The heartfelt hit song that made Dolly Parton realise all pain in life is “worth the suffering”
Dolly Parton is attached to each of her songs as if they form the fabric of her very being. Like pieces and fragments of her own soul, each offers a glimpse into her life and upbringing and why family is one of the most important forms of love to hold on to. This is why she resists giving songs to others, even if she knows it will be an advantageous move career-wise.
That said, one quick glance at her catalogue tells you everything you need to know about why that’s the case. Like many others, Parton wrote from personal experience, making many of her songs intimate musings of the thoughts and memories that made her who she is. However, she also blends this essence with her proficiency in storytelling, making you feel as though you are an integral part of her world, too.
Take ‘I Will Always Love You’ as an example. This intensely personal tune was so precious to Parton that she later rejected an offer from Elvis Presley himself to cover it. She explained that refusing to give it up was her way of “protecting her things”, and while it wasn’t an easy decision, in her heart, she knew it was hers and no one else’s. No compromises.
This attachment also makes it easy to understand why ‘Coat of Many Colors’ became one of her all-time favourites. A song about the coat her mother made for her that came to symbolise resilience during hardships, ‘Coat of Many Colors’ uses the coat as a symbol of everything that made Parton and how, in the throes of societal deprivation, she wore it “proudly”, knowing that, “Although we had no money, I was rich as I could be.”
The song is one of Parton’s most heartfelt as she chronicles the details of growing up in a family with nothing. The singer herself even recognises its poignancy and how it pieced together everything anyone would ever need to know about her resilience and understanding of having and accepting love amid uncertainty. “It’s kinda a little signature song of mine,” she admitted on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
However, the end result isn’t just what Parton remains attached to. The process itself was significantly healing for the singer, who allowed herself to reach into the corners of her soul and mind that she had previously left untouched. Before, all of these experiences made her feel frustrated and trapped, but after writing the song, she understood the prophetic nature of such experiences more profoundly.
As she recalled in her 2020 book, Songteller: “At the time, I thought, ‘Why is this happening?’ Now I know it was so I could write that song. It really is true that ‘God works in strange and mysterious ways His wonders to perform.'”
Continuing, “You never know when you’re going through things what is actually going to turn out to be a blessing. So it’s worth the suffering.”
As a result, she allowed different layers to feed into the song, using her experiences as a starting point and allowing broader themes to bleed through, like acceptance and tolerance. Though she didn’t recognise it when she was living through it, ‘Coat of Many Colors’ embodied her broader philosophy about understanding and appreciating different walks of life, even when it looks and feels distinctive to the general outsider.
