Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe (VIDEO)

[RandySF]

I've been listening to this for decades and I'm STILL trying to figure out what really happened.

[cemaphonic]

1. Nice little bit of that old Southern Gothic

I think that the vagueness of the story is a big part of what what makes the song so memorable.

Neat guitar part too, sort of a cross of country and delta blues styles.

[lovemydog]

2. I've often felt this may have been Bob's homage to that one

but not sure about the dates of when they were both recorded.

[CBGLuthier]

3. I enjoy the existential emptiness of the wondering for a reason

When reading that one of the twins from Everybody loves Raymond killed himself the other day my wife asked why and I said there is no answer.

Forget that stupid movie with its stupid pat answer. Sometimes folks kill themselves for no good reason short of despair, just ask Richard Cory.

[cwydro]

8. I remember that poem!

Didn't think anyone else did!

[Iggo]

4. Song scared the crap outa me when I was a little kid in the sixties.

Still does.

One of my favorites.

[Special Prosciuto]

5. I remember Gene Shalit reviewing the movie

with Robby Benson & Glynnis O'Connor. Shalit said "the only thing ode about this film is the audience's money back."

[lovemydog]

6. ha!

[Miles Archer]

7. Henry Kaiser did an off-the-hook 9 minute "Neil Young & Crazy Horse"-style version of this

ENjoy.

[ailsagirl]

9. This is probably neither here nor there...

but Bobbie Gentry married Bill Harrah (yes, that Harrah) in 1969 for about a year.

She's since been a virtual recluse for many decades and lives in Los Angeles.