Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billy Joe

Bobby has always been my favorite "country" singer.

I was 8 when I first heard this song (1996).

I remember it being the middle of the night, and being half-asleep (I slept with the radio on) then waking up fully to listen to the song.

I recall getting huge CHILLS when she sang "she and Billy Joe throwing something off the Talahatchie Bridge".

I had always interpereted that to be a baby. It was the first time I really thought about underage pregnancy and abortions in a real sense.
Was an eye-opener, even if it isn't the actual story.

in 1967?

Music has never been as censored as film, and even film lost heavy censorship in 1963.

me too! Even when I was 8, the first time I heard it.

I mean, it was the first time I really ever considered teen pregnancy and abortions in a real sense. Thats why this song sticks out soo much in my mind.

It was like an eye-opener.

The song wasn't written that way initially, that was developed for the movie.

Only in the movie.

originally she had written 7 verses which covered it more deeply, but I like this version much more.

Southern Gothic. Gold

HOLY CRAP BATMAN

for me it's about the gossiping of families and small communities...

I know Bobbie Gentry has claimed that the song is "about" a family's indifference to death and loss, but it would be ignorant to pretend that there isn't a clear thread of mystery in the song. If she wanted to be about the family -- and that alone -- why add the part about the narrator and "throwing something" off the bridge where Billie Joe then commits suicide? I'm not saying we're supposed to guess. But there is more going on here than a narrator with a wicked mean family.