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Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

I’ve never been much of a country music fan, but I’ve always been a Dolly fan. Great songwriter, philanthropist, and seemed like a genuinely nice person. RIP, Dolly, you were one of the greats.

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Her vocals were exceptional, too. One of my favorite videos I've randomly come across on YouTube is "Jolene" slowed down to 33 RPM [0]. The comments are hilarious as well, but the clarity of her vocals and the vibrato that carries through to a slower tempo is really something special to hear.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA

She's one of those crossover performers, such as Kenny Rogers and Taylor Swift who escape Country music as a genre and get mass appeal. Whenever I comment about a Dolly Parton song playing in a public place I hear things like "She's a national treasure!"

Her cover of Stairway to Heaven is definitely crossover at its best

Oh. You weren't kidding! It's good. They avoid all the traps, like not trying to outdo Jimmy Page's guitar solo.

Definitely my favorite version of that song!

It's nice but the original hits more raw to me. Perhaps because I heard it first ages ago. There was a kerfuffle about the song's provenance a few year ago.

I am a fan of covers, like Johny Cash's NIN "Hurt" or Marylin Manson's Depeche "Personal Jesus". If anyone has faves regardless of the genre, please share.

The Band’s cover of Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” is superb, particularly the addition of the accordion.

A band called Lake Street Dive has a phenomenal cover of Hall & Oates’ “Rich Girl”.

Scary Pockets is a group with rotating artists (formed by Patreon’s founder/CEO), their covers of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” are two I return to frequently.

Rogers crossed over into country.

My ex-wife was a big Kenny "The Country Version" Rogers fan. I chuckle to myself every time I watch The Big Lebowski and hear Rogers singing his psychedelic "Just Checked In" and wonder what the ex would think of his origins.

Agreed. The climbing voice in Jolene was my favourite of her vocal range. She was a pretty good singer too; not as good as e. g. Ariana Grande in her own prime (before chasing bulimia) but quite good nonetheless.

Sometime she changed the RPMs herself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEpoLeISCo

The guitar is also immaculate slowed down and that was her too. I always thought it was some hotshot Nashville session musician. One of the best guitar licks of all time.

She was certainly a fine guitarist, but Wikipedia says you were right first time, it was a session player called Chip Young.

Dolly wrote the lick herself, and when she was in the studio with the session players, they wanted her to show them how to play it [0].

She ended up having Chip Young lay it down on the record since her long fingernails made it difficult to nail consistently. This is also why if you watch videos of her playing guitar she plays in open tunings [1].

0: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/31/dolly-parton-r...

1: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/how-does-dolly-parton-p...

I still carry the rather 20th century idea that a performer of almost any kind also ought to have some sort of other talent in addition to their main one. The versatility of that sort of thing is one of the things that should separate a pro from the rest. I generally count "professional level musician" on more than one instrument as fulfilling that contract... perhaps one of the easier of the options, but it still carries that versatility advantage. Another example that I'm quite fond of is famous comedian Steve Martin performing Dueling Banjos with Kermit the Frog. The combo of two professional entertainers playing off of each other combined with the music skills creates the opportunity for a creative routine.

Brian Cox's other talent, in addition to being a Rock Legend, is being an accomplished physicist.

Brian May, too.

Then you will love "The chipmunks at 16 speed"

https://chipmunkson16speed.bandcamp.com/album/vol-1

For a second I misread that as "The chipmunks at 16X speed" and was seriously confused.

I know what you mean, 16rpm makes more sense .

Made famous by the show The Blacklist

first time I hear that song and to my ear, the song was recorded at that speed, then sped up in production.

Her first record deal almost didn't happen because she was told she couldn't sing... apparently the producer didn't like her voice for whatever reason.

She was a loving wife to her husband and a great entrepreneur in addition to being a prolific artist. It's hard to find someone so well rounded at so many things before even adding that most of the jobs she created were/are considered positive contributions to society, evenly spread between entertainment, hospitality, foodservice, and adjacent industries. I think I heard she was directly responsible for about 20k total jobs which is INSANE.

What a positive legacy to leave - good example for others.

Building businesses that supported entire local economies is a different kind of legacy

Plus sending 318 million books to children.

I wouldn't ever say I was a fan per se. But she was always the go-to example of "this is what billionaires should be doing with their money". So I respected the hell out of her.

Of course, she also proves the very point of there being no ethical billionaire, being "only" worth some 450 million instead. Likely because she gave so much of her wealth back to her communities instead. RIP Dolly, indeed.

Completely agree johnnuanmac. Seems like a role model for being a good person while maintaining extreme goals and working toward the impossible.

Same.

I don't really like country music, but Dolly always seemed somewhat down-to-earth and pretty decent.

Also not a fan of country/folk, but today I learned about her special albums trilogy: The Grass Is Blue, Little Sparrow, and Halos & Horns. Quite different music!

Some songs I added to my playlist :)

She transcended the genre entirely

Thankfully we have Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, the White Stripes, etc for you

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