Queen Bey Becomes Too Powerful For the Vulnerability That Makes ‘Jolene’ Iconic
Beyonce has sat atop the hierarchy of musical royalty for long enough that it’s often difficult to remember that 20 years ago, she had to hustle to break free of the genre trappings of a girl group. But through decades of her public prostrations and proclamations, she transcended mere R&B to achieve mononymic status, dominating and redefining contemporary pop altogether. For each confession she gave us — that she was “crazy in love,” “drunk in love,” and then betrayed by love and enraged by love — the public elevated her a little higher. Now, with the release of Cowboy Carter, she is powerful enough to catapult to the top of the Billboard top country chart overnight in her first-ever foray into the genre and become the first-ever black woman to do so.
But Beyonce is also now so powerful and iconic that for all her unparalleled prowess as a performer, she might not be knowable enough to anyone to be believed as an honest author of her own story.
Cowboy Carter delivers some bonafide hits in the form of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and a clever reconception of a classic in her cover of “Blackbird” by the Beatles. The limitations of Queen Beyonce, first of her name, are never more evident than in her cover of Dolly Parton’s seminal classic, “Jolene.”
The country legend explicitly gave her blessing to the cover, and Beyonce delivered, as expected, a faultless vocal performance. But in Beyonce’s hands, “Jolene” transforms from painfully honest to just that: performative.
In Parton’s original, she is desperate, wholly vulnerable, and without any airs that she holds a candle to the sexual charisma of the titular Jolene. On her knees and without an iota of ego, Parton issues her do-or-die-of-heartbreak plea to Jolene that her romantic rival not “take him just because you can.”
“You could have your choice of men, but I could never love again,” Parton croons. “My happiness depends on you and whatever you decide to do, Jolene.”
But Beyonce modifies the lyrics to remind us that, as if we didn’t already know, she is Beyonce, and her rival must pale in comparison. Instead of begging, Beyonce is warning Jolene to “take the chance because you think you can.”
“There’s a thousand girls in every room that act as desperate as you do,” Beyonce sings, but it “takes more than beauty and seductive stares to come between a family and a happy man.”
“I had to have this talk with you ‘cause I hate to have to act a fool/ Your peace
depends on how you move, Jolene.”
Not a lot of contemporary music, like the original “Jolene,” allows a modern woman to drop the facade of confidence and earnestly recognize the raw sexual charisma of another woman. It’s what makes Parton’s song so rare, and the way that this honesty totally neutralizes the tired framework of women constantly competing with each other for male attention is what makes Parton’s song so special.
But another song about a girl boss who slays so hard that she doesn’t care about any of those lesser girls — and remember, our protagonist is “Not Like Other Girls” — that song has been sold to us maybe tens of thousands of times.
In the hands of Beyonce, who has publicly stood by her cheating husband instead of leaving his undeserving derriere, it’s an even more hackneyed story. Worse than being trite, it is not honest, though one wonders if Beyonce is too famous, too far removed from our prying eyes, that she can ever be truly vulnerable with us again.