I would never have guessed that one of my favorite songs of the year would be a remix of a Dolly Parton song. Or that another one of my favorite songs of the year would be a cover of a Dolly Parton song…by Dolly Parton.
And yet here we are.
“Jolene” is probably her best song to start with, but the full extent of it’s awesomeness only revealed itself to me through the medium of these two wonderful interpretations.
Jolene (Kygo Edit) – Dolly Parton
Kygo is a Norwegian music producer, with an incredibly deft hand for remixes (check them all out on Soundcloud – free downloads!), something which is incredibly apparent here. It takes that slinky guitar line and transforms it in beautiful dance beat, creating a far more expansive platform on which to rest Dolly’s wonderful voice. It only took one time listening to this version for it to become the definitive take in my mind – and it makes me wonder what kind of amazing music might have come from her if her jump from country star to mainstream pop star had taken place today, rather than 40 years ago.
And then we have this utterly revelatory bit of musical illusion: simply take the original 45 recording and slow it down to 33. The result: a completely different song! This “Jolene” is a quiet, smoky, haunting track. Where the original is fundamentally defined by its unity of pain and submission – it pleads, insists on a human response, demands an expression of empathy – this version is defined primarily by its mournfulness. It is full of lamentation and weary acceptance. And most impressively, it now sounds like a male voice singing.
It’s a testament to her vocal performance that it can survive this transformation with such success. My experiences performing this experiment with my old 45s were almost all fruitless, because when you slow down a standard vocal track it basically just turns into sludge. See, for example, this version of 12:51 by The Strokes. But Dolly’s voice simply unfolds itself and you can suddenly hear a bunch of previously invisible little flourishes.