Dolly Parton talks about the songs on her album Pure & Simple.
“Pure and Simple”
“‘Pure and Simple’ is a song about love that is comfortable, easy, precious, and I guess just comfortable–and ain’t that the kind of love that we like to have? Well…we need a little passion now and then…but it’s better when it’s just ‘Pure and Simple,’ to the point of almost being divine. I just thought the melody was pure and simple, and the words were pure and simple, and the love was pure and simple.”
“Say Forever You’ll Be Mine”
“One of my favorite lines is, ‘Trouble clouds may fill our skies, It might even rain a while, But the rain will go away, There’s always a brighter day.’ So, it’s just about saying that, if we just hang in there together, work it out together we’ll be fine.”
“Never Not Love You”
“Well, I wrote all the songs…like anything, it’s like your children…you love them all, but you like some of them more than others, and I really like this song because I think it’s just an odd little title…like I may do a lot of things, I may not do a lot of things, but I will never not love you. I just always wanted to write a song that had things like about winning the Pulitzer Prize, climbing Mount Everest, so I really got a chance to pull from some things that I thought were great, they you may or may not ever do, but I’ll never not love you…that’s a fact.”
“Kiss It (And Make It All Better)”
“That’s just a term we’ve always heard, when a little kid gets hurt, you always kiss it and make it feel better, and I thought it would be a neat thing to have like a broken heart for somebody to help you put the pieces back together just kind of kiss it make it all better. It’s just about two people that are both broken hearted, got a shattered romance, and they meet up, and they decided they’re going to kiss it, and make it all better. It’s kind of sexy too. (laugh)”
“Can’t Be That Wrong”
“There’s a lot of cheaters out there, and love comes in all shapes, and shades, and sizes. Of course there’s a lot of people out there very sincere, cause if you’re in love with somebody…whether it’s right, or whether it’s wrong, you can’t help loving them. I kind of based this on a true thing with someone very close to me, that was very happy at home, wonderful family, but fell for someone, and they fell hard–but they loved both of them. It’s just about that conflict of being torn between…and everybody saying ‘you can’t do this is so wrong, you’re gonna go to hell.’ I remember that person saying to me ‘well, look if I have to go to hell, I’ll go to hell, cause I’m not giving up this heaven.’ One of my favorite lines as a songwriter says ‘well, to hell with heaven if it means I’ll lose you. Anything that feels this right can’t be that wrong.’ I think all the cheaters are gonna love me! (laugh) ”
“Outside Your Door”
“To me, I pictured this like friends-with-benefits, you know there’s always people that you’re comfortably with, usually if you’ve ever been in love with somebody or even had a sexual relationship sometimes after that’s over you know that person so well, and so intimately that they can become best friends, and I’ve often heard that said. So, this is just about knowing that someone’s comfortably to be with, you’re dear friends, and if you don’t have someone of your own…you know you can show up at that door, you can have dinner, have a glass of wine, and if it led to something more…that’s how it goes cause you’re comfortable doing it.”
“Tomorrow Is Forever”
“Even if you’ve never been married before and you get married, you kinda worry about the ex-girlfriend or the ex-boyfriend and you kind of feel like maybe you’re not as good as them or are you going to measure up to them. Same thing, is like if you been married, divorced you always kind of have that baggage of wondering if your as good as that ex person, person that you might’ve had a history with. So, that particular song is like just putting the past behind us let’s just forget about the past and walk in to tomorrow because yesterday is gone, but tomorrow is forever. It’s just like, let’s have a new start and not drag all that baggage with us.”
“I’m Sixteen”
“This was also based on someone I know. I have a sister that had a couple really bad marriages and had two broken hearts and thought that she’d never love again. Just thought life was just not meant for her to have a perfect love. Then all of a sudden, she meets somebody and they are the cutest things I’ve even seen. They both had bad relationships and when they got together I swear to you they’re older but you think that they were 16 years old. They act like they’ve never been in love before, they act like teenagers, they look like teenagers and I was just watching them one day and I thought ‘my god, they think they’re 16, and they’re acting like they’re sixteen.’ And went, ‘oh, what a great idea for a song.'”
“Head Over High Heels”
“‘Head Over High Heels’ is a cute idea I think for me, because I always wear high heels, and you always heard people say ‘I’m head over heels in love with somebody.’ So I thought, well that’d be a cute song to write for girls. And I pictured myself with a whole bunch of other big star girls that wear their high heels like I do. If I ever do a video, I at least get them…if I can’t get them to sing with me, I can get them to walk down the street and get their high heels (laugh), but I just thought it was a cute idea.”
“Forever Love”
“When we renewed our vows, we’ve been married for 50 years…we were on the 30th of May, 1966. So we thought well, 50 years is a long time to do anything, especially to be married, especially in this business. So, I thought well, we’re going to get married again so I need to write us a wedding song, so I did, and that’s the song that I consider our wedding song, and I also wrote it thinking that would make a beautiful wedding song for other people.”