Music Series: Don't Take My Man

The song ‘Joelene’ is by American country music artist Dolly Parton. It was released over 4 decades ago and is ranked at No. 219 on the Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of “the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” The song is about a woman imploring another woman not to take her man from her

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can

As Dolly Parton’s voice crooned emotionally from the stereo in the car, Ada dashed at the tears that were flowing from her eyes, blinding her vision. She shouldn’t be crying; Andrew didn’t deserve her tears after all she didn’t love him or so she had convinced herself for the past nine months. Ada prided herself of always being in control of all her relationships and as she traveled down memory lane now, she realized that she had allowed herself to be a sucker and let ego get in the way of her emotions.

She was a beautiful girl of twenty-one and although from a middle class family, lived larger than most of her peers in the university. She wasn’t just another pretty face in the crowd, she was talented. At a young age of nineteen, she had won a music talent show that had earned her a recording deal, her present car and a celebrity status. She was all the things all the other girls wanted except she had totally botched all of that now with what was going on.

Andrew had wormed his way into her life against her better judgment; he was everything she didn’t want in a man but somehow he had been able to get her to consent to be his girlfriend. Of all the other guys that had been admiring her, he had been the most persistent and with the help of two of her close friends, he had gotten what he wanted. She agreed to date him because her label had insisted she needed to have a public figure of a lover to appeal to her fan base as a decent, responsible young star. Not wanting the hassles of a real relationship, she had offered an eager and too willing Andrew the option of an arranged relationship. She had never told him she loved him for once during all their time together but her attitude had changed towards him after about four months together. She had started to genuinely care.

Although he was an acting boyfriend, he took the relationship seriously. He had always said he didn’t care whether she said it wasn’t a real relationship since his love for her was true. He was always there for her whenever she was depressed or going through a bad patch with her music career. All the dates, outings and attending events together soon made them pretty close and she warmed up to him though never acknowledging she had any true feelings for him, until now. Andrew was about to leave her for another girl. The scandal of being jilted was not the worst of it all; he was dumping her for her best friend Elizabeth. Lizzy wasn’t as pretty as she but was equally as talented; she was a top actress and equally an A-list celebrity in her own right. They were so close the paparazzi had tagged them “Soul Sisters,” Lizzy had even appeared in some of Ada’s music videos and Ada couldn’t still believe this was happening. Ada hadn’t yet gotten over the betrayal by Lizzy, it was all the more shocking because Lizzy had never hidden her disapproval of Andrew, a guy she considered beneath their standards. To imagine that Lizzy was about to publicly step out with him was hurting.

Ada slumped in the car seat and smiled ruefully to herself. Dear old Dolly knew just how it felt when your man is about to be taken away from you. Just then Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine” came one. As the lyrics concerning who the boy belongs to filled her ears, Ada shaked herself mentally as she realized she wasn’t about to give up without a fight, this boy was hers and it was going to be a fight to the finish.

To Be Continued

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