Dolly Parton Songbook

There are three "enshrined" Dolly numbers: "I Will Always Love You," "Jolene," and "Coat of Many Colors." I've covered the first two, and now it's time for Number Three.

"Many Colors" is an origin story. It's like Dolly's version of "X-Men: First Class." Dolly, a poor girl, needs a coat in the depths of a cold, cold autumn. Mom doesn't have cash--but she has several colored scraps. So, like an artist, Mom does some fancy stitchwork, and she talks about the Bible, and then Dolly is ready for the bad weather.

Dolly skips to school where, of course, she is not greeted warmly. The twits around her mock her rags. And the song steers toward its Third Act: Dolly serenely tries to educate her tormentors. "You're poor only if you choose to be." The small-minded kids can't understand, and Dolly feels pity. She wanders off on her own, and she enjoys her coat.

This looks so simple, but I'm obsessed with the mother-daughter link here. (Dolly, an artist, will use "scraps" from life to write her songs.) Also, I love the detail: "With patches on my britches, and holes in both my shoes, in my coat of many colors, I hurried off to school...." And the subtle use of repetition: "Although we had no money, I was rich as I could be."

Parton uses short, seemingly breezy phrases -- but she evokes a world and a set of characters, and she holds our attention. She is just a great writer.

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