Welcome to Music Friday, when we bring you songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we pay tribute to Dolly Parton through her 1984 country hit “Tennessee Homesick Blues,” a homespun song with a sparkling final line: “It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”
Parton wrote the song for Rhinestone, the musical comedy in which she co-starred with Sylvester Stallone. The movie follows a country singer who bets that she can transform a rough New York City cab driver into a country music star. Against that backdrop, “Tennessee Homesick Blues” captures Parton’s character yearning to escape the pressures and artificiality of big-city life and return to her Tennessee mountain roots.
The song’s closing diamond-and-rhinestone metaphor gives the homesickness a deeper meaning. The diamond represents something genuine, rare, enduring and valuable — much like the authentic country woman Parton portrays. The rhinestone, by contrast, is an imitation gem: bright and glittery, but lacking the natural rarity and intrinsic value of a diamond.
For Parton’s character, being “a diamond in a rhinestone world” means trying to remain true to herself while navigating an entertainment business filled with glamour, pressure and superficiality. The line also carries a distinctly Parton-like message: success should never require sacrificing the person you were before you became successful.
“Tennessee Homesick Blues” first appeared on the Rhinestone soundtrack and was released as a single in 1984. It proved to be more than a movie tie-in, reaching #1 on both the US and Canadian country singles charts.
The sentiment was particularly poignant coming from Parton, who understood the tension between humble beginnings and extraordinary fame. Raised in a large, impoverished family in the Tennessee mountains, she began performing as a child and eventually moved to Nashville to pursue music.
Through extraordinary songwriting, determination and showmanship, she became one of the world’s most successful entertainers, with hits including “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” “I Will Always Love You” and “Coat of Many Colors.” She also became a major film star in 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias and, of course, Rhinestone.
Parton, who recently died at 80 following a brief battle with cancer, also had a well-known love of jewelry — particularly butterfly-themed pieces, inspired by her enduring connection to her song “Love Is Like a Butterfly.” Yet her dazzling rhinestone style was every bit as iconic.
Perhaps that is why the final line of “Tennessee Homesick Blues” feels like such a fitting Parton philosophy: In a world of imitation sparkle, the greatest challenge — and the greatest achievement — is simply being yourself.
Please check out the audio track of Dolly Parton performing “Tennessee Homesick Blues.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Tennessee Homesick Blues”
Written and performed by Dolly Parton.
New York City ain’t no kind of place
For a country girl with a friendly face
If you smile, people look at you funny
They take it wrong
The greenest state in the land of the free
And the home of the Grand Ole Opry
Is calling me back to my Smoky Mountain home
I wish I had my old fishin’ pole
And was sitting on the banks of the fishin’ hole
Eating green apples and waiting for the fish to bite
Life ain’t as simple as it used to be
Since the Big Apple took a bite out of me, and
Lord, I’m so Tennessee homesick that I could die
But I ain’t been home in I don’t know when
If I had it all to do over again
Tonight I’d sleep in my old feather bed
What I wouldn’t give for a little bitty taste
Of mama’s homemade chocolate cake
Tennessee homesick blues is running through my head
Mama, you can fluff my feather bed
Just as soon as I can, I’m gonna head
Back to the Tennessee hills and it better be soon
Daddy, you can load the rifles up
We’re gonna load them dogs on the pickup truck, and
Head up to Calhoun Country and catch us a coon
But I ain’t been home in I don’t know when
If I had it all to do over again
Tonight I’d sleep in my old feather bed
Eating grits and gravy and country ham
Go to church on Sunday with dinner on the grounds
Tennessee homesick blues are running through my head
And I ain’t been home in I don’t know when
If I had it all to do over again
Tonight I’d sleep in my old feather bed
Good Lord, have mercy on a country girl
Tryin’ to make a living in a rhinestone world
It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world
Tennessee homesick blues are running through my head
I’ve got those Tennessee homesick blues running through my head
Tennessee homesick blues
Credit: Photo (cropped) by RCA Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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