Don’t shoot the messenger! I haven’t listened to any new Country Music since “Oldtown Road” made me ears bleed. Well, since here in East Tennessee you don’t mess with anything Dolly Parton, the Patron Saint of the Great Smoky Mountains, I wasn’t going to take a chance on the Beyonce version of “Jolene”. Then, I heard that Saint Dolly asked Beyonce to record the song and I thought that I must listen to this song. Ugh.
I am not a mean-spirited person. I think the Alien Ant Farm version of “Smooth Criminal” is better than Michael Jackson’s original. AND, once you hear the late Whitney Houston’s version of “I will always love you”, you know that song has been SUNG and it rips your heart out of your chest and wrings the blood from it. Perfection.
I saw a tweet/X that Saint Dolly herself had asked Beyonce to sing Jolene:
oh she don’t know the lore. Dolly personally REQUESTED Beyoncé to cover Jolene. she said if she could have anyone in the world cover the song it would be Bey. pic.twitter.com/qu4la6Pvvw
— pastel ← leo ꓽꓽ) (@pastelETH) April 5, 2024
Once I heard Stevie Wonder played Harmonica on the rendition, I felt not to listen to it would be a sin. Here are the lyrics of “Jolene” Beyonce style:
[Intro] (Jolene)
(Jolene) [Chorus: Beyoncé] Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m warnin’ you, don’t come for my man (Jolene)
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Don’t take the chance because you think you can [Verse 1: Beyoncé] You’re beautiful, beyond compare
Takes more than beauty and seductive stares
To come between a family and a happy man
Jolene, I’m a woman too
Thе games you play are nothing new
So you don’t want no hеat with me, Jolene
We’ve been deep in love for twenty years
I raised that man, I raised his kids
I know my man better than he knows himself (Yeah, what?)
I can easily understand
Why you’re attracted to my man
But you don’t want this smoke, so shoot your shot with someone else (You heard me) [Chorus: Beyoncé] Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m warnin’ you, woman, find you your own man
Jolene, I know I’m a queen, Jolene
I’m still a Creole banjee bitch from Louisiane (Don’t try me) [Verse 2: Beyoncé] There’s a thousand girls in every room
That act as desperate as you do
You a bird, go on and sing your tune, Jolene (What?)
I had to have this talk with you
‘Cause I hate to have to act a fool
Your peace depends on how you move, Jolene [Bridge: Beyoncé & Choir] Me and my man crossed those valleys
Highs and lows and everything between
Good deeds roll in like tumblin’ weeds
I sleep good, happy
‘Cause you can’t dig up our planted seeds
I know my man’s gon’ stand by me, breathin’ in my gentle breeze
I crossed those valleys
Highs and lows and everything between
Good deeds roll in like tumblin’ weeds
Good and happy
‘Cause you can’t dig up them planted seeds
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’ma stand by her, she gon’ stand by me, Jolene [Outro: Beyoncé & Choir] I’ma stand by him, he gon’ stand by me
(I’ma stand by her, she gon’ stand by me)
I’ma stand by him, he gon’ stand by me, JoleneI am going to warn you. Beyonce can sing, but there is NOTHING original in the “Bonnie & Clyde” inspired video or powerful woman lyrics:
Ugh, I have no idea what Dolly was thinking with even the intro to this abortion. Not all women are “Bad Bitches”. Some women are tired and vulnerable. That aching vulnerability made the song. What in sweet cornbread Hell does Beyonce mean she’s a “Creole banjee bitch from Louisiane”? She’s not a stylishly dressed Gay man and she was born in Houston. Very un-Creole like.This reminds me so much of 25 years ago when Garth Brooks (Holy Father Hank Williams forgive me.) made that album as Chris Gaines. Except Beyonce is Black so it’s a DEI sin to criticize her.
Beyonce’s “Jolene” is a one-dimensional character as Kat Rosenfield wrrites:
I wrote about Beyoncé’s cover of “Jolene”, which is not the empowered feminist anthem it thinks it is pic.twitter.com/wr6ysGIpeV
— Kat Rosenfield (@katrosenfield) April 5, 2024
Let us now speak of the glorious Photoshop work that is the Cowboy Carter cover art. Not an original idea in the whole Carter family. The Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge has been actually doing this for as long as I can remember.
Cowboy Carter's inspiration for her album cover. Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede July 2019 https://t.co/T34tBD3Nyh via @YouTube
— Toni Williams (@toniknxvll) April 5, 2024
Beyonce isn’t sitting on that horse or holding the reins or flag. It’s all phony. The thing that makes Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you” great was its authenticity. There is nothing authentic about Beyonce’s “Jolene”.
Now, if you want to hear an amazing an powerful voice take on “Jolene”, here is Dolly’s goddaughter, Miley Cyrus singing “Jolene”.
Featured Image: Brett Jordan/flick.com/Creative Commons 4.0/Brent Moore/flickr.com/Creative Commons
Que says: I’m not a country music fan, although I do have Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” on my playlist, since it was a song my preschool-aged granddaughter loved to sing in the car. The only words she could remember were “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, JOLEEEENE.” Totally adorable.
But I get your ire at having a song destroyed. Arlo Guthrie annihilated “City of New Orleans,” which was written and originally performed by the late Chicago folk singer Steve Goodman. Goodman’s version was a peppy tale about a train ride from Chicago, traveling through Illinois until the end of the line in New Orleans. (“All along the southbound odyssey, the train pulls out of Kankakee; Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields.”)
I was a Goodman fan in high school, and loved that song. Then Guthrie took it and turned it into a dirge, Ugh. But at least he didn’t alter the lyrics.
Cameron says: The local news channel was talking about this cover and they had some professor who studied African American music and claimed that Country Music was invented by black people.
Yep. The We Wuz tribe tries claiming something else.
Now, I am no fan of Beyonce but the fact she tried doing something different is a good thing for an artist.
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