Music video by Bobby Gentry performing Ode to Billie Joe (HQ/HD version) 🤠 Listen to more great country classics: • Country At Its Finest 📧 Email us: info@countryatitsfinest.com #BobbyGentry #Country
Every Saturday in the 1970’s growing up my Mama had my sister and I clean the house,and she would put on the 45’s --Harper Valley PTA ,Rose Garden, & Honey by Bobby Goldsboro . I still have those 45’s and they mean the world to me. ❤️
I still have all the old 8 track tapes and the 71 Chevy truck that we cruised in and enjoyed all the old great music and we still grab some beers and have another great cruise.
I beg to differ if you don't mind. Sometimes there's that one moment at the bridge (climax) of the song, you just CANT help but to sing. Actually when ever I watch this movie and this song starts.... I cant help but to sing along. Sometimes you can sit there with your eyes closed and just listen.... Then there are others when the melody hits you so hard and the words start that you have to sing along. I hope we can AGREE and also DISAGREE on this point.
It seems as though we're seeing "the music die" Did you see Biden give the South Korean president Don McCleans guitar and he strummed a bit and sang "bye bye miss American pie? It was a few days ago.
Ballads don't get any better than this. Bobbie Gentry is a phenomenal singer, songwriter. She simply brings music to life. You feel it down in your soul.
I wouldn't want to imply something that simply isn't true here, but I'd not be willing to wadger that Bobbie Gentry wasn't singing about something she has first-hand knowledge/experience with. After all, the more things change, the more they stay the same. P.S. A virus? Really? all the way back in the 1960s? Imagine that. Pay attention, folks. because in all likelihood, what has been will be again. It sucks, but it is what it is.
@@dudekfox7685 - Unlike yours, which apparently fails to work at all? Seriously, try thinking every once in a while, rather than simply sitting there and hammering inanely away at the keyboard, as if you actually know anything worth passing along.
I’m 55 and heard this for the 1th time when I was 9 years old and was amazed how I just sat and listened to every word , lsiteneing today 46 years later I still can’t stop listening to every word. I just believe I was there on that bridge every time I hear this being sung. That’s the power she has in her voice and how she tells this story. Love it to bits
Hi Mark, same age here. Aren't we fortunate to have experienced better times. What I mean by that, is not easier times, but more meaningful times. With at least, an illusion of innocence 😊
Hi Rebecca , yes todays world has so much in it , good and bad but when we were growing up everything seemed so much easier to me . I mean I grew up in Belfast Northern Ireland during the troubles here but still life was easier lol .
@@MarkMccullough-pz8gf...Mark, I am just seeing your reply now. Greetings, from America. Ireland is such a beautiful Country!! I wish you the best, navigating this new world order.
Hello Mark same age here and yes times are easier it seemed like back then and the beautiful music that was put out was wonderful it helped me through a lot of difficult times I do believe. I don't know if you have heard the story about the song but if you haven't you might go back and find it's out there on RU-vid but the song says it all really except a few things that was left out so enjoy digging deeper into the song God bless have a wonderful day.
@@MarkMccullough-pz8gfoh and wanted to say greetings from America I've always heard of Ireland and my family history is from Ireland hence the red hair so yeah greetings my friend greetings❤
I know in the movie that it was a rag doll thrown from the bridge, but when I first heard the song I immediately imagined it was a still-born baby that secretly belonged to her and Billy Joe.
I love the way she plays that guitar and then delivers the vocals with hsitations in exactly the right places, with the beat of guitar and her phrasing not quite matching, but also not clashing either. Very sophisticated performance and she makes it look SO easy.
I was mesmerized when this song first played on the radio. My friends in grade school and I would endlessly try to come up with answers about what happened to make Billy Joe MacAllister jump off of Talahatchee Bridge. This song is pure Southern Gothic wrapped up in a ballad.
When I was a 15 year old gas pump jockey, this song played on the radio all that summer at the gas station when it came out and it puts me back in that special early time of my life. Such a fond memory. Wish I could go back.
This reminds me so much of growing up around the Mississippi Delta. My mother's name was Bobbie Jo even. She was 1 if 12 sisters born to share-cropper parents during the great depression. My daddy used to tease that he married her because she could pick more cotton than the other girls and I was young enough to believe him. Anyway, this song takes me back.
She's in a league with Patsy Cline. Utterly exceptional, unbelievably talented, driven, intelligent, knew what she wanted and got it, then disappeared. Wish Patsy had lived longer. National treasures, both of them.
@william strozier My dad, named William also, stayed in the service until 1969..he decided to retire after 25 years, he was to go back for a 3rd tour in vietnam in 1969 but enough was enough. I was born a few years later. THANK YOU for your service.... a regconition not given freely back then and its sad, my dad never got over how he and others were not welcomed back. : (
@@MydNyteRayne "Thank You for Your Service " was a joke cooked up by the Government/Bush Sr Neocon admin post Desert Storm to keep the Cold War Vets involved and a patriotic feeling among the masses. It was a joke then in the early 90's and it became more of joke after 9/11 to any real vets. I laugh inside whenever hear it, then I think of friends who died in service who never got to hear the joke. I laugh for them., because it has been a joke for a very long time. WWII vets would laugh at it now.
A hauntingly beautiful song and singer. I think Hollywood really lost an opportunity to make her a movie star. A song can be a three act play, this is certainly one and acted to perfection. 🌼🌷🌻
Phuck Hollywood, and Bobby Gentry never wanted a part of that commercialized MSM BS, no matter the money. She lives that way till her end. Which only makes her more respectable and honorable., now. She retreated from fame and money, because it wasn't her, or her music, or how she had been brought up. Elvis does not stand up so high. Besides , Ms. Gentry wrote and sang her own songs.
Now you can sing along ❤️ ❤️ 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 And then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge And 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 And 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 Billie 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-a apple pie; you know, it don't seem right I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge And now ya tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge And 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 and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe And 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 want to 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
Bobby gentry was simply a fantastic singer and this song identifies her when she was mainly at her peak. Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful song.🙏🙏🙏🍀🍀🍀🌹🌹🌹🌹❤️
I was 11 when I first heard this song 55 years ago. I would stay awake school nights with my transistor radio turned low tuned to the Far East Network hoping to hear it again.
Gentry is a premier balladeer. ODE TO BILLY JOE and Lightfoot's WRECK of the EDMUND FITZGERALD are two ballads that haunt the human heart. They both describe human emotions; wonderment and hurt. ODE TO BILLY JOE describes my youth in an agricultural county. It strikes straight to the human heart's wonder about love and loss, rather you're rural born or city born. Gentry is superb in her renditions. Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, Bobby Gentry, Dusty Springfield, et al are superb balladeers. Each is unique. I am thankful I was alive to hear them. And that is also my thanks for hearing Peggy Lee and Patti Page.
I love this song! Don't know if it's the words/ writing of the song or Bobby's delivery but this song makes me feel like she's singing about events that actually happened. Awesome!
I still have this song on a 45 rpm record. From the first time I heard her sing the song, I was struck by how everything about the song, especially Ms. Gentry's voice, evoked so much atmosphere that it's almost visual... Those were the days. So much great music.
I've been a music nut since 1967. I still think this is probably the finest song (country, folk, whatever - defies definition) I've come across in all that time.
I agree, a tantalizing mystery constructed around an ordinary dinner table conversation. Along with the gorgeous music and voice, this is lyric story telling at its finest.
Remember hearing this on my brand-new transistor radio in the sixties coming home from school on a hot 🔥 dusty afternoon along a sunny Suffolk lane. I could really identify with the sentiments. God bless her.
I first heard this song on the radio when I was 17 and thought it was so out of the ordinary but I immediately was enamored and hoped it would earn recognition so I could hear it again. Little did I know that I wasn't alone and that it would become a hit and gain such a large following. It resonated with me having grown up on a Midwest farm and now that we live in Mississippi, not far from the Delta, it has another dimension of special meaning, especially every summer "sleepy, dusty Delta day."
Now if we could know what happened to this young lady and hopefully, she is doing well today. Bobby is great and she should know that many people like and respect her for all that she did.
I was about 10 years old when this came out. Beautiful woman and voice. We only had country music in our home. I've been looking for this and Fancy and I found both. I prefer this version of Fancy to Reba's. Thank you very much for this.
I was 12. Our family was actually eating supper when we heard it played on the radio. We all commenting how nonchalant about someone’s death whi,e eating supper as we say it in the South.
@@wd8557 every am radio station in the south played it four, five, six times a day. I listened to it every morning waiting on he school bus to arrive, I was nine going on ten years old.
My dad was born on the 3rd of June. Obviously his twin brother was too. My first niece was born on the 3rd of June. That bridge is like 13 feet. Unless you land on your head, you're fine. I miss women like this. Talented!
I've never lived in Mississippi, but I did grow up in Arkansas. But somehow, this song always takes me back to a place I belong. That hasn't ever changed for me since 1976. I was one of the first to the theatres.
I remember the biggest thing about this song that had the entire country buzzing and pontificating about and that was "what were she and Billy Joe throwing off of the bridge together?" It was the mystery of the entire country.
The song 'Ode to Billy Joe' explained: The singer was Billy Joe's secret girlfriend; they had to keep their relationship secret because of a feud between her father and Billy Joe's father. The singer had become pregnant and was meeting Billy Joe behind the church to tell him that she could not marry him and she was going to abort the baby and terminate the relationship. They threw the unborn fetus off the bridge together; however, Billy Joe could not live with losing his first love and his unborn son, which is why he committed suicide. A year later, the singer still gathered flowers and threw them into the river as tribute to her first love and her unborn son.
@@robertperry4439 The artist said she actually no idea what they threw off the bridge when she wrote the fictional song because it was only to show they where together. She did say years later she has an idea of what she thinks it was but she never told anyone. It was never the point of the song, just to show the callousness of people discussing a boys suicide so casually while their daughter is grieving without them noticing.
@robertperry. That is for sure at least partly incorrect. Obviously, her brother and Billy Jo were friends because they were playing pranks on her. She also talks about taking to him at church. So there was at least no family feud. That would make the rest of your analysis suspect. The enduring mystery is one reason this is such a great song.
@@eds3969 There is no mystery to it. The artist kept the meaning "hidden," because mentioning something like that back then would have been extremely frowned upon. I mean really, can nobody figure out what a young couple would be tossing off the bridge together? Did they think it was a pound cake?
Song came out before I was even thought of. My parents owned this record 30 yrs ago and many more I listened to,guess that is where my love of music comes from
