This rhinestone-studded schmaltzfest on Netflix inspired by the starīs greatest songs is a terrible misstep. What she was thinking we will never knowDolly Parton wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You in the same night. The same night. She wrote 9 to 5 while she was bored in her trailer during the filming of, well, 9 to 5 then came out and sang it to her co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, using her long red fingernails as percussion. She refused (regretfully) to let Elvis cover I Will Always Love You because his manager, Colonel Parker, demanded half the publishing rights and Dolly does not relinquish the rights to her songs. Not then, right at the start of her career; not now, not ever. She owns everything pertinent to every one of them, with the possible exception of the first she ever wrote, Little Tiny Tassletop. It was about the dolly her father had made Parton, the fourth of 12 children living in a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains, out of a corn cob. That was in 1951 and she was five.Every Dolly fan has these facts inscribed on their heart (along with black loathing for Porter Wagoner, the man who gave her her start and thought that entitled him to have his `girl singer` stay with him for ever). Every non-fan should be apprised of them as well, so that they may start the short journey from ignorance to adoration and meet us all at Locust Ridge for the annual diamante jamboree. She is a phenomenon, a role model musically and philanthropically (her Imagination Library charity sent out its 100 millionth childrenīs book last year), a honky tonk angel, an eagle when she flies and altogether a legend. Continue reading...
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