I never loved this song, but it's very nostalgic hearing it. I realize it is now a meaningful piece of my history, since I just referenced it today, telling a friend I felt that she and I were on the Tallahatchee bridge together :D
@gregkelsliz I know the person above said the movie showed them dropping a rag doll, but the whole mystery of the song was that you never knew precisely what they'd dropped off the bridge--it's left to your imagination.
I've always liked this song. I grew up listening to it cause my mom always played it. I told her that I would never ever listen to country music and once I got out on my own I listen to it and I had an accoustic guitar. I guess in that sense I wanted to be like Bobbie Gentry
what is this, country? folk? pop? blues? im guessing its all of those. whatever it is a paints a picture which gets worse as the song goes on and just when you thinks its finished she goes and punches you in the stomach. and also, what was billy jo and that girl throwin off the bridge?
I once wrote a story that i sent to the publishers. I got some great constructive criticism back. One comment was to not be so descriptive and leave it all up to osmosis. Back then i didn't have a clue what that meant but i have found out the meaning and yeah...a song is a good one when we can get a few different meanings out of it or make up a totally different story for it from what it was originally based on. WWow!!! I love it. Love singing it. Not quite the way Bobbie Gentry does it though.
If you live in a quiet area, the more rural the better, some night turn off all the lights in your house and give this song a listen. If the ambience in your neighborhood isn't right, play it sometime you're driving on a country road at night. If you can turn off your headlights, even better. This song seriously has the capacity to scare shitless. Give it a try.
a bygone song of a bygone era in american history. I would give every last penny and gladly turn in my computer just to go back there, even for a day.
This is an absolutely brilliant poem...that just happens to be set to music with a terrific vocal performance. Dark, dark dark, but nostalgic...like Norman Rockwell illustrating a Lovecraft or Poe story.
I have to echo a previous comment, that the movie is merely one screenwriter/producer's story that fits the song, not a manifestation of Ms Gentry's unwritten meaning.
I think one thing that makes a great song writer is to have lines with many interpretations and not being stuck on just one.
As a side and response to someone else's comment way down the list, "Dinner" on a deep south farm was at noon and supper was in the evening...I still hear pawpaw giving us hell when we said dinner for
This is one of my favorite old songs. I have heard at least hundreds of times. I can sum it up in pretty much one word-Haunting. Good music is never outdated.
before i saw the movie, i always thought the writer left it up to the listner, did he jump, did he slip, or was he pushed. i never saw what the movie revealed coming. got drunk and queered out, then beat himself up over it, nope didnt see that coming. but i wonder if that is what Gentry herself intended, does she agree with the movie?
Look up the wikipedia..It says she admitted she had no idea what was thrown off the bridge, but that wasn't the point. The point was the casual conversation contrasting with the tragedy.Schooled!!!
Oh gosh I remember my daddy would listen to this song all the time and just loved it. If my brother and I was making noise, he'd tell us to hush. I'm still not sure what or why he committed suicide. I've listened to it over and over and don't really understand the meaning of the song. I guess my daddy knew and maybe it brought back song memories for him, as he was a share crops daddy picking cotton in Alabama.
@dianainbama1986 In the movie, if you pay attention to it's subtle infuxes, it's because Billie Joe had been having relations with the local preacher. You should watch the movie with Robbie Benton. It was a good flick. I liked it as a kid, but had to watch it again as an adult to understand it. Then again, perhaps I was just a really stupid kid.
I watched the movie and in it they werent throwing anything off the bridge, Billy Joe accidentally dropped the doll/stuffed toy that the girl carried around with her all the time.
billy joe got her pregnant and they were going to be married but she miscarried -- they threw the fetus into the river -- then she jilted him and he jumped too -- and now she spends her time dropping flowers into the water off the tallahatchie bridge
someone might have already said this....but i think they are metaphorically throwing love off the bridge. considering in the movie he was gay, she stopped loving him and after they "threw love off the bridge" and he killed himself due to guilt?? idk just an idea
That Tallahatchee river sure is a byword fer pollution around here .
Effen it aint dead babies and young punks floatin about in it , most days yah caint see the water fer the florists shop someone gone and dumped in her ....
I remember listening to this 45 again and again, as a child back in late 1967.
Its horrific power has not decreased, decades later. Bobbie wrote and sang a great piece of macabre Americana, on a level with the short stories of Poe, Ambrose Bierce and Shirley Jackson.
@gorgonique Dude, you could not have said it all more perfectly. I was 9, and even though I was too young to completely understand all the lyrics, my mom used to play the 45 over and over again, and there was something about the sliding notes from her voice and the strings that sucked me in over and over again.
When I was little, this song and "Freddy's Dead" from the soundtrack of Superfly frightened me. Now I listen to this song and I'm just knocked out by the deftness of the writing.
Iwas very young when I first heard this song . Afew months ago it was played on a classic oldies station , as a mature adult I realized it was about lost love , reminded me of those I have lost . It is good to remember those who go before us .
@snbmcn because apparently he wasn't actually her boyfriend, or they would've known it, but her lover, which is why she didn't tell them and why they indeed threw the baby out.
Gotta love that southern gothic. South USA that is. I'm in the UK and southern gothic would probably involve a bunch of pasty white kids running around Salisbury Plain. And that's just rubbish.
@missmarimba273 This song was released 44 years ago- approaching half a century! 2 million views is pretty impressive consdering. In those days- the '60's- a record that sold a million copies was astounding. Not to mention one that went #1 and crossed all charts- rock, pop, country, and soul. I might be wrong but I don't think Elvis ever had a #1 single. Still I understand your point- there is no accounting for taste.
Classic song and unique performance. Don't care what the lyrics mean. I'm not American but this music has tremendous atmosphere. Not surprised by the 2m hits!
I'm from Central Mass but I liked cruising down to Appalachia, and swigging Moonshine and Dance around like Jim Morrison with all those Rattlesnakes. Amen...Always avoid the Strychnine..! Dan O'Niallain
I think the theme is an illegal abortion way back in the day, and whoever the dad was could not handle what they had done! I'm not saying it was Bobby Gentry!! Just a theory!
So many have asked about her guitar she is playing a small Gibson that came out in 1967 it was called a Bobbie Gentry Special I have one they only made it a few years, I remember when I bought my guitar the guy at the music shop called it a Bobbie Gentry Special check the web they did make a very small Gibson in 1967 called a Bobbie Gentry Special it has been with me all these years it has a small neck and easy to chord, they do Not make these anymore.
This is one of the first songs I remember. My mother theorized it was a baby they threw off the bridge. What gets me is the idea of the family sitting around casually discussing his suicide over lunch when clearly it means something HUGE to the narrator (singer), but she just sits there...numb...her family unaware.
@Kimfosterga In the movie She and Bobbie Joe threw a rag doll that was her best freind. Or did Bobbie Joe throw it? I can't remember who threw it but it was a doll in the movie. In the song she could have throw there baby. That put's a whole new twist on the story. Great song!
@StaunchComic I know, I saw the movie. But what happened in the movie was, I guess, the idea of whoever wrote the script for the movie. It's somebody else's interpretation of the song, not Bobbie Gentry's. Surely she was interviewed and asked what the song meant, back when it was new. I wonder what she said. I don't really see how it could have been a baby...I mean, that's crazy... but what was it?? Been making people wonder all these years. :-)
@Kimfosterga Is Bobbi Still alive? That would be a great book to read about her songs and there truths. Bobbi Gentry is very under rated. She has many great songs and is largely forgotten. SAD!
@StaunchComic Bobbie is alive and always said in interviews the song was about indiferrence. Mama notices daughter (who is telling the story) has no appetite but doesn't relate it to the news of Billie Joe's death. The family talks about the suicide of the young man as casualy as passing the biscuits, even deriding him as senseless, and oblivious to daughter/sister's devastation. I think Bobbie left other conclusions up to the listener- they weren't the point. The family indiffernce was.
@57timmyb Interesting song. My friend who lived close to the Bridge said it was only a 20 ft drop and couldn't kill any one if they jumped off that bridge. I guess the name of that Bridge fit in with the lyric's? Bobbi is a country ledgend in my mind.
@StaunchComic Again a literal interpretation of the lyric is not the point; such as the location of the Tallahatchee Bridge, what was thrown off of it, etc. It is the dynamic of the family and their reaction to the news. I agree Bobbie is legendary. This song is just brilliant. The Mona Lisa of music.
@57timmyb I am 60 yrs old now, and heard the song when it first came out, and never in my wildest dreams understood the song..but with your comment, "now" I understand..thanks..
@Kimfosterga I was told it was because Billie Joe was a homosexual and the only one who knew was the narrator, because at the time, being a homosexual was completely unaccepted and even the parents wold tun away. Billie Joe saw suicide as his only option.
When I was a kid my Mother and a lady friend took myself and her friends daughters to see the movie "Ode to Billy Joe" staring Robbie Benson. This I remember so vivdly because the lady with her family sitting in front of us got hysterical at the end. It really upset her. I didn't understand why he jumped until it was on cable not long ago. And Bobbi Jo was molested by a man? Or he was with a man and ashamed and killed himself? I guess i'm still confused! Does anyone remember that film?
@StaunchComic i remember watching the film but nothing like that but its only been 30 yrs and a lifetime i probably need to watch it again always liked it i always thought it had something to do with him meeting her father at the sawmill but then again there is alot i dont remember from the 70s-------------or 80s
Followup to previous: [A full year later] "And me, pickin' flowers and dropping them into the muddy waters off theTallahatchee Bridge." (last line of the song).
Of COURSE it's sung and presented as if Bobby and Billy had been lovers (either in acutality or merely in a shared fantasy of theirs...or just one of hers alone(?))...so she's gutted even a year later for that reason alone--she'd lost him because he had done himself in.
Very interesting and insightful video from all those years back--the three characters around the table literally all stiffs--forced characters. And Bobbie G herself singing here as though it's gutted her personally somehow.
Lordy, I remember everybody trying to figure out what this was about..an abortion..drugs...? It raised all kind of speculation in my little town high school, I, too, remember seeing this on the Smothers Brothers show. They were real ground breakers and were someof the first to really push the boundries. Many credit Laugh-In but the Smothers really fought the censors and ultimately lost...way ahead of their time. Thanks guys...
I will always love this song. First time I ever heard it I was on a bridge up around Caraway, Arkansasa cane pole fishin and heard it on a transistor radio. :)
It's a beautiful song despite the fact that the continual rhyme in the song of "ridge" and "bridge" could be annoying as heck. Still she manages to keep it from grating. There's no point in rehashing here just what the song is about, but it definitely haunts you.
I've always lived in the Northeast but have loved this song from the start.I got a small taste of the South in the 60's when the Army stationed me in Kentucky.
No song evokes the atmosphere of the rural South more honestly, before or since. The unspoken pain, the quiet anguish, the idea that life goes on despite deep tragedy. This song always comes to mind whenever I read about teenagers committing suicide, especially those who are gay and or have been bullied. Heartbreaking and sad song.
I can remember seeing her perform this classic on the Tonight Show or something and thought she was smoking hot. I was about 10 years old at the time and my opinion hasn't changed much. Great, mysterious song.
Oh my GOD! I went to the movies 10 times as a teenager because I live in Georgia and the heat and humidity always made me think of all the dates I used to have.
Without a shred of doubt, one of the all time great songs. And what a suoerb live performance by its composer. Talent, looks, soul..... this woman had everything.
I remember seeing this with my family when it was first telecast. My father had tears in his eyes. To me the most powerful thing about it was after the song ended - when she went and sat with the statues. This is a much more powerful song than it seems on the surface.
Basically, Max Baer (Jethro) gained the rights to "Ode to Billie Joe" and wanted to make movie based on the song. He liked the movie "Summer of '42" so much that wanted the writer, Herman Raucher to do the screenplay. Max Baer had Herman Raucher meet with Bobbie Gentry. Bobbie, however, kept the song and the events shrouded in mystery.
Raucher, having been paid to do a screenplay, wrote a screenplay based on his interpretation of the song. The song's true meaning, Bobbie never divulged.
“Those questions are of secondary importance in my mind. The story of Billie Joe has two interesting underlying themes. First, the illustration of a group of people's reactions to the life and death of Billie Joe, and its subsequent effect on their lives, is made. Second, the obvious gap between the girl and her mother is shown when both women experience a common loss (first, Billie Joe and, later, Papa), and yet Mama and the girl are unable to recognize their mutual loss or share their grief."
@gigicorr the movie came out in 1976, the song 1967, they said he jumped in the movie because he was gay. The movie also spells Billie Joe, BILLY Joe. We don't know for sure the reason behind the song gay, raped, felt guilty over something. Open to interpretation. It's a brilliant song and you like you are a part of it!
wow muscle you hit the nail on the head .A gravel road on a hot july day,the air stifling with humidity,Just like Virginia where i came of age......too bad it all turned into suburbs in the eighties.
@mudrydyr I don't know about you, but hearing this immediately transports me back to my childhood at the old farm down South,(early 70's for me) on a hot, lazy afternoon, gathering fresh eggs from the barn, pickin berries, fishin, huntin, the gravel & dirt roads, & Moms big homemade meals in that big, hot kitchen. They can say whatever they want about this ol tune, but for me it resonates with country life in the South.
I've always thought that Stevie Nicks should cover this song...Anyone REALLY know what this song is about ?
I suspect there's not enough info to go on...But, I'd wager it's about an abortion gone wrong...
Maybe, ;-)
JoshuaTaylor 1 day ago
The Smothers Brothers was the greatest show in the history of television. None mattered more.
grindlbebe 1 day ago
goosebumps on top of goosebumps....... had never heard anything like this back then. DARK!
maxt133 4 days ago
I never loved this song, but it's very nostalgic hearing it. I realize it is now a meaningful piece of my history, since I just referenced it today, telling a friend I felt that she and I were on the Tallahatchee bridge together :D
TheBarbjo 6 days ago
the *94* dislikes want this to be over produced and synthesized....great music!!!!!!!
CaseyCHH 1 week ago
Blueridge Country
DocDich 2 weeks ago
Wow... she is great..!!
We need more if this king of music this days, Lady Gaga is too cheap and commercial..!!
mbnyus 2 weeks ago 2
Wow! Never heard of her, but what a deep vocal for a bitch. Very impressive!
clearviewmind 2 weeks ago
@clearviewmind She's a lady, not a bitch and, yes, nice alto....
BeautyLove1993 1 week ago 2
What did he throw off the bridge? What was she doing with him the day her threw something off the bridge? I need to know.
gregkelsliz 2 weeks ago in playlist Music
@gregkelsliz A ragdoll... Watch the movie.
asitphoto 1 week ago
@gregkelsliz I know the person above said the movie showed them dropping a rag doll, but the whole mystery of the song was that you never knew precisely what they'd dropped off the bridge--it's left to your imagination.
TheBarbjo 6 days ago
i wonder if amy whinehouse was a fan?
dalylfc 2 weeks ago
I've always liked this song. I grew up listening to it cause my mom always played it. I told her that I would never ever listen to country music and once I got out on my own I listen to it and I had an accoustic guitar. I guess in that sense I wanted to be like Bobbie Gentry
Bobbiesue83 2 weeks ago
what is this, country? folk? pop? blues? im guessing its all of those. whatever it is a paints a picture which gets worse as the song goes on and just when you thinks its finished she goes and punches you in the stomach. and also, what was billy jo and that girl throwin off the bridge?
viago2 2 weeks ago
@viago2 Flowers.
LittleDevilSings 2 weeks ago
@viago2 Watch the movie...
asitphoto 1 week ago
awsome
hofferek1 2 weeks ago
This was at nr.1 on Top 100 Billboard chart the day I was born! '67 :)
arntpa 3 weeks ago
@arntpa
Same here.!!!
mbnyus 2 weeks ago
Great, simply great....!
futurexways1 3 weeks ago in playlist Années 60
It's A Great Kind Of Haunting Song. I Really Like It!
tompennock 3 weeks ago
This song was number one the week I was born.
mtwildflower 3 weeks ago
Beautiful song turn to a movie. Love it.
zAlmost 3 weeks ago in playlist YouTube Mix for Bobbie Gentry
Wonderful!!!
Brad10012 3 weeks ago
What a fantastically haunting voice, just superb.
SgtRon1805 3 weeks ago
I once wrote a story that i sent to the publishers. I got some great constructive criticism back. One comment was to not be so descriptive and leave it all up to osmosis. Back then i didn't have a clue what that meant but i have found out the meaning and yeah...a song is a good one when we can get a few different meanings out of it or make up a totally different story for it from what it was originally based on. WWow!!! I love it. Love singing it. Not quite the way Bobbie Gentry does it though.
shazzamp1 4 weeks ago
If you live in a quiet area, the more rural the better, some night turn off all the lights in your house and give this song a listen. If the ambience in your neighborhood isn't right, play it sometime you're driving on a country road at night. If you can turn off your headlights, even better. This song seriously has the capacity to scare shitless. Give it a try.
rb62470 1 month ago 8
@rb62470 Man driving anywhere at night .. with your headlights off is kinda pretty scarey even without this song :-)
novi0974 1 week ago 2
a bygone song of a bygone era in american history. I would give every last penny and gladly turn in my computer just to go back there, even for a day.
joelt2105 1 month ago
love this song!
blaqnroro 1 month ago
Thanks to my Sister I recoverd this Song. May Have to do with the Fact that we shared the same Last Name.
inge1936 1 month ago in playlist Favorite videos
I was in basic training, US Army, at Ft. Lonardwood, Mo., It's a great song during basic!
march1836 1 month ago
What a haunting tune. Dark and mysterious and sung by a very beautiful woman at that. Makes it even more spooky!
jwphx1962 1 month ago
92 pot heads thought this was about the guy in Greenday.
dieselscience 1 month ago
Great song ! If im not mistaken she married Bill Harrah. He started the Harrah's Casino chain.
UndercoverObserver 1 month ago
It was the 8th of June 1965, Tuesday, Billie Joe Macallister jumped off the Bridge...Dan O'Niallain, Grafton,Ma.
oldiesbutgoodies67 1 month ago
OMG.....How freakin' AMAZING is she? Beautiful, macabre, lyrical, stunning!
ramgon254 1 month ago
Amazing!!
hotdog2020 1 month ago
Superb!
Kasbahkabaret 1 month ago
Now we know where Amy Winehouse got the inspiration for her hair!
211FairyTale 1 month ago
Completely engrossing,and where are the beautiful,soulful women like Bobbie?
ToeIn2194 1 month ago
I used to live near the bridge in this song.
kmandew 1 month ago
I love story-songs, and this one especially, had always haunted me when I was young!
tomhits 1 month ago
This is an absolutely brilliant poem...that just happens to be set to music with a terrific vocal performance. Dark, dark dark, but nostalgic...like Norman Rockwell illustrating a Lovecraft or Poe story.
beerjitsu 1 month ago
YAWL REMEMBER TO WIPE YOUR FEEEEEEET !!!!!
64g15csr 1 month ago
I had the same memory "son, you missed dinner by 6 hours, but you're welcome to join us for supper...we're having left-overs"
Of course it may be we had the same pawpaw ;)
TexasShane 1 month ago
I have to echo a previous comment, that the movie is merely one screenwriter/producer's story that fits the song, not a manifestation of Ms Gentry's unwritten meaning.
I think one thing that makes a great song writer is to have lines with many interpretations and not being stuck on just one.
As a side and response to someone else's comment way down the list, "Dinner" on a deep south farm was at noon and supper was in the evening...I still hear pawpaw giving us hell when we said dinner for
SCISsocial 1 month ago
People, please. The song pre-dates the movie and has nothing to do w/ the movie, so don't base your understanding of the song on the movie.
rbraxley 1 month ago
Yep, another baby got catbagged.
Happens a lot in this world.
acmesignal 1 month ago
This is one of my favorite old songs. I have heard at least hundreds of times. I can sum it up in pretty much one word-Haunting. Good music is never outdated.
spittenkittens 1 month ago
before i saw the movie, i always thought the writer left it up to the listner, did he jump, did he slip, or was he pushed. i never saw what the movie revealed coming. got drunk and queered out, then beat himself up over it, nope didnt see that coming. but i wonder if that is what Gentry herself intended, does she agree with the movie?
wingman572 1 month ago
MultiKimmyKimKim ~ thanks for your reply to my comment. I haven't seen the movie yet. What's the name of it, "Ode to Billie Joe" ?
dianainbama1986 1 month ago
Look up the wikipedia..It says she admitted she had no idea what was thrown off the bridge, but that wasn't the point. The point was the casual conversation contrasting with the tragedy.Schooled!!!
DavidCKendall 1 month ago in playlist YouTube Mix for Bobbie Gentry
Yea it was a doll that was thrown off the bridge,they found the doll when they found Billie Joe...
60srecords 1 month ago
The way the background looks, it almost looks like it was from Hee Haw. Not sure if she appeared on Hee Haw as a guest or not.
001GenLee 1 month ago
@001GenLee Please pay attention. It's the Smothers Brothers.
MultiKimmyKimKim 1 month ago
whats wrong with you people, at the end of the movie she was throwing flowers off the bridge
wingman572 1 month ago
It was a baby. The song came out long before the movie, and Hollywood can't let anything stand the way it was originally written.
kpiperjr 1 month ago
IT WAS A DOLL THEY THREW OFF THE BRIDGE
LISA62able 1 month ago
YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE MOVIE BILLIE JOE THOUGHT HE WAS GAY BECAUSE OF A DRUNKEN INCIDENT
LISA62able 1 month ago
@LISA62able
she is right
ladaniels26250 1 month ago
Oh gosh I remember my daddy would listen to this song all the time and just loved it. If my brother and I was making noise, he'd tell us to hush. I'm still not sure what or why he committed suicide. I've listened to it over and over and don't really understand the meaning of the song. I guess my daddy knew and maybe it brought back song memories for him, as he was a share crops daddy picking cotton in Alabama.
dianainbama1986 1 month ago
@dianainbama1986 In the movie, if you pay attention to it's subtle infuxes, it's because Billie Joe had been having relations with the local preacher. You should watch the movie with Robbie Benton. It was a good flick. I liked it as a kid, but had to watch it again as an adult to understand it. Then again, perhaps I was just a really stupid kid.
MultiKimmyKimKim 1 month ago
LOVE bobby gentry! Would love to try her songs next... check me out to see if you think it would suit :D
Rebeccarosiemorgan 1 month ago
She sings this with such purety...so stunning...and not to miss the point...at times ~ we are blind to what is happening in own backyard...
byebyebabyLAB 1 month ago
it is the bing crosby show she appeared on with this footage
sminkyful 2 months ago
I watched the movie and in it they werent throwing anything off the bridge, Billy Joe accidentally dropped the doll/stuffed toy that the girl carried around with her all the time.
midnitecougar 2 months ago
Wow she's white???
gtofan2005 2 months ago
She was briiliant. That's all. Brilliant
DD5975 2 months ago 15
billy joe got her pregnant and they were going to be married but she miscarried -- they threw the fetus into the river -- then she jilted him and he jumped too -- and now she spends her time dropping flowers into the water off the tallahatchie bridge
matt605 2 months ago
someone might have already said this....but i think they are metaphorically throwing love off the bridge. considering in the movie he was gay, she stopped loving him and after they "threw love off the bridge" and he killed himself due to guilt?? idk just an idea
656200 2 months ago
One of the best story songs ever.....
onewomanandsomesongs 2 months ago
It has nothing to do with drugs. Its about someone killing them self.
calvojmonte47 2 months ago
@calvojmonte47 yeah but what r they throwing off the bridge i think its a baby
fuckalluhoes91 2 months ago
WOW this song takes me back in the day
cwg47 2 months ago
One of my favorite songs. I know this song word by word. Just practice it a lot. Great song.
JoLeana76 2 months ago
I read speculation that it was an engagement ring went off that bridge....simple as forbidden love.
uegrad 2 months ago
Comment removed
Michaeldrummer 2 months ago
she was the one pushing the men off the ridge, wow, it's not rocket science!
MsOldierock 2 months ago
That Tallahatchee river sure is a byword fer pollution around here .
Effen it aint dead babies and young punks floatin about in it , most days yah caint see the water fer the florists shop someone gone and dumped in her ....
Hilarious .
zarquon53 2 months ago
I remember listening to this 45 again and again, as a child back in late 1967.
Its horrific power has not decreased, decades later. Bobbie wrote and sang a great piece of macabre Americana, on a level with the short stories of Poe, Ambrose Bierce and Shirley Jackson.
gorgonique 2 months ago 32
@gorgonique I think I still have that 45! I remember doing the same thing---she was awesome.
LaylaonAM 1 month ago
@gorgonique Dude, you could not have said it all more perfectly. I was 9, and even though I was too young to completely understand all the lyrics, my mom used to play the 45 over and over again, and there was something about the sliding notes from her voice and the strings that sucked me in over and over again.
ayokay123 1 month ago
When I was little, this song and "Freddy's Dead" from the soundtrack of Superfly frightened me. Now I listen to this song and I'm just knocked out by the deftness of the writing.
porkchop745 2 months ago 2
@porkchop745 The only thing more frightening than 'Freddy's Dead' & "Ode To
Billie Joe" would be the 'Happy Birthday Song' or "Here Comes The Bride"!
You are obviously very courageous!
fntime 2 months ago
@fntime Ouch. What I say to deserve that?
porkchop745 2 months ago
Iwas very young when I first heard this song . Afew months ago it was played on a classic oldies station , as a mature adult I realized it was about lost love , reminded me of those I have lost . It is good to remember those who go before us .
50gentlesoul 2 months ago
crazy girl
MsOldierock 2 months ago
Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous
RockyMountainHighCO 2 months ago
@Bificus I think possibly he was black and that might be why they didn't tell.
wilpri 2 months ago
@snbmcn because apparently he wasn't actually her boyfriend, or they would've known it, but her lover, which is why she didn't tell them and why they indeed threw the baby out.
wilpri 2 months ago
@wilpri in the movie, it was a doll
Eddie62070 2 months ago
I still remember all the words at 50 thanks..lol
shshowarth 2 months ago
Gotta love that southern gothic. South USA that is. I'm in the UK and southern gothic would probably involve a bunch of pasty white kids running around Salisbury Plain. And that's just rubbish.
cosmicshambles 2 months ago
How does this song have 2 mil views, but Party Rock Anthem have over 200 mil? I'm confused.
missmarimba273 2 months ago
@missmarimba273 This song was released 44 years ago- approaching half a century! 2 million views is pretty impressive consdering. In those days- the '60's- a record that sold a million copies was astounding. Not to mention one that went #1 and crossed all charts- rock, pop, country, and soul. I might be wrong but I don't think Elvis ever had a #1 single. Still I understand your point- there is no accounting for taste.
57timmyb 2 months ago
@57timmyb Elvis had multiple #1s. And more Gold records than anybody...
iowa61 2 months ago
Classic song and unique performance. Don't care what the lyrics mean. I'm not American but this music has tremendous atmosphere. Not surprised by the 2m hits!
wolstenholme100 2 months ago
timeless...
MrJoeyhoek 2 months ago
I feel like I'm the only sixteen year old watching this.... and who knows almost all of the words. So beautiful.
missmarimba273 2 months ago
I'm from Central Mass but I liked cruising down to Appalachia, and swigging Moonshine and Dance around like Jim Morrison with all those Rattlesnakes. Amen...Always avoid the Strychnine..! Dan O'Niallain
oldiesbutgoodies67 2 months ago
How to make in america, what else?
gabrielote0carrizal 2 months ago
my ant lives down threw there where from arkansas an dwe come up there to vist her a take that road
scarylove123 2 months ago
we listend to this song in class today!
aa42217 3 months ago
I think the theme is an illegal abortion way back in the day, and whoever the dad was could not handle what they had done! I'm not saying it was Bobby Gentry!! Just a theory!
MsMoofasa 3 months ago
How often does a song narrate a saga? Not often. It even provides a teaser close. WOW!
piscioneangie 3 months ago
So many have asked about her guitar she is playing a small Gibson that came out in 1967 it was called a Bobbie Gentry Special I have one they only made it a few years, I remember when I bought my guitar the guy at the music shop called it a Bobbie Gentry Special check the web they did make a very small Gibson in 1967 called a Bobbie Gentry Special it has been with me all these years it has a small neck and easy to chord, they do Not make these anymore.
Bustersmoma 3 months ago
@Billydavis09
Yes he was gay and slept with a man at the county Fair. You are right
lmccall6860 3 months ago
This is one of the first songs I remember. My mother theorized it was a baby they threw off the bridge. What gets me is the idea of the family sitting around casually discussing his suicide over lunch when clearly it means something HUGE to the narrator (singer), but she just sits there...numb...her family unaware.
Kimfosterga 3 months ago 12
@Kimfosterga In the movie She and Bobbie Joe threw a rag doll that was her best freind. Or did Bobbie Joe throw it? I can't remember who threw it but it was a doll in the movie. In the song she could have throw there baby. That put's a whole new twist on the story. Great song!
StaunchComic 3 months ago
@StaunchComic I know, I saw the movie. But what happened in the movie was, I guess, the idea of whoever wrote the script for the movie. It's somebody else's interpretation of the song, not Bobbie Gentry's. Surely she was interviewed and asked what the song meant, back when it was new. I wonder what she said. I don't really see how it could have been a baby...I mean, that's crazy... but what was it?? Been making people wonder all these years. :-)
Kimfosterga 3 months ago
@Kimfosterga Is Bobbi Still alive? That would be a great book to read about her songs and there truths. Bobbi Gentry is very under rated. She has many great songs and is largely forgotten. SAD!
StaunchComic 3 months ago
@StaunchComic Bobbie is alive and always said in interviews the song was about indiferrence. Mama notices daughter (who is telling the story) has no appetite but doesn't relate it to the news of Billie Joe's death. The family talks about the suicide of the young man as casualy as passing the biscuits, even deriding him as senseless, and oblivious to daughter/sister's devastation. I think Bobbie left other conclusions up to the listener- they weren't the point. The family indiffernce was.
57timmyb 3 months ago
@57timmyb Interesting song. My friend who lived close to the Bridge said it was only a 20 ft drop and couldn't kill any one if they jumped off that bridge. I guess the name of that Bridge fit in with the lyric's? Bobbi is a country ledgend in my mind.
StaunchComic 3 months ago
@StaunchComic Again a literal interpretation of the lyric is not the point; such as the location of the Tallahatchee Bridge, what was thrown off of it, etc. It is the dynamic of the family and their reaction to the news. I agree Bobbie is legendary. This song is just brilliant. The Mona Lisa of music.
57timmyb 3 months ago
@57timmyb I am 60 yrs old now, and heard the song when it first came out, and never in my wildest dreams understood the song..but with your comment, "now" I understand..thanks..
billeagle51 2 months ago
Comment removed
mikeinmass 1 month ago
@Kimfosterga I was told it was because Billie Joe was a homosexual and the only one who knew was the narrator, because at the time, being a homosexual was completely unaccepted and even the parents wold tun away. Billie Joe saw suicide as his only option.
garyj100 1 month ago
When I was a kid my Mother and a lady friend took myself and her friends daughters to see the movie "Ode to Billy Joe" staring Robbie Benson. This I remember so vivdly because the lady with her family sitting in front of us got hysterical at the end. It really upset her. I didn't understand why he jumped until it was on cable not long ago. And Bobbi Jo was molested by a man? Or he was with a man and ashamed and killed himself? I guess i'm still confused! Does anyone remember that film?
StaunchComic 3 months ago
@StaunchComic i remember watching the film but nothing like that but its only been 30 yrs and a lifetime i probably need to watch it again always liked it i always thought it had something to do with him meeting her father at the sawmill but then again there is alot i dont remember from the 70s-------------or 80s
ghukogh 3 months ago
Followup to previous: [A full year later] "And me, pickin' flowers and dropping them into the muddy waters off theTallahatchee Bridge." (last line of the song).
Of COURSE it's sung and presented as if Bobby and Billy had been lovers (either in acutality or merely in a shared fantasy of theirs...or just one of hers alone(?))...so she's gutted even a year later for that reason alone--she'd lost him because he had done himself in.
Mulsanne917flatout 3 months ago
Very interesting and insightful video from all those years back--the three characters around the table literally all stiffs--forced characters. And Bobbie G herself singing here as though it's gutted her personally somehow.
A video well ahead of it's time, IMO.
Mulsanne917flatout 3 months ago 2
Fhtdgghh
krunkaslona 3 months ago
Harper Valley Billie Joe was my uncle.
krunkaslona 3 months ago
The summer of '67. Lord have mercy.
mollyipowers 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
iassume she was a listener of this song
Syzygy60 3 months ago
no shit,i had a 16 year old female cousin jumped off a bridge in Tennessee
Syzygy60 3 months ago
Lordy, I remember everybody trying to figure out what this was about..an abortion..drugs...? It raised all kind of speculation in my little town high school, I, too, remember seeing this on the Smothers Brothers show. They were real ground breakers and were someof the first to really push the boundries. Many credit Laugh-In but the Smothers really fought the censors and ultimately lost...way ahead of their time. Thanks guys...
bigmac53able 3 months ago 27
@bigmac53able bout a funny fella
cybillify 3 months ago
@bigmac53able yes they did and they were great...
originalyoyo 2 months ago
Gosh, I actually remember seeing this on Smothers Brothers back in 1967.
annabelle2ful 3 months ago
my twin haha
kickinbackinmychair 3 months ago
I will always love this song. First time I ever heard it I was on a bridge up around Caraway, Arkansasa cane pole fishin and heard it on a transistor radio. :)
kratz53 3 months ago
Make that 1976...
kurtmanerz1 3 months ago
It's a beautiful song despite the fact that the continual rhyme in the song of "ridge" and "bridge" could be annoying as heck. Still she manages to keep it from grating. There's no point in rehashing here just what the song is about, but it definitely haunts you.
ericinwisconsin 3 months ago
She was beautiful. If I remember right, they made a tv movie off this song.
vonrassilon 3 months ago
@vonrassilon Actually, it was a 1973 theatrical release directed by Max Baer Jr., also known as Jethro Bodine and starring Robbie Benson.
kurtmanerz1 3 months ago
@kurtmanerz1 Yes, you are right. I wasn't thinking. Thanks.
vonrassilon 3 months ago
She was beautiful too.
pianobillf 3 months ago in playlist pianobillf's favorites
Beautiful but creepy - in short haunting - and therein lies its power. One of the all time great string arrangements.
pianobillf 3 months ago in playlist pianobillf's favorites 5
Love this song and the movie...Great
gwenpookie 3 months ago
I've always lived in the Northeast but have loved this song from the start.I got a small taste of the South in the 60's when the Army stationed me in Kentucky.
listerone 3 months ago
This drips of Mississippi!
MrMusicProphet 3 months ago 9
@MrMusicProphet ... according to the movie it was because Billie Joe had a one-night affair with that nice young preacher Brother Taylor.
gramry2452 2 months ago
She's beautiful and her singing is great but those dummies in the background are super creepy. They Should of just had a family eating supper.
teacupgirrrl3621 3 months ago 2
Brilliant!
Leftofway 3 months ago
Wow. Beautiful, haunting and now, slightly surreal.
drogheda1966 3 months ago
@drogheda1966 ~ I totally agree...but why do you say "now"? I think I know, but I'd like to hear your thought first, if you don't mind.
ucancallmeOh 3 months ago in playlist Liked
No song evokes the atmosphere of the rural South more honestly, before or since. The unspoken pain, the quiet anguish, the idea that life goes on despite deep tragedy. This song always comes to mind whenever I read about teenagers committing suicide, especially those who are gay and or have been bullied. Heartbreaking and sad song.
MacInnich 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
is this is a true story
65dentyne 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
MysVespucciano: Why would you need Amy Whinehouse to do a remake? Nobody could this version.
malcolmbryant: "Talent, looks, soul..... this woman had everything." Right on. This is a true classic even after 45 years.
Ynot1666 3 months ago
well it's got a jazz/ country feel dont it and i have too agree with mudrydyr
TheAfaka 3 months ago
You know its sad, cuz I bet Amy Winehouse could have done a decent remake of this song. :(
MysVespucciano 3 months ago 2
or was it a bouquet of flowers?
krwescott 3 months ago
they threw a rag doll over the bridge
krwescott 3 months ago
There are very few singers that make you feel something like Bobbie does.
melmo75 4 months ago
I can remember seeing her perform this classic on the Tonight Show or something and thought she was smoking hot. I was about 10 years old at the time and my opinion hasn't changed much. Great, mysterious song.
bailinnumberguy 4 months ago 2
I Love this woman!
miwar2468 4 months ago 2
Oh my GOD! I went to the movies 10 times as a teenager because I live in Georgia and the heat and humidity always made me think of all the dates I used to have.
1961tracy 4 months ago
@1961tracy do you know the bridge
harleyjs66 3 months ago
Without a shred of doubt, one of the all time great songs. And what a suoerb live performance by its composer. Talent, looks, soul..... this woman had everything.
malcolmbryant 4 months ago 3
I remember seeing this with my family when it was first telecast. My father had tears in his eyes. To me the most powerful thing about it was after the song ended - when she went and sat with the statues. This is a much more powerful song than it seems on the surface.
DalokiMauvais 4 months ago 3
Pretty sad song none the less, suicide has balls on it.
jakyjac63 4 months ago
Basically, Max Baer (Jethro) gained the rights to "Ode to Billie Joe" and wanted to make movie based on the song. He liked the movie "Summer of '42" so much that wanted the writer, Herman Raucher to do the screenplay. Max Baer had Herman Raucher meet with Bobbie Gentry. Bobbie, however, kept the song and the events shrouded in mystery.
Raucher, having been paid to do a screenplay, wrote a screenplay based on his interpretation of the song. The song's true meaning, Bobbie never divulged.
mrsolofeo 4 months ago
@mrsolofeo Thank you so much for that info!
malcolmbryant 4 months ago
That's eas cf80to01 she was out choppin cotton and her brother was bailing hay
chamberl 4 months ago
talk about delta blues my clear glass of water is mudding up just listening to this genius work..
lorimerroylance 4 months ago 2
“Those questions are of secondary importance in my mind. The story of Billie Joe has two interesting underlying themes. First, the illustration of a group of people's reactions to the life and death of Billie Joe, and its subsequent effect on their lives, is made. Second, the obvious gap between the girl and her mother is shown when both women experience a common loss (first, Billie Joe and, later, Papa), and yet Mama and the girl are unable to recognize their mutual loss or share their grief."
worldcommunity 4 months ago in playlist YouTube Mix for Bobbie Gentry
if you pay attention to the lyrics you know what billy and the girl tossed off the talahachi bridge, i truely believe it was there baby
leonida2001 4 months ago
@leonida2001 it was flowers. he jumped cause he was molested. there is a movie and this song was the theme song
gigicorr 4 months ago in playlist 1960
@gigicorr He was Gay ..Not just molested!
MRJACKSON19581 4 months ago
@gigicorr the movie came out in 1976, the song 1967, they said he jumped in the movie because he was gay. The movie also spells Billie Joe, BILLY Joe. We don't know for sure the reason behind the song gay, raped, felt guilty over something. Open to interpretation. It's a brilliant song and you like you are a part of it!
BUFFYKING88 4 months ago
@leonida2001 Question... How would her parents have not known she was pregnant?????
I'm not saying you are not correct; it just left that question in my head....
But I do truly believe thy were lovers and something very tragic happened between them to cause him to take his life for the woman he loved.....
Believe me I have felt that way about a girl I dated years ago....
KravMike08 4 months ago
wow muscle you hit the nail on the head .A gravel road on a hot july day,the air stifling with humidity,Just like Virginia where i came of age......too bad it all turned into suburbs in the eighties.
mudrydyr 4 months ago
MAN,YOU CAN ALMOST FEEL THE SOUTHERN HEAT AND HUMIDITY HEARING THIS ONE
mudrydyr 4 months ago 36
@mudrydyr I don't know about you, but hearing this immediately transports me back to my childhood at the old farm down South,(early 70's for me) on a hot, lazy afternoon, gathering fresh eggs from the barn, pickin berries, fishin, huntin, the gravel & dirt roads, & Moms big homemade meals in that big, hot kitchen. They can say whatever they want about this ol tune, but for me it resonates with country life in the South.
musclecarluvr1 4 months ago 53
@musclecarluvr1 What part of the South? Sounds really cool. I have memories of life in the Chicago suburbs, which probably aren't as interesting.
stitchesful 3 months ago