Dolly Parton, the larger-than-life icon whose songs could turn heartbreak, jealousy and loneliness into something almost mythic, has died at 80. Few artists crossed quite so many cultural boundaries—country, pop, film, gospel and rock—while remaining unmistakably Dolly. For those drawn to the darker corners of music, there was always something lurking beneath the rhinestones. “Jolene,” in particular, is practically a gothic tale: obsession, romantic dread and the fear of losing someone to an impossibly beautiful rival. It seems fitting, then, that one of Parton’s most famous songs found its way into the hands of The Sisters of Mercy.
The Sisters of Mercy recorded “Jolene” for BBC Radio 1’s David “Kid” Jensen session in London on March 6, 1983, during one of the defining periods of their early career. Their stark, ominous treatment stripped away the country setting and replaced it with the mechanical pulse, dark guitar and cavernous atmosphere of early goth rock. The session, which also featured “Heartland,” “Valentine” and “Burn,” was broadcast later that month and eventually released officially as BBC Sessions 1982–1984. The band had also recorded an earlier demo of “Jolene” around 1982/83, and the song remained part of their live repertoire. Dolly may never have made a darkwave record herself, but “Jolene” proved that her songwriting could survive—and thrive—when dragged from the honky-tonk into the shadows.