If the Shoe Fits...

National treasure Dolly Parton was admitted to the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame and declined, stating that she wasn't actually a rock musician. (She has also refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom, twice.) They refused her refusal, so she's put out an entire rock album just so she feels like she qualifies for the honor they're insisting on bestowing upon her. As befits a rock album, there are controversies about it. 

One of them is that she has a song bashing politicians but not naming any (which is pretty good marketing when you think about it -- other brands could learn from that). Asked about which ones she meant, she points out that it applies to "any of them" because none of them are really trying hard enough. 

Another controversy is that some of her left-leaning fans are annoyed that she did a piece on the album with Kid Rock. Right-leaning fans long ago learned to tolerate celebrity opinions that disagree with their own, as almost all of them do; nobody seems to mind she did some with other people too. Indeed, gay-culture outlet the Advocate lists the rest of her co-stars and notes that they're almost a litany of LGBTQ-friendly icons: "Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Lizzo, and Debbie Harry, and queer artists Melissa Etheridge, Miley Cyrus, and Elton John." 

The whole thing's not available yet, but you can hear an initial piece here if you are so inclined. To some degree it points out that she really does have a pretty good claim to being there: a lot of her contemporaries in Tennessee music, including Elvis, were the founders of the genre. She sounds more like they do than the people working today because the genre has long moved on to other things. (Indeed, reportedly the Kid Rock tune -- which I don't think is out yet -- is about faith and charity, which are at best irregular subjects for contemporary rock).

3 comments:

Gringo said...

I worked about a month with an accountant who had worked for Dolly Parton. She had nothing but good things to say about Dolly.

The accountant quit and went on to bigger and better things.

E Hines said...

...but you can hear an initial piece here if you are so inclined.

I was, and...she's a whole lot better than what passes for pebble these days. She's got the flavor and the rhythms and does a very good throwback.

Writing of throwbacks, ...not naming any (which is pretty good marketing when you think about it -- other brands could learn from that).

That would be a throwback. As I recall, ads didn't name competitors until McDonald's and Burger King started calling each other out in their ads, those decades ago.

Eric Hines

Dad29 said...

That lady is a REAL musician--which I propose to define as among the upper 2% of 'musically competent' people. Elvis was there, as was the Chairman of the Board, Lenny Bernstein, probably Robert Shaw.....it's not a long list, but there are a lot more than just those four.

The hallmark is their ability to deliver great performances of diverse genres. Rare people, indeed.