The fascinatingly strange relationship between Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan: “Weird buckaroo”
If there were ever two people who embodied the idea of being at polar opposite ends of the sonic spectrum more, it would probably be Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan.
One is the epitome of sunshine and rainbows and charm; the other is Dylan. While his style is far more geared towards storm clouds and brewing introspection, however, this is not to say that there’s anything overtly wrong with this contrast in approaches. It’s simply that both Parton and Dylan distinctly know who they are as people and artists.
There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with this. Indeed, it’s what has given them each their respective careers. But in all honesty, it is quite funny to envisage two such chalk and cheese musicians treading the boards of the industry at the very same time. You can’t imagine they could come up with any possible small talk at one of those coveted showbiz parties.
While Parton was becoming the queen of outward yearning with Jolene, Dylan was very much in the vein of looking inwards and honing the skills of roots rock on Planet Waves. And that was just in the space of 1974. You get the point: it hardly needs spelling out any more how different the pair are. Yet while some might try to mask this in the name of geniality, it seems Dylan has never been in that sort of mood.
Unfortunately for Parton, she realised this pretty quickly after being on the receiving end of Dylan’s less-than-effervescent response to her mere presence. “I’ve met him a few times, but I never felt any warmth from him to me,” she once told the Daily Mail. “I think I have offended him somehow by the way I looked or the way I was. I love his music, but he’s a weird buckaroo.”
Take it, he wasn’t much of a fan of ‘9 to 5’, then? “I don’t feel like we ever connected. Maybe he just thought I was too phoney or he didn’t get to know me too well,” she mused separately. It was perhaps understandable that Dylan had never been overly enamoured by Parton’s major happy-clappy hits. But underneath all that, there is the same songwriting soul as him.
The ‘Queen of Country’ could recognise this, where her folk-rock counterpart was maybe less than forthcoming. “I always loved his music,” she said, adding, “His mind is so deep, but his melodies are so good. They lend themselves so well to harmonies.” Yet despite the flurry of compliments, Dylan’s head has never been turned. Indeed, he even once left her high and dry.
Parton’s reverence for his songbook was made more than clear in 2005 when she covered ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ for her album Those Were the Days, but the real vision she had in her mind was for the man himself to join her. Possibly not unsurprisingly, Dylan turned her down. However, just to add even more salt to the wound, it became a family vendetta, as his son Jakob also declined the offer.
As such, no one really knows why Dylan is so deadset against letting Parton into his life, least of all the singer herself. But if there’s anything she’s learned in life, it’s that you have to sometimes take these things on the chin. For Dylan’s part, though, what’s so wrong with having a bit of Dolly to get you through the day?
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