Comments on: More from “British guitarist”: analysis of Bobby Gentry singing “Ode to Billy Joe”

By: stan

stan — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 19:07:29 +0000

The storytelling song of farm life in the South in the 60s reminds of this one that I think is the greatest love song ever. Not romantic love. The real, nitty gritty love that is the only kind that really matters. Get your tissues ready. Clarence Carter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaKP_jKz6YA

By: Bilwick

Bilwick — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 16:11:58 +0000

I remember her singing it on The Smothers Brothers show, and I remember how attractive I thought she was. Then, later in the show, she sang “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”–while wearing one. Yowza! It’s interesting that in my memory she was almost naked, and my mother expressed disapproval; but I saw a clip of this on YouTube about a year ago, and the bikini she wore was more modest (if there is such a thing as a “modest bikini”) than I remembered. I guess in the ensuing decades I got “spoiled” by string bikinis and microkinis.

By: RB Glennie

RB Glennie — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 15:11:40 +0000

I love this song, it is considered a `country’ song but it really isn’t is it? And Bobbie Gentry is more than just `Billie Joe’, too…

By: Sarah Rolph

Sarah Rolph — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 14:08:13 +0000

I’m so glad you found this guy and shared these videos with us. I watched this yesterday along with the one on Frankie Valli and then I watched a few more. He does Patsy Cline singing Crazy and talks for a LONG time about vocal chords. There’s also an analysis of Janis Joplin singing Ball and Chain at Monterey Pop.
I love hearing people speak about what they know and love, plus I’m interested in music but don’t know a thing so there’s lots to learn here. To add to the enjoyment, I like many of these songs. It is fascinating to learn about some of the technical reasons for my emotional response to a song like Crazy. (The analysis includes the point that a certain sound is similar to a baby’s cry and so gets a visceral response.) Fil has a delightful presence and it’s so heartwarming to watch his enthusiasm for each performer’s gift.

By: DNW

DNW — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 13:51:51 +0000

I got the song so wrong, that I thought that “Billy Joe” was “Billie Joe(sephine)” or something. Well, A.M.was radio in a car my parents were driving … and all that

Assumed that the female singer of the song, with her blase morally indifferent tone, had helped a female friend to dispose of a newborn, and that the birth mother, feeling guilty, later killed herself.

Re chopping cotton. 1967, was only 20 years or so past the day when small farmers in the south did hand work in their own fields.

Although Gentry appears not to have been the naive and untutored girl the truncated story of her demo tape seemed to indicate (I thought she taped a demo single on a home recorder in her living room or something), a laconically felt connection to field work would have been perfectly natural in the south and in much or rural America at that date. It would have been something your parents and grandparents conversed about naturally, and something that was just then fading away, but lived in daily memory.

By: H

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:16:20 +0000

Many thanks to Chap and Tom Grey for chasing those links down. Fascinating.

By: FOAF

FOAF — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 04:29:35 +0000

My take is that she didn’t quite “snap” but it was coming all along. There is a lot of BS in the music business and she apparently wasn’t the type to put up with it willingly. Plus she seems to have been financially shrewd unlike many artists/musicians who hit the jackpot and then fritter it away. One thing that caught my eye was that she was an early investor in the Phoenix Suns. With the way the value of sports franchises has skyrocketed that alone assured her financial independence. So when she acquired enough FU money she said FU. The thing that is strange is how she has completely cut herself off. Maybe she is not a “people person”. I can relate.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 04:03:14 +0000

FOAF, I did read it. Agree that “one-hit wonder” is a disservice to her. Multi-talented, driven, ambitious, but obviously something must have snapped to make her “disappear” at age 40. Kind of sad, though maybe she’s happy. I’m sure three brief failed marriages didn’t help.

By: Estoy Listo

Estoy Listo — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 01:35:22 +0000

Puts me in mind of “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” another summertime hit taking place in the rural south. Both songs were played endlessly on AM radio.

By: gina

gina — Sun, 31 May 2020 21:47:29 +0000

Such an emotive song. I first heard it when I was 7 and it made me cry; still does. I saw the movie later as a teen-ager. It didn’t do the song justice-and honestly, I didn’t buy then nor do I now the reason the movie gave why Billy Joe jumped off the bridge. Thank you for including this. It prompted me to read about Bobby Gentry. I’m always surprised (although I shouldn’t be) how many of these folk or R&R singers have significant training and virtuosity; they didn’t just happen.