Barbie
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Post by Barbie on Apr 5, 2024 16:51:51 GMT
If you don't know, Beyonce covered Parton's Jolene on her new album Cowboy Carter. The lyrics are different than OG Jolene. Parton herself gave Bey her blessing.
What do you guys think of Beyonce's cover?
OG Jolene
From what I observed, a lot of people are divided on Beyonce's lyrics. I don't have a strong opinion on it, but I will say that I get why the lyrics were changed. The OG lyrics wouldn't have worked with Beyonce's "I'm a goddess, bow down to me" image
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Post by urbanpatrician on Apr 5, 2024 16:54:37 GMT
Sorry....its Dolly by a mile here.
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 5, 2024 17:22:02 GMT
There is almost never - ever - any 2nd generation or later musical facsimile that can approximate the earlier generation OG.......in general - in some instances it's possible but it's very rare..........and in this case that's because a billionairess approximating a genre the way that she may try on a hat or her expensive shoes can never capture the context and mileau that was not a choice for Dolly Parton....but a simple fact of life experience that went into that song...... As an example.......It is the same thing as kids today who start a Punk Band to get laid........but the 1st generation bands they loved were far more likely to have been in a band in the first place to avoid getting killed by guys who were getting laid......  |
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 7, 2024 14:49:53 GMT
Also btw - the lyric change is kind of gross........the OG song is a deeply sad, song.... very deeply sad.........the Beyonce lyric change is - as is usually true of people with big mouths (not Beyonce herself necessarily but her characterization within the song) hyperbolic bullshit........ Jay Z cheated on her right? I am pretty sure she acted more like Parton towards that "real life Jolene" (Becky with the good hair) - than she did in her own version of this song.......  This "YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS - Queen" strong female nonsense, is you know, fncking nonsense......rings false......and it affects her Art......negatively.......  |
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Post by stephen on Apr 7, 2024 15:21:19 GMT
I am not outraged by Beyonce's cover in theory or even in practice, although I do think that it's more in line with Loretta Lynn's anthemic "You Ain't Woman Enough" than the spirit of "Jolene." The reason "Jolene" works so well as a song is because it taps into a person's insecurity that no matter what they do, there may always be someone younger and more attractive and who might take everything away from them, and there's nothing they can do to stop it. And not just that, there is clearly an undercurrent of attraction to Jolene in Dolly's original version; she sees the appeal of Jolene and can understand why someone might be entranced by her.
Obviously there's a backstory in Beyonce's relationship with Jay-Z that can't be ignored when one looks at her version, and if one listens to her "Jolene" with that in mind, the song is infused with a different insecurity: that of a woman who is beloved and commands adulation among billions of people, and yet even then, she couldn't hold onto her man, and desperate to hold onto her image of being Queen Bey, she puts out this warning track... but whether Beyonce intended it or not, the insecurity still bleeds through.
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 7, 2024 15:53:19 GMT
" although I do think that it's more in line with Loretta Lynn's anthemic "You Ain't Woman Enough" than the spirit of "Jolene."" This is actually another drawback to the Jolene cover imo - in that it seems a misunderstanding of the song she's actually covering - not merely an updating of it and presentism - or at least a miscalculation of the OG.....Beyonce wouldn't actually do a cover of You Ain't Woman Enough - or write an original as memorable as that to match it - and that's because she wouldn't get the commercial synergy from a Loretta Lynn, RIP, cover song that she would from "adapting" a living, still iconic Parton cover (that Parton can endorse!) ......as if she needs any additional commercial glow anyway ...... The cynicism bleeds through more to my ears at least than any (intentional) insecurity tbh...... |
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Post by quetee on Apr 7, 2024 16:22:54 GMT
It's all about prospective. One is a woman begging another woman to leave her man alone. The other is a woman telling another woman don't even try it.
Beyonce just says it based on how people would approach it now.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Apr 8, 2024 6:13:54 GMT
I haven’t read anything about what Beyonce has said about her intention with this version, but I guess I don’t really get the point of doing it if the lyric change makes the song so different in spirit from the original version that it raises the question of why not just simply write her own original song instead... unless she really felt that Jolene needed updating to reflect “how people would approach it now” – which to me just sounds like a broad generalization. Perhaps she thinks Parton’s lyrics are too passive/weak for the current times, but there’s a painful truth to the original song that I’m sure still resonates for a lot of women (of any age) who can’t escape their insecurity and honestly feel that there’s nothing they can do to prevent someone else from stealing their romantic partner. Beyonce kind of just papers over that sad truth with generic girl-power posturing and empty bluster that I suspect doesn’t represent the lived reality of many women who maybe don’t share the personality of the Beyonce “character” in her version.
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