"Jolene", Dolly Parton; then, by White Stripes

Jolene, written by Dolly Parton, and originally recorded by her in 1974. To my mind, a fairly haunting and heartbreaking song, and an indicator that her talents are not limited to singing, and being an all-around in general sweetheart. The first link below is to her studio version. There have been many covers of this song over the years (I heard a new one by Nora Jones yesterday), but the one that stands out for me is by White Stripes (there's a studio version, but I chose a live version from 2004). First, Jack White does not change the pronoun, which I like in general because, you know, those were the lyrics. Second, as he is (obviously) a male vocalist, it provides a different take on the original endangered relationship. And I think the vocal itself is really fine and emotional in all the right ways.

I don't know that much about White Stripes - I've heard three albums but have not "followed their career" - I know he gets in fights and might possibly (people have intimated) think quite highly of himself. I'm still not sure if that drummer is his sister or his ex-wife or something else. But none of that matters to me, I only care about the songs; he is a good lyricist, at times very good, and has written songs that are funny, sad, sweet, angry and more adjectives I won't bore you with here. Now, whether you care for his style of music is another matter, of course. At any rate, I can tell you he produced a come-back album for Loretta Lynn in 2004, and another for Rockabilly Queen Wanda Jackson last year, exposing those fine ladies' voices to whole new generations of fans, so he certainly can't be all bad.

And, so, two Jolenes, and please note - on the White Stripes' version the song starts 30 seconds in...

Dolly Parton...

White Stripes...

IBL:mm

The Most Gorgeous Hunk of Savagery on the Face of the Earth

The Little Red Hen, a country western bar in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood, is our favored local (undoubtedly I've made that perfectly clear by now in a variety of other posts). Over the last month we have met quite a few regulars, and one of them, a gentleman named Kary, has become quite fond of Danielle. Kary is in his mid-50s, I would guess, slightly built, and with long gray hair and a bushy beard that hangs down to the top of his chest (the first night we met him he noticed my hair and said, "You mean you can have long hair and still get a beautiful woman?"). He always wears a Guinness ballcap (American flag pin attached); his voice is a bit squeaky (can't help it, I invariably think elf); and he orders multiple dinner items to go, but never eats there ("You don't want to see me eat; that's not a pretty sight").

Last night Kary won $100 on a pull tab game (I couldn't begin to explain how it works), and not only bought everybody at the bar a round of drinks, but he bought our dinner, too. Now, in the past, we have had short conversations with Kary - maybe once or twice a week - and often I've not been exactly sure what we were talking about (I think there may have been drug use in the past (his, not mine)). So, at one point last night, he was (you'd have to call it) flirting with Danielle, and in the process he referred to her as The Most Gorgeous Hunk of Savagery on the Face of the Earth (right, I don't either). Of course I was compelled to write those words down, which Kary noticed. He asked me what I was writing. I repeated his words back to him. He denied that's what he'd said. Then, he asked me to read it again, which I did. He paused for a moment and said, "Yeah, that's right" (at one point he also referred to her as The Most Silliest Hunk of Savagery in My Whole Life).

At any rate, Kary seems like a good guy, even if he's a little bewildering (and/or bewildered) at times, and he's certainly generous when his ship comes in. The general schtick now is that he tolerates me and teases me pretty hard about how I don't deserve Danielle; for the most part (or at least last night, at any rate), he addresses Danielle in conversation, and much of the conversation has to do with the troubling fact that I'm in the vicinity, which apparently puts something of a damper on he and Danielle "getting to know each other".

Or, to put all this another way? Yes, I'll be keeping an eye on him.


IBL:mm

David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" - 700 Pages...

Fictional Lesbian Pairings (II)

Dolly Dagger hearts Molly Hatchet with a love that has no qualms about speaking its name. Molly seconds that emotion with extreme prejudice.

Because We Like William Carlos Williams Very Much - "This Is Just To Say"

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

Because We Like W.H. Auden Very Much - "Epitaph on a Tyrant"

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

"Broken Heart", The Babys

Right, I know - I didn't anticipate a Babys' song making its way into this space, either. But a fine gentleman by the name of John Marcher recently started following this blog, and when I was in San Francisco earlier this month I was fortunate enough to meet him in person at the Mission Bar. Prior to that, through a variety of on-line communiques, we discovered that, growing up in Southern California at the same time, we likely had attended many of the same concerts (confirming two for sure, I believe - Blue Oyster Cult, Pat Travers and Cindy Bullins (sp?) at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus in 1979 (the Cult were touring the LP Mirrors), and the "festival" I'm about to discuss), including this gem at the Coliseum in either '79 or '80, I think - Cheap Trick (I want to say the Dream Police tour); Journey; Black Sabbath (Dio on vocals); Molly Hatchet (not Danny Joe Brown on vocals but his replacement (although I think, later, DJB returned)); The Babys (Jonathan Cain had recently joined; later he moved up the food chain to Journey); and then a band named either Force 10 or Russia (they went by BOTH names for a time; not sure which banner they were flying this day). Anyway, as these things happen, this got me to thinking about the Babys, and the first couple of songs I heard by them (Isn't It Time and Broken Heart) which appeared on their second album, also called Broken Heart.

The pop hit was the aforementioned Isn't It Time, and like a good little 15 year old I went out and bought the single (the flip side was a song called Give Me Your Love, with the Audenesque opening lyric, "Give me your love/ooooo, I need that thing real bad."). Along about that time I was juggling back and forth between AM and FM, and started buying albums instead of singles. When I heard the FM song, Broken Heart (and still enjoying the single), I went ahead and bought the album. The next record, Head First, featured a monster FM "rocker" of the same name (this was around 1979 and I'd just started high school), and they really took off for a couple of years after that, releasing two more records (I think) - Union Jacks, a fairly solid pop/rock album (the AM hit was Back on My Feet Again; the FM Midnight Rendezvous), and then, finally, Over the Edge, which was just awful (sample lyric from Sweet 17 - "Blowin' bubbles in the parking lot/got her mouth full of sticky stuff". Cheers, guys!).

And, yes, that was WAY too much time to spend on the Babys - fair enough, I'm not going to argue. But give the song a listen nonetheless. It's short; you likely have not heard it; the drums send it along its way quite nicely; John Waite sounds like he actually gives a shit on this one; it doesn't overwhelm with keyboards or dumb backing vocals; it has a couple nice guitar pieces, especially behind the vocal on the chorus. And then you never have to think about it again!


Broken Heart...

IBL:mm