Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry (BBC Live 1968) 

I'm from a fishing town in Ireland & have zero connection to the Mississippi Delta region, but that song makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I've never heard anyone paint a picture of a time & place so accurately. Her delivery is out of this world, it's so achingly beautiful & the casual indifference the fathers comments at the dinner table are just perfect, I can imagine the sun burnt Dad scratching a living off back breaking toil, he lives & breathes the hardship of his life. This is a masterclass in songwriting & performance. Its utterly faultless.

Today is June 3 2024. Still one of my favorite songs. Haunting and beautiful. ❤

Who is listening in 2024?

She sang this, live! No lip-syncing, no auto-tune, nothing of the sort. Absolute perfection.

This is how you sing, this is how you write...this song still haunts me after 40 years!!

I don't recall anybody covering this song. Bobby owns this song. Nobody can sing it like her. Thank you Bobby.

This is as hauntingly beautiful today as it was from the day she wrote it. A masterpiece

I'm here on June 3rd again. 2024. I've loved this song as long as I can remember. Daddy knew Ms. Bobbie, and this song reminds me of Daddy. I know the place she sings about. We went through there when I was little, I guess I should go again. Peace of Christ y'all, V.❤

I first heard this song on a transistor radio while sitting on a hilltop in Vietnam. The fog was rolling into the valley below us one night and hearing this song added to the eeriness of the night. The 70 men of our infantry company was awaiting orders to go into the valley to confront the NVA enemy. It was a scary time indeed!

The older I get the more I realize this is a brilliant piece of song writing/singing.

In August of 1967, a nine year old northern boy was on a station wagon vacation in the South with his folks. In a diner, at breakfast, he had a dime to play a song on the juke box. He chose this song.

I was a kid in the 1970s when one day I was rummaging through my parents record collection and came across this. I put it on and listened to it over and over. I remember crying, just overcome by the impact of her smoky, soulful voice, the way she recounts the sad story just above a whisper, so intimately. And those strings tastefully, hauntingly accenting her voice. It's quite perfect.

I remember when this song came out. I just stopped and listened the first time I heard it. Hauntingly beautiful. Master storytelling of American Gothic!

I love the haunting nature of this song. The writing is a masterclass in storytelling. The understated music, delivery, and character portrayal doesn't just tell the story, it IS the story. It is an allegory about euphemism - avoiding the truth by underspeaking it. The chorus repeats that Billy Joe jumped off the bridge but no one says aloud that he killed himself. That he is dead. Why did he kill himself? Why does anybody kill themselves? It's not the point. The point is that nobody seems to care that he did - save one...the narrator. His death shocked her into silence and took her appetite, but nobody at that table - HER family members - did the math to realize that Billy Joe was someone to her. She never spoke it but she immortalized him in an Ode. It's chilling and a bit depressing that humans pass through life taking such little notice of other humans, even those that they love.

I‘v lived to be 71 and this is one of a handful of songs that have touched my soul every time I hear it! They don‘t make songs like that any more. The soft voice and the mellow guitar get to me every time. And again I have just wiped my eyes and blown my nose. Thanks Bobbie!

Very few songs in this world are perfect, but this is one of them. Eloquent, mysterious, situational, storytelling lyrics. Understated, but emotional delivery. Gorgeous, almost haunting, voice. Raw, staccato, acoustic guitar. Unrevealed allegory that sends the mind searching for answers. Gorgeous, sincere woman. Perfect

Still gives me haunting goosebumps after all these years. She captured something in this that only a southerner could know.

Songwriting is a lost art. They do not make them like this anymore.

What a beautiful time capsule. Can't we all just feel the grittiness, the hot afternoon sun & sultriness(sp) of a delta late summer afternoon. What a voice, what a talent.

TRIVIA: It sounded like nothing else on the radio. In its first week of release, “Ode” sold 750,000 copies, knocking “All You Need Is Love” out of the top spot on the Billboard chart. It stayed there for four weeks. The song won Gentry three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist (she was the first Country artist to ever win in this category). Not long after the song’s debut, the water cooler talk started. “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 or Memphis. Swamp rock singer Tony Joe White (Rainy Night in Georgia, Polk Salad Annie) never had any doubts about Bobbie Gentry’s talent - he credits her with turning him into a songwriter: “I hadn’t started writing yet. I was listening to the radio one day and I heard Ode to Billie Joe. Man, this girl with a great voice, playing a cool guitar, and I thought: ‘How real can you get?’ I thought, I am Billie Joe - I’ve picked cotton, and been in the river and been in the swamps. I thought if I ever write something it’s got to be as real as Ode to Billie Joe. It wasn’t too long after that I started on Polk Salad Annie. I remember the radio, listening to it, the whole thing - it was like a turn-around, you know?” She is now blonde and looks great for 80. Search for.... ''Bobbie Gentry Seen In Public For First Time In 30+ Years'' to see recent pix from 2-3 years ago.

This song has always chilled me to the bone. I could never quite describe why, but "a study in unconscious cruelty" hits the nail on the head.

Southern Gothic at its best. Well done Bobbie!

This song still gives me chills. I never realized what a brilliant performer Bobbie Gentry was. I knew she was different than other country/pop singers, but I didn't realize back then how different.

Who's listening to this great song from the 1960's in October/November 2019?

Her voice is amazing. Something soothing about it. She isn't trying to show off, she is just singing it as easy as you or I talk.

I'm 16, I love this song. And wow was Bobbie a looker. Beautiful lady she was.

A song that stands on it's own from a time when there was a new masterpiece every week

100% the most underrated artist of the 1960s. Utterly brilliant.

Bobbie Gentry was incredibly beautiful, and she had an exquisite voice. It had a "smoky" quality, and always reminded me a bit of Dusty Springfield's.

The first time I heard this song it made me cry, I was 10 years old, I heard it on the radio while driving a tractor on our farm. I still love this song and it still makes me cry.

BOBBIE GENTRY IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AND TALENTED WOMAN. THIS SONG IS SO UNIQUE .NOONE ELSE COULD EVER WRITE ANYTHING LIKE THIS EVER !

There are only a handful of truly perfect songs in this world, and this is definitely high on that list.

This song is hypnotic, can't hear it enough.

This is none of those things ive ever listened to in my life, now i understand why modern pop music isnt that good anymore. Im speechless, it is beautiful and shes beautiful.

I had forgotten how superb this song was. This is pure Americana and one the greatest songs ever written. It belongs in the Smithsonian or wherever they exalt and preserve cultural treasures.

One of the best story-songs I've ever heard.

What a stunningly beautiful woman x

The story of the song tells of how people can be emotionally detached from something as severe and final as death. I think that is why the song endures. It catches that part of the the human psyche that wants to protect itself from death.

Bobbie is now 79 and still beautiful!

Notice how the live string ensemble was right on the money with their arrangement. Classic live performance. The song still haunts, doesn't it?

Woah, she's beautiful. :)

This beautiful lady is from my home county of Chickasaw Mississippi, when I was a kid my sisters would listen to her, Janice Joplin, Dusty Springfield, Cat Stevens, and Simon and Garfunkel. Man, what a wonderful childhood I was awarded. Thank you Anna and Sandra, the best sisters a young man could wish for.

Now that is something, sad , soulful melancholic and leaves you to think what happened, all time class act

Genius songwriting, genius phasing, and perfect voice for delivery.

This song is hauntingly beautiful and sticks with me since I was a kid.

I was a year old when this came out. But as I grew up, I remember this song very well. Great song.. ❤❤❤

I remember being 8 years old sleeping in my father's arm while he drove his old truck. This song is so vividly stained in my memory 20 years later I know it word for word. 💜💜💜💜

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, chopping cotton is the first hoeing that occurs after the young cotton plants become sturdy enough to withstand the process. It involves thinning out excess plants, leaving groups of two or three spaced apart by about the width of the hoe blade. Lakeside Reflections.

I heard this song on some AM radio station late at night once in Mississippi, while crossing the Tallahatchie river. Ms. Gentry's haunting voice will still break your heart as you envision the quiet desperation of the impoverished rural folk in the Delta.

This song was so different in it's time almost 50 years ago ... the haunting melodies and lyrics continues to endear it to me 50 years later.

I love this song. What else can I say? Nothing in this world is more haunting than a beautiful girl with a secret.

Bobbie, you are incomparable. What a talent. That said - the strings. The strings! Whoever orchestrated the strings - genius.

Songs years ago told stories. I miss that. Give me real music like this any day.

Lyrics in this are perfect. Nothing comes close.

"Ode to Billie Joe" was originally intended as the B-side of Gentry's first single, a blues number called "Mississippi Delta", on Capitol Records. The original recording, with no other musicians backing Gentry's guitar, had eleven verses lasting seven minutes, telling more of Billie Joe's story. The executives realized that this song was a better option for a single, so they cut the length by almost half and re-recorded it with a string orchestra. The only surviving draft of the 7 minute version of "Ode to Billie Joe", which consists of two handwritten pages, is located in the archive of the University of Mississippi, donated by Gentry. In addition to the iconic lyrics that made the final cut, the unused lyrics may showcase Bobbie Gentry's mindset and possible answer to the mystery of what was throw from the bridge; as well as the relationship of the narrator to Billie Joe. The shorter version left more of the story to the listener's imagination, and made the single more suitable for radio airplay.

51 years later, and this is still rocking.

You can feel the deliciousness of this music. Like lazily cruising down a river of whipping cream on a barge. The occasional throb and gut wrenching twist and turn by the cellos and strings is so memorable and so whippoorwillian evocative that I can teer on almost any subject. Beautiful. For me, I wish the Eulogy on my having passed to be underscored by this song. Thank you Miss Bobbie Gentry.

This is an incredible piece of poetry.

I grew up poor in a small rural town in Tennessee. This is such an incredible song that never fails to take me back to the time and place of my youth. So simple yet so we’ll crafted and delivered. Wow!!

We live a life exactly like the song says growing up in Mississippi. It made me the man I am today and thank God I'm a Southern Man loving God, and saying yes sir and yes mam. Bobbie was my mother's name. Born in Waynesboro Mississippi so poor but the love she had for others who needed help, made me realize what was important.

Remember this 💎 from my childhood in NZ during the late,60s-a beautiful,haunting,mystical song!

Immediately as soon as I hear the opening chords of this song I'm transported back to 1967

Bad ass Jam!! This is music NOT the crap that plays in 2021!!!

Those of us of the age of 70+ we can relate to being raised up working on the farm the way she is singing this song. Wouldn't won't to have been raised up any other way. Love those old days and love this song and the way she sings it.

A look back to a time when music could still stir ones heart, when actual talent was still required. Thanks for the look back in time.

Still listenin in Scotland! It's the 3rd of June 2021...

I live about 30 miles north of the Tallahatchie bridge. This song makes me feel so Southern. The Delta. And so tearful.

i was a 6 year old child when this was first released, loved it then, still love it 55 years later

I always loved the melody on this song and her unique shuffling strum on that little acoustic guitar. That song really caught the mood of being out in the rural parts of the south among the tall pine woods and bayous even if you weren't watching a film accompanying it. Bobby Gentry is a great songwriter, story teller and singer and a good representation of the beautiful ladies from down south in those days. A good live rendition of that tune too.

This song is full of class. Thank you Ms Gentry.

My Husband was heading to Vietnam & said in the barracks before they left everywhere he went everyone was playing this song. Every time he hears it he says he remembers it like yesterday. He walking down the sidewalk & heard the song over & over while walking by everyone's rooms. This is classic country, storytelling at it's FINEST ❤🙌👏

This is everything

What a piece of work. Both the singer and the song. Ms. Gentry wrote and sang a masterpiece, then left the business. Whole lotta class.

Absolutely classic. Love and good vibes to Bobbie. 55 years since this song took the country by storm!

Have always loved this tune

Chills

This song has a sense of tension like no other, no shouting or screaming guitars, just that little simple 3/4 guitar setting the rythm and feeling with Bobby's extraordinary sincere vocal and the lyrics are just mesmerising. A genuine musical original one off. Cheers for the upload.

Checking in on Billy Joe's day. The song takes me back to an innocent time, when I didn't understand the subtext. Beautifully haunting song.

Bobbie Gentry was an amazing songwriter. one of the best.

I have always loved the simplicity and melancholic nature of this song. It cam out before I was born, still I recall hearing it and being moved by it.

I was a little kid, a kindergartner in NYC, listening to this song while riding in the back of the Pontiac. Still gets me every time. As I've gotten older the lyrics have grown more meaningful. Glad to know it has stood the test of time.

Wow. I remember that from my youth. This song is incredible. She has incredible talent and brings our imagination to life with this ballad.

Her voice is so calming💗

My dad had a collection of country and western albums , this song was my favourite track, always thought i was a weird ten yr old for wanting to play it till i knew it word for word ,

The song is a masterpiece puzzle and by design it cannot be solved. I know the line about throwing something off the bridge was purposely written that way and purposely left a mystery, but I still find myself trying to figure it out. The tune makes you feel southern heat beating down. A masterpiece musical puzzle.

I miss her so much, she was my hero! When I was a little girl my mom and Dad took me to see her at Harrahs in Reno Nevada where I was born and raised, and when she came around that curtain vamp like and sang Fancy I was never the same. Since I sang Since I was a tiny girl my mother would put me on the kitchen table in my red dress and I would catwalk down the table singing Fancy to all the huge Italian family and friends . Reba did a good job but nobody could ever beat Bobby Gentry. Fun fact she married Bill Harrah but divorced in a few days.

I was middle or late 20's with 3 kids and I fell like a ton of bricks for Bobby Gentry and Diana Ross. Too gorgeous entertainers IMO.

First heard this song while watching a movie in the 70s, when I was probably too young to be. The movie is called Ode to Billy Joe and 40 years later still gets me. Robbie Benson was awesome!

My mom was from this exact location in MS and a huge fan of Bobbie Gentry. This tune was as much an "Ode" to my uncle. He had incredible personal issues and a big disconnect with his family and younger sister (mama). Bobbie tells the story very well...

The emotion in this one is so strong. She's so gorgeous & talented. Everything about this video resonates so well. It's like magic. It's so soothing, despite the dark subject matter.

This is Pure American Southern Soul. BTW She is Singing Live...NO Lip Synch. She can Sing Better LIVE than the Twits today can sing with CGI and all the other computer crap. Today we live in a fake computer world, back then "it was Real Talent". I am so happy I was there for the "real McCoy", it will never be duplicated.

Heard this today on my local radio station in England and forgot how good it still is.

This song will always be a classic.

I lived in Pontotoc & Tupelo, Mississippi in my Life time. This song is very close to my heart! :)

Haunting...even after listening to it all these years later. Beautiful as is the singer.

Man, Bobbie Gentry’s lyrics and story are brilliant! She included mentions of the mundane such as passing the black-eyed peas, “I’ll have another piece of apple pie,” etc., with the story of a young man’s tragic death. That helps drives home the theme of subconscious cruelty. It’s made all the more clear by the “Billie Joe never had a lick of sense” comment. People around the dinner table are speaking nonchalantly about something so terrible. Plus they don’t even realize that the narrator _is_ the young lady who’d been spotted with the deceased - the girl who “looked a lot like you,” as someone said to her. Folks are talking cavalierly about his death, not getting that she’s in mourning. Her mom even cluelessly wonders why she seems to have lost her appetite. Then at the end of the song, the tables turn as the narrator gives an update on her family life in the year since Billie Joe’s death. Her dad has died, and her mom is in a deep state of depression. At this point, the titular fellow’s former girlfriend could be consoling her mother, and one might expect her to be grieving her father’s passing. But she’s still too consumed with her own sadness over her boyfriend’s death for any of that. So there she is spending much time dropping flowers at the sight of his suicide. This is an absolute masterpiece! 👏🏽

What a voice

I was 7 yrs old when this song was released. I remember my mom having every Gentry album including her duet album with Glen Campbell. I also remember being totally taken with wonder regarding the lyrics. When the film debuted in 1976, we finally thought we knew. I have often wondered what Gentry thought of the film

I saw her @ the Marine Corps ball in 1971. Memphis,TN. We were @ helo school, waitin for orders to Operating Squadrons. Before goin 2 RVN. She was a VERY pretty lady! GREAT singer. WE drank pitchers of beer. GREAT time.

Her voice is heavenly angelic🕊️🤍