SONG
TITLE:
COAT
OF
MANY
COLORS
PERFORMER:
DOLLY
PARTON
SONGWRITER:
DOLLY
PARTON
YEAR
OF
RELEASE:
---------------------------------
SONG
TITLE:
IN
THE
GOOD
OLD
DAYS
PERFORMER:
DOLLY
PARTON
SONGWRITER:
DOLLY
PARTON
YEAR
OF
RELEASE:
COMMENTS:
Being
a
hillbilly
by
birth
and
raised
on
country
music
and
culture,
I
am
familiar
with
and
sensitive
to
common
themes
and
cliches
of
the
culture.
One
of
the
couple
of
most
annoying
of
those
themes
is
"po'
folks."
Bill
Anderson's
song
of
that
title
comes
to
mind.
Country
singers
or
comedians
will
sit
around
out
"po'"ing
one
another,
going
on
about
how
they
were
more
poor
than
the
other.
Besides
being
boring
and
stale,
they
use
this
as
a
kind
of
perverse
pride
-
as
if
being
born
in
poverty
is
actually
a
mark
of
superiority.
Or
an
excuse
for
their
dysfunctionality.
It's
ghetto.
Dolly,
of
course,
is
from
just
such
an
economically
challenged
Appalachian
background,
and
it
has
naturally
been
the
topic
or
subtext
of
much
of
her
work.
Being
an
intelligent
woman
and
even
a
true
artist
on
a
good
day,
she's
got
more
insight
and
deeper
emotions
than
mere
cheap
sentimentality
on
the
topic.
"Coat
of
Many
Colors"
is
a
true
story
from
her
childhood.
Coming
into
cold
weather
but
lacking
money
to
buy
a
coat,
her
mother
made
one
for
her
from
a
box
of
rags
someone
gave
them.
As
she
sewed,
she
told
young
Dolly
about
the
Biblical
story
of
Joseph
and
likened
her
new
coat
to
the
extravagantly
expensive
"coat
of
many
colors"
that
his
father
had
made
for
him.
Mom
went
on
to
tell
her
how
her
special
coat
would
bring
her
good
luck
and
happiness,
and
"blessed
it
with
a
kiss."
The
social
repercussions
of
wearing
such
a
coat,
however,
were
quite
different
than
they
would
have
hoped.
They
both
suffered
ostracism.
In
the
Bible,
Joseph's
brothers
were
so
overcome
with
jealousy
at
this
display
of
patriarchal
preference
that
they
kidnapped
him
and
sold
him
into
slavery.
Dolly's
classmates
responded
by
laughing
and
making
fun
of
her
for
being
poor.
She
was
hurt
and
surprised
by
their
reaction.
They
missed
the
point.
She
tried
to
explain
to
them
about
"the
love
my
mama
sewed
in
every
stitch,"
naturally
to
no
avail.
The
coat
was
actually
probably
just
as
warm
as
any
other,
and
she
felt
like
she
was
rich,
luxuriating
in
the
glow
of
mother's
love.
From
her
point
of
view,
the
feelings
that
went
into
the
creation
of
her
coat
made
it
worth
more
than
all
their
store-bought
clothes.
This
brings
her
to
the
underlying
point,
which
is
about
the
nature
of
poverty.
Lack
of
money
is
but
a
temporary
circumstance
that
you
just
have
to
work
around,
but
poverty
is
a
state
of
mind.
"One
is
only
poor,
only
if
they
choose
to
be."
This
is
pretty
good
philosophical
insight
for
a
young
schoolgirl.
Witnessing
such
meanness
would
tend
to
bring
out
a
more
blunt
observation
from
me:
To
a
rich
stockbroker's
kid
or
a
Kennedy
child,
everyone
in
their
whole
town
would
be
white
trash
just
the
same.
She
dressed
her
story
musically
with
as
much
care
as
her
mother
clothed
her.
There
is
a
palpable
sense
of
urgency
in
the
music,
a
need
to
sort
out
and
explain
all
the
different
complex
emotional
strands
that
she's
been
carrying
around
all
this
time.
Her
feelings
of
pride
come
out
of
the
notes
"I
couldn't
wait
to
wear
it."
You
can
feel
sense
how
many
times
she's
been
over
all
this
in
her
own
mind
searching
for
the
right
notes
to
explain
her
hurt
and
frustration
with
her
classmates
as
she
sings
"and
they
couldn't
understand
it,
but
I
tried
to
make
them
see..."
Finally,
you
can
feel
the
contemplative
gratitude
and
appreciation
in
the
quiet
reading
of
the
last
lines
of
"the
coat
of
many
colors
that
my
mama
made
for
me,
made
just
for
me."
"In
the
Good
Old
Days
(When
Times
Were
Bad)"
gets
at
some
of
the
same
emotional
palette
in
the
form
of
a
bittersweet
waltz.
The
basic
mix
of
feelings
is
suggested
in
the
duality
of
the
title.
It
plays
as
a
fond
remembrance
of
her
youth,
but
does
not
have
the
ring
of
simple
sentimentality
like
for
example
"Waltz
Across
Texas."
The
notes
she
picks
to
sing
the
title
have
the
subtext
of
pain
built
right
in.
Waltzes
are
dance
music,
but
it
is
not
particularly
something
you'd
expect
to
hear
when
you
go
out
dancing.
They
wouldn't
play
it
at
Gilley's,
and
you
probably
wouldn't
play
it
at
a
wedding
reception.
You
could
dance
to
this,
but
it
is
more
like
something
you
would
do
in
private,
physically
leading
a
lover
through
your
intimate
psychological
terrain.
Lyrically
it
is
more
general
than
"Coat"
and
therefore
not
quite
as
good,
but
musically
it
is
just
as
good
or
slightly
better
for
not
having
to
support
the
weight
of
the
detailed
narrative.
Both
songs
get
past
the
cheap
emotional
sentimental
sediment
of
songs
about
the
good
old
days,
and
do
it
with
style
and
personality
and
an
indelible
depth
of
resonance.
"Coat
of
Many
Colors
/
In
the
Good
Old
Days
(when
times
were
bad)"
The
Essential Dolly Parton
DOLLY PARTON
PHOTOS
1975 DOLLY PARTON HEE HAW IMAGES 1
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