Ode to Billie Joe

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Ode to Billie Joe is a song by the singer Bobbie Gentry , which became a million seller in 1967 . The play is about the secret affection of a young couple in the Mississippi Delta and Billie Joe McAllister's jump from the Tallahatchie Bridge .

Content of the song

The text of the Ode to Billie Joe lets the listener put together the incidents from the table conversation of a peasant family. The first-person narrator, daughter of the family, reports on field work and the subsequent dinner, at which the mother mentions that she heard from Choctaw Ridge that Billie Joe McAllister jumped from the Tallahatchie Bridge. The father says that Billie Joe has always had no sense and that he still has five more acres to plow. The mother thinks it's a shame with Billie Joe and that Choctaw Ridge never gets anything good. The brother mentions how he, Tom and Billie Joe once poked a frog in the back of their sister during a film screening. Last Sunday he spoke to Billie Joe after the service and saw him at the sawmill in Choctaw Ridge yesterday.

The mother asks the daughter why she has not had a single bite and says that the nice young preacher , who stopped by today and would like to come back for dinner on Sunday, talked about Billie Joe with a girl, the daughter's very much like seeing them throw something off the Tallahatchie Bridge. A year has passed in the fifth and final stanza. The brother got married and now works in Tupelo (Mississippi) . The father died of a virus infection and the mother fell into melancholy. The daughter only reveals that she spends a lot of time in Choctaw Ridge picking flowers that she throws from the bridge into the muddy water of the river.

The composer Gentry, who comes from Chickasaw County (Mississippi) in the former settlement area of ​​the Choctaw Indians , never solved the textual puzzle. She told author Fred Bronson that any listener could interpret their own idea into it. The real message from the song is how nonchalantly the family talked about the suicide and did not notice that the victim's friend was sitting at the table. The bridge over the Tallahatchie River in Money, Mississippi is real; it collapsed in June 1972 and was rebuilt.

History of origin

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe (1967)

Music producer Kelly Gordon of Capitol Records received some demo recordings with his own guitar accompaniment on a Martin from Bobbie Gentry in February 1967 . Capitol Records was interested in the demo recording of Mississippi Delta and less in the ballad Ode to Billie Joe , because it was initially suspected that its text was encoded about an abortion . In addition, no rhythm section could be added to this ballad, which originally lasted seven minutes.

After these obstacles could be removed, Capitol acquired the master tape on March 13, 1967, and Gentry received a recording contract with Capitol Records on June 13, 1967. Arranger Jimmy Haskell was commissioned at short notice to add a violin arrangement to the vocals and the bluesy acoustic guitar accompaniment by Gentry . Haskell was enthusiastic about the cinematic text and underlaid it with four violins and two cellos . Gentry's southern , undercooled voice dominated the arrangement . The recording session took place on July 10, 1967 at Capitol Records Studio C in Hollywood , and Kelly Gordon shortened the recording to a more radio-friendly 4:13 minute playing time.

Publication and Success

Capitol Records initially released Mississippi Delta as the A-side , but Ode to Billie Joe got more radio coverage. The single under catalog no. Capitol Records 5950 was released on July 11, 1967 and stayed at number one on the US hit parade for four weeks. Ode to Billie Joe also became a number one hit in Canada . In the first three weeks after publication, 750,000 copies were sold, a total of two million in the USA and more than three million worldwide. Life magazine showed Bobbie Gentry walking across the original bridge in its November 10, 1967 issue.

The song received four Grammy Awards , three for Bobbie Gentry ( Best Vocal Performance (Female) , Best Contemporary Female Solo Vocal Performance and Best New Artist ) and one for Jimmy Haskell ( Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists ). From July 27, 1967, studio work began on the album of the same name, which topped the LP charts for two weeks after it was released. The ballad ranks 274th in the Songs of the Century .

Cover versions and film adaptation

There are at least 87 cover versions in total . In the same year, King Curtis released an instrumental version (September 1967), followed in particular by Brook Benton (September 1967), Joe Dassin with Marie-Jeanne (October 1967), Lou Donaldson (October 1967), The Ventures (December 1967), Nancy Wilson (January 1968), Tammy Wynette (January 1968), Booker T. & the MG's (April 1968), Joe Tex (July 1968) or Sinéad O'Connor (September 1995). The eponymous movie (German distribution title The seduction ; US premiere 4 June 1976) includes the song, cited in his name and for an explanation of the mysteries Lyric. In the film, a rag doll is thrown from the bridge and Billie Joe McAllister jumps into the river because of the unresolved conflict between his homosexuality and friendship with Sally Jane Ellison. One of Polo Hofer written German version appeared in 1995 on Sina's album Wiiblich .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steve Sullivan: Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings . tape 1 . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8295-9 , pp. 114 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 27, 2016]).
  2. ^ Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits , Billboard Publications, New York 1985, p. 229
  3. ↑ a b Tara Murtha: Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe . Bloomsbury Academic, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-62356-964-8 , pp. 59 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 27, 2016]).
  4. ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records: From the 1930's to the 1980's - An Illustrated Directory. Batsford, London 1985, p. 241
  5. ^ Billboard Magazine . Billboard Publications, New York September 16, 1967, p. C-24 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 27, 2016]).
  6. ↑ Craig Rosen: The Billboard Book of Number One Albums: The Inside Story Behind Pop Music's Blockbuster Records. Billboard Books, New York 1996, p. 96
  7. ↑ Deborah Cartmell: A Companion to Literature, Film and Adaptation . Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2012, ISBN 978-1-118-91753-4 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 27, 2016]).

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