)
lenerdenator | 11 hours ago
We're worse off.
paulpauper | 10 hours ago
lanstin | 9 hours ago
1970-01-01 | 11 hours ago
R.I.P. Dolly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRPdwWzTTi8
curuinor | 10 hours ago
autoexec | 10 hours ago
cheeze | 10 hours ago
gkoberger | 10 hours ago
em3rgent0rdr | 9 hours ago
A humorous response to whenever someone says "country music" is: "Which country?"
Kye | 10 hours ago
stego-tech | 10 hours ago
DiBop | 10 hours ago
jjtheblunt | 10 hours ago
jolt42 | 10 hours ago
d4mi3n | 10 hours ago
DiBop | 10 hours ago
odyssey7 | 10 hours ago
CalChris | 10 hours ago
cjboco | 10 hours ago
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.
steveBK123 | 10 hours ago
Aboutplants | 10 hours ago
Amazing contributions to many aspects of life
haney | 10 hours ago
someothherguyy | 5 hours ago
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.
haney | 3 hours ago
kstrauser | 2 hours ago
duck | 10 hours ago
[1] https://imaginationlibrary.com/ [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/01/589912466/dolly-p...
gip | 10 hours ago
behat | 9 hours ago
>> 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].”
michaelsbradley | 9 hours ago
nkoren | 8 hours ago
Thank you, Dolly. That meant a lot to us, and millions upon millions of other people too.
notyourwork | 9 hours ago
syntheticnature | 8 hours ago
someothherguyy | 5 hours ago
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...
kstrauser | 2 hours ago
dylan604 | 10 hours ago
If you've never heard the 45 of Jolene played at 33, give it a listen.
cscharenberg | 9 hours ago
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.
mattsolle | 10 hours ago
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!
jimt1234 | 10 hours ago
kranke155 | 10 hours ago
tclancy | 10 hours ago
wging | 9 hours ago
kranke155 | 9 hours ago
mc32 | 9 hours ago
13hours | 9 hours ago
Erem | 9 hours ago
johnnyanmac | 8 hours ago
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.
asveikau | 7 hours ago
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.
jimt1234 | 6 hours ago
duderific | 6 hours ago
pibaker | an hour ago
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.
Tangurena2 | 8 hours ago
socalgal2 | 5 hours ago
sleet_spotter | 10 hours ago
1PlayerOne | 10 hours ago
Long As I Can See The Light: https://youtu.be/tMgyIUvz9ak?si=zZq0yHRHmGl7LsFB
otter-in-a-suit | 10 hours ago
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.
dayyan | 10 hours ago
gigatexal | 10 hours ago
kstrauser | 10 hours ago
Let's just say that she's a wonderful person and an excellent example and leave it at that.
jacquesm | 9 hours ago
cramer4next | 5 hours ago
chistev | 10 hours ago
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
mkhpalm | 10 hours ago
zabzonk | 9 hours ago
Emmylou Harris does a great one also.
z3ugma | 8 hours ago
jawilson2 | 7 hours ago
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baba_vanga | 10 hours ago
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baggachipz | 9 hours ago
4d4m | 6 hours ago
nunez | 7 hours ago
delichon | 10 hours ago
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.
shadowgovt | 10 hours ago
I'll be interested to see if the mitigations hold today.
dsiegel2275 | 5 hours ago
But Dolly was 1000x the songwriter that Johnny Cash was.
antonymoose | 5 hours ago
kstrauser | 2 hours ago
Let’s just agree that they’re both S-tier writers.
kzrdude | 10 hours ago
Bluestein | 10 hours ago
This.-
InsideOutSanta | 10 hours ago
Mwntalhwalth | 10 hours ago
chews | 10 hours ago
GeekyBear | 10 hours ago
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chasd00 | 10 hours ago
onlypassingthru | 9 hours ago
chasd00 | 9 hours ago
kylemaxwell | 8 hours ago
jibcage | 8 hours ago
onlypassingthru | 6 hours ago
hackernud3s | 4 hours ago
lightedman | 8 hours ago
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.
welcome_dragon | 8 hours ago
VLM | 6 hours ago
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.
blueshoe | 9 hours ago
slowin | 9 hours ago
peezd | 8 hours ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTLXYJGvhI4
1-more | 7 hours ago
m463 | 9 hours ago
Simple, direct philanthropy that helps any/all kids:
https://imaginationlibrary.com/
alsetmusic | 9 hours ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExeQM08TwbE
rglover | 9 hours ago
swozey | 9 hours ago
Here is her families statement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9govup-IG3c
divbzero | 9 hours ago
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...
swozey | 9 hours ago
dabinat | 9 hours ago
chasd00 | 4 hours ago
For real. If there is a heaven I’m sure the red carpet was rolled out for her.
divbzero | 9 hours ago
spicymaki | 9 hours ago
CGMthrowaway | 9 hours ago
JKCalhoun | 9 hours ago
ssttoo | 9 hours ago
computershit | 7 hours ago
kpmcc | 9 hours ago
jimt1234 | 9 hours ago
charlieflowers | 9 hours ago
She did. She is one of our species' great poets.
lemonberry | 9 hours ago
ahartmetz | 9 hours ago
Here's my favorite track of hers, Todd Terje mix of "Jolene": https://youtu.be/Xkl36pu8aLY
jeffrallen | 9 hours ago
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america
arjie | 9 hours ago
triceratops | 9 hours ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(film...
plandis | 8 hours ago
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/
neom | 8 hours ago
hermitcrab | 8 hours ago
hermitcrab | 8 hours ago
"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.
triceratops | 7 hours ago
krupan | 7 hours ago
triceratops | 6 hours ago
bigiain | an hour ago
“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"
partyficial | 2 hours ago
"and some say she's just a big pair of tits"
TapamN | 8 hours ago
suoloordi | 8 hours ago
shevy-java | 8 hours ago
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.
uncivilized | 4 hours ago
cbfrench | 8 hours ago
esseph | 6 hours ago
My hope is that people will try an emulate her charity and compassion.
samizdis | 8 hours ago
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/c57569fb-c1ee-476a-aa31-d402e2f3b...
[1] https://archive.is/9nHs1
tcbawo | 8 hours ago
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
stevoski | 8 hours ago
“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.”
mmmm2 | 7 hours ago
biorach | 6 hours ago
cm2012 | 7 hours ago
nunez | 7 hours ago
djray | 7 hours ago
mtweak | 7 hours ago
That's an amazing contribution to literacy
danans | 7 hours ago
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.
whimsicalism | 7 hours ago
danans | 5 hours ago
whimsicalism | 5 hours ago
oersted | 3 hours ago
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.
dan-robertson | 7 hours ago
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.
danans | 5 hours ago
To some extent yes, but I suspect that is declining also as the genre becomes corporatized.
shermantanktop | 5 hours ago
danans | 4 hours ago
VLM | 6 hours ago
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.
uncivilized | 6 hours ago
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.
alexpotato | 6 hours ago
Upvoter33 | an hour ago
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?
b8 | 5 hours ago
hackernud3s | 4 hours ago
danans | 5 hours ago
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.
quaddoggy | 7 hours ago
oliyoung | 6 hours ago
zabzonk | 6 hours ago
andsoitis | 4 hours ago
bariswheel | 4 hours ago
a2tech | 2 hours ago
babymetal | 4 hours ago
Ned_Williams | 3 hours ago
syngrog66 | an hour ago
jMyles | an hour ago
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 kind and curious with my son, and she seems to have a very inspired few of the future of the music "industry".
I don't know her super well, but she definitely 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's notable to see someone arise from that scene (at least as I perceive it) to such prominence.
I don't recall if I've spoken to her about IPFS - I think I actually have - but it's an interesting synchrony to have Dolly leave us (and for many of us, to institutionally 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)