GOOD GOLLY Ms DOLLY

Rip It Up, Issue 25, 1 August 1979, Page 9

GOOD GOLLY Ms DOLLY

Louise Chunn

Dolly Part on is simply gorgeous. Difficult though it is to accept, those sheets of deceptive-seeming promo and adoring articles in the press all ring true: her skin is flawless, her face is perfectly proportioned, and dimpled, just there. Her smile is an outright winner. It seems vaguely insulting to a musician of Dolly Parton's capabilities to emphasis anything as frivolous as her physical appearance in favour of the . tons of talent hiding therein. But, mostly, it's her choice.

"When teased hair first came out in the fifties I was a young girl then and I really loved. teasing my hair. Then it started to go out of style but I still really loved doing it. “I moved to Nashville, still with the big hairdo, long since out-of-style. People started telling me I should change my look. And I thought means they're noticing the way I look. So I decided to change it alright by exagerating it.” Clevefreasoning. It's hard to ignore the size, and extraordinarily phoney colour, of Dolly’s platinum blonde wig. Equally difficult to miss is the lime green cat suit arrangement with its .intricate ties up the plump white arms, , snugness at the thigh and surprisingly demure, but heavily sequinned, neckline. The biggest shock is just how anyone can look so damned pretty in that. . ■ / Only a few years ago a visit to New Zealand by one of the three ‘Grand Dames’ of country music would have raised little more than a patronising.chuckle from the mainstream and. music press. Wide acceptance for country music and, in particular, Dolly Parton is a l recent phenomenon. It’s certainly no accident though. "I had been one of the major country stars for years. Every album would sell basically the same and I’d end up on the same place in the charts. . "I felt like-1 was standing still. I felt I should venture out apd take my country music as it is and myself, the country person that I am, and do more. It was definitely a conscious effort to appeal to a wider audience.” . , You could almost say she has tried to create a ’new’ Dolly Parton. But be careful to avoid saying so in front of the.lady. "I wish people wouldn’t dwell on this "New Dolly Parton”, 'cos I am Dolly Parton. -.l’ll. always be a country person and whatever I do expands on that. "I don't like it when people insinuate that I’ve left country music, or that I’m aiming to do so. I want to combine it all and be accepted as I have been now.”

HOLLYWOOD Regardless of such protestations, Dolly is still new to those previously underexposed to the genre. The widening of the country audience brings the trappings, and traps, of commercialism with it, as Dolly discovered when she was offered a TV series in the US. "When we discussed the show it was my understanding I could do it in a down-home

way. This.meant that I could have people on that I thought would make a good show, not yoyr typical TV show. "Looking this way with my gaudy appearance I just have to project a genuine, real Self. In the show they had me reading off of cue cards somebody's idea of what a Hollywood show personality would be saying. It wasn't the way I’d say things; it wasn’t even the subjects that I would want to discuss. I had a lot of guests on that I'd never have dreamed of having. "It just got out of hand. You can’t say someone else’s words and have them come across as your own. So I wasn't happy with the show and I refused to do it." Pressure also built up over what Dolly had hoped would be another ‘down-home’ venture: the now-famous recordings with Linda Ronstadt and Emmy-Lou Harris. Both the public and the women’s record companies hotted up to such an extent that decision-making what style, whose songs, which way to treat them became impossible. The project is still in the pipeline. "We’ve decided to wait until everyone has calmed down and then we’ll try again when, we’re ready, and when we have the right songs together." Dolly’s not about to be pushed around. Her business acumen shines through her every honeyed word. In 1964, upon arriving in Nashville, she started up her own music publishing business. She didn't know one thing about publishing, "excepting I knew it could be big.” Her marketing is carefully calculated nowadays. A three movie deal with Twentieth Century Fox was signed last year. Filming will begin when and if Dolly finds a script enabling her to play, in essence, herself. She’s no actress, and knows it, so she’s not about to do an Olivia Newton-John on her career.

ALTMAN'S NASHVILLE Talking of movies, she’s light-heartedly asked if she’d accept a role in Nashville, Robert Altman’s apparently gentle jibe at the country music capital. Quickly, "I didn't like that movie Nashville. It didn’t portray country music or Nashville as it really is. But surely, weren’t there parallels with real country stars? "Yes but it was a city person’s view of Nashville. It made it look like everyone there was crazy and corny and ignorant. "Altman is great; I’ve seen a lot of his movies. But that one embarassed a lot of people in Nashville. You know, the people it singled out, like Loretta (Lynn). It made Loretta look like a crazy person. And she’s hot crazy she’s just had some bad times, that’s all." Immediately afterwards,’word comes that this, the second of only three 20-minute group interviews she gave in New Zealand, is coming 1 to an end. Dolly grins. Then she pulls her feet up under her, sitting cross-legged in an enormous armchair, her silver platforms momentarily discarded. "Ooh, great,” she laughs, "Now, let's gossip.” THE GRAND OLE TOWN HALL The audience at a Dolly Parton concert is not an easy one to categorise. fans come in all styles from the Texas string tip and sideburn boys to the Linda Honsrtedt look* alikes who chew gum with a vengance. 4 . But t as if to attest to the success of her new marketing image, the Town Hall is hopping with a far more diverse bunch than even the country fans. It’s quite surprising just who and how many loves Dolly Parton. On stage Dolly wears a shiny jumpsuit with pleated chiffon sleeves reaching her knees. Being so tight and white it makes her look more fat than shapely. Her face hardens under the lights and she looks like some kind of kewpie doll. The ersatz image is mercifully dispelled once she gets past the applause and into the music. . Ironically, it's the classically trago-corny C & W songs that ring truest when performed live.

“To Daddy”, recordedtiy Emmy-Lou Harris but written by Dolly is a gem amongst tear-jerkers. • “Down From DoveF', a remarkably poignant story of a pregnant girl wating for her boyfriend to return, was rejected by the country .cognoscenti when as a teenager Dolly wrote it. | OTily “Me and Little Andy" is a little tooTriuch to take for those under-initiated in the ways of country schlock. There’s lots more to the concert than crying though. By careful spacing, Dolly succeeds in pleasing every sector of the audience. In spite of a sophisticated seven-piece backing band, even such simple standards as "Tennessee Mountain Home” and “Applejack" sound homey; regardless of her undeniably country sound she works a darned good "Great Balls of Fire.” She elicits a curious response from the audience. Even the most cynical are warmed by watching her on stage. Towards the end of the show a girl runs up to the stage with a bunch of flowers for Dolly. It sounds corny, but it was moving; very appropriate, really.