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.
jihadjihad 9 hours ago [-]
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!"
kevin_thibedeau 8 hours ago [-]
Rogers crossed over into country.
mikestew 7 hours ago [-]
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.
jimmySixDOF 8 hours ago [-]
Her cover of Stairway to Heaven is definitely crossover at its best
tomcam 6 hours ago [-]
Oh. You weren't kidding! It's good. They avoid all the traps, like not trying to outdo Jimmy Page's guitar solo.
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.
Joeboy 5 hours ago [-]
She was certainly a fine guitarist, but Wikipedia says you were right first time, it was a session player called Chip Young.
jihadjihad 2 hours ago [-]
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.
shevy-java 6 hours ago [-]
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.
markdown 5 hours ago [-]
Made famous by the show The Blacklist
slim 3 hours ago [-]
first time I hear that song and to my ear, the song was recorded at that speed, then sped up in production.
4d4m 5 hours ago [-]
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.
tombert 8 hours ago [-]
Same.
I don't really like country music, but Dolly always seemed somewhat down-to-earth and pretty decent.
EugeneOZ 55 minutes ago [-]
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!
Some songs I added to my playlist :)
CGMthrowaway 8 hours ago [-]
Thankfully we have Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, the White Stripes, etc for you
johnnyanmac 7 hours ago [-]
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.
4d4m 2 hours ago [-]
Completely agree johnnuanmac. Seems like a role model for being a good person while maintaining extreme goals and working toward the impossible.
Aboutplants 9 hours ago [-]
“Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gifted over 318 million free books to children worldwide since its inception”
Amazing contributions to many aspects of life
behat 8 hours ago [-]
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].”
nkoren 7 hours ago [-]
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.
michaelsbradley 7 hours ago [-]
My son loves them too!
haney 9 hours ago [-]
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.
someothherguyy 3 hours ago [-]
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.
haney 2 hours ago [-]
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.
kstrauser 51 minutes ago [-]
Reading this made me choke up. That’s beautiful.
duck 8 hours ago [-]
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
someothherguyy 3 hours ago [-]
Interesting program, seems mostly positive, some dissent
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.
notyourwork 7 hours ago [-]
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.
syntheticnature 7 hours ago [-]
Huh, looks she has an entire food line. Wonder if this is planned to be an income stream for some of her charities, similar to Newman's Own.
7 hours ago [-]
danans 6 hours ago [-]
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.
dan-robertson 5 hours ago [-]
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.
danans 3 hours ago [-]
> Don’t you still see this with hip-hop to some extent?
To some extent yes, but I suspect that is declining also as the genre becomes corporatized.
shermantanktop 3 hours ago [-]
becomes? i think that happened like 15 years ago...
danans 3 hours ago [-]
Sure, I was being charitable
golemiprague 3 hours ago [-]
[dead]
whimsicalism 5 hours ago [-]
Your contention is what, that now this is no longer possible or less likely?
danans 4 hours ago [-]
Less likely, for many reasons - including the more crowded marketplace for talent, but also a culture that is more corporation generated over time.
whimsicalism 3 hours ago [-]
I disagree strongly, I think we are even better at identifying talent in the margins today and the leaps are potentially larger.
oersted 2 hours ago [-]
> more crowded marketplace for talent
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.
VLM 5 hours ago [-]
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.
b8 4 hours ago [-]
Taylor Swift's parents spent 1 Mil+ on her career. I wouldn't call that middle class.
hackernud3s 3 hours ago [-]
I might give it to them still if they were fully leveraged.
danans 3 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.
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.
uncivilized 5 hours ago [-]
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.
alexpotato 4 hours ago [-]
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.
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!
Tangurena2 7 hours ago [-]
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.
jimt1234 8 hours ago [-]
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.
13hours 7 hours ago [-]
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.
asveikau 5 hours ago [-]
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.
duderific 4 hours ago [-]
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.
jimt1234 5 hours ago [-]
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.
Erem 7 hours ago [-]
Divorce is rampant among celebrities in the USA. Maybe not worldwide?
johnnyanmac 6 hours ago [-]
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.
kranke155 8 hours ago [-]
Paul Newman I think. Same thing. He was also married to the same person for decades.
tclancy 8 hours ago [-]
Yeah and just like Dolly, someone we need more of.
wging 8 hours ago [-]
Her husband was Carl Dean.
kranke155 7 hours ago [-]
I meant to say Paul Newman was similarly married for decades to the same person.
mc32 7 hours ago [-]
De mortis nil nisi bonum, as they say.
socalgal2 3 hours ago [-]
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
delichon 8 hours ago [-]
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.
I don't think I've ever seen the interwebs talking about one thing as much as right now.
dsiegel2275 4 hours ago [-]
As a performer, sure.
But Dolly was 1000x the songwriter that Johnny Cash was.
kstrauser 39 minutes ago [-]
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.
antonymoose 4 hours ago [-]
I’m no artist so I’m left to ask - how exactly is that metric determined?
shadowgovt 8 hours ago [-]
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.”
mmmm2 6 hours ago [-]
Very cool video and respect to the guitar player for gracefully handling a once in a lifetime opportunity.
biorach 4 hours ago [-]
That's Steve Cooney. It was Dolly got the one in a lifetime opportunity.
cm2012 5 hours ago [-]
Amazing share! What a performer. What a life.
curuinor 9 hours ago [-]
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.
autoexec 9 hours ago [-]
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.
gkoberger 8 hours ago [-]
Well, as long as the songs and films continue to make her estate money, I imagine she planned to continue sending out books.
cheeze 9 hours ago [-]
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.
em3rgent0rdr 8 hours ago [-]
> "wrong continent to be inculcated in country music"
A humorous response to whenever someone says "country music" is: "Which country?"
genericone 9 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
curuinor 8 hours ago [-]
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.
buellerbueller 8 hours ago [-]
Ridiculous, because EA says the ends justify the means, whereas Ms. Parton demonstrated the importance of the ends and the means.
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.
jrflowers 8 hours ago [-]
Lmao “You like nice things happening. You must be a fan of my weird techbro scam cult, that invented doing nice things”
malfist 6 hours ago [-]
There's nothing techbros culture can't reinvint, claim as their own, and charge a subscription for it
7 hours ago [-]
onlypassingthru 8 hours ago [-]
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.
kylemaxwell 7 hours ago [-]
At least, since Fred Rogers died.
jibcage 6 hours ago [-]
To be fair Fred Rogers was a minister, but I would agree that his message to kids was mostly secular.
onlypassingthru 4 hours ago [-]
Fred was a very respected man, but Dolly is also loved. The grief for many is real and most never even met her.
hackernud3s 3 hours ago [-]
I feel like conservatives must have a problem with Fred. MAGA would have definitely cancelled his funding.
chasd00 8 hours ago [-]
yeah she's a treasure to pretty much everyone.
welcome_dragon 6 hours ago [-]
No I'm guessing that she arranged for a small personal ceremony only - insisting on that would be in line with her character.
VLM 5 hours ago [-]
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.
lightedman 6 hours ago [-]
"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"
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.
hermitcrab 7 hours ago [-]
Random fact, Dolly the cloned sheep was named after Dolly Parton:
"Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."
In the end I think her generosity outshone her other famous attributes.
partyficial 9 minutes ago [-]
The UK office's (Ricky Gervais) final words in the last episode:
"and some say she's just a big pair of tits"
triceratops 6 hours ago [-]
The past really is a foreign country.
krupan 5 hours ago [-]
When I was in elementary school Dolly Parton boob jokes made the rounds. I think we've all adjusted our view of her as a person since those days
triceratops 5 hours ago [-]
There are different standards expected of schoolboys compared to respected scientists announcing historic breakthroughs.
charlieflowers 8 hours ago [-]
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!"
She did. She is one of our species' great poets.
lemonberry 7 hours ago [-]
That was a really great cameo.
cjboco 9 hours ago [-]
What an amazing woman and person in general.
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 9 hours ago [-]
She made money doing what she loved, and gave a huge amount of it away to help others. Can't ask for better than that, she will be missed.
blueshoe 8 hours ago [-]
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.
dylan604 9 hours ago [-]
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.
cscharenberg 8 hours ago [-]
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.
9 hours ago [-]
chistev 9 hours ago [-]
We used to play Coat of Many Colors a lot in my house when I was a kid.
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 8 hours ago [-]
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.
zabzonk 8 hours ago [-]
> Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that.
Emmylou Harris does a great one also.
z3ugma 7 hours ago [-]
Brandi Carlile and I'm With Her just covered this at their stadium concert in Madison, WI last night. Eerie.
jawilson2 6 hours ago [-]
TBF, there are probably 100s of Dolly covers being done nightly. I just played Do I Ever Cross Your Mind a few nights ago with my bar band.
losvedir 8 hours ago [-]
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.
baggachipz 8 hours ago [-]
And it's so clean! Makes The Magic Kingdom look like a toxic waste dump. Also has great rides. Can't recommend Dollywood enough.
4d4m 5 hours ago [-]
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.
nunez 6 hours ago [-]
Dolly Parton's Stampede is a good time as well. Don't read too much into it if you go lol
plandis 7 hours ago [-]
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.
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.
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.
esseph 4 hours ago [-]
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
triceratops 8 hours ago [-]
Dolly Parton's film production company Sandollar produced the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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.
d4mi3n 9 hours ago [-]
End of an era. She was a very active philanthropist and will be dearly missed for all the good she brought to the world.
CGMthrowaway 8 hours ago [-]
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/
bariswheel 2 hours ago [-]
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'
a2tech 27 minutes ago [-]
She wrote that song and Jolene on the same day. Basically cemented her legacy and future with one afternoons worth of work.
sleet_spotter 9 hours ago [-]
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!
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 ...
This.-
TapamN 7 hours ago [-]
Fun fact: Dolly, the cloned sheep, was named after Dolly Parton. The sheep was cloned from a mammary gland cell, so...
InsideOutSanta 8 hours ago [-]
She always seemed so full of life, it's difficult to believe she's gone.
JKCalhoun 8 hours ago [-]
I originally had no idea Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was a Dolly Parton cover.
computershit 6 hours ago [-]
Whitney's version gives you goosebumps; Dolly's original will make you cry.
ssttoo 7 hours ago [-]
And written the same day she wrote Jolene
divbzero 8 hours ago [-]
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been gifting free books to kids from birth to age 5 for over three decades: https://imaginationlibrary.com/
djray 6 hours ago [-]
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.
DiBop 9 hours ago [-]
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
Ned_Williams 2 hours ago [-]
Sad, but she was beloved and lived a great live. She was successful, but gave back a lot in her local community.
arjie 8 hours ago [-]
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.
5 hours ago [-]
zabzonk 4 hours ago [-]
Somehow "USS Dolly Parton" has a bit of a ring to it for the next US warship after the "USS Dorie Miller".
Mwntalhwalth 8 hours ago [-]
My daughter loves Dolly from her books and I love reading to her. What a win win, RIP Dolly you are a class act.
dayyan 9 hours ago [-]
Amazing human who popularized the amazing Country Music.
Listening to Country Music radio all day as respects.
stego-tech 9 hours ago [-]
Dolly was one of the unequivocal good ones. Damn girl, RIP.
DiBop 9 hours ago [-]
One of THE best humans to have ever graced this planet. I've never heard a single negative thing about her. I wish I believed in heaven.
jolt42 9 hours ago [-]
In regard to heaven, you don't need to believe for her - she believed.
jjtheblunt 9 hours ago [-]
in some sense, the collection of innumerable entirely positive memories effect one aspect of heaven for her, i believe.
hermitcrab 7 hours ago [-]
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.
mtweak 6 hours ago [-]
Her father couldn't read so she built a program that mails 3.5 million books to children every month.
That's an amazing contribution to literacy
alsetmusic 8 hours ago [-]
I found this remix music video strangely hypnotic when I happened across it.
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.
odyssey7 9 hours ago [-]
Sad news - she was a treasure.
Jaauthor 9 hours ago [-]
I will be crying 9-5 today.
kzrdude 8 hours ago [-]
I guess this is why English Wikipedia was down. It's back up now.
nunez 6 hours ago [-]
One of the most generous music artists to have lived. Dolly's legacy will greatly outlive her.
9 hours ago [-]
9 hours ago [-]
quaddoggy 5 hours ago [-]
The woman wrote Jolene. If that doesn’t get you to heaven then nothing will.
oliyoung 5 hours ago [-]
An icon, one of the best of us and a true one of one
suoloordi 7 hours ago [-]
She was truly a gem. Beautiful inside and out. May she rest in peace.
spicymaki 8 hours ago [-]
We need more celebrities to step up like Dolly. You will be missed.
lenerdenator 9 hours ago [-]
I knew she had been sick recently but always assumed she'd bounce back.
We're worse off.
paulpauper 9 hours ago [-]
some people are really sick but it's not evident because they keep it concealed
lanstin 8 hours ago [-]
Also when you are 80 something can go from a bit of a cold to deadly dangerous real quick.
CalChris 9 hours ago [-]
I saw Dolly at Hardly Strictly in 2005. She was great.
GeekyBear 8 hours ago [-]
She was such an impressively kind person.
sikozu 8 hours ago [-]
Heartbreaking. Rest in peace Dolly.
rglover 8 hours ago [-]
RIP. One of the last real ones.
jimt1234 8 hours ago [-]
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.
baba_vanga 9 hours ago [-]
RIP Dolly, she was a good one.
swozey 8 hours ago [-]
She was, I believe, the largest or one of the largest private donors to the moderna covid vaccine
It’s interesting that she never got any flak for it from conspiracy theorists. I guess they realized she was so beloved she was untouchable.
chasd00 3 hours ago [-]
> I guess they realized she was so beloved she was untouchable
For real. If there is a heaven I’m sure the red carpet was rolled out for her.
andsoitis 3 hours ago [-]
Dolly was a force.
shevy-java 6 hours ago [-]
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.
uncivilized 3 hours ago [-]
This comment makes it seem like you really wanted to attack Miley rather than discuss Dolly’s health.
jeffrallen 8 hours ago [-]
Make time to listen to Dolly Parton's America podcast:
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.
Kye 9 hours ago [-]
Dolly Parton seemed nice on that episode of The Orville.
Bud 2 hours ago [-]
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brcmthrowaway 8 hours ago [-]
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gigatexal 9 hours ago [-]
very, very sad. she was such a good person in this age of trump especially in the country music scene
kstrauser 8 hours ago [-]
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.
jacquesm 7 hours ago [-]
It is a lot easier to appreciate the light when you're aware of the dark.
cramer4next 3 hours ago [-]
Yes. Much better to talk about Biden. The worst 4 years of my life. Dolly's music was the only thing that got me through. God Bless her soul.
DonHopkins 8 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
swasheck 7 hours ago [-]
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.
GaryBluto 6 hours ago [-]
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?
7 hours ago [-]
kstrauser 7 hours ago [-]
Let's not even waste time thinking about that cretin when we have someone much better, and something sadder, to consider at the moment.
Rendered at 03:20:03 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
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.
Some songs I added to my playlist :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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"
She did. She is one of our species' great poets.
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/
Here's my favorite track of hers, Todd Terje mix of "Jolene": https://youtu.be/Xkl36pu8aLY
My hope is that people will try an emulate her charity and compassion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTLXYJGvhI4
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/c57569fb-c1ee-476a-aa31-d402e2f3b...
[1] https://archive.is/9nHs1
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.
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.