Did she break up with him or something? I don't get it.

quote:

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It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

'n' Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
'n' Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

'n' Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece-a apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now ya tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

'n' 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 Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
'n' Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

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[This message has been edited by BaitShack (edited 6/16/2003 9:23p).]

In the movie, it was because he was sodomized by the sheriff.

Was it the sheriff or the preacher man in the movie?

From the song, I always thought it was implied that she was pregnant or had an abortion.

I figured it was that whole gay thing.

Was the pitcher ever revealed? All that I remember is that he killed himself because he lost his manhood. We should call Robby Benson to get the definitive answer.

I sang that blasted song all day on June 3rd. I even called my old radio station to get them to play it, but they couldn't find it. Living proof KORA has all but gone to hell.

As for the story behind the song, I remember reading that there was much speculation... between the movie & the song...
one of the more odd reasons speculated was that Billy Joe was gay, and couldn't come to terms with it... or something like that.

A song & movie about sexuality and suicide in rural Mississippi. Odd combination?
I know this much... if the movie were re-made today, Billy Bob Thornton would sure as hell have some part in it.

I always thought that they killed their baby - that whole part about the preacher seeing the two of them throwing something off the bridge, then Billy JOe couldn't live with the guilt and killed himself.

But I never saw the movie.

Haven't you ever had one of those days where you feel you have forgoten something. He was going bungee jumping and it was one of those days.

Good one Short Bus

quote:

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Ode To Billie Joe By Glen Hannah

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So what did Billie Joe MacAllister throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

What the Lyrics reveal
The 1967 song by Bobbie Gentry (written by Gentry) is a bittersweet tale of young love and its tragic consequences in farmland America. The urban myth that grew up around the song was that the lyrics suggested Billie Joe McAllister, the troubled title character, threw a baby off the Tallahatchie bridge; the result of an illicit union with a young girl; but do the lyrics substantiate this? What other mysteries does the song contain?

To best appreciate this article readers may wish to view the original lyrics. Open the following link in another window for easy reference.

See "Ode To Billie Joe" Lyrics

The song is told from the viewpoint of a young girl (Verse 4 - "Child what's happened..." and "Saw a girl that looked like you" ), but how young or old is not clear.

The unnamed Girl sings about how she heard about the death of Billie Joe while having an everyday family meal. The Mother announces the news of the suicide of Billie Joe MacAllister to the family, but it doesn't disturb their appetite for black-eyed peas, biscuits and apple pie, suggesting that the family wasn't particularly close to the boy. The Father's comment "Well Billie Joe never had a lick of sense" (Verse 2) confirms this.

The only person who seems affected by the death is The Girl. Her lack of appetite (Verse 4) suggests the news hits her deeper than the rest of the family. The family's indifference also suggests that they are unaware of the true extent of her feelings for Billie Joe, as there is no attempt to console her or for that matter, convey the news with any sensitivity. It's just blurted out at the dinner table like any other piece of local gossip.

Verse 3 confirms that The Girl was "talkin' to him after church last Sunday Night", and Verse 4 conveys the hearsay that Brother Taylor also saw them together on Choctaw Ridge. Although the actual line is, "He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you" (Verse 4). This leaves room for speculation that Billie Joe was with someone other than The Girl; the implication is, in the context of the rest of the song, that it was indeed she.

The final line of Verse 4 is the ambiguous one:
"And she and Billie Joe was throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge". The "Baby" interpretation is not supported by the lyrics. Scandalous though it may be, it is really a misinterpretation.

This line clearly states that Billie Joe was not acting alone, and that they were both participating in the "throwing". This could mean that they were both lifting and throwing the same object OR that there were a number of identical objects and they were throwing these separately. For instance, together they could have been throwing a big log from the nearby sawmill OR each of them could have been throwing stones together. The line fits either way.

The answer appears in the final verse (Verse 5).
It is a year since the suicide, and life has changed the family - the Brother is married and has left town, the Father is dead and the Mother has lost some of her will to go on. It is, in fact, the anniversary of Billie Joe's death, and the Girl sings about "pickin flowers up on Choctaw Ridge" and dropping them off the Tallahatchie Bridge. This could be interpreted as an act similar to laying flowers at a grave site, and it is, but there is more to it.

This is where some speculation comes in.
Billie Joe and The Girl have known each other for a long time. The incident in Verse 3 about putting a frog down her back at the Carroll County picture show is the mischievous act of children, so we can deduce that they have grown up together, and seen a lot of each other in passing. Billie had developed strong feelings for The Girl over the years, but she was unaware of it. What Brother Taylor saw on the bridge that day was probably the time when he expressed his love for her.

They had been throwing flowers off the Bridge that day ("And she and Billie Joe was throwin' flowers off the Tallahatchie Bridge" ). Why? Probably just to watch them float down stream. It was the youthful, carefree act of two backwoods teenagers enjoying each other's company. The mood took Billie Joe and he told The Girl of his love for her. Unfortunately, she didn't feel as strongly for him, and told him so. The pain of the rejection was too much for him to bear, and rather than live without The Girl's love, he chose to commit suicide. He chose to jump off the Tallahatchie Bridge to send a message to The Girl. She and she alone, would know exactly why he took his own life.

In light of this, the final two lines of the song reach a deeper level of poignancy.

("And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge" )

The Movie
In 1976, a film version of "Ode to Billie Joe" was made. Bobbie Gentry received a co-writing credit on the movie, but that does not mean...
a) That she had a hand in writing the actual screenplay
b) That the screenplay expanded on the original meaning of the song.

More likely, as is often the case, she was given a writing credit as a matter of form, as the bare bones of the song's story were used in the film. The screenwriter then expanded the story into feature film length adding sub-plots, additional characters etc. The film version ads another dimension to the story not found in the song. Billie Joe in the film is a repressed homosexual. He confesses his love for The Girl (called Bobby Lee in the film), only to cover his growing fear that he may be homosexual. After a sexual encounter with an unnamed man, he is unable to live with his guilt, and jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
None of this story line is evident in the original song, and it is unclear if this was Gentry's original vision, or just the work of a professional scriptwriter trying to film up 100 minutes of movie time.

The Longer Version
According to one source, the original song actually ran closer to 7 minutes, but as this didn't fit in with radio station formats in 1967, the song was shortened to its current length. This may explain the lack of detail about what was thrown off the bridge. If the song was originally longer, additional verses may have shed more light on their relationship between Billie Joe and The Girl.
When was the song shortened? At the rehearsal stage? The recording stage? After the recording stage? It's possible that somewhere out there, the original 7 minute version exists on tape.

A final mystery
A final mystery for your consideration. Why isn't Billie Joe really Billy Joe? Does the song suggest that the title character is really a girl? Listening to the song again in this context, it takes on a completely different meaning. A lesser known opinion is that the tale is actually one of young lesbian love. However, hidden in the lyrics, Billie Joe is quietly referred to as "him" ("Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe. Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show. And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?" ) So, Billie Joe is clearly a young man. Right? Not if you interpret the line as Brother actually saying "And wasn't I talkin' to TOM after church last Sunday night?"

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[This message has been edited by BaitShack (edited 6/16/2003 11:21p).]

Wow Baitshack, that's pretty deep.

I always get that song confused with, "That the night the lights went out in Georgia."

was his jump preceeded by "watch this..here, hold my beer"

[This message has been edited by cclearman (edited 6/17/2003 9:21a).]

When I was coming down here, I was playin it. And "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" came on. Now I ain't heard that song since it was big, but when it was big, I heard it a million-trillion times. I'm listening to it this morning, and this was the first time I ever realized that the lady singing the song, was the one who killed Andy.

If you wanna know something and he won't tell you, cut off one of his fingers. The little one. Then tell him his thumb's next. After that he'll tell you if he wears ladies underwear. I'm hungry. Let's get a taco.

I make a post and e-mail all my friends on June 3rd that, "It's just another dusty Delta Day", every year.

This song is sacred to me for many reasons I can't tell.

Mama from "Mama's Family" sang that Georgia song first. I saw her on the one hit wonders show and thought that was pretty interesting. I think her husband wrote it.

Now I'm thinking the young preacher might have been mixed up in it somehow.

She would be Vivki Lawrence from Carol Burnet fame.

She won a Grammy for that song. (But then again, so did Karl Douglass for, "Kung Fu Fighting"!!!)

She would be Vivki Lawrence from Carol Burnet fame.

She won a Grammy for that song. (But then again, so did Karl Douglass for, "Kung Fu Fighting"!!!)

What if it was just a really hot summer day and he jumped in to cool off ? Maybe he didn't die...he won the lottery, built a mansion in Jackson, and lived in seclusion with strippers.

Maybe the gay preacher was jealous and pushed the boy over the edge in a jealous rage after seeing the two young people together!

I always figured Billy Jo jumped because HE WAS TIRED OF HEARING THAT MONOTONOUS GUITAR STRUMMING.

Maybe he got a rejection letter from Texas A&M and had to go to tech.