Tag Archives: Dolly Parton

I Wrote This Instead of Writing Something Interesting

18 Oct

I had a detailed post in mind, but it involves a lot of writing, and I would rather not get into that tonight. Instead, I could write about Bob Dylan winning a Nobel Prize in Literature. I have seen him in concert a couple of times. He may be a great writer, but I could not understand a word that he said.

I could write about the World Series of Poker. I am watching an episode on ESPN. This is the first time that I have not kept up with the results. I was watching poker back in the days when Stu Ungar and Johnny Chan were winning. However, my interest crashed when the poker fad crashed. I reckon that I lost interest when everybody started watching and playing.

I could write about Dolly Parton. My wife just turned the channel to 9 to 5. However, I have already written about the time we saw Dolly in concert.interesting

I could write about Jamaica. We are going there in a few weeks for my wife’s cousin’s wedding. Was that confusing. There is a waterfall in Ocho Rios where they take all of the tourists. Years ago, a bunch of us climbed it. My friend fell on a rock and broke his tailbone. Is tailbone a medically correct term?

I could also write about the presidential race. No, I do not think I will.

I could write about the weather. That is what people usually talk about when they cannot think of anything else. It is still hot in mid-October. We no longer have four seasons. We have two.

Here is something that I can write about. Today, I learned that Howlin’ Wolf, the great bluesman, once lived in our town. This is something that I had never heard. Being the city historian, this disappoints me. Now, I am going to dig around and find out all I can about his time here.

That is all I have for this evening. Soon, I will write that post that involves a lot of writing.

 

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A Steel Magnolias Kind of Weekend

5 Aug

I have never seen Steel Magnolias. However, this weekend brought two of its stars to the stages of Nashville, and we saw both of them.

Friday night, we saw Dolly Parton at the Ryman Auditorium. It had been over a decade since she played a concert in Nashville, but a local charity brought her back to town. The place was packed with music industry insiders, politicians and regular people. Despite the strange mixture, there was an electricity running through the crowd. This was not just a concert. It was an event. I have written about seeing Elvis Presley in concert, and, although I was young, I can remember a similar feeling.

I guess that was fitting because Dolly came out in a white suit that brought to mind something Elvis would wear.image-46

Writing a sentence using only first names brought something else to my mind. It is a rare level of fame when people know someone by their first name.

Anyway, the show was awesome. Dolly played a bunch of her more famous songs and played a bunch of instruments along the way. However, I enjoyed her stories. She talked about growing up in Appalachia and the struggles that her family faced. She talked about coming to Nashville as a teenager and eventually reaching superstar status. Despite that transition, she never forgot where she came from.

Dolly is a true entertainer who writes songs, sings and acts. However, it is her charisma and connection to the crowd that caught my attention.

Thursday night, we went to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center for a completely different kind of show. Shirley MacLaine was there to talk about her life and her career.image-47

It was also a strangely mixed crowd with those who wanted to hear stories about Hollywood and those who were there to be close to their spiritual guide. I knew that the latter would get what they wanted, but I was hoping there would be more about the inside workings of the movies.

It was an interview format with Ann Patchett, author and Nashvillian, doing the asking. I think she wanted to psychoanalyze Shirley MacLaine because the first question went straight to reincarnation. It was something about how playing different lives in movies may have opened her mind to the possibility of living different lives.

Well, Shirley MacLaine was having none of that. She knew that she had fought in the Civil War long before she was in a movie.

There was some discussion about her career, and some interesting stories were told. However, the spiritual realm dominated the night. That is fine. I expected it. However, I would have asked some other things like:

How did someone who grew up in Virginia make it to Hollywood?

What did your family think of that decision?

Who was your favorite dance partner?

I could go on, but I would rather talk about when the audience asked questions. There was a good question about the Rat Pack that led her to talk about the time John F. Kennedy decided not to stay at Frank Sinatra’s house.

Then, there was one questioner who said that he could see his deceased grandmother in the eyes of his cat. That led someone else to talk about the hierarchy of the cat world. There was also some talk about how we are living multiple lives all at once.

At some point, I told my wife that I was going to the restroom and that I may not come back. People can believe what they want. Heck, I am probably strange, too. However, I had enough mystical talk for one night.

Dolly Parton and Shirley MacLaine worked together in Steel Magnolias, which made the two shows kind of cool and connected. As I wrote, the shows were completely different. In one of them, I got up and threatened not to come back. In the other one, I did not want to miss anything.

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The Soundtrack of My Youth – 1983

5 Apr

When we get into the car, my stepdaughter hooks her iPod up to the system, and the sounds of the 2010s come blasting through the speakers. She sings and can tell us anything we want to know about the people who are singing. Without her, my pop culture knowledge would be zero.

Some of the music is good, and some of it is less desirable. However, it is always fun to see how much enjoyment she gets out of it.

The other day, we were riding and jamming when I started thinking about the effect of music on our formative years. These are the songs we grow up with, and they stick with us throughout our lives. I came to age in the 1980s and, like others my age, feel a connection to the music of that time. I am not saying it was the best of all time, but it belongs to us.

The songs of the 1980s are the soundtrack of our youth just as the songs of the 2010s are the soundtrack of my stepdaughter’s youth. Because of that, each generation holds its music in a little higher esteem than everyone else does.

With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to look back at my high school years and see what was at the top of the charts. I entered high school in 1983, and that will be our starting point. I will also use the Billboard Top 100. Obviously, there are other charts for other genres, but we do not want to go down a rabbit hole and never get out.1983

“Maneater” by Hall and Oates held the spot for the first two weeks of the year. These days, John Oates does a lot of work in Nashville.

The next three weeks were dominated by “Down Under” by Men at Work. This is one of my favorite songs from that year.

For one week, Toto’s “Africa” hit the top spot. It is interesting that two songs about other parts of the world made their way to the top of the American charts. It is also interesting that Men at Work returned to the top place after this one week.

Patti Austin and James Ingram hit it big with “Baby, Come to Me”, but were soon overwhelmed by a 1980s superstar.

In March, “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson became the Number One song and stayed there for seven weeks.

Here is a good trivia question. Who knocked “Billie Jean” out of the top spot? It was Dexys Midnight Runners with “Come On Eileen”. However, their success was short-lived.

After one week, Michael Jackson came back by putting “Beat It” in the top spot. It would stay there for three weeks.

The next week, “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie made its way to Number One, but it did not hold on for long.

Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” was a hit on the radio and on the big screen. For six weeks, guys listened to this song and pictured a dancer pouring water on herself.

A song about stalking was next on the list. “Every Breath You Take” by The Police is a good song, but it gets weird as you listen closer to the lyrics. Actually, it was the biggest hit of 1983 and stayed Number One for eight weeks.

Eurythmics rode “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” up the charts. In my mind, this is also one of the best songs of the year.

Then, we have “Maniac” by Michael Sembello. This is the second song from the Flashdance soundtrack to make it to the top of the charts.

Billy Joel was on top with “Tell Her About It” for one week and was overtaken by “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler. This is also one of my favorites and held its position for four weeks.

The country went the Pop Country route with “Islands in the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. They are both in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

They were at the top for two weeks before Lionel Richie came through with “All Night Long (All Night)” in November. He stayed there for four weeks.

The year ended with a four-week stay at the top by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. “Say Say Say” was a duet that proves McCartney is not new to collaboration. His recent work with Kanye West and Rihanna is just the most recent example.

That is it for 1983. In the next post, we will look at 1984 and find out which of these performers kept their momentum into the next year.

Obviously, these are not the only songs of the year. What were some of your favorites?

 

 

 

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Elvis Presley and the Perpetuation of a Myth

3 Dec

The other day, I mentioned that there was a semi-serious post floating in my brain. Today, I am going to get it out of there. A couple of weeks ago The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper, printed an article about an activist who was going to be speaking in the area.

In the article, readers learned that the activist had a great deal of respect for Dolly Parton because of the singer’s work to improve the lives of children and others. They also learned that she had no respect for Elvis Presley, who she saw as someone who could have done more for his times and his community.Elvis Gate

That’s fine. We all have opinions about what people should and should not be doing. Many feel that the famous have a responsibility of using that fame for the betterment of the world. Dolly does a lot, and Elvis probably didn’t do enough. However, the writer continued with her disdain for Elvis by saying that he was racist. Her proof was that he had once said, “The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes.”

When I read it, something in the back of my mind said that it wasn’t right. I couldn’t explain what was nagging at me, but I just didn’t think that was an accurate quote. That’s when I hit Google and was directed to Snopes. According the them, Elvis never made that statement and referenced Michael Bertrand as the historian who discovered where this urban legend began.

That’s when I knew where that nagging feeling was coming from. Dr. Bertrand teaches at Tennessee State University and spoke to the History Club at our university. He and I had a great conversation about the early years of Rock n’ Roll, but this information came from his presentation to the group. He tracked the origin of this tale to a magazine article in which an anonymous person on the street said that someone told them that Elvis had said that. Through the years, many people have heard it and taken it as fact.

Why am I writing about a long dead singer being misquoted in a newspaper? Because the newspaper and the activist being interviewed should know better. (Note: While working on this post, I discovered that the quote was taken out of the original article, and a follow-up article admitted to the falsehood of the quote.) It is one thing for misinformation to circulate, but people who are trained to research and write shouldn’t go with something they think might be true.

I am also writing about it because historians have to deal with this kind of misinformation all of the time. Surely, you have heard that Catherine the Great died while having sex with a horse. It’s not true, but everyone thinks it is. You have also heard that George Washington could not tell a lie. That probably made his espionage efforts during the Revolutionary War hard to manage. That’s despite being one of the best parts of his strategy.

It is hard to get to the reality of history. It is especially hard when people have misinformation about it already in their minds. All of this is made worse when a reputable newspaper interviews a reputable activist, and they spread the misinformation further.

She is probably correct. Elvis could have done more during his life to make the world better. Instead, he fell into a life of extravagance and drugs. There are many lessons to be learned from the Elvis story but adding wrong information only makes those lessons harder to learn.

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My iPod Has Issues – Part 9

16 Oct

I am not feeling all that creative this afternoon. Today, it is dreary outside. Yesterday, my stepdaughter had her tonsils taken out. She’s in pain, and that makes us all feel bad. On top of that, I had to get a physical this morning. I could write about the history conference that I attended, but, like I said, I am not feeling all that creative.Not Creative

That’s why I am going to take the easy way out and explore the inner workings of my iPod. You guys know how it goes. The iPod gets put on shuffle, and we see what comes out of it.

“The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel

“Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring

“Hank WIlliams Junior Junior” by David Allan Coe

“Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Jolie Bassette” by Charivari

“Numb” by Linkin Park

“When Love Comes to Town” by B.B. King

“Africa” by Toto

“Midnight Rider” by The Allman Brothers

“My Idaho Home” by Ronee Blakely

“Layla” by Derek & The Dominos

“Your Mama Don’t Dance” by Loggins & Messina

“Barnaby Jones” by Jerry Goldsmith

“Blood on the Saddle” by Tex Ritter

“Old Turkey Buzzard” by Jose Feliciano

“Jolene” by Dolly Parton

“Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin

“I Say a Little Prayer” by Dionne Warwick

“Feelin’ Alright?” by Traffic

“What I Feel” by Stacy Mitchhart

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My iPod Has Issues – The Name Game

16 Jul

It’s been a while since I delved into the psyche of my iPod. For those who don’t know, my iPod has no direction and is misunderstood by a lot of people. It is filled with music from different genres and time periods. It has been told that it contains nothing less than 20 years old. I’m not sure that is true, but it definitely has an old soul. Most people who listen to my iPod have a difficult time understanding how such a collection could have come together in the first place.

This blog is littered with posts about my iPod, and you can psychoanalyze it yourself here, here, and here. In these couch sessions, I simply hit shuffle and list the songs that pop up. Indeed, it is a wide variety, but I still can’t see why people say “can we please listen to something else?” when my iPod is trying to entertain them.

In this post, I am looking at my iPod from an altered perspective by focusing on one of its playlists. This one is called “What’s In a Name?” and contains selections that have the names of people in their titles. Clever, huh? So, a dosey-doe and here we go.

1. “All About Clovis Ledbetter” by Jerry Clower

2. “Rocky’s Reward” by Bill Conti

3. “Rhiannon” by Stevie Nicks

4. “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” by The Ramones

5. “Ziggy Stardust” by David Bowie

6. “William, It Was Really Nothing” by The Smiths

7. “Jack & Coke” by Lynda Kay

8. “Truck Turner” by Isaac Hayes

9. “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John

10. “Sonny Got Caught in the Moonlight” by Robbie Robertson

11. “Jack & Diana” by John Mellencamp

12. “Willie, Waylon and Me” by David Allan Coe

13. “Marriage of Dale and Ming” by Queen

14. “Death of Floyd Collins” by John Prine and Mac Wiseman

15. “Jolene” by Dolly Parton

16. “Father Ramirez” by Ennio Morricone

17. “Ruby Tuesday” by The Rolling Stones

18. “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde” by Merle Haggard

19. “Caroline No” by The Beach Boys

20. “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” by Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys

I really don’t think my iPod is all that strange.

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