I heavily recommend for anyone looking for good music nowadays.
It's hard to find, but it's there.
What artist/song are you listening to RIGHT NOW?
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I heavily recommend for anyone looking for good music nowadays.
It's hard to find, but it's there.
10,000 maniacs - These Are Days
Master of Puppets - Metallica
Below is what I posted on a Lyrics Request thread on Mudcat.org, starting with a link to one of the most enlightening resources on "Ode to Billie Joe." Some of the questions refer to posts in that thread.
The Mystery of Ode to Billie Joe
This site offers endless speculation on the song's events, showing that Rashomon has nothing on Billie Joe, as well as invaluable insights which listeners unfamiliar with the time and place might miss. One of the most useful items was the one narrowing down which bridge was the most likely referenced in the song based on the location of Choctaw Ridge. I am left with no answers, only additional questions. For those looking for something to do, here they are:
1. In the novelization based on the movie script written by a man who came up with his own ideas based on Bobbie Gentry's song, the narrator's mother adds, "He's dead" after relating that Billie Joe had jumped, with a phrase such as "as if there could be any doubt of the outcome of such an act." Well, IS there? CAN there be any doubt? Wikipedia, if that's a trusted source, states the Tallahatchie River is about 50 feet deep and full of large sharp rocks. Is jumping off bridges not a "thing" on any part of the Tallahatchie River, especially near Choctaw Ridge? Has anyone jumped, fell, or been pushed off any such bridge, and if so what was the result? I say, send MythBusters to the several best candidate bridges and run crash tests with dummies!
2. Did Bobbie Gentry ever actually state that the object thrown off the bridge was an aborted, stillborn, miscarried, or any kind of baby? I thought she stated she didn't know what they threw and that was not the point of the song. Is this truly from an interview or someone's imagination?
3. Does anyone have the full text of the original long version with the missing verses? The song was said to be originally 7 minutes edited to 4. I found handwritten lyrics on display from Ole Miss beginning with a verse about a girl who does not seem to be the narrator, at first sounding as if she is missing, then as if her whereabouts are known but she avoids all public contact due to some knowledge of the song's events. It seems this one verse would not be enough to render the song nearly twice as long! Are there other verses and what is their content and purport?
4. Someone at the above link states "that nice young preacher Brother Taylor" bears closer examination. He seems to know a lot about the whereabouts and doings of the narrator and Billie Joe at different times and places, as if following them. Perhaps what happened to Billie Joe was blackmail or murder by a rival for the hand of the narrator. All I ever saw was this poor girl has just lost someone of deep significance to her--much deeper than her family knows or acknowledges--and here her mother is trying to shove some other guy at her--but others see more here.
5. Lastly, and most important, why is the song titled "Ode to Billie Joe" when preferred spellings would be "Billy Joe" (male) or "Billie Jo" (female)? Does this hint at the character being of uncertain gender? Billie Joe could be a girl. Of course, that would make the "he" in verse 3 refer to Tom, to whom Billie Joe was a friend or relative. The song will be fifty years old next year and the movie is at least forty. Time for a gender bender remake!
Billie Joe could be a known female who had always acted tomboyish, if that could be accepted in the rural south in the mid 20th century. There was an episode of The Andy Griffith Show about "Frankie the pretty good farm hand," whose father made her dress and act so as he was afraid to lose her for farm chores, so dressing or acting boyish wouldn't necessarily be taboo for the 50s or 60s. Or it could be a real case of the child being intersex or transgender, sent by embarrassed relatives to live with the parents of Tom. Of course presumably the family would know the child was born female or hermaphrodite, and there would be issues of school enrollment. Or the child could be like Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird, who only spent summers with relatives and told outrageous stories about how he usually lived. Perhaps Billie Joe was a girl letting out her inner male side while visiting Cousin Tom, but when Billie, transitioning from child to young adult, becomes serious about the narrator, either Tom spills the beans or Brother Taylor, who is in on it, blows the whistle. Then the narrator rejects Billie Joe, even angrily, having believed all along he was a boy, and Billie can't stand it and jumps. What was thrown off the bridge was a romantic offering, only they weren't both throwing it--the narrator was throwing and Billie trying to prevent its being thrown. The narrator carries the guilt and devastation for life.
This story is crying for a transgender remake. Where besides Internet Movie Database does one propose ideas for remakes which really need to be made?
The Mystery of Ode to Billie Joe
This site offers endless speculation on the song's events, showing that Rashomon has nothing on Billie Joe, as well as invaluable insights which listeners unfamiliar with the time and place might miss. One of the most useful items was the one narrowing down which bridge was the most likely referenced in the song based on the location of Choctaw Ridge. I am left with no answers, only additional questions. For those looking for something to do, here they are:
1. In the novelization based on the movie script written by a man who came up with his own ideas based on Bobbie Gentry's song, the narrator's mother adds, "He's dead" after relating that Billie Joe had jumped, with a phrase such as "as if there could be any doubt of the outcome of such an act." Well, IS there? CAN there be any doubt? Wikipedia, if that's a trusted source, states the Tallahatchie River is about 50 feet deep and full of large sharp rocks. Is jumping off bridges not a "thing" on any part of the Tallahatchie River, especially near Choctaw Ridge? Has anyone jumped, fell, or been pushed off any such bridge, and if so what was the result? I say, send MythBusters to the several best candidate bridges and run crash tests with dummies!
2. Did Bobbie Gentry ever actually state that the object thrown off the bridge was an aborted, stillborn, miscarried, or any kind of baby? I thought she stated she didn't know what they threw and that was not the point of the song. Is this truly from an interview or someone's imagination?
3. Does anyone have the full text of the original long version with the missing verses? The song was said to be originally 7 minutes edited to 4. I found handwritten lyrics on display from Ole Miss beginning with a verse about a girl who does not seem to be the narrator, at first sounding as if she is missing, then as if her whereabouts are known but she avoids all public contact due to some knowledge of the song's events. It seems this one verse would not be enough to render the song nearly twice as long! Are there other verses and what is their content and purport?
4. Someone at the above link states "that nice young preacher Brother Taylor" bears closer examination. He seems to know a lot about the whereabouts and doings of the narrator and Billie Joe at different times and places, as if following them. Perhaps what happened to Billie Joe was blackmail or murder by a rival for the hand of the narrator. All I ever saw was this poor girl has just lost someone of deep significance to her--much deeper than her family knows or acknowledges--and here her mother is trying to shove some other guy at her--but others see more here.
5. Lastly, and most important, why is the song titled "Ode to Billie Joe" when preferred spellings would be "Billy Joe" (male) or "Billie Jo" (female)? Does this hint at the character being of uncertain gender? Billie Joe could be a girl. Of course, that would make the "he" in verse 3 refer to Tom, to whom Billie Joe was a friend or relative. The song will be fifty years old next year and the movie is at least forty. Time for a gender bender remake!
Billie Joe could be a known female who had always acted tomboyish, if that could be accepted in the rural south in the mid 20th century. There was an episode of The Andy Griffith Show about "Frankie the pretty good farm hand," whose father made her dress and act so as he was afraid to lose her for farm chores, so dressing or acting boyish wouldn't necessarily be taboo for the 50s or 60s. Or it could be a real case of the child being intersex or transgender, sent by embarrassed relatives to live with the parents of Tom. Of course presumably the family would know the child was born female or hermaphrodite, and there would be issues of school enrollment. Or the child could be like Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird, who only spent summers with relatives and told outrageous stories about how he usually lived. Perhaps Billie Joe was a girl letting out her inner male side while visiting Cousin Tom, but when Billie, transitioning from child to young adult, becomes serious about the narrator, either Tom spills the beans or Brother Taylor, who is in on it, blows the whistle. Then the narrator rejects Billie Joe, even angrily, having believed all along he was a boy, and Billie can't stand it and jumps. What was thrown off the bridge was a romantic offering, only they weren't both throwing it--the narrator was throwing and Billie trying to prevent its being thrown. The narrator carries the guilt and devastation for life.
This story is crying for a transgender remake. Where besides Internet Movie Database does one propose ideas for remakes which really need to be made?
My brain has gone crazy. For weeks this song pops up inside and plays itself every evening
How Can Love Survive from Sound of Music. Can't believe they kicked it out from the movie. One of the best songs.
How Can Love Survive from Sound of Music. Can't believe they kicked it out from the movie. One of the best songs.
El Condor Pasa...yes I would...if I could. I surely would.
Well then, that was quite the post.
Now I had to listen to it again. Always loved that song.
I love that song! I burned a CD of music the group that did that song. Wayna Picchu. It is Spanish but I really like their stuff.
Walt, here is the original by Wayna Picchu. They are from Peru.
Thank you! I had a wood flute similar to the one he uses. He must have a set of lungs on him. heh! To maintain sustained notes like that! I'm way below the mountain he stands on. or them...the group.
A lot of their songs has pan pipes, and I love the sound of them.
Glad you liked that.
Drive-By Truckers - It's Great To Be Alive
A 3 cd live set from the Truckers - good stuff.
A 3 cd live set from the Truckers - good stuff.
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