Celebrity Jukebox #84: Dolly Parton

There aren't that many true icons left, and this week we lost another.

Dolly might not mean the same to other people in my generation as she did to me... but they probably didn't grow up listening to Terry Wogan.

Jolene

Islands In The Stream

Here You Come Again

Love Is Like A Butterfly

The Bargain Store

9 To 5

In my head, every one of those was a Top Ten hit, yet in reality only the first two troubled the UK charts (9 To 5 got to #47... can you believe that?). Despite that, Dolly is one of the few artists I've come across to have a separate discography page for Albums and Singles on iffypedia... so I doubt she worried much about her British record sales.

Dolly defined country music glamour.

Dolly had her own bridge and theme park.

Dolly single-handedly cured Covid. (Well, she did a hell of a lot more than most politicians.)

Like Tina Turner before her, I thought Dolly would go on forever.

I can't believe she's gone - and she was only 80.

Here are some songs for Dolly...

Lee Hazlewood - Dolly Parton's Guitar

Yuko - Dolly Parton

Pam Tillis - Dolly 1969

Geowulf - Dolly

Suede - Dolly

Microdisney - Dolly

And a few choice lyrical mentions...

Johnny Cash in black, over on a countryside

Dolly Parton, ha, Loretta Lynn

Don't forget Charley Pride

James Brown - That's Sweet Music

I'm stuck in Spokane in a motel room

Lord, I wish I had a Dolly Parton tape

Tom T. Hall - Spokane Motel Blues

Ladies, ladies

In my kitchen baking cake is Betty Crocker

Ladies, ladies

Dolly Parton's in my pool

And Aunt Jemima's acting cool

Sparks - Ladies

Dolly Parton was queen

Billy Joel the boss

We were uptown, downtown, little bit of Motown

With Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - 7 Inch Single

Dolly Parton and Lord Byron

They said patriotism is the last refuge

But now its me

The Fall - Mount Energei

Larry Hagman, Sally Field

And Dolly Parton, me oh my

It's all yours at

Samson and Delilah's beauty shop

Steve Forbert - Samson & Delilah's Beauty Shop

We've been gone for way too long

Can't count all the roads we've been down

Try to keep it between the ditches

Till the Dolly Parton bridge is in the front window

The Red Clay Strays - Stone's Throw

There's a lot more where they came from, but I'm still on holiday.

Finally then, here's Dolly at her very best...

One Track Summer #20: Tugboat

When guitarist Sterling Morrison left the Velvet Underground in 1971, he completed a degree in Medieval Literature at the University of Texas... but as degrees in Medieval Literature don't offer much hope in the job market, he then began working as a deckhand on a tugboat in Houston. By the 1980s, he had ascended to the position of Master Mariner, and spent most of that decade working as a tugboat captain, with music as an occasional hobby.

In 1988, Dean Wareham's dreamy indie band Galaxie 500 released a single in tribute to Morrison's post-Velvets career path... and this is it.

I don't wanna stay at your party
I don't wanna talk with your friends
I don't wanna vote for your president
I just wanna be your tugboat captain

Namesakes #203: The Doors

Almost the end of the summer holidays, and after last week's colossal entry on bands called Sparks, I needed a bit of a breather. Step forward then a two horse race, or a two door garage if you prefer. Of course, there will be those of you in the pedantically minded camp who argue that these aren't proper Namesakes since they spell their names differently and one of them takes the direct article while other employs no determiner at all.

However, since the beginning of Namesakes time, I have wanted to feature these two bands, because when you say their names out loud, they sound identical. And because I like both bands a lot, it aggravates me that the second lot chose their name surely in full awareness that it would make them sound exactly like another far more famous band from years earlier. It's like saying, "hey, why don't we call ourselves Beetulls? Or Rowling Stoans? Holleez? Worsells? Then whenever a DJ plays our record on the radio, people who can't see the spelling might confuse us with those other guys? In't that a brilliant idea?"

No. It's not a brilliant idea. It's a very dumb idea. Although apparently this confusion only happens on this side of the Atlantic. Because of the odd way we have of pronouncing English words in the UK. More on that in a moment...

THE DOORS #1

The Lizard King and his mates. You loved them when you were in the 6th form. You might even have had Jim Morrison's poster up on your wall as the epitome of cool. Then you grew a bit older and realised there was a certain Emperor's New Clothes quality to Jim's lyrics, and maybe you would sound more cool if you slagged them off and said they only decent thing about The Doors was Ray's organ. Then, hopefully, you grew a bit older still and realised that was a pretentious bullshit attitude and that The Doors were genius. If not, give it a few more years: you'll get there in the end.

The Doors - Riders On The Storm

DAWES #2

LA singer songwriter Taylor Goldsmith used to be in a band called Simon Dawes. When he left and started up a new group with his brother Griffin, he opted to keep the second half of that old band name. Thus were born a band I've had a lot of time for over the years... even though their name niggles me whenever I hear it.

Taylor claims this is my problem because I'm British. Here's a bit from Rolling Stone...

Over in the U.K., Dawes’ name sounds an awful lot like Jim Morrison’s famed band.

“Everyone just assumes we’re saying ‘Doors.’ An English friend broke it down for me, saying, ‘We pronounce ‘pawn as in ‘pawnshop’ the same way we pronounce ‘porn’ as in ‘pornography.’ With [the words] Dawes and Doors, they’re not hearing my accent when I say ‘Dawes.’ They’re hearing theirs.” Every radio interview, someone has to say, ‘It’s not who you think it is. It’s this other band.'”

OK, I thought. So they must pronounce Dawes differently in the US. So I tried to find out how it should sound. 

Like this?

Or like this?

Or like this?

What the f--!? Is someone trying to gaslight me here? Because I listened to the way every one of those interviewers introduced the band and on each occasion it sounded just like DOORS!

Old man needs a lie down.

Still, name aside, they making some cracking tunes. Here's one of my favourites...

Dawes - All Your Favourite Bands

Two Doors down... and that's your lot today. But...

Doors or Dawes? Can you tell the difference?

Neverending Top Ten #7.6: Fairies

Sam and I encounter the Cottingley Fairies (also at the National Media Museum or whatever they're calling it these days). Proof, if proof were needed, that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was right!

Snapshots #462: Songs About Parts Of A House

From the Doors, all around the house... here's some songs you might hear if an estate agent is showing you round.

15. Cromwell flattened them.

English Civil War history lesson required.

The Levellers - This Garden

14. Sweet transvestite.

Frank N Furter himself...

Tim Curry - Paradise Garage

13. I'll give you half a dozen to sweeten the deal, fella.

Six to the Sugar, man.

Sixto Rodriguez - Halfway Up The Stairs

12. Found inside the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower.

Felt - Don't Die On My Doorstep

The tube of you directed me towards the Samaritans when I tried to find that song.

11. The rooster raced away from Duane and Floyd.

The cock ran from two Eddies.

Eddie Cochran - Sittin' In The Balcony

10. Disrupting the proton laws.

"Proton laws" was an anagram.

Snow Patrol - Crack the Shutters

9. Playing bass in That Irish Band makes him very happy.

Adam Clayton plays bass in That Irish Band. God knows how he manages to stay Merry, working with those other twonks.

Merry Clayton - The Doorbell Rings

8. Milk, sugar, cornflour.

The ingredients of a...

Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling

7. Is that the best that you can do, Faith and Ant?

"The best that you can do" is the subtitle of Arthur's Theme. Faith and Ant are Adams.

Arthur Adams - You've Got The Floor

6. Small erasers.

The Rubettes - Under One Roof

5. Card-carrying and paid up.

The Members - Rat Up A Drainpipe

4. She has a Clown... and keeps in with Mr. Brown (for his money).

Cathy's Clown meets Dennis "Money In My Pocket" Brown.

Cathy Dennis - Too Many Walls

3. Moving Number 10 from London to Manchester might cause this...

Northern Uproar - From A Window

2. Angelic boss is also loaded.

Charlie Rich - Behind Closed Doors

1. JFK commission unmasks German Numero Uno. 

The people investigating JFK's assassination were the Warren Commission. A German Number One might be "Ze von!" (in a really bad German accent, with apologies to Walter).

Indisputably today's best song...

Warren Zevon - Desperados Under The Eaves

Get back in the Snapshots house next Saturday.