Ode To Billy Joe - Bobbie Gentry | Andy & Alex FIRST TIME REACTION! 

This!

I always listen to this on the third of June.

Yes!!! Lol

same here, but now I can appreciate the song more than I did as a kid, also hearing her voice on something a lot better than an old AM transistor radio.

​@@anmana7 yes! Next one is Papa was a Rolling Stone - Sep 3😆

Hard times can do that.

​@@pegasus5287True, but tell that to Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and a thousand other artists who grew up financially poor.

100% agree. I’ve thought this since the song came out. So many around me were obsessing about what they threw off the bridge and not empathizing with the tragedy. Kinda remade the whole point of the song, imo.

I thought it interesting that the guys caught what I knew Gentry said about the song, rather than what most people talked about; what they threw off the bridge.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Well said!

As I just posted, one theory of what was thrown off the bridge is that it was a wedding ring. She had rejected Billie's marriage proposal.

true

Well said. Definitely a looker!

Yeah, her voice is the very definition of sultry.

It was their baby.

@@mattdepinto7959 Bobbie Gentry has said it wasn't. She said that lone was a red herring.

I felt like I was sitting at the supper table.

Rick Hall, the music producer from FAME Studios, said he almost drove his car off the road the first time he heard this song at night on the AM radio, because it sounded so much like so many people he knew.

Agreed and in the final verse how within a year's time absolutely everything can change, just like in real life.

@@slcs369 : exactly!

To this day it makes me think back to my not fully-matured teenage brain being not quite able to process the sometimes disconcerting things that life could throw out there. The instrumentation and arrangement especially does a an excellent job of sustaining that sense of unsettling uncertainty

Exactly what I've thought -- Faulkner or O'Connor set to stark pop/folk music. Southern gothic and mystery, and the family "dynamic" is chilling. It was a huge hit.

I remember when this song came out and it caused, rightfully, a sensation. EVERYONE was talking about what they threw off that bridge. Most people thought it was an aborted fetus. In the song, what’s glossed over is the fact that the narrator and Billy Joe obviously had a secret relationship. The fact that she loses her appetite during the dinner while her mother is talking matchmaking her and that nice young preacher, is chilling. She probably knows why he jumped off the bridge, but can’t say anything. By the way, please play her follow up hit “Fancy”. Do not, for the love of god, play or even listen to Reba McIntyre’s cover, which was horrible and a travesty. “Fancy” was based on a true story about a Southern politician and the woman who was first his mistress, then his wife. Again, it was a sensation and for the next year, people were speculating just which Southern politician it was. That woman could write some songs!

I believe she and Billy threw a fetus off the bridge and he killed himself by jumping off the bridge. That's why she goes up there and throws flowers off the bridge. Like flowers on a grave.

So realistic too. The mealtime conversation and familial epilogue that any, and especially Southern, family can identify with.

@@rudedogmat She threw the flowers in mourning for Billie Joe. Bobby has said, for all these years, that what was thrown off the bridge was a red herring, and it doesn't matter.

An ode to what might have been.

Yes, go back to the master of story telling, Harry Chapin. In addition to “Taxi”, listen to “A Better Place To Be” (live version), and “Corey’s Coming”, two of his best

Oh, yeah. That’s an excellent suggestion!

All three of those are awesome... And Sniper is just emotionally chilling. They'll love that one.

YES. They need to do that one. Although they seemed underwhelmed by Cat's In The Cradle.

Yes. It's about how her family talks about it casually, not noticing how it affects the singer..

It was a baby. She miscarried his baby or something.

I was just thinking the same thing!! Also, Cat's in the Cradle by Cat Stevens.

@@jodiemaxwell375 Cat's in the Cradle is by Harry Chapin.

A&A suggested another ode. And Harper Valley PTA came to mind, but I decided it is a really bad ass song, but probably not an ode. But I’d love to hear them hear it.

Of which they also made a tv move staring Barbara Eden.

@@jodiemaxwell375I think you meant Father & Son

She did some excellent duets with Glen Campbell before vanishing.

Petula Clark was also a very productive writer, but she had to write under an assumed (male) name to be taken seriously.

​@@jdw5678yeh i have one of those records i think.they did stephen stills love the one your with have o dig out

yeah, I think it is not their preferred genre

that's a great description of this masterpiece

Certainly one of the most, what I would call "southern gothic", almost Faulknerian.

Yes but the movie was crap

Love the movie still to this day!

@@impudentdomain true

Did the movie version actually say (or heavily imply) what was thrown off the bridge?

@@kev7161 yes, it was a baby doll in the movie.

the true "message" of the song is what they threw off the bridge, and never explain in the song.

@@scambammer6102 That’s not what Bobbie Gentry said, who wrote the song. She even talks about what her true message of the song is in her live performance of it. It’s on RU-vid.

@@NYBredBamaFed Artists aren't always candid about their work, especially when it could result in adverse publicity, or when they are soft-peddling movie rights. I'm sure you will be outraged by this bit of insight.

I have a more cynical view of songs like this now that I'm old. It's clear it wasn't actually written by somebody experienced with farm life, but somebody who wanted to cast a negative shadow across farm life - a message that Hollywood and the music industry have been driving for decades.

@@LadyIarConnacht I don't know what planet your farmlife is from but for me it's spot on. The song especially evokes a memory for me of my great uncle being mangled while drilling a well and how it was a part of the midday meal conversation that evetyone had come in from work for and that we all had to go back to work from. I also had a cousin somehow fall off a tractor and get caught in his plow and how the adult men had to go out in the field to collect all the pieces. Additionally, my great grandmother left her family to run off with a man. Drove my great grandfather crazy. He ended up losing the farm and living out of a truck with my grandmother and her two sibs, travelling between seasonal work and going cold and hungry when there wasn't any work. Farm life can be really good...I would not trade my childhood years on the farm... but it has it's share of tragedy, heartache and scandal.

I love Polk Salad Annie! Was going to suggest it too.

Jimi Jamison and Sound Fusion 1993 sing Polk Salad Annie and it's great, try it sometime

I kind of hope that's not true, because death, which is unavoidable, has been a matter of fact to most people in the history of the world, and has been discussed just this way over dinner tables for millennia. It's a poor analogy for indifference to those other things which are caused by us.

Yes, and also the trauma that the girl is going through with her listening to her family talking casually about his death, not realizing that she was his girlfriend.

@otisdylan9532 Or that they may have had a budding relationship. I can imagine his offering her an ID bracelet or locket as a token and her not taking it, because.... everything. And him chucking it off the bridge into the water right then and there in frustration and hurt.

This. So much this.

The TV movie did not give away anything. It just gave someone else's interpretation.

One of the three Grammys won for this song was by Jimmie Haskell for his arrangement.

Remember watching it years ago and if I recall correctly they didn’t explain anything more than was written in the song…?

I was about to make this comment, I had always assumed it was a baby that was referred to

I've heard that, but I don't believe it. She's still living with her family, I think they would have known if she got pregnant, especially if the baby was developed enough to be meaningfully thrown from the bridge. And why not bury it, anyway? My head cannon has always been that she and Billy Joe planned to hold up a convenience store out of town and use the money to run away. Billy Joe shoots someone in the attempt, and they throw the gun into the river, but Billy Joe feels too much guilt and jumps. Or maybe Billy Joe didn't bring her along for the robbery, but confesses to her afterwards, leading to the same results.

I believe she is still alive and living in Glendale, CA. Beautiful and brilliant lady, and one of the best American songwriters.

Yup, that was one of the two top guesses along with an engagement ring. Either would definitely fit the story of the song.

Or that they may have had a budding relationship. I can imagine his offering her an ID bracelet or locket as a token and her not taking it, because.... everything. And him chucking it off the bridge into the water right then and there in frustration and hurt.

She had a variety TV show in the UK too. "In 1968, after appearing on In Concert, Gentry became the first female songwriter to front a TV series on the BBC network. Impressed with Gentry's performances on- and off-screen, the head of the BBC invited her, in 1968, to host a variety show on BBC 2, making her the first female songwriter to host a series on the network. The Bobbie Gentry series was a 6-week special, broadcast weekly from July 13 to August 17, 1968. It featured musicians from the Mississippi countryside, as well as guests such as Glen Campbell, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Elton John, Alan Price, Billy Preston, and Pan's People. The Bobbie Gentry series was produced and directed by Stanley Dorfman, who was engage to be married to Gentry in 1970,[20] and credited Gentry as his co-director. Dorfman told author Tara Murtha, "After a few episodes, she was pretty much co-directing the show because she had such great ideas. [But] the BBC wouldn't have it, wouldn't have an artist credited as a director or producer, so the credit went to me as producer and director. But she definitely contributed as much as I did creatively to the show. She was just full of ideas.""

You're right, if only reactors would do some research first. A and A are good, don't get me wrong, but, a quick google first.....

So was also a smart business person. She negotiated a nice percentage of the movie's proceeds and has lived comfortably to this day. And she wasn't bad to look at. 😊

@@SpuzzyLargo Beautiful woman!

I could not disagree with you more. Back in the day there was no way to research a song before we heard it. It was just BANG! all of a sudden coming through the radio. That allowed us to hear it and make our own judgements. What we get is an honest first reaction. Do you not think that if they did go to Google and learn that it was such a huge hit and critically acclaimed award winner that would affect their listening experience and rating? Andy and Alex, just keep doing what you're doing. Trust the community. We won't steer you wrong.

I think it might be the first number one single written, produced and performed by a woman (though she had to win a lawsuit in order to finally be given producer credit). At a time when most the big name country artists relied on hit songwriters and hit producers this twenty four year old unknown came straight out the box writing, singing and producing her debut album. And it was an enormous hit.

Absolutely!

Yep, one of the rare songs where the live version is superior to the studio version.

The BBC version!

Yes this is one of the rare times I recommend live version first. The part in the live performance that gets me is the when Mama is telling about the preacher and there is that pause (done perfectly live) before she says- “oh,by the way” You can anticipate the dread the narrator feels wondering what else Mama knows or is going to say. Done brilliantly.

One of my favorites...had the 45 record and played it all the time.

No comparison. Coven sucked.

true

How about Angie Baby by Helen Reddy?

@@kev7161 that one too! macabre tales dressed in sweet melodies.

​@@DannyD714Would also recommend Dark Lady by Cher.

Angie Baby too

The same as Reba's (cover?)?

​@@kev7161Yes, she made a mint off the royalties of that cover (3 million reportedly).

The live version isn’t nearly as good as the studio cut

OR that they may have had a budding relationship. The song doesn't say. I can imagine his offering her an ID bracelet or locket as a token and her not taking it, because.... everything. And him chucking it off the bridge into the water right then and there in frustration and hurt.

That's what I had always heard too. He couldn't handle that they lost the baby. Pass the peas. Just one of the most brilliant songs of that generation.

The movie had a different take- that Billy Joe was gay