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I wanted to like Beyoncé's Jolene, but...
Apr. 22nd, 2024 04:56 pmI hadn't actually heard Beyoncé's cover of "Jolene" until Todd in the Shadows's video went up, though I'd heard from some friends that it was altered in some way that makes it far more heterosexual.
Turns out they vastly understated the matter. It does seem like a really odd choice of vehicle for a "fuck you, my husband will always come back to me and I'm god empress of everything anyway, I will crush you like a bug" anthem. The original "Jolene" tells us absolutely nothing about the man in the picture (not only do we not know if he's actually having an affair with Jolene, we don't know if Jolene is even aware of his existence) and instead goes on and on about how irresistibly alluring Jolene is and how she could destroy the narrator's life on a whim since of course the generic guy couldn't possibly resist her.
Part of the appeal of the original "Jolene" (apart from the incredibly easy queer reading of it) is that it's an "other woman" song that doesn't blame the other woman, or really blame anyone at all. It's this melancholy and quietly desperate appeal to the other woman who outclasses the narrator in every conceivable way. Naturally this is the least Beyoncé song imaginable and had to be completely rewritten to suit her, but the new lyrics are pretty painful and so directly antithetical to everything the original song is doing that it feels a bit like a musical Ship of Theseus.
(I grew up in rural parts of the western USA, so I grew up with a lot of country and religious music. I don't even like country very much—part of my fondness for bombastic orchestral or choir pieces comes from often only having two genre options, Alan Jackson et al or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and going with the Mormon Tab. So I always think I've left all that behind me and don't have strong country music opinions AND THEN. My own grandmother once tried to convince me that the best country artist ever is George Strait, above Dolly, and I went from "oh lord I have to listen to more country music while I'm here" to "I WILL FIGHT YOU" in about 1/4 second, lol. In any case, I think a more forceful and less vulnerable song would probably have been a better pick for what Beyoncé apparently wanted to do.)
Turns out they vastly understated the matter. It does seem like a really odd choice of vehicle for a "fuck you, my husband will always come back to me and I'm god empress of everything anyway, I will crush you like a bug" anthem. The original "Jolene" tells us absolutely nothing about the man in the picture (not only do we not know if he's actually having an affair with Jolene, we don't know if Jolene is even aware of his existence) and instead goes on and on about how irresistibly alluring Jolene is and how she could destroy the narrator's life on a whim since of course the generic guy couldn't possibly resist her.
Part of the appeal of the original "Jolene" (apart from the incredibly easy queer reading of it) is that it's an "other woman" song that doesn't blame the other woman, or really blame anyone at all. It's this melancholy and quietly desperate appeal to the other woman who outclasses the narrator in every conceivable way. Naturally this is the least Beyoncé song imaginable and had to be completely rewritten to suit her, but the new lyrics are pretty painful and so directly antithetical to everything the original song is doing that it feels a bit like a musical Ship of Theseus.
(I grew up in rural parts of the western USA, so I grew up with a lot of country and religious music. I don't even like country very much—part of my fondness for bombastic orchestral or choir pieces comes from often only having two genre options, Alan Jackson et al or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and going with the Mormon Tab. So I always think I've left all that behind me and don't have strong country music opinions AND THEN. My own grandmother once tried to convince me that the best country artist ever is George Strait, above Dolly, and I went from "oh lord I have to listen to more country music while I'm here" to "I WILL FIGHT YOU" in about 1/4 second, lol. In any case, I think a more forceful and less vulnerable song would probably have been a better pick for what Beyoncé apparently wanted to do.)