In interviews and in public performances, Dolly Parton presented a public persona that was always upbeat, positive and bubbly. But the below surface was a songwriter with deep empathy for the struggles of poor women and children. From that empathy emerged some very sad songs.
In the song “Down from Dover,” for example, she writes about a young woman who has been abandoned by her lover and is facing the shame of being an unwed mother. She's been kicked out of her home by her parents. She struggles to hold on to the hope that the father will come back. But, alas, she gives birth to a stillborn baby, and he never returns.
In “The Bridge,” a young woman stands on a bridge and contemplates suicide. On that bridge, she was kissed for the first time by her boyfriend.
Tonight I stand alone
Tonight while standing on the bridge
My heart is beating wild
To think that you could leave me here
With our unborn child
As the song closes, her feet are moving slowly to the edge…
In “A Gamble Either Way,” a teenage girl tells her life story. She was raised an orphan, and then when she turned thirteen, “Strangers passed me back and forth, men just took me as they pleased.” She regrets being born and sees how the deck is stacked against her; her life is “a gamble either way.”
In “Mountain Angel,” a woman lives like a wild animal in the mountains. She's been abandoned by her lover, her baby has died, and now she roams the hills, making wailing, mournful sounds that can be heard for miles. People think she's crazy, but Dolly sees her as a “mountain angel.”
In “Daddy Come and Get Me,” a woman pleads for her daddy to rescue her from a mental hospital. She has been involuntarily committed to an institution by her husband, who got rid of her so he could run off with another woman.
In “Evening Shade,” a child describes the abuse she and other kids receive while being locked up in a home for juvenile deliquents.
Little Susan Bradley, one night had wet her bed
Mrs. Bailey took a razor strap, and beat her half to death.
The children make an escape plan, and burn the house to the ground.
These songs are just some of many written by Dolly about the poverty, violence and abandonment often experienced by women and children.
In reviewing so many Dolly songs, I have to say I was surprised by the absence of any anger expressed toward the bad men in the stories. Many of today's hits by Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Kelly Clarkson and others are what I think of as “bad boyfriend songs." In these songs, the narrator often lashes out at the selfishness and cruelty of men (understandably so... )
Then there's also a whole genre of revenge songs, in which the female singer fantasizes about punishing the man for the wrongs done to her. “Kerosene” by Miranda Lambert comes to mind.
But Dolly does none of this. She writes of loneliness, grief and the feeling of betrayal, but she does not express anger.
In her book, Dolly Parton: SongTeller, she writes of how songwriting is her primary spiritual practice:
“I just go into my ”God space"… I feel like I'm closest to God when I write… A great line will come to me and I'll go, “thank You Lord. I know I didn't think of that.”.
Growing up with Bible stories, Dolly undoubtedly was immersed in the psalms, prophets and gospel stories about the plight of widows and orphans and the call to care for them. She taps this deep well in her storytelling.
Her empathy and her spirituality were the foundation of her songwriting. She sought to show the God-given dignity in all people, and didn't put energy into tearing others down.
Rest in peace, Dolly Rebecca Parton.