Dolly Parton: "Coat of Many Colors" (1971)

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"Coat of Many Colors" is a 1971 album and single by Dolly Parton. The title song, which Parton has described as her favourite of all the songs she's ever written, deals with the poverty of her childhood. It reached #4 on the U.S. country singles charts.

Over the years, Parton would re-record a number of the songs from the album. She redid "Traveling Man" (not to be confused with the Ricky Nelson song of the same name), a song that involved an unusual love triangle between a travelling salesman, a woman, and her mother, for inclusion on her 1973 album Bubbling Over. She would also re-record her composition "My Blue Tears", an "old-timey" folk-influenced song, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt in the mid-1970s, for an ill-fated Trio album project. (The recording would eventually surface on Ronstadt's 1982 album Get Closer). Parton cut the song for a third time in 2001, including it on her Little Sparrow album. "Early Morning Breeze" later appeared on her 1974 Jolene album.

"A Better Place to Live" was a song very much of its time, dealing with living in a utopian, peaceful world where people love one another, and was very much in the same vein as Jackie DeShannon's recent hit "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" (which Parton herself would later cover in 1993).

In 2003, the album was ranked number 299 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It subsequently made Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2006.

A re-issue released in 2007, in conjunction with Parton's 2007 European Tour, featured previously unreleased songs.


- Lyrics:

Back through the years I go wondering once again
Back to the seasons of my youth
I recall a box of rags that someone gave us
And how my mamma put these rags to use

There were rags of many colours, and every piece was small
And I didn't have a coat and it was way down in the fall
Mamma sewed the rags together, sewing ever piece with love
She made my coat of many colours, that I was so proud of

As she sewed she told the story from the bible she had read
About a coat of many colours, Joseph wore and they she said
Perhaps this coat will bring you, much love and happiness
And I just couldn't wait to wear it, and mamma blessed it with a kiss

My coat of many colours that mamma made for me
Made only rags, but I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money. oh I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colours, my mamma made for me

So with patches on my breaches and holes in both my shoes
In my coat of many colours, I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing and makin' fun of me
In my coat of many colours, my mamma made for me

Oh, I couldn't understand it, for I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love my mamma sewed in ever stitch
And I told them all the story, mamma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colours is worth more than all of their clothes

They didn't under stand it and I tried to make them see
That one is only poor only if they choose to be
Now I know we have no money, but I'm as rich as I could be
In my coat of many colours, my mamma made for me
In my coat of many colours, my mamma just made for me