Queens of Country


Queens of Country

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This is the story of six women who came out of the south,

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and changed America for good.

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The '60s and '70s were the golden age for this music,

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from the battlefield of marriage.

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# But liquor and love, they just don't mix

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# Leave the bottle or me behind

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# And don't come home a-drinkin'

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# With lovin' on your mind... #

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Loretta Lynn, blue-collar queen, the coalminer's daughter

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who made a career of standing up to her man.

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# Stand by your man... #

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Tammy Wynette, soap opera queen.

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She sang of the hurt and pride

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of raising a family and standing BY your man.

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# And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge... #

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Bobbie Gentry, the mystery queen who walked away from it all.

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# Would you lay with me in a field...? #

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Tanya Tucker, wild child, tabloid queen who put sex into country.

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# Jolene, Jolene, Jolene... #

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Dolly Parton, who made millions

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singing of the world she'd left behind.

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But it was from the black-and-white world of the '50s

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that there emerged the trail-blazer, the queen of the night.

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# Crazy...

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# I'm crazy for feelin' so lonely... #

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There was no-one that could cry a song like her,

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no-one could make you feel the emotion.

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# Crazy for feelin'

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# So blue... #

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To me, she was the greatest voice of that era.

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These records hit me so hard.

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Something about Patsy Cline - for a woman in the '50s -

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was very progressive.

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# As long as you wanted... #

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You can put her up there with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

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# ..And then someday... #

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I never met another woman that could out-sing her.

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# ..For somebody new... #

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She sells millions of records every year. It's unbelievable.

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Patsy didn't just knock the door down, she kicked it in.

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# Got a feeling, cos I'm blu-u-ue

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# Oh Lord, since my baby said goodbye... #

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Patsy was a fighter - feisty, forthright and funny.

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You had to be to break through in '50s Nashville.

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At the Grand Ole Opry - temple of country music -

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Patsy scared the life out of newcomers.

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One night I was changing clothes, and that door popped open...

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and it was Patsy.

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She had on this cowgirl outfit.

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As she stood there with her hands on her hips, she said,

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"You're a conceited little so-and-so.

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"You just waltz in here and do your bit and waltz out."

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And I said "Now, wait just a damn minute!"

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and we just almost had it right there.

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And she laughed. She said, "Anybody that'll stand up to the Cline is OK,

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"so we're gonna be good friends."

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-TV PRESENTER:

-'Patsy Cline, isn't she great?'

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She was a good-looking, rough, rugged...

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one of the sanest people I've ever met.

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She would cuss you out just as quick as somebody else.

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If you didn't like it, you knew where the door was,

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and she'd tell you that.

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Yeah, she could hold her own with a crew of sailors.

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Patsy was born in 1932, in the depths of the Depression.

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There are reports of her being sexually abused by her father.

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It was a troubled childhood.

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It was like she preferred not to go there,

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and I didn't ask.

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When she was 14, her father left the family.

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Patsy dropped out of school to work - as a waitress, and a singer.

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She's our special guest tonight from Virginia,

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and her name is Patsy Cline.

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Patsy Cline. How are you, Patsy?

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-Just fine.

-Nice to see you. The bell rings with me now...

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In the 1950s,

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Nashville was very conservative,

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even more conservative than most of the nation.

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# The first thing was the church

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# Then the altar... #

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Women singers rarely headlined shows,

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and the industry assumed that women wouldn't buy their records.

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The breakthrough of Patsy Cline was really a watershed moment.

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We have a young lady that is fast becoming

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one of the leading sellers on phonograph recordings -

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Miss Patsy Cline!

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# I've loved and lost again

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# Oh, what a crazy world we're livin' in...

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Patsy was just breaking into the music business

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when she met her second husband.

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I asked Patsy to dance, and she said she couldn't while she was working.

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Later I saw her dancing,

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so I went back and said, "You said you couldn't dance."

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She said, "That was my husband."

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But then one week she showed up and her husband wasn't there.

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So I went back and asked her to dance again, and she did, and that was it.

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They both had a temper.

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He said one time, "If I hadn't taken up for myself,

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"she'd have killed me with a baseball bat."

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I seen her knock the hell out of him with an iron one time.

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They'd have a little fight, and she would call,

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and the police would come out and arrest him.

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Just two crazy people having fun.

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# I go out walkin' after midnight... #

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Patsy was always on the road, always working.

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I remember very much missing her when she'd have to leave.

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Kids cry and have fits,

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and I do remember that.

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I do remember that we weren't just waving bye.

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It was very hard.

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That was probably one of the things

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that she really didn't enjoy about the business.

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# Now, come on in and sit right down and make yourself at home... #

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Patsy came up the ranks singing good old hillbilly country,

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but now her producer, Owen Bradley, was pushing her towards pop.

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From what I understand from Owen,

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she really saw herself as a hillbilly.

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She didn't want to be...

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She didn't want to sing pop songs.

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She said, "I've always done

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"Western swing, and it's kept food on my table."

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I said, "Patsy, honey,

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"you listen to Owen.

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"You've got the talent, but he's got the ear,

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"and he knows exactly what the market needs."

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# I fall to pieces... #

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The weeping ballads won.

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This was something quite new, a sophisticated country pop sound.

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She had this huge, heartache voice,

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and they chose heartache lyrics for her,

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because she could just about weep in tune.

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And then they would cushion the sound of her records with strings,

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and made it a softer-edged country music.

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Patsy made quite a lot of records that were quite elegantly arranged.

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They didn't sound so country.

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Patsy was taking country music into the city.

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She'd made the music modern.

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Her look was changing too, from cowgirl outfits to cocktail dresses.

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I Fall To Pieces was a country AND pop hit.

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# But each time I go out with someone new... #

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She might not have liked the song much,

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but she liked it being a hit.

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# ..you walk by, and I fall to pieces... #

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She had no money, old car,

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and they were going to repossess her refrigerator.

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She said, "Hoss, they ain't gonna get my Frigidaire now."

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Do you ever cut anything but hits?

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Well, I don't if I can help it.

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Oh, my. Prove it, girl, prove it!

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All right.

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# Crazy

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# I'm crazy for feeling so lonely... #

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Crazy, the number one jukebox hit of all time,

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cemented her crossover appeal.

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It's become her signature tune.

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# ..Crazy for feelin' so blue... #

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All Patsy Cline has to do is just barely whisper "Crazy",

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and it's like oh...not everything's moonlight and roses

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and falling in love for the first time with Prince Charming.

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Sometimes love is really horrible,

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and it makes you feel like you're going mad.

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# Worry

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# Why do I let myself worry?

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# Wonderin'

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# What in the world did I do-o-o?

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# Oh, crazy... #

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There was so much soul and life to her voice.

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She lived all the songs she was singing -

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heartache and love.

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All the pain and trouble in Patsy's life came through

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when she sang these songs.

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# I'm crazy for tryin'

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# And crazy for cryin'

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# And I'm crazy for lovin' you. #

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It was all inside, and she let it out in those songs.

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It was there for you to hear.

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Great singers have some gift.

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You gotta believe that they've been crazy,

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or that they have fallen to pieces,

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or they've lived these songs.

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# Crazy for tryin'

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# And crazy for cryin'

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# And I'm crazy for lovin'

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# ..you. #

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On the way back from a performance in Kansas City in March 1963,

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Patsy was killed in a plane crash.

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She was only 30.

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I remember Dad waking me up to tell me she wasn't coming home.

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It's something you don't understand at four years old, I don't think.

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Sweet Dreams was released after her death.

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# Why can't I forget you...? #

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Some of the songs are kinda sad.

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They have a lot of emotion in 'em.

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And I do like to listen to 'em to kind of feel close,

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and to kinda... to see what she was like.

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It helps you to remember a lot about her.

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# Instead of having sweet dreams

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# About you-u-u-u. #

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Now no-one could say

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that a woman couldn't top the bill or shift records.

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The blue-collar queen went a step further than Patsy.

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The coalminer's daughter sang her own songs, drawn from her own life.

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They were like bulletins from the front for her millions of listeners,

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songs about sorting out your man.

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# Well, your pet name for me is squaw

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# When you come home a-drinkin' and can barely crawl

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# And all that lovin' on me won't make things right...

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Oh, Loretta Lynn.

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I think she's the greatest female singer-songwriter

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of the twentieth century.

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# Squaw is on the warpath tonight. #

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Here was somebody that was just as country as dirt,

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and sang it like the women lived it.

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Loretta had lived it by the time she was 13.

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Little bit quick there, but that's OK.

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She had the background to draw from.

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# I was born a coal miner's daughter... #

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Loretta was born poor, in a log cabin in the Appalachian mountains.

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When she was 13, she fell for the local bad boy -

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21 and just back from the army,

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Doolittle Lynn, known as Doo or Mooney.

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He drank a lot.

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Daddy knew there'd be problems.

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Her parents didn't want her to marry him.

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Daddy told Doo, "If you ever hit her, that's it."

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When you're away from your family, you don't know what's goin' on.

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She had a child right off.

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She was so young, she didn't know what she was getting into.

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Just as her parents feared, Loretta - still just 13 -

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was getting into a violent marriage.

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She said, "I loved him all through it all."

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Most women who take the abuse like that from their man

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do love their husbands.

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His drinking and womanising would feed her songs.

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When Loretta was 14,

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she followed Doo 2,000 miles across the country to Washington State.

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By the time she was 18, she had four children and a guitar.

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Mooney heard my sister sing, and loved her voice.

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So he got the guitar.

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He knew she had a talent.

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I know she would not have done it on her own if it hadn't been for Mooney.

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Loretta won a local talent contest,

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which led to a TV appearance and a record, I'm A Honky-Tonk Woman.

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They sent out thousands of copies to radio stations,

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but they weren't getting played.

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They said, "I guess the best thing to do

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"is just hit the radio stations on the way to Nashville."

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# Ever since you left me

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# I've done nothing but wrong

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# Many nights I've laid awake and cried... #

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Mooney brought two of the kids to our house,

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and two of the kids to his mother's house,

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and then they went on the road.

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Anybody that talked to her,

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she would give them a picture and a record.

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# So turn that jukebox way up high. #

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By the time they got to Nashville, her song was in the charts,

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and that was unheard of at that time.

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It was 1960, and they'd arrived in the capital of country.

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Loretta was ready to tell it like it is.

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We did her very first sessions,

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and when we heard her sing we couldn't believe it.

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# It wasn't long till all your dreams came true... #

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Loretta had the same producer as Patsy, Owen Bradley.

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# Success put me in second place with you... #

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He didn't push Loretta towards pop.

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The first session that we cut with Loretta, I told my brother,

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"I don't know what it is about that woman.

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Whatever's in her heart comes out her mouth".

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And he said, "Yeah. I thought she was sincere.

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"That's why I signed her."

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# If you don't want to go to Fist City

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# You better detour round my town... #

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There's no schmaltz about her,

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there's no kind of like torch song feel to any of it at all.

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It's very, very honest. She's fearless.

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"Looking back, sex didn't mean that much to me for a long time."

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What do you mean by that?

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Well, if you don't know how, you just don't know how!

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Yes. That's right.

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You don't know what to expect.

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No, you really don't know anything about sex.

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It takes you years to learn, I think. It did me.

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# The dog is a-barkin', and the floor needs a-scrubbin

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# One needs a spankin', and one needs a huggin'

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# One's on the way... #

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She's in a situation where she's got babies, so write about having babies.

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I hope it ain't twins again!

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You write something that you know about.

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That's what real writing is about.

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Owen saw that the real Loretta had to shine through the songs,

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however it sounded.

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I love the line when she says,

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"The work we done was hard

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"At night we slept cos we was TARD"!

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People would say, "Owen, why didn't you change that?

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And he said, "No, because that's Loretta."

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# Well, you thought I'd be waitin' up

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# When you came home last night... #

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Her best-known song was co-written with one of her sisters.

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Some of the radio stations banned it

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because they thought it was dirty,

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but I couldn't figure out why, you know?

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# And don't come home a-drinkin'

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# With lovin' on your mind... #

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Southern churches criticised them from pulpits.

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DJs raised their eyebrows and said, "We can't play this."

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Loretta's rise to fame parallels the rise of the feminist movement

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in the United States.

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Feminists recognised that this was somebody

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who was definitely sticking up for herself as a woman,

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and that very much dovetailed with the mood of the country at the time.

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# All these years, I've stayed at home

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# While you had all your fun

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# And every year that's gone by

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# Another baby's come... #

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You told me that a doctor called you once...

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He come to the show and come out to the bus,

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and he said that the Pill really had done more for the country people,

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way out in the country,

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than the Government had.

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She broke down barriers for women

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like no other female singer-songwriter has done.

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I think her lyrics are brilliant.

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They're sly, because she's sneaking you with catchphrases.

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# Cos now I've got the Pill... #

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It's a great way to do it.

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Sneak the medicine in the mashed potatoes, you know?

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APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING

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I relied more on maybe the subtle ways of saying things.

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Where I would maybe gloss it over - "Don't make my brown eyes blurry..."

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-CHUCKLING

-Loretta would do it...

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"OK, honey, I'm gettin' you if you don't come home!"

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In 1980, Loretta's life story became an Oscar-winning film.

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I went to the premiere of the show.

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Afterwards I told Loretta,

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"It's amazing how everyone else has changed to fit the world.

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"You've made the world come to you and you have never changed."

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# I lie here all alone

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# In my bed of memories... #

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She's this little bird-like person with a really sweet voice,

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and yet she must be hard as nails, because she's had such a life.

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She never deserted her husband,

0:19:220:19:24

even when it was really difficult.

0:19:240:19:26

Doo died nine years ago.

0:19:260:19:29

# Oh, I miss being Mrs tonight. #

0:19:290:19:35

At 71, Loretta has just made a dramatic comeback,

0:19:350:19:38

singing the kind of songs she's always sung,

0:19:380:19:41

on a Grammy-winning album with Jack White of the White Stripes.

0:19:410:19:44

# Well, I lost my heart, it didn't take me no time

0:19:440:19:47

# That ain't all, I lost my mind in Oregon... #

0:19:470:19:51

The intention of making that record was

0:19:510:19:53

let's get down to the soulfulness that's inside of her.

0:19:530:19:57

All the harshness on that record was Loretta's idea.

0:19:570:20:00

She was the one who wanted to keep turning it up.

0:20:000:20:02

"I can't hear the kick drum, Jack. "Turn the kick drum up."

0:20:020:20:05

# Well, I looked at him, and caught him looking at me

0:20:050:20:08

# I knew right then we were playin' free in Oregon... #

0:20:080:20:11

I think her best work is now.

0:20:110:20:14

I love that she's willing to take chances in a different time

0:20:140:20:18

and still keep her music country and be true to who she is,

0:20:180:20:21

but kind of add a little rock flair.

0:20:210:20:23

# And a pitcher to go-o-o-o-o. #

0:20:230:20:27

So Loretta, the blue-collar queen, is still rocking,

0:20:270:20:31

still telling it like it is.

0:20:310:20:34

But one queen quit 35 years ago and hasn't been seen in public since.

0:20:340:20:40

She is the mystery queen, who left country, and then music, behind.

0:20:400:20:46

# I was out choppin' cotton

0:20:460:20:48

# And my brother was bailin' hay...

0:20:480:20:51

All her friends have no idea where she is.

0:20:510:20:53

One of the great mysteries of music.

0:20:530:20:56

# We stopped and walked back to the house to eat... #

0:20:560:20:59

The song that made her name is a mystery too.

0:20:590:21:02

You've never heard anything like it.

0:21:020:21:04

I didn't know what was going on in the lyric, I had no idea.

0:21:040:21:07

And...it's creepy.

0:21:070:21:09

# And then she said

0:21:110:21:12

# "I got some news this morning

0:21:120:21:14

# "From Choctaw Ridge

0:21:140:21:19

# "Today, Billy-Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge..." #

0:21:190:21:25

MAN HUMS ALONG

0:21:250:21:27

# ..Bridge... #

0:21:270:21:28

She never would tell me what Bobbie threw over the Tallahatchie Bridge.

0:21:280:21:33

When Bobbie was a little girl in the Mississippi Delta,

0:21:330:21:37

her grandma swapped a milk cow for a piano for her.

0:21:370:21:40

At six, she could play by ear,

0:21:400:21:42

and at seven she wrote her first song, My Dog Sergeant Is A Good Dog,

0:21:420:21:47

immortalised years later on BBC TV.

0:21:470:21:51

# Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant

0:21:510:21:53

# Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant

0:21:530:21:55

# My dog Sergeant is a good dog. #

0:21:550:21:58

Born Roberta Streeter, she chose a stage name

0:22:000:22:03

from a movie about a girl

0:22:030:22:05

who left her country roots to become gentrified.

0:22:050:22:08

Bobbie became so gentrified that unlike the other queens,

0:22:080:22:12

she left the south and went on to college

0:22:120:22:14

to study philosophy and music.

0:22:140:22:16

But she also worked in Las Vegas in casinos and cabarets.

0:22:180:22:22

It's always her childhood that rings through her songs -

0:22:240:22:28

the daily life and colour,

0:22:280:22:29

the values and hypocrisies of the deep south.

0:22:290:22:32

# Just outside of Delta country

0:22:320:22:36

# Where the bitter weeds growin' wild... #

0:22:360:22:40

They were like Brer Rabbit stories,

0:22:400:22:42

they were folk stories just about her life.

0:22:420:22:45

# Sporting her chequered feed-sack dress

0:22:450:22:48

# A ruby ring from a Cracker Jack box... #

0:22:480:22:51

She played this three-quarter-size guitar,

0:22:510:22:54

which gave it a lovely, almost ukulele-sound,

0:22:540:22:57

a very bluesy, very funky, bluesy sound.

0:22:570:23:01

# He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

0:23:010:23:09

# She and Billy Joe was throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge... #

0:23:090:23:14

In 1967, Ode to Billy Joe topped the US pop charts for four weeks,

0:23:140:23:19

selling three million copies, and made the charts here.

0:23:190:23:22

It's just incredibly evocative and cinematic,

0:23:240:23:27

the amount of detail in it - a family sitting round a table,

0:23:270:23:30

passing black-eyed peas to each other

0:23:300:23:32

and all these things that you don't get in Croydon.

0:23:320:23:35

Was it an engagement ring that the couple threw from the bridge,

0:23:350:23:38

before Billie Joe jumped off himself?

0:23:380:23:41

Or a baby?

0:23:410:23:42

Originally, it was gonna be a B-side because Capitol got cold feet,

0:23:420:23:45

thought it was about abortion.

0:23:450:23:47

A lot of people think it was a baby, she was secretly pregnant,

0:23:470:23:50

had this baby and then they threw it off the bridge.

0:23:500:23:53

She did say once that it wasn't a baby.

0:23:530:23:55

I don't know what it was. I'd like to know though.

0:23:550:23:57

# Mamma washed and combed and curled my hair

0:23:570:24:00

# Then she painted my eyes and lids

0:24:000:24:02

# Then I stepped into a satin dancing dress... #

0:24:020:24:05

Fancy was another story song - about a girl prostitute.

0:24:050:24:09

It's also filled with shameful secrets,

0:24:090:24:11

and has often been covered by other singers.

0:24:110:24:14

I was nine or ten years old.

0:24:140:24:17

It was like so controversial for me to sing at that age,

0:24:170:24:21

but I did anyway.

0:24:210:24:22

# Fancy don't let me down... #

0:24:220:24:26

Fancy is a great song because it's so sassy.

0:24:260:24:29

You're singing as this woman, Fancy, who grew up poor

0:24:290:24:34

and then her mother turns her out into the street as a hooker.

0:24:340:24:37

# Da-da-da Fancy don't let me down. #

0:24:370:24:40

I thought Bobbie...

0:24:400:24:41

I thought that was one of her best records.

0:24:410:24:44

Bobbie was a good singer, she had her own sound.

0:24:440:24:46

When you heard her on the radio you knew who it was.

0:24:460:24:49

Her voice had a blues quality,

0:24:490:24:51

which was rare in those days in a white singer.

0:24:510:24:54

Enormous passion in the voice - an enormous drive.

0:24:540:24:59

Bobbie became a star in Britain with her own TV show.

0:25:030:25:06

It was one of the very first programmes to be shown in colour on the new BBC2.

0:25:060:25:11

It was a folk/country/variety show. She wrote the show.

0:25:140:25:20

She knew what she wanted.

0:25:200:25:22

Very enthusiastic about everything, very, um...

0:25:220:25:26

..very on all the time.

0:25:280:25:29

Glen Campbell was a guest on the show.

0:25:290:25:32

He and Bobbie started singing duets.

0:25:320:25:35

# I bless the day I found you... #

0:25:350:25:39

Their voices were perfect together.

0:25:390:25:43

They liked her better in Mississippi than they liked me!

0:25:430:25:46

I'm kidding.

0:25:460:25:48

Of course, everyone assumed they were doing more than sing together.

0:25:490:25:54

There were rumours of an affair with Bobbie Gentry, I know.

0:25:540:25:59

Neither one of us ever initiated anything like that.

0:26:000:26:05

It was like, she was, she was... Bobbie's my buddy.

0:26:050:26:08

# What do you get when you fall in love...? #

0:26:080:26:12

Bobbie married and divorced three times.

0:26:120:26:16

The problem is that I married too soon. My career had just started.

0:26:160:26:20

I was scared to death that if I didn't do every interview

0:26:200:26:24

and make every appearance,

0:26:240:26:25

that I would wake up and it would all have gone away overnight.

0:26:250:26:30

# I'll never fall in love again. #

0:26:310:26:33

With her last husband, she had a child.

0:26:330:26:36

I saw her just when the baby was born,

0:26:360:26:39

which must have been maybe 20 years ago,

0:26:390:26:42

and then she just disappeared.

0:26:420:26:44

One theory is that she bowed out

0:26:440:26:46

because she couldn't get the control she wanted in the music business.

0:26:460:26:50

I applaud her for it. She just stepped down and said,

0:26:500:26:53

"I'm gonna do what Bobbie wants to do

0:26:530:26:55

"and not be led around by an agent or a manager."

0:26:550:26:58

This was where she lived all of her adult life.

0:27:000:27:03

There's been no songs, there's been no music.

0:27:030:27:07

This tremendous talent just stopped.

0:27:070:27:11

# I've watched Mommy and Daddy

0:27:140:27:19

# And if that's the way it's done

0:27:190:27:22

# I don't wanna play house... #

0:27:220:27:24

Bobbie was the mystery, but the next queen's life was an open book.

0:27:240:27:29

'She's had more than her share of unhappiness...'

0:27:290:27:33

A chaos of drink and pills,

0:27:330:27:34

husbands and ex-husbands,

0:27:340:27:36

violence and illness.

0:27:360:27:38

Her songs charted it all.

0:27:380:27:40

Speaking to women stuck in Formica kitchens and loveless marriages,

0:27:400:27:46

struggling to keep love alive,

0:27:460:27:48

Tammy was their voice.

0:27:480:27:50

She had the beauty, the talent. She sang like a bird.

0:27:500:27:54

I just always felt sorry for her.

0:27:540:27:56

# And if that's the way it's done

0:27:560:27:59

# I don't wanna play house... #

0:27:590:28:01

Having been married five times, maybe she was telling herself

0:28:010:28:05

there is someone out there that's perfect and right for her,

0:28:050:28:08

and even though she wasn't having the greatest time

0:28:080:28:11

trying to find that person,

0:28:110:28:13

she didn't want to give up.

0:28:130:28:14

# My daddy said goodbye. #

0:28:140:28:21

Her father died when she was a baby.

0:28:210:28:24

She was always looking for that support

0:28:240:28:27

that she would have gotten from her father.

0:28:270:28:30

I believe that that's why she went from the man to man that she did.

0:28:300:28:35

Tammy married young and by the time she was 20,

0:28:350:28:39

had three children and was heading for a divorce.

0:28:390:28:43

She was just ready to say, "I'm outta here."

0:28:430:28:47

Back in those days, you just didn't do that.

0:28:470:28:51

But the times they were a-changing.

0:28:530:28:56

The divorce rate was about to soar.

0:28:560:28:58

More and more women were going out to work,

0:28:580:29:01

and people were moving from country to town, just like Tammy.

0:29:010:29:05

She got a job as a beautician,

0:29:050:29:07

earning more money by singing in clubs at night.

0:29:070:29:11

She came to Nashville with babies in tow.

0:29:110:29:14

She'd been on welfare.

0:29:140:29:16

She had lived in projects.

0:29:160:29:18

She'd been a beautician.

0:29:180:29:20

She crawled over broken glass to get here.

0:29:200:29:23

# Just follow the stairway

0:29:230:29:28

# To this lonely world of mine... #

0:29:280:29:31

Tammy was tough, but it was just too tough all alone.

0:29:310:29:35

She got herself a new husband

0:29:350:29:37

and door-stepped producer Billy Sherrill.

0:29:370:29:39

Straightaway, she had her first hit.

0:29:390:29:42

# In apartment number nine... #

0:29:420:29:45

She just looked so serious,

0:29:450:29:48

and I thought, "Wow, she's real different."

0:29:480:29:51

I'd turned on the radio

0:29:510:29:54

when they first started playing her.

0:29:540:29:56

Boy, her voice stood out.

0:29:560:29:58

A really good country singer knows how to interpret a feeling,

0:29:580:30:01

knows how to interpret a lyric.

0:30:010:30:03

# Loneliness surrounds me... #

0:30:030:30:07

From that day on, I was always a fan of hers.

0:30:070:30:11

Her songs reflected the roller coaster of her relationships.

0:30:110:30:15

# D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today... #

0:30:170:30:24

I worked on Divorce - D-I-V-O-R-C-E...

0:30:240:30:28

Did I spell that right?!

0:30:280:30:30

I also worked on Stand By Your Man.

0:30:300:30:32

# Sometimes it's hard to be a woman

0:30:320:30:39

# Giving all your love to just one man... #

0:30:410:30:46

I had a great feeling about that record when we did it.

0:30:460:30:49

She sang with so much soul.

0:30:490:30:50

# And if you love him... #

0:30:500:30:54

When she hits that high C-sharp, you know, it's pretty thrilling.

0:30:540:30:57

You're playing and she sails up and hits that note.

0:30:570:31:00

It's an emotion that you feel and she conveyed emotion.

0:31:000:31:05

# Stand by your man

0:31:070:31:11

# And show the world you love him

0:31:120:31:16

# Keep giving all the love you can... #

0:31:160:31:23

But it was 1968,

0:31:230:31:24

and feminists weren't concerned about her high C-sharp.

0:31:240:31:28

# Stand by your man. #

0:31:280:31:30

They saw Stand By Your Man as an attack on everything they stood for.

0:31:300:31:36

Women didn't want to always be the ones who had to stand by their men

0:31:360:31:39

every single time they did something wrong.

0:31:390:31:42

# And if you love him... #

0:31:420:31:44

Women were kind of rebelling against that attitude.

0:31:440:31:48

That song fell in right at that moment.

0:31:480:31:51

I heard Tammy say this a thousand times,

0:31:510:31:53

"There's nothing in that song that says 'be a doormat'."

0:31:530:31:57

It simply says Stand By Your Man.

0:31:570:31:59

He's weak, he's frail, he's going to make mistakes.

0:31:590:32:02

After all, he's just a man.

0:32:020:32:04

Every country woman knows what that's like -

0:32:060:32:10

to try to stand by her husband,

0:32:100:32:12

no matter whether he's in the right or he's in the wrong,

0:32:120:32:15

because that's your commitment as a wife.

0:32:150:32:17

To me, it was one of those songs like Loretta's songs.

0:32:170:32:22

They were anthems for women of the time.

0:32:220:32:24

There were doormat songs, no question.

0:32:240:32:27

One was called Don't Liberate Me, Love Me.

0:32:270:32:29

But I still say Stand By Your Man is not a conservative song.

0:32:290:32:33

It's about nurturing one-another.

0:32:330:32:37

A man could sing Stand By Your Woman.

0:32:370:32:40

# I feel tears welling up

0:32:400:32:42

# Cold and deep inside, like my heart's sprung a leak... #

0:32:420:32:45

Then Tammy met another man she would do her best to stand by...

0:32:450:32:49

country superstar George Jones.

0:32:490:32:51

One night, the man she was meant to be singing with didn't turn up.

0:32:510:32:55

The star of the show felt sorry for her.

0:32:550:32:57

My dad, out of the blue,

0:32:570:32:58

invited her to come out on stage

0:32:580:33:00

to sing the duet she was supposed to perform.

0:33:000:33:03

You're talking about Tammy Wynette.

0:33:030:33:05

-Right.

-Is she here?

-She's here.

-Put her to work. Here we go.

0:33:050:33:08

# Well, I'm gonna get on the old turnpike and I'm gonna ride... #

0:33:110:33:16

After a while,

0:33:160:33:17

they started doing a lot more singing and recording together

0:33:170:33:21

and then eventually, I guess the story has written itself.

0:33:210:33:24

They fell in love and there you go.

0:33:240:33:26

# Step by step, we walk the road together... #

0:33:260:33:32

But she was still married.

0:33:320:33:33

One night, George Jones came to dinner.

0:33:330:33:36

Tammy's husband was shouting abuse at her.

0:33:360:33:39

It made my dad angry and he stood up from the dinner table

0:33:390:33:42

and knocked the dinner table over onto Don.

0:33:420:33:45

He said that he wasn't going to speak to her like that,

0:33:450:33:48

and that he was in love with her,

0:33:480:33:49

and he said, "I think that she's in love with me too, isn't that right?"

0:33:490:33:53

And she said, "Yes, I am," and so they left.

0:33:530:33:55

# And in each other's arms, we loved it away. #

0:33:550:34:03

And then my dad and mom got together and eventually got married.

0:34:030:34:06

She had a lot of feeling, a lot of heart, a lot of soul.

0:34:080:34:13

Once we started singing together, it was magic.

0:34:130:34:19

The trouble was she couldn't live without George,

0:34:190:34:22

but she couldn't live WITH him.

0:34:220:34:24

# We're gonna ho-o-o-old on... #

0:34:250:34:30

For her, meeting George Jones,

0:34:300:34:33

it was just the best and the worst thing in her life.

0:34:330:34:37

I mean she just adored him and he did her.

0:34:370:34:40

But he had his alcohol problem and drug addiction.

0:34:400:34:43

# Life can be rough... #

0:34:430:34:46

In the early '70s,

0:34:460:34:48

that was when Mom was just beginning to start her drug addiction.

0:34:480:34:51

Tammy had serious health problems,

0:34:510:34:54

which led to a lifelong addiction to painkillers.

0:34:540:34:57

And once again, she was getting abuse.

0:34:570:34:59

He was very volatile, and she would not back down.

0:34:590:35:03

She would take it and she'd give him his money's worth too.

0:35:030:35:09

He was very violent.

0:35:090:35:11

'I think they fell in love with each other's singing...'

0:35:110:35:14

Just before we finish this song, I want to ask her...

0:35:140:35:17

'When that got old, it was the fighting...'

0:35:170:35:20

They wasn't getting along.

0:35:200:35:22

They felt like they was captured

0:35:220:35:24

'and they were trying to figure out how to get out of it.'

0:35:240:35:27

I want you to come here. We need help.

0:35:270:35:30

They were both big, big stars,

0:35:300:35:32

and I just think you can share one mirror there.

0:35:320:35:35

# Wedding rings they're on display. #

0:35:350:35:41

Tammy stood by George till she could stand it no longer.

0:35:410:35:45

I was there at the break-up.

0:35:470:35:49

It was the first time she'd ever gone on the road without George.

0:35:490:35:53

And she said,

0:35:530:35:55

"I'm scared to go on the road without him."

0:35:550:35:58

And we're like, "You're kidding!"

0:35:580:36:00

She said, "Who'll come to see me?

0:36:000:36:03

-"Who'll know who

-I

-am?"

0:36:030:36:05

Another disastrous marriage followed.

0:36:070:36:10

This one lasted only 44 days.

0:36:100:36:12

People were beginning to laugh at Tammy.

0:36:120:36:15

It's not something that I'm proud of.

0:36:150:36:18

Because I'm a firm believer in marriage whether...

0:36:180:36:21

You obviously are!

0:36:210:36:24

For her, it was embarrassing.

0:36:240:36:26

She felt like, "I can't divorce again because of my fans."

0:36:260:36:31

When she married again, it was to George Richey.

0:36:310:36:34

This time, it was to be until death.

0:36:340:36:38

We were married 20 years.

0:36:380:36:40

And for the most part,

0:36:410:36:43

it was absolutely beautiful.

0:36:430:36:46

She tried to make something of it,

0:36:460:36:48

because by then she was determined not to have another divorce.

0:36:480:36:52

She was always ill, and her drug dependency was getting worse.

0:36:530:36:57

Sometimes we'd be on the bus,

0:36:570:36:59

and she'd be hooked up to breathing machines, intravenous machines...

0:36:590:37:04

and unplug herself and go out and sing.

0:37:040:37:07

The last tour to England,

0:37:070:37:09

I remember calling everyone in the family...

0:37:090:37:11

all the daughters, Richey her husband,

0:37:110:37:14

and begging and crying not to let Tammy go on the tour.

0:37:140:37:17

I was convinced that she'd come back in a coffin.

0:37:170:37:20

My husband and I were flying over to England.

0:37:200:37:22

And I looked over and I saw this very, very fragile little old woman.

0:37:220:37:28

"Oh, my God!" I realised that was Tammy.

0:37:280:37:32

We brought her in for a show the BBC did in Birmingham,

0:37:320:37:35

and they had to literally carry her on stage.

0:37:350:37:39

She was very, very ill.

0:37:390:37:41

She was so fragile. And that's the last time I ever saw her alive.

0:37:410:37:45

# Precious memories... #

0:37:490:37:54

Tammy was only 55 when she died.

0:37:540:37:57

There were huge rows between George Richey and her daughters.

0:37:570:38:00

The daughters had her body exhumed, alleging wrongful death.

0:38:000:38:05

Even in death, she could not find peace.

0:38:050:38:08

# Stand by your man... #

0:38:080:38:11

Her life was a tragedy, and it was also a triumph.

0:38:110:38:15

She was tagged as a spokesperson for the anti-feminist movement.

0:38:150:38:20

But she was the one who was a career woman alone on the road.

0:38:200:38:23

She was really very, very strong.

0:38:230:38:25

She certainly knew women could be the breadwinner and lead the world.

0:38:250:38:32

She really was one of the pioneers for women in our business.

0:38:320:38:35

Tammy stood for the ideal of the long-suffering wife

0:38:370:38:40

holding the home together.

0:38:400:38:42

Her own life showed how hard that could be.

0:38:440:38:47

# Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on? #

0:38:470:38:51

But the teen queen was from a new generation.

0:38:510:38:55

# Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? #

0:38:550:38:57

She was the bad girl, no longer the gingham-clad country sweetheart,

0:38:570:39:02

but the wild child, never out of the headlines - the tabloid queen.

0:39:020:39:06

# To take you to his mansion in the sky... #

0:39:060:39:12

Tanya Tucker is a spunky little Texan at heart and always will be.

0:39:120:39:15

She's like the cat with nine lives.

0:39:150:39:17

There was just too much too soon.

0:39:170:39:19

It's like trying to eat too much cake, I guess.

0:39:190:39:21

If you eat too much cake, you have to pay a penalty somewhere.

0:39:210:39:26

In those early years, I never really felt like I was poor.

0:39:300:39:33

We had a trailer house that my dad enclosed

0:39:330:39:36

and made it look like a house.

0:39:360:39:37

I always had horses and animals.

0:39:370:39:42

I kept losing my animals, they got run over.

0:39:420:39:45

All these animals kept getting run over.

0:39:450:39:47

I swore that if I got any money,

0:39:490:39:51

if I ever became rich and famous,

0:39:510:39:53

that I would live as far off the road as I possibly could.

0:39:530:39:56

So, Tanya really did start out as "trailer trash",

0:40:010:40:04

trailing around after her father's jobs.

0:40:040:40:07

But pretty soon the whole family would be following HER job.

0:40:070:40:10

I told my dad at nine years old.

0:40:100:40:12

He asked me, "You wanna be a singer

0:40:120:40:14

"or you wanna be a normal schoolgirl, like your friends?

0:40:140:40:17

"You let me know right now".

0:40:170:40:19

# Daddy said, "Now come, girl

0:40:190:40:21

# "We're heading down the road..." #

0:40:210:40:22

I looked at him and I said, "I wanna be a singer, Dad."

0:40:220:40:25

She never really had a childhood.

0:40:250:40:28

She doesn't know anything different than to get up on that stage and sing her ass off.

0:40:280:40:33

# That Georgia sun was blood-red and going down... #

0:40:330:40:37

Her father was determined that she'd make it.

0:40:370:40:40

One night he said, "Tanya, sing me this song."

0:40:400:40:42

I sang it and he said, "That ain't you, no feelin' in that."

0:40:420:40:45

And I said, "Well, Dad, I really want to sleep. I got school in the morning."

0:40:450:40:50

He said, "If you're not gonna sing it,

0:40:500:40:52

"why don't you go out there right now and chop them weeds?"

0:40:520:40:55

# At times like these, a child in tears

0:40:550:40:58

# Never knows exactly what to say... #

0:40:580:41:01

So I said, "Fine."

0:41:010:41:03

So I'm looking round and scared, you know?

0:41:030:41:07

It took me about an hour.

0:41:070:41:09

# That Georgia sun was blood-red... #

0:41:090:41:11

He said, "Bring her in."

0:41:110:41:12

So I went in there and I sang my heart out and he said, "OK, you can go to bed."

0:41:120:41:16

# ..And going down. #

0:41:160:41:18

He wasn't gonna give up till we got there

0:41:180:41:20

and he wanted to make sure that I was in the same place.

0:41:200:41:23

And that place would be Nashville.

0:41:250:41:27

She caused quite a stir when she came to Nashville.

0:41:270:41:30

Nashville needs that every once in a while, it wasn't so bad.

0:41:300:41:33

# She's 41 and her daddy still calls her baby... #

0:41:330:41:37

Still a child, she had her first huge hit - Delta Dawn.

0:41:370:41:41

# ..An' all the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy... #

0:41:410:41:44

It kinda started leaking out that I was only 13.

0:41:440:41:48

It caused a scandal.

0:41:480:41:49

In country music, girls were meant to be sweet and pure.

0:41:490:41:53

By the time Tanya was 15, she had sung of illegitimacy, crimes, rape...

0:41:530:42:00

And that did create eyebrow-raising in conservative Nashville.

0:42:000:42:04

But she chose those songs.

0:42:040:42:07

She turned down "Happiest Girl in the Whole USA."

0:42:070:42:10

She said, "I'm not singing that!" at 13.

0:42:100:42:12

The other remarkable thing about little Tanya was her deep voice.

0:42:140:42:18

The first time she sang, I said her voice is lower than mine.

0:42:180:42:22

I even asked one of the guys, "Does she smoke?"

0:42:220:42:25

She had this wonderful quality about her,

0:42:250:42:28

of rawness, of "Don't mess with me. I may be 14, but you lose."

0:42:280:42:33

No, it's...

0:42:330:42:36

Tanya didn't take any crap off anybody.

0:42:360:42:41

I remember seeing her in a club one time.

0:42:410:42:44

She had a black eye, and I went,

0:42:440:42:46

"My God! What happened to you?"

0:42:460:42:48

And she said "You shoulda seen the other girl!"

0:42:480:42:51

My dad had taught me how to fight,

0:42:510:42:53

"Get that nose. To hell with the hair, just get the nose."

0:42:530:42:57

One little punch on that nose and they're gone.

0:42:570:42:59

Girls can't take it on the nose.

0:42:590:43:01

# Would you lay with me in a field of stone?

0:43:010:43:07

# If my knees were scarred Would you lay with me?

0:43:070:43:14

# Should my lips grow dry

0:43:160:43:20

# Would you wet them, dear...? #

0:43:200:43:22

The uproar over Tanya's songs grew,

0:43:220:43:25

with radio stations all over the south banning her.

0:43:250:43:28

It didn't hurt sales.

0:43:280:43:31

Her stage act and clothes became more and more sexy.

0:43:310:43:35

I think she was the rebel out of everyone.

0:43:350:43:37

When they told her to go one way she wanted to go the other.

0:43:370:43:41

What Tanya really did for country music

0:43:410:43:45

was allow a female performer, for the first time, to be overtly sexual.

0:43:450:43:49

# Straight out of Texas and down around San Anton... #

0:43:490:43:54

She had this real chick-meets-Elvis vibe about her.

0:43:560:44:00

She was a sex bomb

0:44:000:44:01

and I'd never seen that done in country music.

0:44:010:44:04

This was rags - not to rhinestones - but to red spandex jumpsuits.

0:44:070:44:13

Women just didn't move in country music.

0:44:130:44:16

I think I was one of the first ones to actually move.

0:44:160:44:20

It feels good on stage when I'm doing it,

0:44:200:44:23

so let's just pour the coals on it.

0:44:230:44:26

Off stage, her life was hotting up too,

0:44:270:44:30

as she moved away from her parents.

0:44:300:44:31

# Well, hey, officer

0:44:310:44:34

# I admit it, I was speeding... #

0:44:340:44:37

I was living in LA having a great time.

0:44:370:44:39

I had four cars, a Porsche, had my own house out there.

0:44:390:44:42

I had a lot of friends.

0:44:420:44:44

We all just sat in a circle and we played songs, and we got high,

0:44:440:44:51

and I got to see what a party girl she was.

0:44:510:44:55

I was like any other single white female American fun-loving girl.

0:44:550:44:59

If I wasn't being hit on I was hitting on.

0:44:590:45:01

Then she hit on one that turned out to be big trouble - Glen Campbell.

0:45:040:45:10

Nearly a decade after his duets with Bobbie,

0:45:100:45:12

he hooked up with Tanya.

0:45:120:45:13

Their brawls and their binges on alcohol and cocaine

0:45:130:45:17

really did hit the headlines.

0:45:170:45:19

One Southerner to another, how about the pleasure of this next song?

0:45:190:45:22

Certainly, Mr Campbell, I'm just sittin' here on the front porch.

0:45:220:45:26

'I was 21, 22, and that probably didn't help.'

0:45:260:45:30

And he was 44 and thinking he was 22, and that probably didn't help.

0:45:300:45:36

# Every night I hope and pray

0:45:360:45:40

# A dream lover will come my way... #

0:45:400:45:43

Being involved in a substance will do it every time.

0:45:430:45:48

I mean, that'll wreck a relationship every time.

0:45:480:45:51

-# Because I want...

-I want

0:45:510:45:53

-# A girl...

-A boy

0:45:530:45:55

-# Just to call...

-To call my own

0:45:550:45:57

# I wanna dream lover, so I don't have to dream alone. #

0:45:570:46:03

In 1980, they sang the national anthem together

0:46:040:46:07

at the Republican convention.

0:46:070:46:10

Glen says they'd just been higher than the notes they were singing.

0:46:100:46:14

Probably if we hadn't been so involved in all that,

0:46:140:46:17

we probably could have still been together today.

0:46:170:46:20

He says her infidelity ended the affair.

0:46:200:46:23

It was like it didn't make any difference.

0:46:230:46:26

She would make it with one of my friends,

0:46:260:46:28

one of the guys in the band.

0:46:280:46:30

She lied so much, she had to hire somebody to call her dog.

0:46:300:46:33

She says it was the violence.

0:46:330:46:35

A man is always gonna be stronger than a woman,

0:46:350:46:37

so therefore I have to...

0:46:370:46:39

I have to get him when he ain't looking, you know what I mean?

0:46:390:46:42

And that can be dangerous.

0:46:420:46:44

Tanya soon caused another scandal by having children out of wedlock.

0:46:440:46:49

But all the while, she's kept having country hits.

0:46:490:46:52

I'm not the tabloid queen any more.

0:46:520:46:54

But I think probably because of that,

0:46:540:46:57

it's made me more like a household name.

0:46:570:46:59

Pretty much Tanya Tucker's been across everybody's tongue, at one time or another.

0:47:010:47:06

# Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene

0:47:110:47:14

# I'm beggin' of you please don't take my man... #

0:47:140:47:18

Tanya was wild and sexy and got slammed for it.

0:47:180:47:21

But our final queen is clever enough to keep everything under control.

0:47:210:47:25

HER control. And she does it with a smile that makes everyone love her.

0:47:250:47:29

Unlike other queens, Dolly has no children or demanding husband.

0:47:320:47:36

Maybe that's helped her become the biggest star of them all.

0:47:360:47:40

She's an immensely clever woman and very attractive.

0:47:400:47:44

She's like flypaper to me, I can't take my eyes off her.

0:47:440:47:48

# Your voice is soft like summer rain

0:47:480:47:50

# And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

0:47:500:47:53

She's an incredible songwriter

0:47:530:47:55

but she's unappreciated as a songwriter

0:47:550:47:57

because of all the other things that you can focus on about her.

0:47:570:48:00

Her extraordinary appearance, her humour, her ability to act.

0:48:000:48:04

Dolly's worth so much money that she could buy Nashville.

0:48:040:48:10

# But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene... #

0:48:100:48:13

Dolly is the most amazing woman I know

0:48:130:48:16

for getting men to do what she wants them to do.

0:48:160:48:19

She has been able to take that whole female thing of...

0:48:190:48:24

"Do that for me, please!"

0:48:240:48:26

and she's just run it down their throats.

0:48:260:48:30

# Little sparrow

0:48:300:48:33

# Little sparrow... #

0:48:330:48:35

Just like Loretta, Dolly was born dirt-poor in the Kentucky mountains.

0:48:350:48:40

# ..little thing... #

0:48:400:48:42

They've made an entire career out of being who they are,

0:48:430:48:47

and that's a really difficult thing for a lot of people to do

0:48:470:48:50

because they want to be somebody else.

0:48:500:48:52

They want to put on a mask, they want to dress up.

0:48:520:48:55

Yet Dolly always did like to dress up.

0:48:550:48:57

Her love of the make-over was there from the start.

0:48:570:49:01

We've always been really girly-girls,

0:49:010:49:03

and when we didn't have make-up,

0:49:030:49:06

we would take burnt matches and paint eyebrows on,

0:49:060:49:09

and we would take berries from the mountains and paint our lips.

0:49:090:49:13

The big hair thing started early too.

0:49:130:49:16

I would get up early and tease her hair and fix it in the back,

0:49:160:49:20

so it would be as big as she wanted it cos she always loved big hair!

0:49:200:49:23

She puts those wigs on and dresses up but when she takes it all off,

0:49:230:49:29

she's just country as corn bread.

0:49:290:49:31

Just like the rest of us.

0:49:310:49:33

Dolly always has her tongue in her cheek.

0:49:330:49:36

We didn't have anything money could buy, in fact we was pretty poor.

0:49:360:49:39

Folks on welfare used to bring US stuff!

0:49:390:49:42

My earliest memory of Dolly would be of her laughing at me

0:49:420:49:46

because she always had such a great sense of humour.

0:49:460:49:49

Miss Parton? You always look so beautiful.

0:49:490:49:52

Do you have any secrets to give us?

0:49:520:49:54

Clean living!

0:49:540:49:57

Avoid clean living at all costs!

0:49:570:50:00

Shock value has always been real important to Dolly.

0:50:020:50:05

When they were growing up, there was music all around.

0:50:070:50:10

My mother would sing us these beautiful old Irish laments and I'd cry.

0:50:100:50:16

It was like watching a movie or something.

0:50:160:50:20

When Daddy would drink on the weekends, he would come home, you know, three sheets to the wind.

0:50:200:50:25

He would play the banjo and dance, an' all that,

0:50:250:50:29

so we didn't know any other way.

0:50:290:50:31

At ten, Dolly got her first chance to sing on the radio.

0:50:310:50:35

# Give me your word, give me a sign

0:50:350:50:37

# Show me where to look and tell me what will I find... #

0:50:370:50:42

She knew she wanted to be a star and worked at it.

0:50:420:50:45

This little girl paid her dues.

0:50:450:50:47

# Meet me on the ground Fly me in the sky... #

0:50:470:50:49

I signed Dolly Parton when she was 14 years old.

0:50:490:50:54

Dolly and her Uncle Bill Owens would come back and forth

0:50:540:50:57

from her home of East Tennessee.

0:50:570:50:59

They didn't have any money of course.

0:50:590:51:01

Bill would sleep in his car,

0:51:010:51:04

and Dolly would stay for 2 a night at the YWCA.

0:51:040:51:09

I believe she was still in high school.

0:51:090:51:11

She had this tiny little voice.

0:51:110:51:15

It was haunting.

0:51:150:51:17

And she was doing some songs she had written,

0:51:170:51:20

and they were so good.

0:51:200:51:21

You could tell that one day she was gonna happen,

0:51:210:51:24

and it didn't take too many years after that till she really did.

0:51:240:51:27

The day she left high school, Dolly moved to Nashville for good.

0:51:270:51:32

The very next year, she had a number one hit.

0:51:320:51:35

# Don't try to cry...

0:51:350:51:38

# Your way out of this

0:51:380:51:41

# Don't try to lie... #

0:51:410:51:43

When we did Dumb Blonde, Dolly was fresh from the mountains.

0:51:430:51:48

She was obviously very bright.

0:51:480:51:51

It's proven she's certainly not a dumb blonde.

0:51:510:51:54

# Because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb

0:51:540:51:57

# Cos this dumb blonde ain't no-o-body's fool. #

0:51:570:52:01

She's still got the same squeal as she had in high school.

0:52:010:52:04

Ha, ha, ha! That's enough of that!

0:52:040:52:06

And she was still feisty just like she is now.

0:52:060:52:10

# When you left, you thought I'd sit and you thought I'd wait

0:52:100:52:13

# And you thought I'd cry You called me a dumb blonde... #

0:52:130:52:18

Now I wanna call out a little gal...

0:52:180:52:20

In 1967, country star Porter Wagoner spotted her.

0:52:200:52:23

I haven't called you out yet. Wait a minute there.

0:52:230:52:26

For the next seven years, she was his partner on his TV show.

0:52:260:52:30

# It's my time to cry, yeah

0:52:300:52:33

# It's my time to cry, oh

0:52:330:52:35

# It's my turn to cry, mmm

0:52:350:52:38

# It's my time... #

0:52:380:52:41

This was the most fruitful time for her own writing.

0:52:410:52:45

The songs just poured out of her.

0:52:450:52:48

# I go wanderin' once again

0:52:480:52:53

# Back to the seasons of my youth

0:52:530:52:59

# I recall a box of rags that someone gave us... #

0:52:590:53:03

I think Dolly's best material

0:53:030:53:05

is the stuff that she really wrote from the heart,

0:53:050:53:09

back in the early '70s.

0:53:090:53:10

# There were rags of many colours... #

0:53:100:53:13

Songs that are to me her richest poetry.

0:53:130:53:17

She had no collaboration with other people

0:53:170:53:20

to write all these great songs.

0:53:200:53:22

# Mama sewed the rags together

0:53:220:53:25

# Sewing every piece with love

0:53:250:53:27

# She made my coat of many colours... #

0:53:270:53:30

Coat Of Many Colours is my favourite of anything that she's ever done.

0:53:300:53:36

# In my coat of many colours Well, I hurried off to school

0:53:360:53:41

# Just to find the others laughing and making fun of me

0:53:410:53:48

# And my coat of many colours that Mama made for me... #

0:53:480:53:52

It really appealed to me -

0:53:520:53:53

your parents didn't have enough money to buy you new clothes

0:53:530:53:57

so they patched up the ones that you had,

0:53:570:53:59

and the other kids at school all laughing and stuff.

0:53:590:54:02

Well, my early life was a bit like that - a bit patched up.

0:54:020:54:06

No, I couldn't understand,

0:54:060:54:09

cos I felt I was rich...

0:54:090:54:12

Dolly can be funny and at the same time,

0:54:120:54:16

she can write Coat of Many Colours

0:54:160:54:19

and you realise that she's as deep as John Lennon ever tried to be.

0:54:190:54:25

But she's much prettier than he is, that's for sure.

0:54:260:54:31

The thing I like about Dolly,

0:54:310:54:32

is that her songs do have a story and a background.

0:54:320:54:35

They're from a kind of real place, as opposed to just rhyming.

0:54:350:54:40

# Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jo-lene

0:54:400:54:46

# I'm begging of you, please don't take my man... #

0:54:460:54:52

They're such real songs, such honest songs.

0:54:520:54:57

I think that I'd like to hear some more of those,

0:54:570:54:59

because I think we've gotten away from that in Nashville.

0:54:590:55:03

That's what made us different from the whole world.

0:55:030:55:06

# ..New Orleans

0:55:060:55:09

# So far from my Blue Ridge mountain home... #

0:55:090:55:14

From the very start,

0:55:140:55:16

Dolly looked back to the childhood home she'd left behind.

0:55:160:55:19

# There was a boy who loved me dearly

0:55:190:55:24

# But I broke his heart...

0:55:240:55:26

She made country into a myth and then she left IT behind too.

0:55:260:55:30

# ..my Blue Ridge mountain boy. #

0:55:300:55:37

# Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen

0:55:370:55:39

# Pour myself a cup of ambition... #

0:55:390:55:41

With great difficulty, Dolly got away from the Porter Wagoner show.

0:55:410:55:45

Her music went pop and she headed for Hollywood.

0:55:450:55:49

Dolly always had the ability to plan ahead while she's charming you.

0:55:490:55:56

# Working nine to five What a way to make a living... #

0:55:560:55:59

Country music followed Dolly into the mainstream...at a price.

0:55:590:56:04

The reign of the country queens was coming to an end.

0:56:040:56:07

Dolly's business career took off.

0:56:070:56:09

She became a myth in her own right.

0:56:090:56:12

# Drives you crazy and you let it... #

0:56:120:56:14

She said, "They don't call it show art, they call it show business.

0:56:140:56:18

"Let's treat it like a business."

0:56:180:56:20

Dolly has had more top ten hit records than any other woman in country music by far.

0:56:200:56:25

And has become bigger than country music, bigger than Nashville.

0:56:250:56:29

# It's a rich man's game

0:56:290:56:31

# No matter what they call it... #

0:56:310:56:32

Dolly has her very own theme park - Dollywood.

0:56:320:56:36

My daughter's more interested in going to Dollywood than she is of Disneyland.

0:56:360:56:40

"Can we meet her?"

0:56:400:56:42

She's a Dolly Parton obsessive fan.

0:56:420:56:45

She keeps asking me, "What does she look like? Tell me again."

0:56:450:56:48

And we go through... "Big blonde hair, enormous breasts."

0:56:480:56:54

# In the sweet by and by,

0:56:540:57:00

# We shall meet on that beautiful shore... #

0:57:000:57:06

Having conquered the world, Dolly has returned to her musical roots.

0:57:060:57:10

# In the sweet by and by

0:57:100:57:13

# We shall meet... #

0:57:130:57:15

The bluegrass albums are just outstanding.

0:57:150:57:18

Little Sparrow and stuff, those are...

0:57:180:57:21

Oh, my God!

0:57:210:57:24

# ..beautiful shore... #

0:57:240:57:25

I asked her once, "How do you get all your songs ready for an album?"

0:57:290:57:33

She said, "I go to a house I've got in Kentucky

0:57:330:57:36

"and it's a wooden house, it's not great."

0:57:360:57:39

And she fasts...

0:57:390:57:41

for a week or so, and then she writes.

0:57:410:57:45

That seems to do the trick for her.

0:57:450:57:47

She seems to get back to where she belongs that way.

0:57:470:57:50

Which is a peculiar way to do it,

0:57:500:57:52

but I always knew she was a lot more complicated than she lets you think she is.

0:57:520:57:58

The golden age for the country queens is over.

0:58:030:58:07

The decades when what they did and said changed the world,

0:58:070:58:10

when they were adventurers on the road to independence - are no more.

0:58:100:58:14

But unlike most pop stars,

0:58:140:58:16

queens of country have long careers and loyal audiences.

0:58:160:58:20

Those who died too young still sell millions,

0:58:200:58:23

and the queens who survived still sing.

0:58:230:58:26

# Love is in the water Love is in the air

0:58:260:58:29

# Show me where to go And tell me will love be there?

0:58:290:58:33

# Will love be there?

0:58:330:58:37

# Teach me how to speak Teach me how to share

0:58:380:58:41

# Teach me where to go And tell me will love be there?

0:58:410:58:45

# Will love be there?

0:58:450:58:48

# Oh, heaven, let your light shine down... #

0:58:550:58:59

E-mail us at [email protected]

0:58:590:59:01

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