“Joshua”
Dolly Parton
Written by Dolly Parton
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
February 6, 1971
A legitimate flex that I can make on behalf of Country Universe was calling it early on Dolly Parton.
It’s almost quaint to think about some of the pushback I got for naming her the greatest female country artist of all time back in 2008, now that she’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member and is being called the flat-out greatest country artist of all time by reputable publications.
I agree with that assessment myself, if greatness is measured by that strange alchemy of commercial success, creative excellence, and overall impact on the genre. So of course “Joshua” is considered a significant record, what with it being the first number one single from the increasingly (and a bit worryingly) deified Dolly Parton.
But beyond that historical marker, it’s a pretty ordinary Dolly Parton record for the time. The Appalachians had already served as the backdrop for more compelling storytelling on should’ve been smash hits like “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy” and “Down From Dover.” Before the year was out, she’d have released the autobiographical masterpiece “Coat of Many Colors,” which is itself in the conversation for the greatest country song of all time.
So this one feels like a bit of fluff, an uptempo romp that showcases some cool musicianship and a charming conversational delivery from Parton. Those strengths help compensate for a very thin storyline and the prominence of one of Parton’s little songwriting cheats from this era. When she couldn’t make the lyrics match up with melody, she’d elongate a word to make up the difference. She does it at the end of most lines in the verses and it irritates me to no end.
Amazingly, we won’t see Parton again for another couple of years, despite releasing records like “Colors,” “Touch Your Woman,” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home” in the interim. But when she returns, it will be what is now her most popular record worldwide as a recording artist.
“Joshua” gets a B.
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Let me first admit my bias. I am a huge Dolly fan and you can’t totally erase personal taste when it comes to grading songs.
I will easily give this song an “A+”. As most will do, at first listen it sounds like just a simple country ditty with no substance. Her infectious delivery makes you miss the importance. I urge listeners to give it one more listen and really pay attention to the message of this song. This song is a fantastic story telling us not to judge each other but never directly telling us what to do.
In the song, the majority in the community thinks the guy is bad. Dolly in not convinced, and even though fearful is curious enough to check it out. She finds that people were wrong, and the guy is a good guy. To me it’s what she has always done so well. Telling people to NOT judge but doing through example. I can’t get enough of this wonderful song.
I’ve always had the same feelings about this song but appreciate the way you articulated it being a Dolly superfan. In addition to the message and it’s consistency with Dolly’s long-standing values, I like how she packs in so much narrative content into three minutes. That sort of thing was so much more common in the country music of 50 years. Even the dwindling number of story songs in the contemporary country music landscape tend to be ballads and thus have a hard time conveying so much lyrical information in such a compact space.
Grade: A
One more comment about three songs you mentioned. Coat of Many Colors, Touch your Woman, and My Tennessee Mountain Home are all A+ songs. It’s a tragedy that they didn’t go to number one. Dolly was just too different, and I think it took country radio a bit of time to get it. I used to think she was just like the other female country singers I love (Loretta, Tammy, Reba, etc.) but she is just different. Yes, I understand she is human and should NOT be worshipped as some do, but I do highly admire her uniqueness.
This is a good song, but not as good as some of her prior singles. I remember being pleased that she finally got a #1 record, but this song strikes me as being just a good, not great record. Dolly has been on my radar since late 1966 when “Dumb Blonde” was released. WCMS gave a lot of airplay to both “Dumb Blonde” and the follow up “Something Fishy”, both of which reached the top ten on the WCMS charts (I don’t think either song got that high on the national charts. In late 1967, I purchased her first album HELLO, I’M DOLLY which was issued on Monument and contained both of her hits. The album apparently sold well initially but I purchased it in December as a cutout.
Kevin and I disagree slightly as to Dolly’s spot in the country music pantheon but one thing Dolly is absolutely the best at is self-promotion. The folks at WCMS, WTID and several other local stations were able to interview her on the air and her bubbly down-home ways absolutely won over everyone who heard her. She is indeed a national treasure
Yes, “Joshua” was really the beginning of a long process in which Dolly, not wanting to be “just another country singer”, made it her business to become Nashville’s all-around Biggest Thing (and of course she’d spend a lot to look as cheap as she does, on top of all that, too! [LOL]).
It was also around this time that Dolly befriended a future collaborator of hers, a West Coast hippie with a left-of-center approach to country: Linda Ronstadt.