Bobbie Gentry
Posted on 06/03/2014 1:47:46 PM PDT by re_nortex
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 walked back to the house to eat And Mama hollered out the back door, "Y'all remember to wipe your feet" Then she said, "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge Today Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge".Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas "Well, Billie Joe never had a lick o' sense, pass the biscuits, please There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow" And Mama said it was a shame about Billie Joe anyhow Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge And now Billie Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.Mama said to me, "Child what's happened to your appetite? I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched 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 Billie Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.A year has come and gone since I heard the news 'bout Billie Joe Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo There was a virus goin' round, papa caught it and he died last spring And now Mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything And me I spend a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
A haunting classic.
Thanks.
I loved that song, and still do.
Bobbie Gentry was 23 when she wrote it.
haven’t thought of that song in years! One of my favorites. Thanks for the memories. =)
Glad to oblige. Seems like every year on the third of June, I think about that song.
Then they had to make the stupid movie about the song, where it reveals Billy Joe killed himself because he was a fag.....The first beginnings of Hollywood’s manipulation to legitimize sodomy.
It will be interesting if she ever explains the song.
Man, that song was everywhere for almost a year. Great tune!
Easy explaination... just a post-birth abortion.
Nothing to see here. Move on.
They left out the verse about what the brother says!
Really? I thought it was a doll they threw into the river, signifying the loss of innocence/virginity. It is a haunting song.
At the time, speculation, that it was either a wedding ring, or a draft card.
Bobbie Gentry
This provides some insight but still remains a riddle as does Bobbie Gentry herself: “Ode To Billie Joe”.
“The song is sort of a study in unconscious cruelty. But everybody seems more concerned with what was thrown off the bridge than they are with the thoughtlessness of the people expressed in the song. What was thrown off the bridge really isn’t that important."
“Everybody has a different guess about what was thrown off the bridge—flowers, a ring, even a baby. Anyone who hears the song can think what they want, but the real message of the song, if there must be a message, revolves around the nonchalant way the family talks about the suicide. They sit there eating their peas and apple pie and talking, without even realizing that Billie Joe’s girlfriend is sitting at the table, a member of the family.”
The enigma of her best-known song is nothing compared to that of Bobbie Gentry herself. In the early ’70s, she was riding high—headlining in Vegas, duetting with Glen Campbell on several hits, hosting her own TV series. Then around 1975, after contributing music to a movie based on “Ode,” she simply checked out. She has not been heard from in over 35 years. All requests for interviews, recordings and performances have been denied. She is said to be living in the Los Angeles area.
Was it Miss American Pie they threw into the river, and did Billie Joe drive his Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry?
I have that on a flash drive in the media player in my car. Listen to it a couple of times a week. That and “Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald.”
“It was the third of September...”
The answer is simple it was Obama Birth Certificate that they threw off the bridge.
I have driven over a bridge over the Tallahatchie River several times. I saw her on some program many years ago and she said there was nothing special about what they were throwing off the bridge. She wasn’t thinking serious.
The name is interesting as there was an Indian village named
Tallahatchie in South Georgia and that is where the name Tallahassee originated. Of course Mississippi is a good distance away from either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.