Shuffle Synchronicities: Volume 1 - #266

"I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton - 10/10/21

"I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton

While Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” is ostensibly about the end of a romantic relationship:

If I should stay
I would only be in your way
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you each step of the way

It’s actually inspired by the end of a non-romantic relationship.

And I will always love you
I will always love you

Stereogum has written about that history:

Dolly Parton’s “career as a performer really took off when Porter Wagoner gave her a weekly spot on The Porter Wagoner Show — suddenly, the blonde bombshell with a sharp wit and breathtaking voice was winning hearts via one of the country’s biggest television audiences. After Parton found success dueting with Wagoner, she began releasing solo material with debut single “Just Because I’m A Woman,”

in 1968 and eventually got her first #1 song with “Joshua.”

None were as well-received, though, as “Jolene,” which shot up the country charts to #1 in 1973 and even hovered in the Hot 100 for eight weeks, peaking at #60 in March of 1974.

Parton left Wagoner’s show and ended their professional relationship in 1974 after 14 Top 10 hits together, but the split had a lasting impact on her career: it inspired “I Will Always Love You,” one of the top selling singles of all time.

“I was trying to get away on my own because I had promised to stay with Wagoner’s show for five years. I had been there for seven,” she explained to CMT in 2011. “And we fought a lot. We were very much alike. We were both stubborn. We both believed that we knew what was best for us. Well, he believed he knew what was best for me, too, and I believed that I knew more what was best for me at that time… He just wasn’t listening to my reasoning for my going.”

She went home and wrote “I Will Always Love You” about her professional relationship with Wagoner.

Bittersweet memories
That's all I'm taking with me
Goodbye, please don't cry
We both know that I'm not what you need

“It’s saying, ‘Just because I’m going don’t mean I won’t love you. I appreciate you and I hope you do great and I appreciate everything you’ve done, but I’m out of here,'” she said. “I took it in the next morning. I said, ‘Sit down, Porter. I’ve written this song, and I want you to hear it.’ So I did sing it. And he was crying. He said, ‘That’s the prettiest song I ever heard. And you can go, providing I get to produce that record.’ And he did, and the rest is history.”

But I will always love you
I will always love you

From a synchronicity memoir POV, today’s the day I am likely to see my (ex?)-wife at a party thrown for our friends, even though she has decided not to speak to me anymore.

And that’s perhaps the obvious level. The one I thought of first when I heard it on the way back from Joshua Tree this morning.

But I’d like to focus on another level. The one I thought of as I was researching this song.

I want to center the synchronicity on my friends.

Because it’s their farewell party tonight.

And it’s bittersweet to see them leave Los Angeles.

They’ve lived here almost two decades.

Met and fell in love and married here.

Started a business together here.

Performed plays and made music and wrote movies here.

Made many friends and a life and a lot of love here.

They’re two of my favorite people not just in LA but in the Universe.

I’ve had some of the best times of my life with both of them together, and both of them separately, and with my (ex?)-wife and them, and with them without her.

And I won’t be able to see them relatively whenever I want soon.

A short drive away to Echo Park will now be a long flight and drive to Florida.

So I offer this last verse and chorus to them:

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope that you have all
That you ever dreamed of
And I wish you joy and happiness
But above all this, I wish you love

And I will always love you
I will always love you
I will always love you

Okay, that’s the two hundred and sixty-sixth Shuffle Synchronicities.

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Wait, now this is truly crazy.

I just did another Shuffle after finishing this post.

And I got:

“A Satisfied Mind” by Porter Wagoner

I didn’t even realize I had a Porter Wagoner song on my 40,000+ song Shuffle!

And I realize this synchronicity seems almost like hyperbole or an untruth.

But it is indeed the song that I got.

It’s the 1955 original version that made the song famous.

With lyrics in part about becoming satisfied with your life despite setbacks:

Once I was waitin'
In fortune and fame
Everything that I dreamed for
To get a start in life's game

Then suddenly it happened
I lost every dime
But I'm richer by far
With a satisfied mind

Which was later covered by Bob Dylan in 1980 during his Christian period:

“A Satisfied Mind” by Bob Dylan

With gospel singers in the background, which suggested even more perhaps that satisfaction comes regardless of wealth but with spirituality:

Hmm, when my life is over and my has run out
My friends and my love ones
I'll leave there ain't no doubt
But one thing for certain
When it comes my time
I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind.

That album’s songs have been written about on the Shuffle here and here:

“A Satisfied Mind”’s lyrics were further interpolated by Vampire Weekend on their 2019 Father of the Bride album.

“Rich Man” by Vampire Weekend

When I was young, I was told I'd find
One rich man in ten has a satisfied mind
And I'm the one

Hundreds of millions of souls left behind
And yet we're the ones

Which perhaps suggested and satirized the dubious growth of Prosperity Gospel since 1955 and 1980.

The album has been written about on the Shuffle in-depth here:

And both songs were written about in my long sentence book about my spiritual awakening/manic episode after my dad died.

“Rich Man” also had its music interpolated from the Sierra Leone highlife and palm wine guitarist and singer S.E. Rogie’s 1962 song:

“Please Go Easy With Me” by S.E. Rogie

Which makes think and say:

Please Go Easy with Me, Shuffle Spirits!

And likely you, too reader ;)

Back to Dolly and Porter though, check out this Drunk History video humorously making fun of their relationship starring a sister of a reader of the Substack…

But which also tells the story of how Dolly did indeed love and help her friend Wagoner until the end of his life.

And OK, lastly, two more tributes to my friends:

From songfacts.com:

“In the 1974 film, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, [“I Will Always Love You”] can be softly heard in the background of a scene.”

Which if you also personally know these two friends or have clicked the links above to learn their names you’ll totally LOL.

And here’s a rare video of Dolly Parton singing a cover of the song made most famous by Gladys Knight & The Pips: “Midnight Train To George”

Which include the lyrics:

L.A proved too much for the man
(Too much for the man)
(He couldn't make it)
So, he's leaving the life he's come to know, oh

He said he's going back to find
(Going back to find)
What's left of his world
The world he left behind
Not so long ago

Maybe one day I’ll be following y’all out of LA some midnight to some other place…

Okay, now that is the two hundred and sixty-sixth Shuffle Synchronicities.