I've spent many nights alone with Dolly Parton. On those nights with Dolly, I sit in my favorite chair while she's on the stereo. Although she's not there in person, I've felt many times she was singing just for me. Dolly Parton has brought a lot of emotion out of me. She's made me laugh, cry, smile. She's made me feel meloncholy, sad, up, down. She's made me wake up to more than a few self-realizations with her songs. If I've got to be alone at night, at least let me have a Dolly Parton album! If Dolly applied herself to math the way she does to music, she'd be another Einstein. If she got involved with politics, she'd be president (Actually, I know a LOT of folks would vote for her now). But she gives herself to music - and that makes her Dolly, the lady that the Country Music Association voted "Female Vocalist of the Year." I've got a feeling she's going to be winning a lot more awards in the future. Country fans have known Dolly for years. Now, a brand new young audience is tuning into her great talent. Did you know that Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt are two of her biggest fans and personal friends as well? And did you know that three of Dolly's biggest fans on the male side are the three members of the rock group ZZ Top? Of course, the neatest thing about Dolly is keeping all of her old fans and gaining all these new ones just being herself, the Dolly who is a beautiful person both inside and out. Her beauty can be seen, heard, and felt. Inside this jacket is her new album. Take it home and you can spend the night with Dolly. What a way to spend the night! - Don Cusic, Record World -
Here's a generous portion of Parton's original songs, topped off with a pair of Merle Haggard and Emmylous Harris covers. The blend of country and pop here has perhaps never been matched: songs such as "All I Can Do" and the marvelous "Lucky Lady bounce like an over-inflated beachball. She was breaking free from the influence of her boss Porter Wagoner here, but hadn't quite gotten all the way loose. He still nabs kind of half a producer's credit (he's only identified as Porter, no Wagoner) and may have had something to do with, or at least surely enjoyed, the liner notes and their smarmy references to "spending the night" with Dolly. It is truly her music, and not her looks, that have made her a reputation as a favorite songwriter among session pickers. These tracks bring out the best in the players and the arrangements allow lots of room for neat fills. The appropriately-named Tom Pick was on hand to record the proceedings.
DOLLY PARTON
ALL I CAN DO
RCA Victor APL1-1665August/1976
Produced by Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton
Recorded:1976, RCA Victor Studio, Nashville
1.
ALL I CAN DO
(Dolly Parton) « © '76 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »Well it's all I can do to keep from fallin' in love with you
All I can do to keep from lettin' it show
Yeah that's all I can do to keep from fallin' in love with you
All I can do to keep from tellin' you so
I wasn't looking for love when I found you
Just someone to be with and have a good time
But I get these strange funny feelings around you
When you're not with me you're still on my mind
Well it's all I can do...
I had intended to wait for a long time
I thought that love would just mess up my plans
Cause I had big plans for a bright shining future
Could this be my future that's holding my hand
Yes it's all I can do...
I need to tell you how I feel about you
But I'm so afraid that you don't feel the same
But if I don't tell you how I feel about you
I just might lose you can I take that chance
And it's all I can do...
Yes it's all I can do...
Yes it's all I can do...
**********
2.
FIRE THAT KEEPS YOU WARM
(Dolly Parton) « © '74 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »Hey hey hey let me walk in the sunshine of your smile
Let me hide in the shadows of your eyes
Let me lie in the safety of your arms
Let me be the fire that keeps you warm
I'll keep your warm
Let me be the someone that you need
Let me be the shelter that you seek
Let me be your strenght when you are weak
And let me be the fire that keeps you warm
Hey let me walk in the sunshine...
[ guitar ] Let me be the one always around
Let me help you up when you are down
Let me make a smile out of a frown
And let me be the fire that keeps you warm
Hey let me walk in the sunshine...
Let me be the fire that keeps you warm
Let me be the fire that keeps you warm
**********
3.
WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN TOMORROW
(Dolly Parton) « © '76 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »Waitin' for a ride by the edge of the road
With a brown paper bag that hold smy clothes
Tonight I'm a goin' home where I belong
Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise
And if my luck holds out and I catch a ride
When the sun goes down tomorrow I should be home
I'm a goin' back to the people I love back to the place that I dreram of
It's true that there's no place like home sweet home
The one I want to see the most is the one that begged me not to go
When the sun goes down tomorrow I should be home
[ guitar ] This big city ain't no kind of place for a country girl with a friendly face
When you smile people look at you funny they take it wrong
They laugh at my talking and the clothes I wear
They put me down and they call me square
When the sun goes down tomorrow I should be home
I'm a goin' back to the people...
Yeah I'm a goin' back to the people...
When the sun goes down tomorrow I should be home
**********
4.
I'M A DRIFTER
(Dolly Parton) « © '76 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »I'm a drifter a drifting drifter got no place to call my home no more
I'm a wanderer a wandering wanderer got no one to call my own no more
Got no strings to tie me down got no cause to hang around
What difference does it make which way I go
Got an empty feeling down inside still I need to stay alive
And who can tell what waits beyond this road
I'm a drifter a drifting drifter
Got no one to call my own no more
[ banjo ] Got no strings to tie me down...
[ whistle ] Got no place to call my own no more
**********
5.
FALLING OUT OF LOVE WITH ME
(Dolly Parton) « © '76 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »The hardest thing I've ever done or that I'll ever do
Was to just walk off and leave you but I knew I had to leave you
Cause I couldn't stay and watch you falling out of love with me
The worst pain that I've ever known or that I'll ever know
Was to see your love a dying and to have to watch it dying
And I couldn't stand to watch you falling out of love with me
It's hurtin' now but still it's better I left while love was still alive
It was dying and I'd rather I didn't have to watch it die
The deepest hurt I've ever felt or that I'll ever feel
Was to know that I was losing and I tried but I kept losing
And I couldn't stay to watch you falling out of love with me
The loneliest I've ever been or that I'll ever be
Is now that I'm without you and I feel so lost without you
But I couldn't stay and watch you falling out of love with me
I'm crying now but still it's better I left while love was still alive
But it was dying and I'd rather I didn't have to watch it die
**********
6.
SHATTERED IMAGE
(Dolly Parton) « © '76 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »I used to sit for hours as a kid and dangle my feet from an old flat bridge
Seeing myself in the water below shatter my image with the rocks I'd throw
Shatter my image with the rocks I'd throw
Long time gone and a long time ago
When I shattered my image with the rocks I'd throw
The world is cruel and the poeple are cold
And they shatter my image with the rocks they throw
Shatter my image with the rocks they throw
[ ac.guitar ] I'm far from perfect but I ain't all bad
And it hurts me more than it makes me mad
We all do things that we don't want told
And we all throw stones that we shouldn't throw
You sahtter my image with the rocks you throw
Long time gone and a long time ago...
[ steel ] If you live in a glass house don't throw stones
Don't shatter my image till you look at your own
Look at your reflection in your house of glass
Don't open my closet if your own's full of trash
Stay out of my closet if your own's full of trash
Long time gone and a long time ago...
Sahtter my image with the rocks you throw
Don't sahtter my image with the rocks you throw
**********
7.
BOULDER TO BIRMINGHAM
(Bill Danoff - Emmylou Harris) « © '75 Cherry Lane Music, ASCAP / Sixteen Stars Music, BMI »I don't want to hear a love song I got on this airplane just to fly
I know there's life below me
But all that you can show me is the prairie and the sky
I don't want to hear a sad story filled with heartbreak and desire
The last time I felt like this I was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
I watched it burn God I watched it burn
I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see just see your face
[ piano ] (Well you really got me this time) you got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing that I survived
And I've come to listen for the sounds of the trucks
As they move down on Highway 95
And pretending it's the ocean coming down to wash me clean
To wash me clean if you know what I mean
I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham...
**********
8.
PREACHER TOM
(Dolly Parton) « © '76 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »You know I grew up way back up in the country
Where religion played a big part in my life
I remember all day singings tent revivals and the old brush arbor meetings
And the old country preachers that used to spread the gospel
Throughout our part of country
Well time went on and seemed like everything got so sophisticated
That the old time country preacher seemed to be a thing of the past
Well that's what I thought till not long ago when I met a man that rerminded me
Of all the little country preachers I'd ever know
And I wanted to write a song about him
So preacher Tom wherever you may be
I want you to know that I wrote this song for you
And reach on preacher Tom preach on
Preacher Tom your friends are many and your good deeds are a plenty
And I know that God is pretty proud of you
Cause you've directed your attention toward a bright and shining mansion
God promised to the one that pay the dues
So preacher Tom come on preach let the one of which you speak
Have his way let his precious will be done
Preacher Tom come and teach of the one always in reach
Saying whosever and we'll let him come
Reach out preacher Tom preach on preach on preacher Tom preach on
Your smile is like the sunshine bringing warmth and joy to others
And love controls your understanding heart
And the message that you spread is just like water to the thirsty
A beacon that keeps shining through the dark
So preacher Tom come on preach...
Preacher Tom come on preach...
So preacher Tom come on preach...
**********
9.
LIFE'S LIKE POETRY
(Merle Haggard) « © '74 Tree Publishing, BMI »Life's like poetry and in my poem bay
Until now there's always been a missing line
You know life's too short to hide all the thing you feel
And I find the morning after is the best time to determine if it's real
Baby finding you gave my whole world reason and rhyme
But life's like poetry and in my poem babe
Until now there's always been a missing line
Life's too short to think about right or wrong
And the only thing I wonder bout is where you've been so long
Cause baby finding you gave my whole world reason and rhyme
And life's like poetry and in my poem babe
Until now there's always been a missing line
Until now there's always been a missing line
**********
10.
HEY LUCKY LADY
(Dolly Parton) « © '75 Velvet Apple Music, BMI »Hey lucky lady lucky lady I was once the lucky lady
I was happy with my baby I was such a lucky lady
Hey lucky lady lucky lady you are now the lucky lady
Are you happy with my baby you know you're a lucky lady you lucky lady
Lucky lady that's what I was I was lucky to have his love
All a woman could wish for he was that and so much more
He was mine and how I loved him before your hands ever touched him
Long before your tempting eyes lured my baby from my life
Hey lucky lady lucky lady...
Is it love or is it pleasure do you know you've found a treasure
Are you only having fun do you know the prize you've won
If you don't want something lasting if it's just the time you're passing
Lucky lady give him up cause I do love him very much
Hey lucky lady lucky lady...
Hey lucky lady lucky lady...
**********
