This Little Light of Mine and Dolly Parton

Last week, we warmed up with a classic from the Civil Rights Movement. 

This Little Light of Mine is a gospel song that came to be an anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1950's and 60's. It was originally written by Harry Dixon Loes around 1920 as a children’s song. This Little Light of Mine" made it into the American folk music tradition when it was found and documented by John Lomax in 1939. At Goree State Farm in Huntsville, Texas, Lomax recorded Doris McMurray singing the spiritual.

The recording can still be found in the Library of Congress archives. 

During the Civil Rights Movement, Zilphia Horton of the Highlander Folk School adapted the song and taught it to Pete Seeger. The song is famously tied to Civil Rights leader, Fannie Lou Hamer. On August 31^st, 1962, while being detained by police on her way back from attempting to register to vote with other members of her community, Hamer began singing this song with other volunteers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Here is Odetta singing a beautiful version of the song. 

Next, we celebrated Dolly Parton's birthday. She turned 72 on Friday!

The origins of Jolene

"One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably 8 years old at the time," Parton says. "And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. I said, 'Well, you're the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?' And she said, 'Jolene.' And I said, 'Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.' I said, 'That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I'm going to write a song about that.'"

Parton says that she got the story for her song from another redhead in her life at the time — a bank teller who was giving Parton's new husband a little more interest than he had coming.

"She got this terrible crush on my husband," Parton says. "And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, 'Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money.' So it's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one."

Dolly Parton has been married to Carl Dean, a retired Nashville businessman, since 1966. "Every time I look at him sleeping over there in his La-Z-Boy, snoring, that hair turning grey at the temples," she said, "I wonder if Jolene is still around. I'll call her up and say, 'you come and get him now!'"

We ended on a high note with 9 to 5, Dolly Parton's anthem to working people everywhere. It was the #1 hit on the country, pop, and adult contemporary charts in Jan-Feb 1981, so it's fair to say Dolly struck a nerve!

The tide's gonna turn and it's all gonna roll your way.

And finally, it's not a song we covered last Friday, but the video is deeply silly and makes me laugh-- it's Dolly Parton's Why'd You Come in Here Looking Like That. Enjoy!