Is there anyone cooler than Dolly Parton?

Is there anyone cooler than Dolly Parton? She’s without a doubt one of a kind in country music and now in rock music. She performed a new song at the recent ACM Awards Show and the 3 fans who weren’t staring at their phones (grrrrrr!!!) seemed to have enjoyed every second of it. Take a look at the icon doing her new song…

Some would say part of what’s making the “world on fire” is our obsession with smartphones. It’s not just the kids, either. I’m 44-years-old and feel the tether of my phone every day. It takes a lot of focus and discipline to leave the phone behind when I go anywhere! In an interesting connection to the awards show hosted by Dolly and Garth Brooks, I recently heard that the Garth Brooks show in Vegas is going to be strictly phone-free, requiring ticket holders to leave their phone at the door before they go into the venue. I actually love that idea. This isn’t the only connection to Garth. A song of his came to mind as I was listening to Dolly’s for the first time. “Standing Outside the Fire” (from 1993) is a call to action in the same way Dolly’s is.

Fire starters. Politics, as Dolly mentions. Denying God, also written in the lyrics. It’s a great song especially when it gets to the bright, hopeful lyrics towards the end.

As I listened to the song, I kept coming back to a song by Michael Jackson called “Earth Song.” The song is pretty epic but along with the video it’s taken on another level. It was released in 1995.

Dolly is a beloved part of American music history and I hope I can be like her one day. Are there other songs that reach this level of introspection? Perhaps “If I Can Dream” by Elvis? Chime in below with more titles and I’ll see you tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

Taylor Swift’s Nuisance Nashville Fan

Taylor Swift recently played three shows in Nashville, one even went on in the pouring rain! What a rockstar she is, whether you like her music or not. A lot of fans were able to get tickets after waiting hours and hours and hours and…. hours. Some people weren’t able to get tickets, obviously. There are only so many seats in Nissan Stadium, after all. So the shows came and went and then this story came out in the local Nashville news. An assisstant principal wrote Taylor a letter weaving in a lot of her song titles.

The gist of the letter, which goes on for a couple more paragraphs, was asking Taylor to come visit Hendersonville High School, where Taylor attended at some point in her high school career. Sounds innocent enough, right? But the writer made a major error. In the very first paragraph she said that she had tickets to Taylor’s show but sold them. I’m actually ticked off at this woman because she could’ve seen Taylor but didn’t. She made a conscious choice to make some money off the fame of Taylor Swift. That’s fine, but next she has the audacity to turn around and, after cashing in on the tickets, beg Taylor to do something for her. Now she just sounds like a selfish leech. I’m not at all surprised that Taylor didn’t show up to the school like a princess on a white horse. I wouldn’t have either… except maybe to ask the woman in-person how much she made from the tickets she would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, used. I’d ask her quietly, of course. Then I’d go hug all the students and be the highlight of their high school year while that woman knows that I know that she knows that I know.

Speaking of knowing things… Did you know Taylor was in a music video WAY before she was famous? Make a guess on which video it was then click here for the answer!

This assistant principal woman took advantage of Taylor and then wanted to double down by taking advantage again! Asking Taylor to change her schedule was a selfish idea. Having her show up at the school wasn’t for the kids, you know. It was so the woman would feel happy about herself and be liked by the students at the school. Nice try, Teach! Better luck next time and a piece of advice, don’t mention the way you used someone then ask the person you used to go way out of their way to be used by you again. That’s what a toxic relationship looks like, right? You should be embarrassed but soon you’ll get better if you can just shake it off.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Song in the New Walmart Commercial – Plagiarism and More

Walmart has a sweet (and slightly sour?) commercial featuring one of my favorite fruits – strawberries! Take a look then scroll down for more info about the ad…

The Music. The soundtrack to the commercial is a song called “I See It, I Like It, I Want It” by Shirley Ellis. Here’s the full track from 1965.

Same Thing Again. You might recognize the song from another national ad. This one was from Samsung advertising a couple of Galaxy phones, the fold and the flip.

Controversy. The decades-old song reminds me of one from Ariana Grande called “7 Rings,” released in 2019. Lyrics repeat the same lines I see it, I like it, I want it… then adding another line: I got it. I know it’s probably difficult to claim any kind of royalties or copyright infringement for a few short sentences but you’d think Ms. Grande would at least mention the peculiar similarity to to the song by Ms. Ellis. I haven’t found anything online mentioning the duplicate lyrics but what I DID find is other controversies about Grande’s song. Allegedly the song cadence was “stolen” from a 2010 Soulja Boy hit. Another part of the lyrics were called out as sounding like another female rapper, Queen Nokia in her song, “Mine.” Of course, the main melody of Ariana’s song is from The Sound of Music. Because of that, Ariana agreed to forfeit 90% of song royalties, which will go to the writers of the song featured in the movie.

How’s that for a little bit of a rabbit hole? Did you enjoy the Walmart commercial, which was the point of this whole post! Do you think Ariana Grande should address the similar lyrics as the Shirley Ellis song? Chime in below!

-Out of the Wilderness

1990s Bud Light Commercials that Haven’t Aged Well

Bud Light’s current situation makes the five ads below so much more funny, ironic, and cringe-worthy. Just wait till you get to the “in the can” ad. Takes on a whole new meaning now that Dylan Mulvaney (whose only option is “in the can” if you know what I mean) made an embarrassing video with his face on a can of Bud Light. Producing that can was the first bad choice Bud Light made. Since then, they can’t seem to do anything right. Every decision ads to the humiliation they’re enduring… or NOT enduring. People have dug up old commercials from Bud Light that make them look even worse than anyone ever thought possible. You see, by sending a personalized can to Dylan, they were making a statement: we embrace the trans community. That’s fine. But they clearly lost sight of their customer base. On top of that, it wasn’t long ago Bud Light was using men like Dylan as the punchline of their commercials. Here are a few of the ads from the 90s where Bud Light was making light of men in drag. And like I said, the last ad… it’s just perfectly horrible for Bud Light in 2023.

-Out of the Wilderness