0:00:05 > 0:00:08This is the story of six women who came out of the south,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10and changed America for good.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15The '60s and '70s were the golden age for this music,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17from the battlefield of marriage.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22# But liquor and love, they just don't mix
0:00:22 > 0:00:25# Leave the bottle or me behind
0:00:25 > 0:00:28# And don't come home a-drinkin'
0:00:28 > 0:00:30# With lovin' on your mind... #
0:00:30 > 0:00:35Loretta Lynn, blue-collar queen, the coalminer's daughter
0:00:35 > 0:00:38who made a career of standing up to her man.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40# Stand by your man... #
0:00:40 > 0:00:43Tammy Wynette, soap opera queen.
0:00:43 > 0:00:44She sang of the hurt and pride
0:00:44 > 0:00:47of raising a family and standing BY your man.
0:00:47 > 0:00:53# And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge... #
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Bobbie Gentry, the mystery queen who walked away from it all.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02# Would you lay with me in a field...? #
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Tanya Tucker, wild child, tabloid queen who put sex into country.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10# Jolene, Jolene, Jolene... #
0:01:10 > 0:01:13Dolly Parton, who made millions
0:01:13 > 0:01:16singing of the world she'd left behind.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21But it was from the black-and-white world of the '50s
0:01:21 > 0:01:24that there emerged the trail-blazer, the queen of the night.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27# Crazy...
0:01:27 > 0:01:34# I'm crazy for feelin' so lonely... #
0:01:36 > 0:01:38There was no-one that could cry a song like her,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40no-one could make you feel the emotion.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44# Crazy for feelin'
0:01:44 > 0:01:46# So blue... #
0:01:46 > 0:01:49To me, she was the greatest voice of that era.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51These records hit me so hard.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Something about Patsy Cline - for a woman in the '50s -
0:01:55 > 0:01:56was very progressive.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59# As long as you wanted... #
0:01:59 > 0:02:03You can put her up there with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05# ..And then someday... #
0:02:05 > 0:02:09I never met another woman that could out-sing her.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12# ..For somebody new... #
0:02:12 > 0:02:17She sells millions of records every year. It's unbelievable.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22Patsy didn't just knock the door down, she kicked it in.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25# Got a feeling, cos I'm blu-u-ue
0:02:25 > 0:02:28# Oh Lord, since my baby said goodbye... #
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Patsy was a fighter - feisty, forthright and funny.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34You had to be to break through in '50s Nashville.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38At the Grand Ole Opry - temple of country music -
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Patsy scared the life out of newcomers.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44One night I was changing clothes, and that door popped open...
0:02:44 > 0:02:47and it was Patsy.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49She had on this cowgirl outfit.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53As she stood there with her hands on her hips, she said,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55"You're a conceited little so-and-so.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58"You just waltz in here and do your bit and waltz out."
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And I said "Now, wait just a damn minute!"
0:03:01 > 0:03:04and we just almost had it right there.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09And she laughed. She said, "Anybody that'll stand up to the Cline is OK,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11"so we're gonna be good friends."
0:03:11 > 0:03:16- TV PRESENTER:- 'Patsy Cline, isn't she great?'
0:03:16 > 0:03:19She was a good-looking, rough, rugged...
0:03:19 > 0:03:22one of the sanest people I've ever met.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27She would cuss you out just as quick as somebody else.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30If you didn't like it, you knew where the door was,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and she'd tell you that.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Yeah, she could hold her own with a crew of sailors.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41Patsy was born in 1932, in the depths of the Depression.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44There are reports of her being sexually abused by her father.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47It was a troubled childhood.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50It was like she preferred not to go there,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53and I didn't ask.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57When she was 14, her father left the family.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02Patsy dropped out of school to work - as a waitress, and a singer.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05She's our special guest tonight from Virginia,
0:04:05 > 0:04:07and her name is Patsy Cline.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09Patsy Cline. How are you, Patsy?
0:04:09 > 0:04:12- Just fine.- Nice to see you. The bell rings with me now...
0:04:12 > 0:04:13In the 1950s,
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Nashville was very conservative,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18even more conservative than most of the nation.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21# The first thing was the church
0:04:21 > 0:04:24# Then the altar... #
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Women singers rarely headlined shows,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30and the industry assumed that women wouldn't buy their records.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35The breakthrough of Patsy Cline was really a watershed moment.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38We have a young lady that is fast becoming
0:04:38 > 0:04:41one of the leading sellers on phonograph recordings -
0:04:41 > 0:04:42Miss Patsy Cline!
0:04:42 > 0:04:48# I've loved and lost again
0:04:48 > 0:04:52# Oh, what a crazy world we're livin' in...
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Patsy was just breaking into the music business
0:04:55 > 0:04:57when she met her second husband.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03I asked Patsy to dance, and she said she couldn't while she was working.
0:05:03 > 0:05:04Later I saw her dancing,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07so I went back and said, "You said you couldn't dance."
0:05:07 > 0:05:08She said, "That was my husband."
0:05:10 > 0:05:13But then one week she showed up and her husband wasn't there.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17So I went back and asked her to dance again, and she did, and that was it.
0:05:19 > 0:05:20They both had a temper.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23He said one time, "If I hadn't taken up for myself,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25"she'd have killed me with a baseball bat."
0:05:25 > 0:05:28I seen her knock the hell out of him with an iron one time.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31They'd have a little fight, and she would call,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and the police would come out and arrest him.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37Just two crazy people having fun.
0:05:37 > 0:05:43# I go out walkin' after midnight... #
0:05:43 > 0:05:47Patsy was always on the road, always working.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50I remember very much missing her when she'd have to leave.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Kids cry and have fits,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55and I do remember that.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58I do remember that we weren't just waving bye.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00It was very hard.
0:06:00 > 0:06:01That was probably one of the things
0:06:01 > 0:06:04that she really didn't enjoy about the business.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13# Now, come on in and sit right down and make yourself at home... #
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Patsy came up the ranks singing good old hillbilly country,
0:06:16 > 0:06:21but now her producer, Owen Bradley, was pushing her towards pop.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23From what I understand from Owen,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25she really saw herself as a hillbilly.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27She didn't want to be...
0:06:27 > 0:06:29She didn't want to sing pop songs.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31She said, "I've always done
0:06:31 > 0:06:33"Western swing, and it's kept food on my table."
0:06:33 > 0:06:35I said, "Patsy, honey,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37"you listen to Owen.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40"You've got the talent, but he's got the ear,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43"and he knows exactly what the market needs."
0:06:43 > 0:06:50# I fall to pieces... #
0:06:50 > 0:06:52The weeping ballads won.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56This was something quite new, a sophisticated country pop sound.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58She had this huge, heartache voice,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01and they chose heartache lyrics for her,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04because she could just about weep in tune.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10And then they would cushion the sound of her records with strings,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and made it a softer-edged country music.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18Patsy made quite a lot of records that were quite elegantly arranged.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20They didn't sound so country.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Patsy was taking country music into the city.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25She'd made the music modern.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30Her look was changing too, from cowgirl outfits to cocktail dresses.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34I Fall To Pieces was a country AND pop hit.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39# But each time I go out with someone new... #
0:07:39 > 0:07:42She might not have liked the song much,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44but she liked it being a hit.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49# ..you walk by, and I fall to pieces... #
0:07:49 > 0:07:52She had no money, old car,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57and they were going to repossess her refrigerator.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01She said, "Hoss, they ain't gonna get my Frigidaire now."
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Do you ever cut anything but hits?
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Well, I don't if I can help it.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08Oh, my. Prove it, girl, prove it!
0:08:08 > 0:08:09All right.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15# Crazy
0:08:15 > 0:08:20# I'm crazy for feeling so lonely... #
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Crazy, the number one jukebox hit of all time,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25cemented her crossover appeal.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28It's become her signature tune.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33# ..Crazy for feelin' so blue... #
0:08:33 > 0:08:37All Patsy Cline has to do is just barely whisper "Crazy",
0:08:37 > 0:08:41and it's like oh...not everything's moonlight and roses
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and falling in love for the first time with Prince Charming.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Sometimes love is really horrible,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49and it makes you feel like you're going mad.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52# Worry
0:08:52 > 0:08:59# Why do I let myself worry?
0:09:02 > 0:09:06# Wonderin'
0:09:06 > 0:09:15# What in the world did I do-o-o?
0:09:15 > 0:09:18# Oh, crazy... #
0:09:18 > 0:09:20There was so much soul and life to her voice.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23She lived all the songs she was singing -
0:09:23 > 0:09:24heartache and love.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28All the pain and trouble in Patsy's life came through
0:09:28 > 0:09:30when she sang these songs.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33# I'm crazy for tryin'
0:09:33 > 0:09:36# And crazy for cryin'
0:09:36 > 0:09:40# And I'm crazy for lovin' you. #
0:09:40 > 0:09:44It was all inside, and she let it out in those songs.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47It was there for you to hear.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Great singers have some gift.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54You gotta believe that they've been crazy,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56or that they have fallen to pieces,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59or they've lived these songs.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01# Crazy for tryin'
0:10:01 > 0:10:05# And crazy for cryin'
0:10:05 > 0:10:11# And I'm crazy for lovin'
0:10:11 > 0:10:19# ..you. #
0:10:22 > 0:10:27On the way back from a performance in Kansas City in March 1963,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29Patsy was killed in a plane crash.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34She was only 30.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38I remember Dad waking me up to tell me she wasn't coming home.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45It's something you don't understand at four years old, I don't think.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Sweet Dreams was released after her death.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53# Why can't I forget you...? #
0:10:53 > 0:10:55Some of the songs are kinda sad.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59They have a lot of emotion in 'em.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04And I do like to listen to 'em to kind of feel close,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07and to kinda... to see what she was like.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10It helps you to remember a lot about her.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15# Instead of having sweet dreams
0:11:15 > 0:11:26# About you-u-u-u. #
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Now no-one could say
0:11:30 > 0:11:33that a woman couldn't top the bill or shift records.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39The blue-collar queen went a step further than Patsy.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44The coalminer's daughter sang her own songs, drawn from her own life.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47They were like bulletins from the front for her millions of listeners,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49songs about sorting out your man.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52# Well, your pet name for me is squaw
0:11:52 > 0:11:56# When you come home a-drinkin' and can barely crawl
0:11:56 > 0:11:59# And all that lovin' on me won't make things right...
0:12:01 > 0:12:03Oh, Loretta Lynn.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06I think she's the greatest female singer-songwriter
0:12:06 > 0:12:08of the twentieth century.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10# Squaw is on the warpath tonight. #
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Here was somebody that was just as country as dirt,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16and sang it like the women lived it.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Loretta had lived it by the time she was 13.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Little bit quick there, but that's OK.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23She had the background to draw from.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27# I was born a coal miner's daughter... #
0:12:27 > 0:12:32Loretta was born poor, in a log cabin in the Appalachian mountains.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35When she was 13, she fell for the local bad boy -
0:12:35 > 0:12:3721 and just back from the army,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Doolittle Lynn, known as Doo or Mooney.
0:12:41 > 0:12:42He drank a lot.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Daddy knew there'd be problems.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Her parents didn't want her to marry him.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54Daddy told Doo, "If you ever hit her, that's it."
0:12:54 > 0:12:58When you're away from your family, you don't know what's goin' on.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02She had a child right off.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05She was so young, she didn't know what she was getting into.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10Just as her parents feared, Loretta - still just 13 -
0:13:10 > 0:13:13was getting into a violent marriage.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17She said, "I loved him all through it all."
0:13:19 > 0:13:24Most women who take the abuse like that from their man
0:13:24 > 0:13:26do love their husbands.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30His drinking and womanising would feed her songs.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35When Loretta was 14,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39she followed Doo 2,000 miles across the country to Washington State.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45By the time she was 18, she had four children and a guitar.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Mooney heard my sister sing, and loved her voice.
0:13:48 > 0:13:49So he got the guitar.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54He knew she had a talent.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59I know she would not have done it on her own if it hadn't been for Mooney.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Loretta won a local talent contest,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09which led to a TV appearance and a record, I'm A Honky-Tonk Woman.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13They sent out thousands of copies to radio stations,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15but they weren't getting played.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18They said, "I guess the best thing to do
0:14:18 > 0:14:22"is just hit the radio stations on the way to Nashville."
0:14:22 > 0:14:25# Ever since you left me
0:14:25 > 0:14:29# I've done nothing but wrong
0:14:29 > 0:14:33# Many nights I've laid awake and cried... #
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Mooney brought two of the kids to our house,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37and two of the kids to his mother's house,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39and then they went on the road.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Anybody that talked to her,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46she would give them a picture and a record.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53# So turn that jukebox way up high. #
0:14:53 > 0:14:59By the time they got to Nashville, her song was in the charts,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and that was unheard of at that time.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08It was 1960, and they'd arrived in the capital of country.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Loretta was ready to tell it like it is.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14We did her very first sessions,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16and when we heard her sing we couldn't believe it.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21# It wasn't long till all your dreams came true... #
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Loretta had the same producer as Patsy, Owen Bradley.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27# Success put me in second place with you... #
0:15:27 > 0:15:30He didn't push Loretta towards pop.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34The first session that we cut with Loretta, I told my brother,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36"I don't know what it is about that woman.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Whatever's in her heart comes out her mouth".
0:15:39 > 0:15:41And he said, "Yeah. I thought she was sincere.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43"That's why I signed her."
0:15:43 > 0:15:45# If you don't want to go to Fist City
0:15:45 > 0:15:48# You better detour round my town... #
0:15:48 > 0:15:50There's no schmaltz about her,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53there's no kind of like torch song feel to any of it at all.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58It's very, very honest. She's fearless.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02"Looking back, sex didn't mean that much to me for a long time."
0:16:02 > 0:16:03What do you mean by that?
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Well, if you don't know how, you just don't know how!
0:16:06 > 0:16:07Yes. That's right.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10You don't know what to expect.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13No, you really don't know anything about sex.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16It takes you years to learn, I think. It did me.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20# The dog is a-barkin', and the floor needs a-scrubbin
0:16:20 > 0:16:23# One needs a spankin', and one needs a huggin'
0:16:23 > 0:16:25# One's on the way... #
0:16:25 > 0:16:30She's in a situation where she's got babies, so write about having babies.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32I hope it ain't twins again!
0:16:32 > 0:16:34You write something that you know about.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36That's what real writing is about.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Owen saw that the real Loretta had to shine through the songs,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43however it sounded.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45I love the line when she says,
0:16:45 > 0:16:46"The work we done was hard
0:16:46 > 0:16:49"At night we slept cos we was TARD"!
0:16:51 > 0:16:54People would say, "Owen, why didn't you change that?
0:16:54 > 0:16:57And he said, "No, because that's Loretta."
0:16:57 > 0:17:00# Well, you thought I'd be waitin' up
0:17:00 > 0:17:02# When you came home last night... #
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Her best-known song was co-written with one of her sisters.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08Some of the radio stations banned it
0:17:08 > 0:17:10because they thought it was dirty,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13but I couldn't figure out why, you know?
0:17:13 > 0:17:17# And don't come home a-drinkin'
0:17:17 > 0:17:19# With lovin' on your mind... #
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Southern churches criticised them from pulpits.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25DJs raised their eyebrows and said, "We can't play this."
0:17:28 > 0:17:33Loretta's rise to fame parallels the rise of the feminist movement
0:17:33 > 0:17:34in the United States.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Feminists recognised that this was somebody
0:17:37 > 0:17:40who was definitely sticking up for herself as a woman,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44and that very much dovetailed with the mood of the country at the time.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47# All these years, I've stayed at home
0:17:47 > 0:17:50# While you had all your fun
0:17:50 > 0:17:53# And every year that's gone by
0:17:53 > 0:17:55# Another baby's come... #
0:17:55 > 0:17:59You told me that a doctor called you once...
0:17:59 > 0:18:02He come to the show and come out to the bus,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06and he said that the Pill really had done more for the country people,
0:18:06 > 0:18:07way out in the country,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09than the Government had.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12She broke down barriers for women
0:18:12 > 0:18:15like no other female singer-songwriter has done.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17I think her lyrics are brilliant.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20They're sly, because she's sneaking you with catchphrases.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22# Cos now I've got the Pill... #
0:18:22 > 0:18:23It's a great way to do it.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Sneak the medicine in the mashed potatoes, you know?
0:18:26 > 0:18:28APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING
0:18:31 > 0:18:35I relied more on maybe the subtle ways of saying things.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Where I would maybe gloss it over - "Don't make my brown eyes blurry..."
0:18:39 > 0:18:42- CHUCKLING - Loretta would do it...
0:18:42 > 0:18:47"OK, honey, I'm gettin' you if you don't come home!"
0:18:48 > 0:18:52In 1980, Loretta's life story became an Oscar-winning film.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54I went to the premiere of the show.
0:18:54 > 0:18:55Afterwards I told Loretta,
0:18:55 > 0:19:01"It's amazing how everyone else has changed to fit the world.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04"You've made the world come to you and you have never changed."
0:19:04 > 0:19:08# I lie here all alone
0:19:08 > 0:19:12# In my bed of memories... #
0:19:12 > 0:19:17She's this little bird-like person with a really sweet voice,
0:19:17 > 0:19:22and yet she must be hard as nails, because she's had such a life.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24She never deserted her husband,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26even when it was really difficult.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Doo died nine years ago.
0:19:29 > 0:19:35# Oh, I miss being Mrs tonight. #
0:19:35 > 0:19:38At 71, Loretta has just made a dramatic comeback,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41singing the kind of songs she's always sung,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44on a Grammy-winning album with Jack White of the White Stripes.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47# Well, I lost my heart, it didn't take me no time
0:19:47 > 0:19:51# That ain't all, I lost my mind in Oregon... #
0:19:51 > 0:19:53The intention of making that record was
0:19:53 > 0:19:57let's get down to the soulfulness that's inside of her.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00All the harshness on that record was Loretta's idea.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02She was the one who wanted to keep turning it up.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05"I can't hear the kick drum, Jack. "Turn the kick drum up."
0:20:05 > 0:20:08# Well, I looked at him, and caught him looking at me
0:20:08 > 0:20:11# I knew right then we were playin' free in Oregon... #
0:20:11 > 0:20:14I think her best work is now.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18I love that she's willing to take chances in a different time
0:20:18 > 0:20:21and still keep her music country and be true to who she is,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23but kind of add a little rock flair.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27# And a pitcher to go-o-o-o-o. #
0:20:27 > 0:20:31So Loretta, the blue-collar queen, is still rocking,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34still telling it like it is.
0:20:34 > 0:20:40But one queen quit 35 years ago and hasn't been seen in public since.
0:20:40 > 0:20:46She is the mystery queen, who left country, and then music, behind.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48# I was out choppin' cotton
0:20:48 > 0:20:51# And my brother was bailin' hay...
0:20:51 > 0:20:53All her friends have no idea where she is.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56One of the great mysteries of music.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59# We stopped and walked back to the house to eat... #
0:20:59 > 0:21:02The song that made her name is a mystery too.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04You've never heard anything like it.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07I didn't know what was going on in the lyric, I had no idea.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09And...it's creepy.
0:21:11 > 0:21:12# And then she said
0:21:12 > 0:21:14# "I got some news this morning
0:21:14 > 0:21:19# "From Choctaw Ridge
0:21:19 > 0:21:25# "Today, Billy-Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge..." #
0:21:25 > 0:21:27MAN HUMS ALONG
0:21:27 > 0:21:28# ..Bridge... #
0:21:28 > 0:21:33She never would tell me what Bobbie threw over the Tallahatchie Bridge.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37When Bobbie was a little girl in the Mississippi Delta,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40her grandma swapped a milk cow for a piano for her.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42At six, she could play by ear,
0:21:42 > 0:21:47and at seven she wrote her first song, My Dog Sergeant Is A Good Dog,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51immortalised years later on BBC TV.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53# Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant
0:21:53 > 0:21:55# Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant, Sergeant
0:21:55 > 0:21:58# My dog Sergeant is a good dog. #
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Born Roberta Streeter, she chose a stage name
0:22:03 > 0:22:05from a movie about a girl
0:22:05 > 0:22:08who left her country roots to become gentrified.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Bobbie became so gentrified that unlike the other queens,
0:22:12 > 0:22:14she left the south and went on to college
0:22:14 > 0:22:16to study philosophy and music.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22But she also worked in Las Vegas in casinos and cabarets.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28It's always her childhood that rings through her songs -
0:22:28 > 0:22:29the daily life and colour,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32the values and hypocrisies of the deep south.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36# Just outside of Delta country
0:22:36 > 0:22:40# Where the bitter weeds growin' wild... #
0:22:40 > 0:22:42They were like Brer Rabbit stories,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45they were folk stories just about her life.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48# Sporting her chequered feed-sack dress
0:22:48 > 0:22:51# A ruby ring from a Cracker Jack box... #
0:22:51 > 0:22:54She played this three-quarter-size guitar,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57which gave it a lovely, almost ukulele-sound,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01a very bluesy, very funky, bluesy sound.
0:23:01 > 0:23:09# He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
0:23:09 > 0:23:14# She and Billy Joe was throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge... #
0:23:14 > 0:23:19In 1967, Ode to Billy Joe topped the US pop charts for four weeks,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22selling three million copies, and made the charts here.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27It's just incredibly evocative and cinematic,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30the amount of detail in it - a family sitting round a table,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32passing black-eyed peas to each other
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and all these things that you don't get in Croydon.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Was it an engagement ring that the couple threw from the bridge,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41before Billie Joe jumped off himself?
0:23:41 > 0:23:42Or a baby?
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Originally, it was gonna be a B-side because Capitol got cold feet,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47thought it was about abortion.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50A lot of people think it was a baby, she was secretly pregnant,
0:23:50 > 0:23:53had this baby and then they threw it off the bridge.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55She did say once that it wasn't a baby.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57I don't know what it was. I'd like to know though.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00# Mamma washed and combed and curled my hair
0:24:00 > 0:24:02# Then she painted my eyes and lids
0:24:02 > 0:24:05# Then I stepped into a satin dancing dress... #
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Fancy was another story song - about a girl prostitute.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11It's also filled with shameful secrets,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and has often been covered by other singers.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17I was nine or ten years old.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21It was like so controversial for me to sing at that age,
0:24:21 > 0:24:22but I did anyway.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26# Fancy don't let me down... #
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Fancy is a great song because it's so sassy.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34You're singing as this woman, Fancy, who grew up poor
0:24:34 > 0:24:37and then her mother turns her out into the street as a hooker.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40# Da-da-da Fancy don't let me down. #
0:24:40 > 0:24:41I thought Bobbie...
0:24:41 > 0:24:44I thought that was one of her best records.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Bobbie was a good singer, she had her own sound.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49When you heard her on the radio you knew who it was.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Her voice had a blues quality,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54which was rare in those days in a white singer.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59Enormous passion in the voice - an enormous drive.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Bobbie became a star in Britain with her own TV show.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11It was one of the very first programmes to be shown in colour on the new BBC2.
0:25:14 > 0:25:20It was a folk/country/variety show. She wrote the show.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22She knew what she wanted.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Very enthusiastic about everything, very, um...
0:25:28 > 0:25:29..very on all the time.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Glen Campbell was a guest on the show.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35He and Bobbie started singing duets.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39# I bless the day I found you... #
0:25:39 > 0:25:43Their voices were perfect together.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46They liked her better in Mississippi than they liked me!
0:25:46 > 0:25:48I'm kidding.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54Of course, everyone assumed they were doing more than sing together.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59There were rumours of an affair with Bobbie Gentry, I know.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05Neither one of us ever initiated anything like that.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08It was like, she was, she was... Bobbie's my buddy.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12# What do you get when you fall in love...? #
0:26:12 > 0:26:16Bobbie married and divorced three times.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20The problem is that I married too soon. My career had just started.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24I was scared to death that if I didn't do every interview
0:26:24 > 0:26:25and make every appearance,
0:26:25 > 0:26:30that I would wake up and it would all have gone away overnight.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33# I'll never fall in love again. #
0:26:33 > 0:26:36With her last husband, she had a child.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39I saw her just when the baby was born,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42which must have been maybe 20 years ago,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44and then she just disappeared.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46One theory is that she bowed out
0:26:46 > 0:26:50because she couldn't get the control she wanted in the music business.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53I applaud her for it. She just stepped down and said,
0:26:53 > 0:26:55"I'm gonna do what Bobbie wants to do
0:26:55 > 0:26:58"and not be led around by an agent or a manager."
0:27:00 > 0:27:03This was where she lived all of her adult life.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07There's been no songs, there's been no music.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11This tremendous talent just stopped.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19# I've watched Mommy and Daddy
0:27:19 > 0:27:22# And if that's the way it's done
0:27:22 > 0:27:24# I don't wanna play house... #
0:27:24 > 0:27:29Bobbie was the mystery, but the next queen's life was an open book.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33'She's had more than her share of unhappiness...'
0:27:33 > 0:27:34A chaos of drink and pills,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36husbands and ex-husbands,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38violence and illness.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Her songs charted it all.
0:27:40 > 0:27:46Speaking to women stuck in Formica kitchens and loveless marriages,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48struggling to keep love alive,
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Tammy was their voice.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54She had the beauty, the talent. She sang like a bird.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56I just always felt sorry for her.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59# And if that's the way it's done
0:27:59 > 0:28:01# I don't wanna play house... #
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Having been married five times, maybe she was telling herself
0:28:05 > 0:28:08there is someone out there that's perfect and right for her,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and even though she wasn't having the greatest time
0:28:11 > 0:28:13trying to find that person,
0:28:13 > 0:28:14she didn't want to give up.
0:28:14 > 0:28:21# My daddy said goodbye. #
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Her father died when she was a baby.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27She was always looking for that support
0:28:27 > 0:28:30that she would have gotten from her father.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35I believe that that's why she went from the man to man that she did.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Tammy married young and by the time she was 20,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43had three children and was heading for a divorce.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47She was just ready to say, "I'm outta here."
0:28:47 > 0:28:51Back in those days, you just didn't do that.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56But the times they were a-changing.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58The divorce rate was about to soar.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01More and more women were going out to work,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05and people were moving from country to town, just like Tammy.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07She got a job as a beautician,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11earning more money by singing in clubs at night.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14She came to Nashville with babies in tow.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16She'd been on welfare.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18She had lived in projects.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20She'd been a beautician.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23She crawled over broken glass to get here.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28# Just follow the stairway
0:29:28 > 0:29:31# To this lonely world of mine... #
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Tammy was tough, but it was just too tough all alone.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37She got herself a new husband
0:29:37 > 0:29:39and door-stepped producer Billy Sherrill.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42Straightaway, she had her first hit.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45# In apartment number nine... #
0:29:45 > 0:29:48She just looked so serious,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51and I thought, "Wow, she's real different."
0:29:51 > 0:29:54I'd turned on the radio
0:29:54 > 0:29:56when they first started playing her.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Boy, her voice stood out.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01A really good country singer knows how to interpret a feeling,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03knows how to interpret a lyric.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07# Loneliness surrounds me... #
0:30:07 > 0:30:11From that day on, I was always a fan of hers.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15Her songs reflected the roller coaster of her relationships.
0:30:17 > 0:30:24# D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today... #
0:30:24 > 0:30:28I worked on Divorce - D-I-V-O-R-C-E...
0:30:28 > 0:30:30Did I spell that right?!
0:30:30 > 0:30:32I also worked on Stand By Your Man.
0:30:32 > 0:30:39# Sometimes it's hard to be a woman
0:30:41 > 0:30:46# Giving all your love to just one man... #
0:30:46 > 0:30:49I had a great feeling about that record when we did it.
0:30:49 > 0:30:50She sang with so much soul.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54# And if you love him... #
0:30:54 > 0:30:57When she hits that high C-sharp, you know, it's pretty thrilling.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00You're playing and she sails up and hits that note.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05It's an emotion that you feel and she conveyed emotion.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11# Stand by your man
0:31:12 > 0:31:16# And show the world you love him
0:31:16 > 0:31:23# Keep giving all the love you can... #
0:31:23 > 0:31:24But it was 1968,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28and feminists weren't concerned about her high C-sharp.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30# Stand by your man. #
0:31:30 > 0:31:36They saw Stand By Your Man as an attack on everything they stood for.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39Women didn't want to always be the ones who had to stand by their men
0:31:39 > 0:31:42every single time they did something wrong.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44# And if you love him... #
0:31:44 > 0:31:48Women were kind of rebelling against that attitude.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51That song fell in right at that moment.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53I heard Tammy say this a thousand times,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57"There's nothing in that song that says 'be a doormat'."
0:31:57 > 0:31:59It simply says Stand By Your Man.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02He's weak, he's frail, he's going to make mistakes.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04After all, he's just a man.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10Every country woman knows what that's like -
0:32:10 > 0:32:12to try to stand by her husband,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15no matter whether he's in the right or he's in the wrong,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17because that's your commitment as a wife.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22To me, it was one of those songs like Loretta's songs.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24They were anthems for women of the time.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27There were doormat songs, no question.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29One was called Don't Liberate Me, Love Me.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33But I still say Stand By Your Man is not a conservative song.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37It's about nurturing one-another.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40A man could sing Stand By Your Woman.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42# I feel tears welling up
0:32:42 > 0:32:45# Cold and deep inside, like my heart's sprung a leak... #
0:32:45 > 0:32:49Then Tammy met another man she would do her best to stand by...
0:32:49 > 0:32:51country superstar George Jones.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55One night, the man she was meant to be singing with didn't turn up.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57The star of the show felt sorry for her.
0:32:57 > 0:32:58My dad, out of the blue,
0:32:58 > 0:33:00invited her to come out on stage
0:33:00 > 0:33:03to sing the duet she was supposed to perform.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05You're talking about Tammy Wynette.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08- Right.- Is she here?- She's here. - Put her to work. Here we go.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16# Well, I'm gonna get on the old turnpike and I'm gonna ride... #
0:33:16 > 0:33:17After a while,
0:33:17 > 0:33:21they started doing a lot more singing and recording together
0:33:21 > 0:33:24and then eventually, I guess the story has written itself.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26They fell in love and there you go.
0:33:26 > 0:33:32# Step by step, we walk the road together... #
0:33:32 > 0:33:33But she was still married.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36One night, George Jones came to dinner.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Tammy's husband was shouting abuse at her.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42It made my dad angry and he stood up from the dinner table
0:33:42 > 0:33:45and knocked the dinner table over onto Don.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48He said that he wasn't going to speak to her like that,
0:33:48 > 0:33:49and that he was in love with her,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53and he said, "I think that she's in love with me too, isn't that right?"
0:33:53 > 0:33:55And she said, "Yes, I am," and so they left.
0:33:55 > 0:34:03# And in each other's arms, we loved it away. #
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And then my dad and mom got together and eventually got married.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13She had a lot of feeling, a lot of heart, a lot of soul.
0:34:13 > 0:34:19Once we started singing together, it was magic.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22The trouble was she couldn't live without George,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24but she couldn't live WITH him.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30# We're gonna ho-o-o-old on... #
0:34:30 > 0:34:33For her, meeting George Jones,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37it was just the best and the worst thing in her life.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40I mean she just adored him and he did her.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43But he had his alcohol problem and drug addiction.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46# Life can be rough... #
0:34:46 > 0:34:48In the early '70s,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51that was when Mom was just beginning to start her drug addiction.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54Tammy had serious health problems,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57which led to a lifelong addiction to painkillers.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59And once again, she was getting abuse.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03He was very volatile, and she would not back down.
0:35:03 > 0:35:09She would take it and she'd give him his money's worth too.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11He was very violent.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14'I think they fell in love with each other's singing...'
0:35:14 > 0:35:17Just before we finish this song, I want to ask her...
0:35:17 > 0:35:20'When that got old, it was the fighting...'
0:35:20 > 0:35:22They wasn't getting along.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24They felt like they was captured
0:35:24 > 0:35:27'and they were trying to figure out how to get out of it.'
0:35:27 > 0:35:30I want you to come here. We need help.
0:35:30 > 0:35:32They were both big, big stars,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35and I just think you can share one mirror there.
0:35:35 > 0:35:41# Wedding rings they're on display. #
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Tammy stood by George till she could stand it no longer.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49I was there at the break-up.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53It was the first time she'd ever gone on the road without George.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55And she said,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58"I'm scared to go on the road without him."
0:35:58 > 0:36:00And we're like, "You're kidding!"
0:36:00 > 0:36:03She said, "Who'll come to see me?
0:36:03 > 0:36:05- "Who'll know who- I- am?"
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Another disastrous marriage followed.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12This one lasted only 44 days.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15People were beginning to laugh at Tammy.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18It's not something that I'm proud of.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Because I'm a firm believer in marriage whether...
0:36:21 > 0:36:24You obviously are!
0:36:24 > 0:36:26For her, it was embarrassing.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31She felt like, "I can't divorce again because of my fans."
0:36:31 > 0:36:34When she married again, it was to George Richey.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38This time, it was to be until death.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40We were married 20 years.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43And for the most part,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46it was absolutely beautiful.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48She tried to make something of it,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52because by then she was determined not to have another divorce.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57She was always ill, and her drug dependency was getting worse.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Sometimes we'd be on the bus,
0:36:59 > 0:37:04and she'd be hooked up to breathing machines, intravenous machines...
0:37:04 > 0:37:07and unplug herself and go out and sing.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09The last tour to England,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11I remember calling everyone in the family...
0:37:11 > 0:37:14all the daughters, Richey her husband,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and begging and crying not to let Tammy go on the tour.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I was convinced that she'd come back in a coffin.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22My husband and I were flying over to England.
0:37:22 > 0:37:28And I looked over and I saw this very, very fragile little old woman.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32"Oh, my God!" I realised that was Tammy.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35We brought her in for a show the BBC did in Birmingham,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and they had to literally carry her on stage.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41She was very, very ill.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45She was so fragile. And that's the last time I ever saw her alive.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54# Precious memories... #
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Tammy was only 55 when she died.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00There were huge rows between George Richey and her daughters.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05The daughters had her body exhumed, alleging wrongful death.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Even in death, she could not find peace.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11# Stand by your man... #
0:38:11 > 0:38:15Her life was a tragedy, and it was also a triumph.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20She was tagged as a spokesperson for the anti-feminist movement.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23But she was the one who was a career woman alone on the road.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25She was really very, very strong.
0:38:25 > 0:38:32She certainly knew women could be the breadwinner and lead the world.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35She really was one of the pioneers for women in our business.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Tammy stood for the ideal of the long-suffering wife
0:38:40 > 0:38:42holding the home together.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Her own life showed how hard that could be.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51# Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on? #
0:38:51 > 0:38:55But the teen queen was from a new generation.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57# Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? #
0:38:57 > 0:39:02She was the bad girl, no longer the gingham-clad country sweetheart,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06but the wild child, never out of the headlines - the tabloid queen.
0:39:06 > 0:39:12# To take you to his mansion in the sky... #
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Tanya Tucker is a spunky little Texan at heart and always will be.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17She's like the cat with nine lives.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19There was just too much too soon.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21It's like trying to eat too much cake, I guess.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26If you eat too much cake, you have to pay a penalty somewhere.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33In those early years, I never really felt like I was poor.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36We had a trailer house that my dad enclosed
0:39:36 > 0:39:37and made it look like a house.
0:39:37 > 0:39:42I always had horses and animals.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45I kept losing my animals, they got run over.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47All these animals kept getting run over.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51I swore that if I got any money,
0:39:51 > 0:39:53if I ever became rich and famous,
0:39:53 > 0:39:56that I would live as far off the road as I possibly could.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04So, Tanya really did start out as "trailer trash",
0:40:04 > 0:40:07trailing around after her father's jobs.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10But pretty soon the whole family would be following HER job.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12I told my dad at nine years old.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14He asked me, "You wanna be a singer
0:40:14 > 0:40:17"or you wanna be a normal schoolgirl, like your friends?
0:40:17 > 0:40:19"You let me know right now".
0:40:19 > 0:40:21# Daddy said, "Now come, girl
0:40:21 > 0:40:22# "We're heading down the road..." #
0:40:22 > 0:40:25I looked at him and I said, "I wanna be a singer, Dad."
0:40:25 > 0:40:28She never really had a childhood.
0:40:28 > 0:40:33She doesn't know anything different than to get up on that stage and sing her ass off.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37# That Georgia sun was blood-red and going down... #
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Her father was determined that she'd make it.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42One night he said, "Tanya, sing me this song."
0:40:42 > 0:40:45I sang it and he said, "That ain't you, no feelin' in that."
0:40:45 > 0:40:50And I said, "Well, Dad, I really want to sleep. I got school in the morning."
0:40:50 > 0:40:52He said, "If you're not gonna sing it,
0:40:52 > 0:40:55"why don't you go out there right now and chop them weeds?"
0:40:55 > 0:40:58# At times like these, a child in tears
0:40:58 > 0:41:01# Never knows exactly what to say... #
0:41:01 > 0:41:03So I said, "Fine."
0:41:03 > 0:41:07So I'm looking round and scared, you know?
0:41:07 > 0:41:09It took me about an hour.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11# That Georgia sun was blood-red... #
0:41:11 > 0:41:12He said, "Bring her in."
0:41:12 > 0:41:16So I went in there and I sang my heart out and he said, "OK, you can go to bed."
0:41:16 > 0:41:18# ..And going down. #
0:41:18 > 0:41:20He wasn't gonna give up till we got there
0:41:20 > 0:41:23and he wanted to make sure that I was in the same place.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27And that place would be Nashville.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30She caused quite a stir when she came to Nashville.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Nashville needs that every once in a while, it wasn't so bad.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37# She's 41 and her daddy still calls her baby... #
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Still a child, she had her first huge hit - Delta Dawn.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44# ..An' all the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy... #
0:41:44 > 0:41:48It kinda started leaking out that I was only 13.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49It caused a scandal.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53In country music, girls were meant to be sweet and pure.
0:41:53 > 0:42:00By the time Tanya was 15, she had sung of illegitimacy, crimes, rape...
0:42:00 > 0:42:04And that did create eyebrow-raising in conservative Nashville.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07But she chose those songs.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10She turned down "Happiest Girl in the Whole USA."
0:42:10 > 0:42:12She said, "I'm not singing that!" at 13.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18The other remarkable thing about little Tanya was her deep voice.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22The first time she sang, I said her voice is lower than mine.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25I even asked one of the guys, "Does she smoke?"
0:42:25 > 0:42:28She had this wonderful quality about her,
0:42:28 > 0:42:33of rawness, of "Don't mess with me. I may be 14, but you lose."
0:42:33 > 0:42:36No, it's...
0:42:36 > 0:42:41Tanya didn't take any crap off anybody.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44I remember seeing her in a club one time.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46She had a black eye, and I went,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48"My God! What happened to you?"
0:42:48 > 0:42:51And she said "You shoulda seen the other girl!"
0:42:51 > 0:42:53My dad had taught me how to fight,
0:42:53 > 0:42:57"Get that nose. To hell with the hair, just get the nose."
0:42:57 > 0:42:59One little punch on that nose and they're gone.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01Girls can't take it on the nose.
0:43:01 > 0:43:07# Would you lay with me in a field of stone?
0:43:07 > 0:43:14# If my knees were scarred Would you lay with me?
0:43:16 > 0:43:20# Should my lips grow dry
0:43:20 > 0:43:22# Would you wet them, dear...? #
0:43:22 > 0:43:25The uproar over Tanya's songs grew,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28with radio stations all over the south banning her.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31It didn't hurt sales.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35Her stage act and clothes became more and more sexy.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37I think she was the rebel out of everyone.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41When they told her to go one way she wanted to go the other.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45What Tanya really did for country music
0:43:45 > 0:43:49was allow a female performer, for the first time, to be overtly sexual.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54# Straight out of Texas and down around San Anton... #
0:43:56 > 0:44:00She had this real chick-meets-Elvis vibe about her.
0:44:00 > 0:44:01She was a sex bomb
0:44:01 > 0:44:04and I'd never seen that done in country music.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13This was rags - not to rhinestones - but to red spandex jumpsuits.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16Women just didn't move in country music.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20I think I was one of the first ones to actually move.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23It feels good on stage when I'm doing it,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26so let's just pour the coals on it.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30Off stage, her life was hotting up too,
0:44:30 > 0:44:31as she moved away from her parents.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34# Well, hey, officer
0:44:34 > 0:44:37# I admit it, I was speeding... #
0:44:37 > 0:44:39I was living in LA having a great time.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42I had four cars, a Porsche, had my own house out there.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44I had a lot of friends.
0:44:44 > 0:44:51We all just sat in a circle and we played songs, and we got high,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55and I got to see what a party girl she was.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59I was like any other single white female American fun-loving girl.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01If I wasn't being hit on I was hitting on.
0:45:04 > 0:45:10Then she hit on one that turned out to be big trouble - Glen Campbell.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12Nearly a decade after his duets with Bobbie,
0:45:12 > 0:45:13he hooked up with Tanya.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17Their brawls and their binges on alcohol and cocaine
0:45:17 > 0:45:19really did hit the headlines.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22One Southerner to another, how about the pleasure of this next song?
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Certainly, Mr Campbell, I'm just sittin' here on the front porch.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30'I was 21, 22, and that probably didn't help.'
0:45:30 > 0:45:36And he was 44 and thinking he was 22, and that probably didn't help.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40# Every night I hope and pray
0:45:40 > 0:45:43# A dream lover will come my way... #
0:45:43 > 0:45:48Being involved in a substance will do it every time.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51I mean, that'll wreck a relationship every time.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53- # Because I want...- I want
0:45:53 > 0:45:55- # A girl...- A boy
0:45:55 > 0:45:57- # Just to call...- To call my own
0:45:57 > 0:46:03# I wanna dream lover, so I don't have to dream alone. #
0:46:04 > 0:46:07In 1980, they sang the national anthem together
0:46:07 > 0:46:10at the Republican convention.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14Glen says they'd just been higher than the notes they were singing.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Probably if we hadn't been so involved in all that,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20we probably could have still been together today.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23He says her infidelity ended the affair.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26It was like it didn't make any difference.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28She would make it with one of my friends,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30one of the guys in the band.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33She lied so much, she had to hire somebody to call her dog.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35She says it was the violence.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37A man is always gonna be stronger than a woman,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39so therefore I have to...
0:46:39 > 0:46:42I have to get him when he ain't looking, you know what I mean?
0:46:42 > 0:46:44And that can be dangerous.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49Tanya soon caused another scandal by having children out of wedlock.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52But all the while, she's kept having country hits.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54I'm not the tabloid queen any more.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57But I think probably because of that,
0:46:57 > 0:46:59it's made me more like a household name.
0:47:01 > 0:47:06Pretty much Tanya Tucker's been across everybody's tongue, at one time or another.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14# Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
0:47:14 > 0:47:18# I'm beggin' of you please don't take my man... #
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Tanya was wild and sexy and got slammed for it.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25But our final queen is clever enough to keep everything under control.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29HER control. And she does it with a smile that makes everyone love her.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36Unlike other queens, Dolly has no children or demanding husband.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40Maybe that's helped her become the biggest star of them all.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44She's an immensely clever woman and very attractive.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48She's like flypaper to me, I can't take my eyes off her.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50# Your voice is soft like summer rain
0:47:50 > 0:47:53# And I cannot compete with you, Jolene
0:47:53 > 0:47:55She's an incredible songwriter
0:47:55 > 0:47:57but she's unappreciated as a songwriter
0:47:57 > 0:48:00because of all the other things that you can focus on about her.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Her extraordinary appearance, her humour, her ability to act.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10Dolly's worth so much money that she could buy Nashville.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13# But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene... #
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Dolly is the most amazing woman I know
0:48:16 > 0:48:19for getting men to do what she wants them to do.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24She has been able to take that whole female thing of...
0:48:24 > 0:48:26"Do that for me, please!"
0:48:26 > 0:48:30and she's just run it down their throats.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33# Little sparrow
0:48:33 > 0:48:35# Little sparrow... #
0:48:35 > 0:48:40Just like Loretta, Dolly was born dirt-poor in the Kentucky mountains.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42# ..little thing... #
0:48:43 > 0:48:47They've made an entire career out of being who they are,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50and that's a really difficult thing for a lot of people to do
0:48:50 > 0:48:52because they want to be somebody else.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55They want to put on a mask, they want to dress up.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Yet Dolly always did like to dress up.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01Her love of the make-over was there from the start.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03We've always been really girly-girls,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06and when we didn't have make-up,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09we would take burnt matches and paint eyebrows on,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13and we would take berries from the mountains and paint our lips.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16The big hair thing started early too.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20I would get up early and tease her hair and fix it in the back,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23so it would be as big as she wanted it cos she always loved big hair!
0:49:23 > 0:49:29She puts those wigs on and dresses up but when she takes it all off,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31she's just country as corn bread.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33Just like the rest of us.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36Dolly always has her tongue in her cheek.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39We didn't have anything money could buy, in fact we was pretty poor.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Folks on welfare used to bring US stuff!
0:49:42 > 0:49:46My earliest memory of Dolly would be of her laughing at me
0:49:46 > 0:49:49because she always had such a great sense of humour.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52Miss Parton? You always look so beautiful.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54Do you have any secrets to give us?
0:49:54 > 0:49:57Clean living!
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Avoid clean living at all costs!
0:50:02 > 0:50:05Shock value has always been real important to Dolly.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10When they were growing up, there was music all around.
0:50:10 > 0:50:16My mother would sing us these beautiful old Irish laments and I'd cry.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20It was like watching a movie or something.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25When Daddy would drink on the weekends, he would come home, you know, three sheets to the wind.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29He would play the banjo and dance, an' all that,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31so we didn't know any other way.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35At ten, Dolly got her first chance to sing on the radio.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37# Give me your word, give me a sign
0:50:37 > 0:50:42# Show me where to look and tell me what will I find... #
0:50:42 > 0:50:45She knew she wanted to be a star and worked at it.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47This little girl paid her dues.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49# Meet me on the ground Fly me in the sky... #
0:50:49 > 0:50:54I signed Dolly Parton when she was 14 years old.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57Dolly and her Uncle Bill Owens would come back and forth
0:50:57 > 0:50:59from her home of East Tennessee.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01They didn't have any money of course.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Bill would sleep in his car,
0:51:04 > 0:51:09and Dolly would stay for 2 a night at the YWCA.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11I believe she was still in high school.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15She had this tiny little voice.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17It was haunting.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20And she was doing some songs she had written,
0:51:20 > 0:51:21and they were so good.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24You could tell that one day she was gonna happen,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27and it didn't take too many years after that till she really did.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32The day she left high school, Dolly moved to Nashville for good.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35The very next year, she had a number one hit.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38# Don't try to cry...
0:51:38 > 0:51:41# Your way out of this
0:51:41 > 0:51:43# Don't try to lie... #
0:51:43 > 0:51:48When we did Dumb Blonde, Dolly was fresh from the mountains.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51She was obviously very bright.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54It's proven she's certainly not a dumb blonde.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57# Because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb
0:51:57 > 0:52:01# Cos this dumb blonde ain't no-o-body's fool. #
0:52:01 > 0:52:04She's still got the same squeal as she had in high school.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Ha, ha, ha! That's enough of that!
0:52:06 > 0:52:10And she was still feisty just like she is now.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13# When you left, you thought I'd sit and you thought I'd wait
0:52:13 > 0:52:18# And you thought I'd cry You called me a dumb blonde... #
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Now I wanna call out a little gal...
0:52:20 > 0:52:23In 1967, country star Porter Wagoner spotted her.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26I haven't called you out yet. Wait a minute there.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30For the next seven years, she was his partner on his TV show.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33# It's my time to cry, yeah
0:52:33 > 0:52:35# It's my time to cry, oh
0:52:35 > 0:52:38# It's my turn to cry, mmm
0:52:38 > 0:52:41# It's my time... #
0:52:41 > 0:52:45This was the most fruitful time for her own writing.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48The songs just poured out of her.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53# I go wanderin' once again
0:52:53 > 0:52:59# Back to the seasons of my youth
0:52:59 > 0:53:03# I recall a box of rags that someone gave us... #
0:53:03 > 0:53:05I think Dolly's best material
0:53:05 > 0:53:09is the stuff that she really wrote from the heart,
0:53:09 > 0:53:10back in the early '70s.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13# There were rags of many colours... #
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Songs that are to me her richest poetry.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20She had no collaboration with other people
0:53:20 > 0:53:22to write all these great songs.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25# Mama sewed the rags together
0:53:25 > 0:53:27# Sewing every piece with love
0:53:27 > 0:53:30# She made my coat of many colours... #
0:53:30 > 0:53:36Coat Of Many Colours is my favourite of anything that she's ever done.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41# In my coat of many colours Well, I hurried off to school
0:53:41 > 0:53:48# Just to find the others laughing and making fun of me
0:53:48 > 0:53:52# And my coat of many colours that Mama made for me... #
0:53:52 > 0:53:53It really appealed to me -
0:53:53 > 0:53:57your parents didn't have enough money to buy you new clothes
0:53:57 > 0:53:59so they patched up the ones that you had,
0:53:59 > 0:54:02and the other kids at school all laughing and stuff.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06Well, my early life was a bit like that - a bit patched up.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09No, I couldn't understand,
0:54:09 > 0:54:12cos I felt I was rich...
0:54:12 > 0:54:16Dolly can be funny and at the same time,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19she can write Coat of Many Colours
0:54:19 > 0:54:25and you realise that she's as deep as John Lennon ever tried to be.
0:54:26 > 0:54:31But she's much prettier than he is, that's for sure.
0:54:31 > 0:54:32The thing I like about Dolly,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35is that her songs do have a story and a background.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40They're from a kind of real place, as opposed to just rhyming.
0:54:40 > 0:54:46# Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jo-lene
0:54:46 > 0:54:52# I'm begging of you, please don't take my man... #
0:54:52 > 0:54:57They're such real songs, such honest songs.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59I think that I'd like to hear some more of those,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03because I think we've gotten away from that in Nashville.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06That's what made us different from the whole world.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09# ..New Orleans
0:55:09 > 0:55:14# So far from my Blue Ridge mountain home... #
0:55:14 > 0:55:16From the very start,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Dolly looked back to the childhood home she'd left behind.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24# There was a boy who loved me dearly
0:55:24 > 0:55:26# But I broke his heart...
0:55:26 > 0:55:30She made country into a myth and then she left IT behind too.
0:55:30 > 0:55:37# ..my Blue Ridge mountain boy. #
0:55:37 > 0:55:39# Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen
0:55:39 > 0:55:41# Pour myself a cup of ambition... #
0:55:41 > 0:55:45With great difficulty, Dolly got away from the Porter Wagoner show.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49Her music went pop and she headed for Hollywood.
0:55:49 > 0:55:56Dolly always had the ability to plan ahead while she's charming you.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59# Working nine to five What a way to make a living... #
0:55:59 > 0:56:04Country music followed Dolly into the mainstream...at a price.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07The reign of the country queens was coming to an end.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09Dolly's business career took off.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12She became a myth in her own right.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14# Drives you crazy and you let it... #
0:56:14 > 0:56:18She said, "They don't call it show art, they call it show business.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20"Let's treat it like a business."
0:56:20 > 0:56:25Dolly has had more top ten hit records than any other woman in country music by far.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29And has become bigger than country music, bigger than Nashville.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31# It's a rich man's game
0:56:31 > 0:56:32# No matter what they call it... #
0:56:32 > 0:56:36Dolly has her very own theme park - Dollywood.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40My daughter's more interested in going to Dollywood than she is of Disneyland.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42"Can we meet her?"
0:56:42 > 0:56:45She's a Dolly Parton obsessive fan.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48She keeps asking me, "What does she look like? Tell me again."
0:56:48 > 0:56:54And we go through... "Big blonde hair, enormous breasts."
0:56:54 > 0:57:00# In the sweet by and by,
0:57:00 > 0:57:06# We shall meet on that beautiful shore... #
0:57:06 > 0:57:10Having conquered the world, Dolly has returned to her musical roots.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13# In the sweet by and by
0:57:13 > 0:57:15# We shall meet... #
0:57:15 > 0:57:18The bluegrass albums are just outstanding.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21Little Sparrow and stuff, those are...
0:57:21 > 0:57:24Oh, my God!
0:57:24 > 0:57:25# ..beautiful shore... #
0:57:29 > 0:57:33I asked her once, "How do you get all your songs ready for an album?"
0:57:33 > 0:57:36She said, "I go to a house I've got in Kentucky
0:57:36 > 0:57:39"and it's a wooden house, it's not great."
0:57:39 > 0:57:41And she fasts...
0:57:41 > 0:57:45for a week or so, and then she writes.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47That seems to do the trick for her.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50She seems to get back to where she belongs that way.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52Which is a peculiar way to do it,
0:57:52 > 0:57:58but I always knew she was a lot more complicated than she lets you think she is.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07The golden age for the country queens is over.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10The decades when what they did and said changed the world,
0:58:10 > 0:58:14when they were adventurers on the road to independence - are no more.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16But unlike most pop stars,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20queens of country have long careers and loyal audiences.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23Those who died too young still sell millions,
0:58:23 > 0:58:26and the queens who survived still sing.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29# Love is in the water Love is in the air
0:58:29 > 0:58:33# Show me where to go And tell me will love be there?
0:58:33 > 0:58:37# Will love be there?
0:58:38 > 0:58:41# Teach me how to speak Teach me how to share
0:58:41 > 0:58:45# Teach me where to go And tell me will love be there?
0:58:45 > 0:58:48# Will love be there?
0:58:55 > 0:58:59# Oh, heaven, let your light shine down... #
0:58:59 > 0:59:01E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk