Stairway to Dollywood

Back in 2002, Dolly Parton covered (gasp) "Stairway to Heaven." I'm sure most people's first reaction was to be horrified that the singer who brought us "9 to 5" would dare to touch Zeppelin's crown jewel, but if you excuse Parton's pop country days and focus on her early and late periods, the idea should be at least compelling. I really expected that I'd like it. I thought Dolly would bring herself and her traditional country roots to the song in a way that would make it her own without defacing it. Unfortunately, she just didn't bring enough of herself. The idea was brilliant. The bluegrass arrangement was well thought out, but the performance was stiff as if she had never heard or didn't really care much about "Stairway" (as unimaginable as that may be, even for a non-rock artist). There are moments when she hits stride and she and the song are one, but they are sadly few and probably accidental. The gospel backing vocals are an amazing idea, but like the rest of the song, they fail to soar as they (and all gospel) should. Don't get me wrong, this version is entirely competent, but "Stairway" deserves so much more than just competent. The bottom line is that this was a great idea in so many ways, but it was poorly executed. It's a shame, because I actually got goose bumps listening to this and thinking about what could have been.

Interestingly, if you want to hear Dolly Parton do a wonderful cover of a rock song, check out her version of Collective Soul's "Shine" from 2001's Little Sparrow. "Shine" is a very good song (if you're not sure about that, check out the Holmes Brothers' cover too), but certainly no "Stairway to Heaven." It's hard to believe that she could pour so much of herself into her cover of the former and fall so short in her cover of the latter. Perhaps "Stairway" was just too daunting a task for even an artist of her long experience.