Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe [Very Good quality]

[markisboss]

The guy in the back is just mesmorized

[acmesignal]

Another baby got catbagged.

Happens a lot in this world.

[MultiCgp]

Quite a heavy number to say the least, never though it was pertaining to stuff which wasn't too cool to talk about back then in the 60's..if what some comments on another tape of this are implying?

[MrMikeb1958]

Looks like 1 person jumped off the bridge with Billy Joe...

[grindlbebe]

The Smothers Brothers, of course.  Greatest televison show of all time.

[mrsjax]

First class, one of my absolute favs!

[BuzCzar]

I was in the hospital in Cam Ranh Bay when I heard this on Armed Forces Radio for the first time. It really reminded me of my south and how much I missed it. Got my "Dear John" while I was in there too. Odd how one's memories work. Great, great song.

[FDosty]

I was a freshman in high school and I was the only one in the house awake and watching Johnny Carson. Bobby Gentry came on, sat down on a stool with her guitar and blew me away. Of course I heard the song many more times during the following weeks when it became so popular. Then it faded away. Last week at work I heard it on the radio for the first time in many years and it was like I was a fourteen year old kid again hearing it for the first time by myself in the living room.

[hayesman76]

Without ANY doubt, this is one of the finest songs ever -- not just of the 1960s. Who could fail to be moved by this song, and Bobbie Gentry's incomparable performance of it? I remember watching a video clip of Ella Fitzgerald doing back-and-forth snippets of contemporary songs with Frank Sinatra from a 1960s tv show, and how Ella, before singing a verse of "Billie Joe," made it clear that she was blown away by it. Now *that's* a compliment!

[dcalris]

I wish I didn't see the movie, because I think the song is so haunting. the movie didn't leave it open for the different readings. This one of my top 10 songs ever!

[pastrami1945]

I listened to this song in 1967, while driving to McAlester, Oklahoma. Was struck by the name Billy Joe McAlester while we headed to a town of the same name. Bobbie Gentry sounded just as great then as the clip does now!

[SadAnorak]

I well up every time. Indifference is the cruellest cut. Reminds me so much of my parents.

[centervilletn]

Bobbie Gentry IS the south..she sounds so much like my older aunts and grand parents....i love the sound

[lmcjhut]

Yes, this song used to spook me out when I was 4 or 5 too!

[bluepacificsurf]

SixtiesPopGold thanks for posting this. Bobbie was the best of all the 60s female artists. She was both beautiful and talented. We don't see any like her today.

[dogmatix45]

That is what the song is about ,Noroses. Whether it is a true story or not, That I dont know.

[rees276]

Deeply unsettling .... I often wonder why Billy Jo jumped. I believe that he was gay..

[dogmatix45]

@rees276

Billy Joe got her pregnant, they aborted the baby. Thats what the girl the preacher saw, was throwing off the bridge with Billy Joe. Billy commited suicide through guilt,

[OlymPigs2010]

@dogmatix45 .....Wrong!!!

[dogmatix45]

@OlymPigs2010

What a stunning and thought provoking rebuttal, perhaps you should become a politician! I worked in the record industry for 15 years, and that was the explanation I was given by the writer.Of course you probably know better.

[NoRosesForMe]

@dogmatix45 omdeargawd are you serious?! I swear you have just blown my mind. I gotta read more about this. ..wow....this was...still is....one of my favorite songs. The film was awesome. Reminded me of my childhood sweetheart. Small town kids....boring, lame, dirty town............and my lil sweetie.......miss him sometimes.* sigh* ......But nah I had no idea that was the real story behind this. Jeez..

[Maafa1619]

@dogmatix45 That's the most common theory, but that isn't definitively why Billie Joe McAllister jumped or what was dropped.

[Maafa1619]

@rees276 Clearly, you've seen, or heard of, the tv movie with Robbie Benson. There is nothing in the song to even hint that he was gay.

[rees276]

@Maafa1619 Is there a movie? I'd like to see it.

[Maafa1619]

@rees276 Yes. It was an old movie from the 1970s (1976 specifically.) I thought that it was a made-for-television movie, but apparently (according to IMDb) it was a feature film.

[Maafa1619]

@rees276 There is a clip from the movie on Youtube. In the title, Billie Joe is spelled Billy Joe.

[MW277j]

perhaps the most haunting song I know. Come back often to watch and listen.

[wmarkdyer]

This song used to creep me out when I was 4 or 5.

[Seyahhsod]

LET'S Ask...

Would would Bobby Gentry be open to making a duet with Jeannie C. Riley...

recommended songs:

-Loose my breath

-I am my own best friend

-Im still standing

-Neither one of us

[Seyahhsod]

love this song!

Maybe we can get Adel to cover it.

[faffaflunkie]

This song could have been the sound track of the era.

[professordumbledorf]

My mother had this album when it was first released and I was a kid too. Who decided that Billie Joe commited suicide because he was gay?

[jstarr1717]

the movie wasn't bad either

[killjoytjp]

I was 11 when this came out. It' still is a haunting and great song.

[rrudytoo]

I was in my junior year of high school when I saw Bobbie Gentry perform this very clip on the Smothers Brothers Show. A very haunting song by a very lovely lady. I'm still just as mesmerized by her now as I was then. ;-)

[oldiesbutgoodies67]

Bobbie Jo- you "blow my tits off" with this tune...Dan O'Niallain, Ma.

[hayfork100]

@weightfeather1 I have the same emotion when I hear this song. I'll never forget the first time I heard it on the car radio in Detroit. Tears came to my eyes and I almost had to pull off the road. The low notes hit by Bobbie make a vibration in my my chest and goose bumps come on my arms.

[oldiesbutgoodies67]

They say Bobbie Gentry is still the prettiest woman in town...Dan O'Niallain

[bnylons]

I was cheating with Nancy. Trying to get away from my steady girl Charlene when this song was popular. Charlene had become nothing more than a convieniance and sort of bored my with all the hot girls around at the time. I was seventeen at that time. Now it is documented forever.

[fordude60]

I remember when this song was on the charts, back in 1967, when I was a little kid. I still hear it sometimes on oldies stations. Bobbie Gentry was one very good-looking lady.

[Geekman333]

This was a hit the year I was born. Awesome and thanks for posting.

Peace.

[OlymPigs2010]

..This was a Big Hit and an incredibly unique and powerful song in its subject matter and feeling!

[garyifny]

Bobbie started as a fashion model. 

[yunggunz50]

is agreat song  and movie damm boby was good looking