The final song I’ll feature from the upcoming Dolly Parton anthology series Heartstrings is ‘JJ Sneed,’ a nice counterpart to ‘Jolene.’
While ‘Jolene’ depicted a woman deathly afraid that a temptress would steal away her man, ‘JJ Sneed’ gives us a narrator who sees her man tempted by another woman and responds by shooting him dead. I guess that’s… progress?
The Heartstrings project reminds me of an idea I had 20+ years ago to turn three Bob Dylan folk covers into a movie. I even wrote about it on the blog. These days, that idea would work even better on NetFlix. In fact, given the Dolly Parton and Billy Joel projects, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Dylan one isn’t already in the works.
Whose songs would you like to see turned into a TV series?
Could this really be my outlaw lover JJ Sneed
Could a woman with a painted face and pretty sweet disguise
Turn your heart against me with her evil cunning eyes
Her evil cunning eyes
JJ it’s been you and me right from the very start
And ever job we ever pulled I’d always done my part
We agreed we’d stick together until the bitter end
It was my understanding we were whole lots more than friends
A whole lot more than friends
And it was me that kept you on when nights were dark and cold
But I guess I didn’t look like much in these old ragged clothes
But you said it didn’t matter because you love me that a way
You said that no one else could ever steal your heart away
Steal your heart away
Do you recall the Union Bank we robbed in Franklin Town
And as we made our getaway the sheriff gunned you down
And I doctored up your bullet wounds and nursed you while you sit
But now you have betrayed me is that the thanks I get
Is that the thanks I get
Oh yeah JJ I’m thinking now of how it all begun
Of all the times we’ve robbed and killed with our trustworthy gun
Why we stood off a posse once JJ just you and I
But now you have betrayed me and for that you’re going to die
Yeah for that you’re going to die
The good old days are over as we stand here in the rain
JJ I’m going to shoot you now I hope you feel no pain
I hear hoofbeats of the horses, horses on my trail
I guess I’ll join you soon but for now JJ farewell
For now JJ farewell
Meet Me In Montauk 
Okay, I’ll play. 😊 I would like to see anthologies made from the songs of Bruce Springsteen, John Mellancamp, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello and Paul Simon.
And David Bowie. Thank you for opening my ears to a little bit of Dolly Parton’s repertoire!