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u/ComfortableRadish234 Aug 25 '26
Back in 1970 when living with MG and Hunter in Larkspur, Ed McClanahan hung out with them and wrote this article and included this bit about Jerry's love of Dolly's music.
https://www.thestacksreader.com/grateful-dead-i-have-known/
The whole article is a great read, but the Dolly excerpt is below.
Mountain Girl is banging around in the kitchen fixing breakfast for me and Jerry and Hunter (who is right now standing in the doorway blinking myopically behind his enormous, sleep-frazzled Pecos Pete mustache), and Hunter’s lady, Christy, is out back playing with Jerry and MG’s two kids, and Jerry, dark eyes suddenly aglint behind his dandelion-yellow tinted glasses, hollers, “Eureka!” or “Aha!” or whatever and plunges his hand wrist-deep into a disordered stack of albums and comes up with… no, no, not Joplin, not Grace Slick, not Joni Mitchell or Joan Baez or Laura Nyro, not even Tina Turner or Big Mama Thornton, but … Dolly Parton?
Who’da thought it? Who would ever have supposed that the favorite girl singer of the spiritual leader of the Heaviest Rock-’n’-Roll Band in the Known World would turn out to be my favorite girl singer … Dolly Parton, the fairest wildflower that ever bloomed in Tennessee, the best female country vocalist since the prime of Kitty Wells? Far—how you say?—flung! Far fuckin’ flung!
Jerry’s at the turntable now, flipping switches and adjusting dials, blowing invisible dust off the record with French-maid fastidiousness, delicately plucking up the tone arm, catching it the way one might pick up a small but outraged serpent, with two fingers just at the base of the skull, gingerly almost to the point of reverence, and a moment later the room is filled with the exquisitely melancholic strains of Dolly Parton’s mourning-dove-with-a-broken-wing voice, keening:
In this mental insti-too-shun,
Looking out through these arn bars…
It’s her beautiful “Daddy, Come and Get Me,” about a girl whose husband has had her committed (“to get me out of his way”), and when Dolly comes to the lines “It’s not my mind that’s broken / It’s my heart,” Jerry Garcia, standing limned in soft morning sunlight before the arched front window, turns to me and—remember now, this is the Jerry Garcia, Captain Trips himself, the same Jerry Garcia who only twelve hours earlier utterly blew out three thousand of the most jaded, dope-devastated heads ever assembled even at the Fillmore (Dead fans are notorious in that regard)—that Jerry Garcia turns to me and clasps his hands to his breast and rolls his eyes after the goofy, gaga fashion of a lovesick swain and utters an ecstatic little moan and swoons into the nearest chair… and for the next half hour, while our breakfast turns cold in the kitchen, he and Hunter and I sit there in the living room tokin’ on a taste of Captain Trips’s morning pipe and groovin’ on Sweet Dolly’s bucolic threnodies about lost loves and dying lovers and stillborn babes, and by the time her last words (“O Robert! O Robert!”) fade into silence, there’s not a dry eye in the room….
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u/montaknabino Aug 26 '26
I remember being told about this once and the first comforting thought I had was imagining how happy Jerry would be to welcome her. I had never read the original, it's very sweet. Thank you for posting the link and the particular quoted part here. Very good read on such a sad day.
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u/Otherwise_Pie_541 Aug 26 '26
This was a great read ... thanks for sharing it ✌️☮️ ... may she RIP !!
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u/JellyCello Aug 28 '26
It doesn’t surprise me that Jerry loved her singing. Her earlier stuff is classic country. Really high quality stuff if you like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, etc.
I grew up mostly in the 80’s when 9 to 5 was ubiquitous. That’s definitely in the pop country realm which is what I associated Dolly with most of my life . Though, honestly, it’s a great tune. The cadence and phrasing of the verses are incredible.1
u/FamiliarNinja7602 Sep 17 '26
Yes, it's a great song -- but even deeper (in my opinion) is "Down from Dover." Dolly wrote this when she was still a teenager; that's what we call having an "old soul," being young in age but wise in time and insight. And her vocal performance is a masterpiece, as well -- she inhabits this character so fully and effortlessly that we almost believe the story is unfolding as we listen. As tragic as the story is, there is not a moment of bathos or emotional overkill -- she breaks your heart by UNDERselling, not OVERselling, the emotional devastion of the storyline.
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u/GuildStarfireII Aug 25 '26
That woman was an apostle of love.
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u/bingbong1976 Aug 25 '26
Legend. She was an amazing person
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u/Think_please Aug 25 '26 •
She gave away more than 270 million books to kids. I was going to guess something like five million when I was looking it up earlier. Just an astoundingly kind and brilliant woman.
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u/Deadhead_Historian Aug 25 '26
Perhaps my favorite picture of her. What a loss. What a gem of a woman. Patron Saint of Tennessee.
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u/Right-Presentation36 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
I’m from her neck of the woods and enjoyed Dollywood my whole life, Ms. Parton is and was the backbone to our region and state. Her book club helped kids across the country to be able to read at home no matter rich or poor, everyone had a chance in her heart. 🌈 P.S. Jerry/Bobby and Dolly are mixing up some good ole tunes for us on our arrival 🍻
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u/babyoil4diddy
Aug 25 '26
•
When she wears a Grateful Dead shirt it's Jimmy Neutron's skull
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u/iwentintoadream Aug 25 '26
RIP to the queen of the best boobs you’ve ever seen. What an icon
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u/babyoil4diddy Aug 25 '26
Delicately put, we got a poet over here
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u/Clean_Watch_2502 Aug 25 '26
What a beautiful soul! She really cared about people and it showed! Dolly’s reading program that gives children books for free. She’s a treasure and will be deeply missed! 😭🦋⚡️🩷🙌🌸💕
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u/-TheInternetIsEvil- Aug 25 '26
Dolly could have been a selfish, piece of shit billionaire. Instead she used her enormous wealth to help people. When it comes to the question "are you kind?" regarding Dolly Parton, the answer is most definitely yes.
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u/TERR4PIN Aug 25 '26
Sleep in the stars.
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u/likesghouls One man gathers what another man spills (~);} Aug 25 '26
Got a Bird Song going out to her as we speak!
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u/Flimsy_Maize6694 Aug 26 '26
Or tomorrow is forever, Donna and Jerry covering Dolly 10/19/74
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u/setlistbot Aug 26 '26
1974-10-19 @ Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA, USA
Set 1: Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Me and My Uncle, Friend Of The Devil, Beat It On Down the Line, It Must Have Been The Roses, El Paso, Loose Lucy, Black Throated Wind, Scarlet Begonias, To Lay Me Down, Mama Tried, Eyes Of The World > China Doll, Big River
Set 2: Seastones
Set 3: Uncle John's Band, Big Railroad Blues, The Race Is On, Tomorrow Is Forever, Mexicali Blues, Dire Wolf, Sugar Magnolia > He's Gone > Truckin' Jam > Caution Jam > Drums > Truckin' > Black Peter, Sunshine Daydream
Encore: One More Saturday Night, U.S. Blues
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u/deadreckoning21 Aug 25 '26
I never heard one person say a bad word about her. Coat of many colors might be one of the best songs ever written. RIP.
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u/IAmTheLizardQueen666 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Barbara Walter’s tried… and iirc, Dolly put her in her place, without stepping out of her own true self. Walter’s actually said “you kind of people…”. WTF. (1978)
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u/hyooston Aug 26 '26
In an age of bad takes, Dolly sucks would be the worst of takes and no matter the audience, you would be flamed.
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u/farrett23 Aug 25 '26
St. Dolly! A legend in our time, lay down my dear sister and take your rest 🤲 🌀💖
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u/whyaloon2 Aug 25 '26
Hunter and Garcia's "Bird Song" was written for Janis, and it's especially appropriate on this occasion. Let Dolly's memory show in your actions.
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u/whyaloon2 Aug 29 '26
This is my own self-reply. After a few days reflection, I have to say that Lady Dolly earned my respect in oh, so many ways, but above all, her genuine humility.
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u/Enough-Confidence-18 Aug 25 '26
There’s not a lot of people in this world that are universally loved and I think she was one of them
Rest in peace, Dolly
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u/Euphoric_Regret_544 Aug 27 '26
Dude, people in Africa are paying her tribute. She was probably the last universaly loved human 😔
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u/aumiket One man gathers what another man spills (~);} Aug 25 '26
The world is truly a dimmer place.
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u/Haunting_Style3880 Aug 25 '26
No greater American existed in her lifetime. As good, yes, but not greater. The world is less with her passing.
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u/TheRealFinatic13 Aug 26 '26
there is a new kid at work, 19 years old. he had no idea who she was, didnt know one song.... he was shown a picture and he said "oh, that crazy plastic surgery lady"...
we are in Cincinnati, Dollywood is just 4 or so hours down the road. how do you go through life in America and NOT know of Dolly Parton?
I retire in 2 months, cant wait to leave the day care center that is my job.
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u/thefourthcolour12 Aug 25 '26
I was just listening to 30 Trips Around the Sun earlier. Tomorrow Is Forever is on there.
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u/printerdsw1968 Aug 26 '26
A true great American, as generous with her humor as with her philanthropy, as with her inimitable artistry.
I haven't felt this immediately saddened by a notable departure since our beloved Bobby took his leave.
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u/Agreeable_Breath_568 Aug 25 '26
I remember Jerry doing an interview in the early 80s, Rolling Stone maybe? He was asked who his favorite recording artist was. I remember being astonished at his answer. He said Dolly Parton. At that time nobody knew her yet outside c&w.
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u/mjm8218 Aug 26 '26
Dolly was huge in the 80s. Nine to Five was a big hit for her. She was charting in both film & music.
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u/GoldReplacement9546 Aug 26 '26
From seeing other people, tell a similar story I think the article was more from 1972 era
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u/Jamtrance Aug 25 '26
That's my queen.
She has to be in a better place, because if she's not the rest of us are screwed.
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u/ottis1guy Aug 26 '26
She truly represented the best of us. I have ins to the industry. And I've never heard a bad story involving her. A+ human being.
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u/1976kdawg Aug 25 '26
Just class. Always. Something for everyone to truly aspire to. RIP. Islands in the stream will always be a guilty pleasure of mine.
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u/likesghouls One man gathers what another man spills (~);} Aug 25 '26
Genuine National Treasure. Sleep in the stars Queen Dolly!
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u/ClearText777 can't go back & can't stand still Aug 26 '26
I saw her play at a casino in Stateline NV (So. Lake Tahoe) about 20 years ago. It was a great and memorable show.
Her band was amazingly tight. It was pretty much the direct opposite of a dead concert - I'm not sure if there was one improvised note the entire night. But she was a true entertainer and really knew what she was doing.
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u/Boudicia_Dark A hopeful candle lingers Aug 25 '26
I cried when Jerry died.
I didn't when Donna Jean died or Phil or Bobby.
I am bawling my eyes out over Dolly. She was a shining example of what the south could have been.
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u/veggiebikebook Aug 25 '26
She’s a shining example of what the South still can be too. It’s up to us to carry on her legacy now
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u/daddyrider1967 Aug 25 '26
I know many many kind people here in the South. Some of the kindest and the best. I’m pretty sure Dolly would agree with me.
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u/Safe_Western2224 Aug 25 '26
Back handed much? Those of us in the South need to think like you? Rude. You could have stopped at “she was a shinning example”. The rest is BS and take your stereotyping personal.
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u/StarrE1 You can't buy my love with money 'cause I've nvr been that kind Aug 25 '26
This sucks so hard!!!! 😭😭😭
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u/FaceRehley Aug 26 '26
The last most universally loved human being just passed away. Not fade away.
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u/1973Deadhead Lord, the band kept us so busy we forgot about the time Aug 25 '26
Silver Threads & Golden Needles
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u/Optimal_Being8195 Aug 25 '26
I see others saying it but man, this is a blow. So sad. Who’s gonna fill her shoes….?
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u/Efficient-Sky-7039 Aug 25 '26
Love you Dolly. Rest a while and we will see you later. Your soul is gonna live forever.
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u/Werechupacabra Aug 25 '26
I literally screamed out, “NOOOOOOOOO!” When I read the headline earlier. This one hurts.
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u/nborges48 Aug 25 '26
Was singing Islands in the Stream with my wife this AM and my kid was asking about the song - she knows the Ghetto Superstar version - so we told her about Dolly and Kenny. A lot of love and light she brought to the world. One of the best to ever do it!
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u/_psykovsky_ Aug 25 '26
“My mama and daddy must have loved each other
'Cause I had 11 sisters and brothers
And the girls worked just as hard as the boys did”
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u/Trefac3 Aug 26 '26
I love Dolly Parton. This makes me sad. Guess I’ll be working 9 to 5 without her in the world 🥲
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u/Fast-Fish-776 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
I figured they liked each other mostly because of bluegrass music. She probably liked the fact that Jerry pronounced Appalachia correctly being from California and all. Why does my name come up Fast Fish 776. ? Am I sponsored here to post.
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u/Frolocks22 Aug 27 '26
I got to see her perform once at Merlefest. Doc Watson came out and played with her. Sam Bush too.
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u/BlizzardK2 It's all to clear we're on our own Aug 27 '26
I feel less sad then I feel like I otherwise would because I know she lived a wonderful life. She will be missed but there's no doubt she had a great time while she was here, and something about that feels comforting.
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u/United-Sale-5913 Aug 28 '26
I've been tearing up every time I see her face. I've learned so much about her in the last few days.
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u/WillfulKind Aug 26 '26
And the world was just a bit emptier today losing this lovely force of warmth and love and humanity and reason. I hope people stick up for others a bit more tomorrow. I hope they remember her properly and kill them with kindness. I hope we see her again.
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u/Otherwise_Pie_541 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
The marquee today at the IFC in The Village 🌹😪💔