This Alternate Version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” Totally Changes the Story

One simple change makes the song gorgeous and reframes the narrative

Time for travel

Melbourne is in lockdown again, so we’re all isolated once more. But in the brief, shining interlude, I met a girlfriend in the city and we went for coffee.

Have I mentioned Melbourne’s exquisite laneway cafés before? Not above a hundred times, I’m sure. Well worth a trip, just for the taste.

“Why on earth are you dressed like that?” my friend asked, goggling at me.

During the first iso, I had been organising the house a little. Not the full Marie Kondo, but I’d been sorting out cupboards and boxes that rarely saw the light of day.

This day I wasn’t my normal style, which is plain jane and practical, but for today I was kind of girlymannish in a way that reminded me of both my parents at the same time.

As well as being super comfy.

My friend headed for our usual, where the waiters know us, and don’t need to be told our preferences in the espresso department.

(I like a Bolt: a tall black with a dash, if anyone ever wants to buy me a hot drink.)

“No, let’s try a new place,” I said.

“Good idea. Don’t want anyone we know to see you in that goofy rig-out.”

So we found a different cafe in a different arcade, settled down at a socially-distanced table, and when the guy asked for our orders, I said, “I have travelled here from the year 1984 to have one of your world-famous coffees. A cafe au lait, s’il vous plait.”

He boggled, and my friend snorted, which she tried to cover up with a cough that turned into a throat-clearing, and it was the most fun I’ve had in a month.

“Britni!” she chided when he had gone.

“What? It’s technically correct.”

A song from when my mother was young

On the subject of time warps, this crossed my internet viewscope recently. A song by Dolly Parton, who is getting on a bit now, but was big in the Seventies. Enormous, if you check out the photos.

I’m not much of a one for that country and western style — I generally run screaming out of the room, to be honest — but this one spoke to me.

This could have come straight out of Brokeback Mountain — another blast from the past — a sad cowboy song that resonates in more ways than one.

It’s a strange, strange world we live in

For the past year, I’ve been trying to make sense of the world of 1944, and to tell a story set in that time. It’s been a rocky old road, dealing with a land that I love in so many ways, and events that are as far out of my experience as a walk on the Moon.

The hard part has been to take a ribbon of narrative to tie up people and experiences for the entertainment of a wide audience. How much do I need to explain? How much do I need to disguise the fact that I’m floundering out of my depth?

But above all, the solid unchangingness of human behaviour is there to ground me. Times may change, but there will always be love. And all the rest. If I get that right, do the details really matter?

There cannot be too many from that time left to chide me if I make a mistake about land mines or German Army ranks, or whatever. The important thing is to get the people right.

And then, if I get something wildly wrong — story of my life, right there! — it’s something to create interest and engage the reader while I tell the real story about the people and how they treat one another.

Ever notice that? Every hit song, every best-seller novel, every Oscar-winning movie, they all have a few things that are somehow fresh and new and disconcerting to disguise the fact that there’s no such thing as a story that has never been told before.

Change the time, change the style

Story-telling — good story-telling — is finding ways to tease the reader. Set them off-balance and keep throwing oddballs at them so they keep listening and wondering what the hell is coming next.

But without running off the rails entirely. There has to be a narrative thread. Something to hang onto while the floor wobbles and the lights change and the song speeds up.

Think Pulp Fiction. Boy, is that one weird movie. But there is always some link between the strange events and characters. Something that keeps the viewer coming back for more, something that sends them dazed and blinking out into the street with one word and one thought running through their heads.

“Wow!”

And, “I've got to share this!”

I know that every reader is also a writer. There’s a button to press and stuff comes spilling out.

So. What’s your story?

Got a link?

Leave it in the comments.

Britni