71 today. Writer of one of the most iconic pop songs ever and a recluse to this day.

[www.youtube.com]

And her version of a big Dusty Springfield hit.

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video: [www.youtube.com]

Love the song Fancy

Happy Birthday

"Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

I remember from the seventies an 8-track tape called Great Songs Of The Beatles, on which Bobbie Gentry is featured with a version of Eleanor Rigby. Her Capitol Records version was recorded in 1968: [www.youtube.com]



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Very late/mid 60s version of Eleanor Rigby by the sound and pretty cool. I had to wonder if Glen Campbell and other members of the Wrecking Crew were doing the backing.

What a sultry, unique voice she had. That song and the way she sang it just kind of transported me to the deep South on a hot, muggy summer day. And, when I hear it now, I am transported back to the time in my life when the song was popular. Music can be absolutely magical. Why does this song have these effects on me? I cannot dissect it, I cannot explain it, it just does.

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DaveG
What a sultry, unique voice she had. That song and the way she sang it just kind of transported me to the deep South on a hot, muggy summer day. And, when I hear it now, I am transported back to the time in my life when the song was popular. Music can be absolutely magical. Why does this song have these effects on me? I cannot dissect it, I cannot explain it, it just does.

Me too, Dave. Perfect, strange vibe. Great song

"No Anchovies, Please"

I remember seeing her sing "I'll be home for Christmas" on the tonight show and bringing a tear to Carson's eye.

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Elmo Lewis

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DaveG
What a sultry, unique voice she had. That song and the way she sang it just kind of transported me to the deep South on a hot, muggy summer day. And, when I hear it now, I am transported back to the time in my life when the song was popular. Music can be absolutely magical. Why does this song have these effects on me? I cannot dissect it, I cannot explain it, it just does.

Me too, Dave. Perfect, strange vibe. Great song

Haunting song. This song gave me the creeps as a kid because it just sounded so ...tragic.
She's refused to explain it and has never provided any clues, but there are alot of theories out there.
One of the more interesting theories is the story/song is a statement on Southern passivity toward racial injustice. WHen she she sings about 'passing the biscuits please..' while they're talking about all these tragedies - murder, death, sickness etc...
And everything just gets smothered by indifference. The significance of the Tallahatchie Bridge: the place where Emmett Till was murdered.
And whatever happened to Billy Joe was similarly swept under the rug. The greatest sin of the southern culture being its ability to ignore what was happening around it. Its an interesting theory because the song just feels like its painting a picture of something beyond a dinner table conversation.
I like that she kept it mysterious. Beautiful woman, sexy voice and great songwriter. Lucinda Williams cites her as her earliest influence.
And Fancy is a classic, recorded at Muscle Shoals.
Interesingly, Dylan hated this song, went out of his way to mock it. Which is funny to me. But Dylan could be ornery and slightly sexist. Here was a woman, from the south, who put her own authentic spin on gothic narrative in a song, and Dylan may have been irritated that it was more popular then anything he had done.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-07-30 02:07 by stupidguy2.

ROSANNE CASH AND BILL CLINTON SOLVE ODE TO BILLY JOE MYSTERY

I just found this:

David Dawson

“And 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" - Ode To Billy Joe - Bobby Gentry.


Rosanne Cash was stunned after performing mystery classic Ode To Billy Joe at Carnegie Hall in New York - she was summoned to meet U.S. president Bill Clinton.
Clinton wanted to share his theory about what was thrown off Tallahatchie Bridge at Choctaw Ridge in Mississippi - apart from teenage lover Billy Joe McAllister.
Cash, 58, performed Bobby Gentry’s 1967 hit and Gentry, living in seclusion, never revealed her secret.
Was it a baby, ring, bouquet of flowers or some other object that made the big splash that resonated through music folklore for almost 50 years?
“I performed Ode To Billy Joe and Bill Clinton summoned me and wanted to talk about that song,” Cash told Capital News.
“He thought it was a baby that was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge. A lot of people think it was a baby. It’s a real dark mysterious song. But the former leader of the free world explained the song to me. He had a very interesting theory it was about the shame of the south and he talked about it at length. I was quite impressed he had given it so much thought. I said ‘aren’t you meant to be saving the world or something?’”

Well, there you go. I always thought it was a baby, too. (That could explain why he was leader of the free world and I wasn't.)

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