by Kevin Burton
Did I dream this? I only saw it once. I mean, I think I saw it once. Did you see this?
I thought I saw on Facebook, the first news about changing the name of the Nashville airport to honor Dolly Parton, who died Aug. 25 was something along the lines of “airport authority pours cold water” on the idea.
Did you see that?
When I saw it, I thought, what a super-fabulous career move that is! Ooooo-wee!
Go ahead and get your name out there, step in front of, that tsunami of respect and genuine adoration.
You’re gonna lock up jackass of the decade, at least with a move like that. Wowzers!
So maybe I didn’t really see it? Maybe I wasn’t seeing or thinking straight?
But unlike Dolly, the majority of Americans in this era are tone deaf in more ways than one. So maybe I did see it? Help me out here……
Roku TV has added several movies starring Dolly Parton to its lineup in the wake of Parton’s death. My wife and I plan to watch next, the documentary about Dolly’s Imagination Library.
But Monday we watched Unlikely Angel, which it turns out was a 1996 movie made for CBS Television. It was released about a week before Christmas of that year.
Here’s the plot, posted on Wikipedia:
“While driving home from a bar one night, straight-talking singer Ruby Diamond crashes her car and dies. In heaven, she meets Saint Peter who reveals she can return to Earth, but only to reunite an estranged suburban family who have been torn apart since the mother died. If she succeeds by midnight on Christmas Eve, she will be granted her wings as an angel.”
We got what we asked for from the film, some time with Dolly. It wasn’t Citizen Kane, but that’s OK. All we wanted was a sort of cinematic hug.
It’s a film Dolly fans can enjoy but it’s essential to have your Biblical theology nailed down beforehand. The movie premise is based on earning salvation and getting a second chance to do so after death. Both of those concepts are false, antithetical to the teachings of scripture.
There are other characters besides Dolly’s Ruby Diamond, but Dolly is never off the screen for long. And that’s what we expected and wanted when we decided to watch…..
In the late 70s, Parton made an effort to reach pop-loving ears like mine, while not abandoning her country fan base. I certainly knew who she was before then, but the number 3, 1978 crossover smash “Here You Come Again” got my full attention. It is easily my favorite Dolly song, “9 to 5” notwithstanding.
Here’s what SongFacts has to say about the song:
“This was written by the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and was the centerpiece of Dolly Parton’s now famous late ’70s crossover from Country music to Pop. In addition to topping the Country singles chart, it was also Parton’s first Top 10 Pop hit, reaching number 3 on the Pop singles charts in January 1978.”
“Mann and Weil wrote this somewhere around 1975, and initially offered it to Brenda Lee. Lee sat on the song for over a year, before ultimately deciding not to record it. B.J. Thomas was the first to record the song when he included it on his self-titled album in 1977, and it reached the ears of Parton’s producer Gary Klein.”
“Cynthia Weil accidentally erased the original opening line on the tape recorder while Barry was out, which proved to be a fortuitous mistake. She explained: “I didn’t know what to do, so I made one up. I made up the melody and the lyric. When he came back I sang it to him. He said ‘that’s not my opening line, but I like yours better.’ We kept it.”
“Parton hoped the song would broaden her fanbase, but she wasn’t willing to sacrifice her country roots. She begged producer Gary Klein to countrify the pop tune with the addition of steel guitar, so he brought in noted steel guitarist Al Perkins for the job.
“She wanted people to be able to hear the steel guitar, so if someone said it isn’t country, she could say it and prove it,” Klein told Tom Roland in The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits. “She was so relieved. It was like her life sentence was reprieved.”
“This earned Parton a Grammy win for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.”……..
Here You Come Again is the first song on a mix tape of mine which became an exercise tape. I really need to play that tape and exercise more!
As it is slow, I do my stretching during that song. Then when Dolly sings “here I go” at the end of the song, I am up on my feet waiting to launch into jumping jacks with the opening notes of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by the studio band Steam.
Here I go indeed……
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