To think Jolene's mate..

[softlysoftly]

..should have kicked that man into touch rather than beg Jolene not to take him?

I am finding myself rapidly more irritated by lots of songs that I actually used to love. Still love the songs but bloody hell I want to knock some sense into them.

So AIBU? Or am I ageing out of romance?

I completely agree, I do really like that song but it does make me want to howl 'you're better off telling both of them to fuck off you wimp of a lass!'

YANBU :)

Totally, who cares if Jolene wanted to sleep with him he should have said no

Entitled wankbadger

There are so many songs with these sort of lyrics. Thankfully they are usually pretty old.

My entire back catalogue of Diana Ross and the Supremes is ruined for me these days. :(

Well, to be serious for a moment: of course that is how we feel in 2014.

But, put it in context. The song was written in the early 1970's, and at that point, the society Dolly knew/was writing about was populated by women who were completely dependent on their men, and had few options. It also is the story of a woman who truly loves her man, and doesn't want to see her relationship destroyed by a fickle siren who would seduce him for the hell of it - 'just because you can'.

It is a very poignant song, actually.

Was that a bit too earnest for a light-hearted thread?

What's wrong with Diana Ross songs? I thought most of them were about sex.

The White Stripes version of Jolene is great

But I often thought she wasn't friends with Jolene, just knew her / of her.

But yes. If "your man" is talking about another woman in his sleep, I would advise LTB rather than prostrating yourself before the woman

Just because you can. . . You can lead a horse to water but not make him drink

The DR lyric that really irritates me is, "He could see I had no eyes..."
I realise it means no eyes for him, but it doesn't say that.

Ha Shockers As a child listening to that lyric on long car journeys I took it totally literally. I thought DR actually didn't have any eyes "so he leeefffft her"

So, I suppose that belting out a chorus of Stand by Yuur Man wont appeal

Coincidentally, I saw Dolly at o2 last night and in her own words Jolene was a bank teller who her husband got infatuated with. She banned him from seeing her and told Jolene to back off. From that she penned the song and again in her own words is grateful to her for flirting with her man as it made Dolly rich! Got to love a bit of Dolly!

Dolly has a husband? I thought she was gay

Are you thinking of Dusty?

I get bugged by the two uses of easily in the line "And I can easily understand how you could easily take my man."

No, I know Dusty was. Wasn't she?

I'm fairly impressed with how complimentary she is towards her love rival: beautiful hair, eyes, skin, smile, can't compete with her etc. It would be far more likely nowadays to hear that dirty old whorebag is trying to steal my man rather than how her voice sounds like summer rain.

I'm pretty sure Dusty was. I had no idea Dolly was. I thought she'd been married a few times (not that that means anything really)

The whole 'coz after all, he's just a man...' pm ales me want to pinch people

I always thought she was being sarcastic.

Makes me

Essex I was there too! Loved it! And yes, Dolly told a great story about how the song came about. She is still with the husband 40+ years later and I don't think she's done too badly all things considered :)

Fucking hold the phone!woo alert(again)this song has been my ear worm all chuffing day.
I would have stabbed the wankbadger as he slept and run off with Jolene myself-she sounds hot
Dolly has been married forever.

Dolly Parton's been married to her husband for 48 years, so I'm guessing not gay, lol.