Good Old Days

The title track off Dolly Parton's third solo album, 1969's In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (RCA Victor), avoids empty nostalgia. That term better applies to a lot of other country music trends and songs. Examples include pretending that people in the Old West sat around singing in snazzy outfits instead of fending for their lives, or, more recently, Hank Williams Jr.'s alt-history about the South winning the Civil War. Instead of longing for an exaggerated take on the past, Parton wrote about looking back realistically while acknowledging a need to move forward.

In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) is the third solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on February 3, 1969, by RCA Victor.

When Elektra Records’ founder Jac Holzman signed Carly Simon to his label in 1970, it was the beginning of an extraordinary friendship. Their story unfolds in a new collection of songs chosen and sequenced by Holzman. He follows the arc of Simon’s meteoric rise with a mix of hits and deep cuts selected from the singer-songwriter’s first three albums.