♫: dolly parton - jolene (1974)

train keeps on a'rollin. its like kinetic energy on a frictionless plain. i can't stop this thing. content is just spewing from my fingertips like strained peas from a babies mouth (or bottom if we want to get really graphic, but let's not).

this is another music post long-time-coming. i fell in love with this song a little out of nowhere. shortly after it found a way into my karaoke rotation and for a few weeks in new york i think i drove my roommates insane listening to it and its various covers. i think i have a knack for attaching myself to songs whose protagonists are pitiful sad-sacks longing for something just out reach. and i guess this is the point where i wonder - "perhaps this suggests something about my own fragile place in this world? am i really the sad-sack? am i pitiful? am i always wanting what i can't have?" well i'm not going to give you the satisfaction of answering those questions. instead, i'm going to talk about this song.

the song's marching rhythm lends it something close to aggression towards the titular character, although you get the feeling that its a ferocity built out of fear rather than strength, like a cat backed into a corner. it's a far cry from the independent-woman-feminism of 9 to 5 parton. what i respond to most in "jolene" is the simplicity of the song's composition - a guitar, some drums and parton's vocals attached to a really fantastic melody. and the lyrics. again, nothing fancy, just a plea given in simple language ("and i can easily understand how you could easily take my man, but you don't know what he means to me, jolene").

do i get weird looks as i sing about losing my man to a more beautiful woman in the karaoke room? yes, obviously. but i don't care because i know there's at least one other person in the room who feels the same way i do when i hear this song. one person who can feel happiness slipping through their fingers as it crawls into someone else's. we all know that feeling. besides, i just really like singing it.