And don't forget Sweet Caroline and Tie A Yellow Ribbon and What's Up PussyCat and Ever The First Time I Saw Your Face..Rocky Mountain High..My Sweet Lord..We're Gonna Get Married..To Sir With Love..And Because Your Beautiful..Ahh I could go on! Andy Williams Jim Neighbors Tom Jones..Engelbert Humperdink ..Stormy..Downtown..Both Sides Now..I Gotta Brand New Pair Of Rollerskates..Maggie May. Oh Stormy! Bring back that sunny day! Dragging The Line..Me and you and a dog name Blue..I feel fine.talking 'bout peace of mind..I'm gonna take my time..Gonna live the good life..DTL..Sunshine On My Shoulders. Thunderball. Hey Jude. Neil Diamond!
This post was edited by CosmicWunderkind at October 4, 2022 8:09 PM MDT
Never will I read a book by some author who took Gentry's song and wrote a novel. :)
Gentry's song is perfect, as is. I refuse to watch the movie, either. :) Though Robby Benson would be great in the role, in my opinion.
The song is too perfect for me to mess around with. This is all my opinion -- I love your posts, Echooos, and I don't want you to think I'm angry because I'm not. :)
My answer down there might help explain from where I come. :)
Okay, CosmicWunderkind -- you started it. And I will finish it. At least, finish it for me. :)
Yes, that song enthralled me as a young six-years-old boy. And I do mean, ENTHRALLED me. And, as I've posted more than several times on the site here, if I had to choose, I would call this song "The Best Song I've Ever Heard." As a young little guy, my taste in music was superb (to me). The song remains flawless (to me) --
Songwriter Bobbie Gentry's poetry, her singing and guitar playing, the strings-only background accompaniment arrangement and performance - - flawless (to me)
StuSpelling Bee is correct - - "Tallahatchie Bridge."
Also, "Billie" Joe -- not "Billy" Joe.
Yes, as a youngster, I did listen to this song over and over and over and over and over and over. Macabre and morbid for a young boy? Possibly - - but its flawless character compelled me.
As an adult, I recently realized that as a young boy, I had correctly caught Gentry's point for her song, unlike a huge amount of other people. In an interview, Bobbie Gentry said she had endless amounts of people telling her about the point to her song - - that the point revolved around what the "song narrator" and Billie Joe threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, some even thought an aborted baby.
Nope, that is not the point., And little WelbyQ knew it -- the point of the song is the very casual and superficial conversation around the dinner table. Billie Joe's death is very sad for "song narrator," yet, her family keeps "passing the biscuits" and "having another piece of apple pie." Little Intuitive and Empathetic WelbyQ knew how sad it all was - - yet, everyone was just blahblahing while they ate.
( I will NEVER watch the movie that was made about this song -- I refuse to have my experience with the song tampered with)
CosmicWunderkind - - thank you for your question - - Gentry's song never, never, never fails to inspire me at the beauty of music, poetry and understated-yet-powerful emotion - - all in one listening experience
Here are the original song and song's lyrics.
Again, flawless (to me) -- God, literally, I thank God for her -- Gentry is wondrous here. Everyone involved with the song changed my life. No song has stayed with me for my practically-entire life like this one song.
"Ode To Billie Joe"
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 Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas "Well, Billie 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 a shame about Billie Joe, anyhow Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge And now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe He 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 of apple pie. You know, it don't seem right I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
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 Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie 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 wanna 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
This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at October 4, 2022 12:05 PM MDT
I'm here again, and I hope I don't bug - - I'm smiling thinking about your question because I think it's cool you posted a question about my favorite song.
Your question here, along with "The Astounding She-Monster" movie that we both know I finally watched with your encouragement, makes both the song and movie even more fun for me.
Echooos 