another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay.
And at dinner time we stopped,
and we walked back to the house to eat.
And mama hollered at the back door
"y'all remember to wipe your feet."
Within a week of release in 1967, Ode to Billie Joe, the song written and performed by 20 year old Bobbie Gentry, an unknown Mississippi born singer-songwriter sold 750,000 copies in a week and replaced the Beatles "All You Need is Love" from the top of the music charts.
Her album of the same name knocked Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band off the top of the albums chart.
Ode to Billie Joe, was Gentry's debut single and was recorded in 40 minutes on July 10 1967. Gentry accompanied herself on acoustic guitar and strings were added later. The original version of the song was 7 minutes long, however the record company cut it down to 4 minutes and released it as a single.
The mysterious and tragic song, described by some as a "Southern gothic song", told the story of young lovers, the suicide of a young man and something thrown off a bridge in Mississippi.
Gentry's first person narrative, written from the perspective of the main female character, lays out a dinner table conversation between the narrator, her mother and father and brother about the death of her friend Billie Joe McAllister.
The conversation links the narrator to Billie Joe and then the mother tells the narrator (Gentry) that the town's preacher saw a girl "that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge" And then comes the lines that evokes the mystery at the heart of the song:
'And she and Billy Joe was throwin’ somethin’ off the Tallahatchee Bridge'
People were intrigued by the mystery at the heart of the song's narrative. What did Billie Joe and his friend throw off the Tallahatchee Bridge and why- was it a baby, a ring, a rock, a bouquet of flowers or something else thrown off the bridge? And why did Billie Joe jump off the bridge to commit suicide?
Gentry said little about the song's origins and meaning, increasing the mystery associated with the song and leaving the listener to read their own meaning(s) into the song.
Gentry once said the song was really about indifference, and was as she described it “...a study in unconscious cruelty.”
Those questions are of secondary importance in my mind. The story of Billie Joe has two more interesting underlying themes. First, the illustration of a group of people's reactions to the life and death of Billie Joe, and its subsequent effect on their lives, is made. Second, the obvious gap between the girl and her mother is shown, when both women experience a common loss (first, Billie Joe and, later, Papa), and yet Mama and the girl are unable to recognize their mutual loss or share their grief.The song sold over 3 million copies and Gentry won 3 Grammy awards, including Best Artist, the first country artist to win the award. In 2001, Rolling Stone magazine listed the song among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
As part of the Bloomsbury 33 1/3 series on popular albums, journalist Tara Murtha wrote Ode to Billie Joe, a book which casts Gentry as a feminist icon who wore false eyelashes and danced on stage in skin-tight jumpsuits and wrote songs of high literary value that crossed genres, while pursuing her own independent musical and business vision in a male dominated music industry.
Murtha reminds us that Gentry was one of the first female country artists to compose songs, include her own songs on albums (her first album Ode to Billie Joe included 10 of her own songs), play her own instruments and produce her own music.
Murtha cites a 1974 quote from Gentry (about her song Fancy), which reflected her views about women's liberation:
"I agree wholeheartedly with that movement and all the serious issues they stood for-equality, equal pay, day care centres, and women's rights to abortion."
Of Gentry, Murtha said:
‘People saw a country singer, but she was really foremost a brilliant writer-composer and multi-instrumentalist, who also happened to be a super-sexy theatre geek. She designed costumes for each character she created, for god’s sake’
A long interview with Murtha and an extract from her book is here.
In this interview singer- songwriter and producer Joe Henry cited the song's influence on him.
"I loved "Ode to Billy Joe" - like anybody, you know, Bobbie Gentry. That was such an incredibly deft bit of writing in the way that that story is unfolded. You know, it starts off, you know - it places the character in a moment, and then the story just starts to unfold around it. And I think it's a perfect example of great songwriting... an incredibly deft bit of writing in the way that that story is unfolded. … [I]t places the character in a moment, and then the story just starts to unfold around it"
An intriguing aspect is not just the mystery associated with the song, but also with Bobbie Gentry herself (whose real name was Roberta Streeter).
Bobbie Gentry was born in Mississippi in 1947 and grew up in a family environment steeped in music. In 1960, after her mother's divorce, Gentry moved to California. She taught herself guitar, banjo, bass and vibes and started playing gigs as a teenager. She performed as a stage performer, dancer and singer and studied at the LA Conservatory of Music.
After the success of Ode to Billie Joe, Gentry's career took off. She released award winning and best selling singles and albums, toured and performed with high profile artists, appeared on TV shows and even stared in her own TV show. She charted 11 singles on the Top 100 and 4 singles in the UK Top 40. She also created highly successful stage and cabaret performances at Los Vegas.
By 1975 Gentry had lost interest in music and dropped out of the music industry. She disappeared from public life and has not performed, released any music or made any public statements ever since. She has refused interviews and remained silent.
Ode to Billie Joe
Bobbie Gentry
It was the third of June,
another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay.
And at dinner time we stopped,
and we walked back to the house to eat.
And mama hollered at the back door
"y'all remember to wipe your feet."
And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense,
pass the biscuits, please."
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow."
Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right.
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,
And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today,
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday. Oh, by the way,
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe.
Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died last spring,
And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything.
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge,
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
Murtha reminds us that Gentry was one of the first female country artists to compose songs, include her own songs on albums (her first album Ode to Billie Joe included 10 of her own songs), play her own instruments and produce her own music.
Murtha cites a 1974 quote from Gentry (about her song Fancy), which reflected her views about women's liberation:
"I agree wholeheartedly with that movement and all the serious issues they stood for-equality, equal pay, day care centres, and women's rights to abortion."
Of Gentry, Murtha said:
‘People saw a country singer, but she was really foremost a brilliant writer-composer and multi-instrumentalist, who also happened to be a super-sexy theatre geek. She designed costumes for each character she created, for god’s sake’
A long interview with Murtha and an extract from her book is here.
In this interview singer- songwriter and producer Joe Henry cited the song's influence on him.
"I loved "Ode to Billy Joe" - like anybody, you know, Bobbie Gentry. That was such an incredibly deft bit of writing in the way that that story is unfolded. You know, it starts off, you know - it places the character in a moment, and then the story just starts to unfold around it. And I think it's a perfect example of great songwriting... an incredibly deft bit of writing in the way that that story is unfolded. … [I]t places the character in a moment, and then the story just starts to unfold around it"
An intriguing aspect is not just the mystery associated with the song, but also with Bobbie Gentry herself (whose real name was Roberta Streeter).
Bobbie Gentry was born in Mississippi in 1947 and grew up in a family environment steeped in music. In 1960, after her mother's divorce, Gentry moved to California. She taught herself guitar, banjo, bass and vibes and started playing gigs as a teenager. She performed as a stage performer, dancer and singer and studied at the LA Conservatory of Music.
After the success of Ode to Billie Joe, Gentry's career took off. She released award winning and best selling singles and albums, toured and performed with high profile artists, appeared on TV shows and even stared in her own TV show. She charted 11 singles on the Top 100 and 4 singles in the UK Top 40. She also created highly successful stage and cabaret performances at Los Vegas.
By 1975 Gentry had lost interest in music and dropped out of the music industry. She disappeared from public life and has not performed, released any music or made any public statements ever since. She has refused interviews and remained silent.
Ode to Billie Joe
Bobbie Gentry
It was the third of June,
another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay.
And at dinner time we stopped,
and we walked back to the house to eat.
And mama hollered at the back door
"y'all remember to wipe your feet."
And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense,
pass the biscuits, please."
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow."
Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right.
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,
And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today,
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday. Oh, by the way,
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe.
Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died last spring,
And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything.
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge,
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
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