Bobbie Gentry "Ode To Billy Joe"

CA-35

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Love her voice....reminds me of Dusty Springfield

Bobbie Gentry 'Ode to Billie Joe" enjoy..............

 

gjmalcyon

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Love that song.

Gene Harris does a nice piano quartet version of it on his live album recorded at the Ste. Chapelle winery in Idaho:

 

Westerly Wood

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Speakin' o' Dusty, I always considered "Son of a Preacher Man" to be the rightful heir to the "Billie Joe" legacy...I still have both of 'em on 45 and I did not consider myself a country fan as a kid...
Clay, didja ever hear this one?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4339EbVn8

Al that is great. Now I know who she is. Yes, heard that tune before, many times.
 

adorshki

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Al that is great. Now I know who she is. Yes, heard that tune before, many times.

Dusty also is the one who sang "The Look Of Love" in the '67 version of Casino Royale.
It's enough to cause a few of us here to reach for our, uh..... blood pressure meds......(nudge nudge wink wink)
And Ms Gentry herself covered "Preacher Man" a year after the original.....
Final note:
The chart for "Billie Joe" shows deceptively simple chord changes..it's gettin' the Spanish moss to hang off 'em right that's the tricky part..but it made me fall in love with the tune all over again 3 or 4 years back.
:friendly_wink:
 

twocorgis

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Updated lovingly by Jill Sobule a few years ago.

 

CA-35

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Sadly, Dusty succumbed to breast cancer in 1999 at the young age of 59. Bobbie, now 76, still lives a private life in a gated community in suburban Memphis, about a two-hour drive from the site of the Tallahatchie River bridge that made her famous.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Back in late 2005 my friend Jeanne & I saw Jill Sobule open for Cindy Lauper at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Really good show. Cindy played a tenor guitar if I remember right. Jill played guitar during a good portion of Cindy's set too.

-Dave-
 

Westerly Wood

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Found this Mississippi Delta song from 1967 by Bobbie Gentry. https://youtu.be/UFxoR4EVSXQ

Wiki says she was active from 1964-1981.

"After a 1978 single for Warner Bros. Records, "Steal Away", failed to chart, Gentry decided to retire from show business. Her last public appearances as a performer were on Christmas Night 1978 as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and on 10 May 1981 on All-Star Salute to Mother's Day. After that, she settled in Los Angeles and remained out of the public eye."

I love it when stars just go away gracefully and peacefully. Event better, when they do not make a comeback. They had enough, time to move on...
 
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