5.3.3: Bobbie Gentry, “Ode to Billie Joe”

By rejecting the norms of folk song and making an effort to develop nuanced musical characteristics, Schubert created a compelling ballad that has remained a popular favorite in the intervening centuries. That is not to say, however, that his approach to setting a ballad text is in any way superior to that of the folk tradition, nor that it was destined to replace the folk-inspired approach. Many later song composers used simple, strophic settings to amplify the emotional power of ballad texts and communicate effectively with listeners.

Although there are many excellent examples of 20th-century ballads composed in a folk style, we will examine only one: Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit “Ode to Billie Joe.”9 Gentry was born in rural Mississippi, and many of her songs describe the difficulties of life in the impoverished regions of the South. She taught herself to play a variety of instruments as a child and wrote her first song at the age of seven. Although she later performed at nightclubs, her ambition was always to be a songwriter, not a singer. When she first recorded “Ode to Billie Joe” as a demo for Capitol records, she only sang the song herself to avoid the cost of hiring a performer.

Image 5.14: Although singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry maintained a successful career into the 1980s, she never surpassed her early hit “Ode to Billie Joe.” Source: Flickr. Attribution: User “oneredsf1” License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

9. “Ode to Billie Joe” Performance: Bobbie Gentry (1967)

The producers at Capitol records commissioned arranger Jimmie Haskell to add strings to Gentry’s recording, for which she had accompanied herself on acoustic guitar. Haskell wrote parts for four violins and two cellos, which were then recorded and dubbed on to the existing demo. Gentry’s song also needed to be shortened in length, for the original recording was eight minutes long, containing eleven verses of Billie Joe’s story. The final product, at four minutes and fifteen seconds, was still long for a pop single, but the song struck a popular nerve: It spent four weeks at the top of the charts and finished the year in third place.

The song’s power lies in its storytelling. The first four verses describe a farming family coming together over the dinner table. In between passing the dishes, they comment on the news that a local boy, Billie Joe MacAllister, had jumped to his death from the Tallahatchie Bridge earlier in the day. Over the course of various dispassionate reminiscences, we learn that the song’s female narrator was friends with Billie Joe, and in the fourth verse we are presented with the information that she was seen with Billie Joe just the day before, throwing something off of the same bridge from which he was soon to jump. The final verse takes us one year into the future, at which point the narrator’s brother has moved away and her father has died. She reports that she spends most of her time dropping flowers off of the bridge. The ballad’s narrative is bleak throughout, and its portrayal of the characters’ stagnation and hopelessness is compelling. The song’s greatest power, however, has always lain in its mystery. What did the narrator and Billie Joe throw off of the bridge? Despite being asked throughout her career, Gentry always refused to say. She has also never explained why Billie Joe committed suicide—indeed, she has claimed not to know herself. While the listener is allowed to glimpse the daily life of the song’s characters, we are not offered any insight into their thoughts or motivations.

Like “Pretty Polly,” “Ode to Billie Joe” uses a simple, repetitive melody as a vehicle for a long, complex, and ultimately tragic story. In fact, the melodies are strikingly similar: Each begins with an ascending melodic gesture, and each repeats its opening melodic phrase at a higher pitch level before returning to the original, lower range. Gentry’s melody is just a bit more complex, insofar as it moves to the high range twice and ends with a unique melodic phrase. In both cases, however, the melody serves the same purpose. On the practical side, it provides a vehicle with which the singer can tell the story. On the affective side, it sets an appropriate mood that adds to the story’s impact.

While the minor mode of “Pretty Polly” is generally appropriate to a tragic narrative, Gentry takes a different approach. Although her melody contains blues- inspired inflections (the third scale degree is sometimes lowered and the seventh scale degree is always lowered), it is accompanied by major-mode harmonies. That, in combination with a lively tempo, produces a sound world that is not necessarily depressing. At the same time, however, the cheerfulness of the tune throws the darkness of the lyrics into sharp relief. According to Gentry, “Ode to Billie Joe” was a study in “unconscious cruelty” that explored the inability of the characters to communicate and empathize with one another. Each is isolated by their own grief. The inexpressive music, therefore, seems to emphasize the repressed emotions hidden by the narrator and her mother.

The various sounds of “Ode to Billie Joe” also give depth to the story and contribute to the song’s impact on the listener. We might start with Gentry’s voice, which is natural and unaffected. A touch of roughness adds an expressive character to her singing, while also helping the listener to identify her as a regular person. The fact that she is not overly trained as a performer makes her story and emotions seem more authentic. Her guitar accompaniment is sparse and rhythmic, propelling the music along with the minimum of effort. The strings were added to make the album commercially viable, but they also have a dramatic effect. The sliding harmonies emphasize the laziness of the scene, while the final spiraling descent illustrates the flowers falling from the bridge into the muddy water below.