Posted on 08/26/2022 4:15:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I couldn’t stand that actor in that movie, Robby Benson.
Well, I thought that she was precious...
“There was a virus going ‘round;
papa caught it, and he died last spring”
Instead, how about: “There was a vaccine going ‘round, Papa took it and he died last Spring.”
He dove in after an engagement ring she threw away.
Yeah, it was a good song but the article is pretentious twaddle.
Listen to Lucinda Williams’ version. It is definitely a masterpiece
Rose Law Firm records? The long form birth certificate?
I always thought he should have been brought in for questioning.
This is interesting:
“The bridge that Billie Joe McAlister jumped off of was elsewhere, and it collapsed in 1972. In 2016 Greenwood erected this marker to hometown singer/songwriter Bobbie Gentry, and stuck it next to a bridge. Since the song’s bridge is gone, and since this one has the Gentry historical marker, it’s enough for most folks.”
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/56386
And this, too:
“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.”
https://performingsongwriter.com/bobbie-gentry-ode-billie-joe/
Well, good for her! Go out on a high note. Escape the downside of fame afterward. Protect your privacy. Smart lady!
“Everybody seems more concerned with what was thrown off the bridge than they are with the thoughtlessness of people expressed in the song”
It isn’t thoughtlessness. People who have lived with death and dying accept it happens, that we don’t always know why and that, at least in human eyes, there often IS no reason why.
That is also true with suicide. People who commit suicide often do it for reasons known only to them. Where other may see success, they see failure. I feel bad if I hear someone kills themself, but I feel worse when someone who has a lot to live for and wants to live, dies!
But either way, “Pass the biscuits, please!” Our lives go on. And sometimes, not for much longer: “Papa caught it, and he died last spring.”
I feel more for “Mama” than for Billy Joe.
Brother married Becky Thompson. He was a pig(movie).
“ Fortunately, Gentry offered a clue …”
Offered a clue? She said what is about.
I like Lucinda but the brief blurb of her rendition off Mercury Rev. I heard seemed echoey to me. I didn’t like it. That and Bobbie’s voice was so distinctive and ingrained for that song, I can’t help but compare.
I listen to the whole song from Lucinda when I can.
Agreed. Article was pap.
Good song, remember when it came out. I still have trouble not calling it, “Ode to Billy Joel.”
The song came out when I was a senior in HS. I wasn’t really aware of such things as induced abortions at that age, but it just always seemed like the only thing that made sense to my 17 y/o brain.
I agree there was a pregnancy. That’s what they were talking about up on Choctaw Ridge. Billy Joe wanted to keep the baby and she didn’t. They had a backwoods abortion, probably some herbal concoction they got from the “old lady that lived up on the ridge”. They threw the baby off the bridge. Billy Joe couldn’t deal with what they did and jumped off the same bridge. That’s why she lost her appetite when she heard the news about Billy Joe and why she spends her time picking flowers on the Ridge and dropping them off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
A premature, born dead fetus.
Still alive at age 80 .......
IMDb lists at least two movie stuntmen named Billy Joe. He got sick of that lousy town and went to Hollywood. Bobbie and Billy got back together out there but she met someone else and . . . My ending is just as good and everyone lives ( except Papa)
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