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Dolly Parton

 The reason I felt drawn to Dolly Parton was that she seemed to follow the Stephen Sondheim playbook. One of the Sondheim rules was that form should match content. And there I was last night in a restaurant, listening to "Jolene":


Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.
Please don't take him just because you can.

Dolly's speaker does not need to explain to us that she is obsessed--because Dolly's use of *form* conveys the message. Those four "Jolenes"--on ascending notes--create the feeling of obsession. We know what it is like to be inside the speaker's ruminating head.

Another note from Sondheim was that every song should function as a one-act play, with exposition, development, and a conclusion. Recall that Dolly was just in high school when she wrote "The Bridge." It's a little bit overheated and predictable--but it's still nothing like the writing you would expect from a teenager. A kid appears on a bridge and recalls that this was her favorite spot to visit with her lover. Things were innocent, then they weren't. One night, overwhelmed with lust, the kid and her lover spotted a meadow and ran from the bridge--and did the deed. Climax: the kid, now pregnant and abandoned, plans to off herself and float away (in icy waters!)

A final thing that impresses me is the sense of economy--notice how much story the writer packs into a few spare lines:

Tonight, while standing on the bridge--
My heart is beating wild.
To think that you could leave me here
With our unborn child.
My feet are moving slowly--
Closer to the edge.
Here is where it started--
And here is where I'll end it.

Such a skilled technician. That's not easy work.
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