Dolly Parton one named her “favourite album ever”
For Dolly Parton, falling in love with music has a lot to do with beauty.
Not in the shallow or aesthetic sense, but in the way that actually makes you feel something, like when you listen to a piece of music and immediately feel connected to it emotionally, and whenever Parton listens to a song that she feels exists in her world somehow, she becomes endeared to it forever, and that’s saying something, considering that she herself is one of the most beautiful songwriters in the history of music.
After all, it’s hard not to listen to one of her songs and not feel charmed by the emotional response her words and melodies evoke, and course, there are many examples of this, like ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘My Tennessee Mountain Home’, but one that Parton believes will always be her best and most quintessential track, especially when it comes to understanding her as a person and an artist, is ‘Coat of Many Colors’.
The song has a lot of layers, especially when you start digging for deeper meanings, but mainly, it captures Parton’s upbringing and how, despite her family’s impoverished circumstances, she still had all the love and care she could have ever needed, which is worth far more than damn-near any materialistic means ever could be.
It also takes the literal image of her patchwork coat and turns it into a symbol for growing up enriched by kindness and generosity, rather than the comfort of having money or physical things. As she sings in the song, “My coat of many colours / That my mama made for me / Made only from rags / But I wore it so proudly / Although we had no money / Well, I was rich as I could be.”
Although many of Parton’s favourite singers don’t always sing about the same kinds of things that she experienced growing up or later in life, their music often has the same emotional appeal, especially when it comes to the more family-centric experiences and broader matters of the heart. Cat Stevens, for example, has been a lifelong favourite of Parton’s, and someone whose music she has always felt a deep connection to.
As she explained to NME, “I have loved Cat Stevens from the first time I heard his voice, heard him play the guitar, and heard his wonderful, touching, deep lyrics. I also thought he was the most beautiful and mysterious man I had ever seen. I loved how his music touched my very soul… and still does.”
In fact, Parton also said that her ultimate favourite is Tea For The Tillerman, which, aside from being an incredible album, holds what she called one of the “greatest songs ever written”. As she put it, “Tea For The Tillerman is still my favourite album ever. I have recorded his ‘Peace Train’, one of the greatest songs ever written.”
She added, “I was also blessed to have him sing a duet with me on ‘Where Do The Children Play’, another one of my all-time favourites. And I was proud to get to sing with him on his ‘Boots and Sand’ album. I love his music, but I also love his good heart and soul.”
It makes sense why Parton would develop such a deep love for Stevens, especially considering that, among those she mentioned, there are common themes of togetherness and unity, as well as remaining resilient while navigating through change, whether internal or external. Clearly, Stevens taps into something deep within Parton, a mirror of the things she sees in her own life and in her own music.
