by Joe Wallace
If I saw the disembodied head of Dolly Parton floating in MY lawn sprinkler system, I wouldn’t know whether to shoot myself in the head or start screaming for an exorcist, but one thing’s for sure–I wouldn’t stand idly by waiting for the hideous jabbering head of Dolly Parton to start uttering blasphemies in Etruscan and summoning demons in the middle of the yard.
The most WTF part of this wretched album cover is the fact that–unless my eyes deceive me–that’s Dolly Parton standing at the back of this scene, watching her OWN HEAD floating on the sprinkler spray. How effed up is THAT? What is this cover saying about the mental state of the singer?
Seems to me that Dolly Parton’s dual personality crisis has manifested itself on this album–this cover is a cry for help. “Please save me from myself!” Dolly is shrieking. That’s not a smile on her face, that’s the rictus grin of someone who has either died recently or has been injected with a lethal dose of botox and rabies.
Or it’s the facial expression of someone who GETS that the cover art concepts sucks the root, but has been held hostage by the record company. “Dolly, if you don’t do this album cover JUST THE WAY WE SAY, we’ll electrocute a puppy. AND we’ll cut off your electrolysis treatments. Got it? You WANT hairy nipples? Go ahead, give us trouble.”
I happen to admire this cover very much as well as the photographer/artist who created this photograph. For those who are quick to dislike it just because it’s Dolly, I’d just like to point out that this album cover was not created in Photoshop. This photograph was HAND illustrated the old-fashioned way (layering negatives, burning and dodging in a dark room, now a lost art for the most part with the use of digital photography) by famed Opry photographer Les Leverett, who is now 82 years old. I read that Les was recognized by Billboard for his work on THIS album cover in 1972. Les earned a special Grammy for his 1966 portrait for Porter Wagoner’s LP “Confessions of a Broken Man”. Kudos to Les and his work.