Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
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ODE TO BILLIE JOE (1968)
If you think country music is about nothing but dead dogs and broken hearts, this chilling slice of Southern Gothic from Bobbie Gentry might just change your mind.
March 31st, 2009.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:28 pm
wtf?
March 31st, 2009 at 1:49 pm
So what happened then i mean?
March 31st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Was hoping for some SawDoctors-esque inspiration for the championship. But that’ll do…
March 31st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
EK – not sure that there is a definitive explaination, but various theories explored here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_billie_joe
Sam – not sure if that Billie Joe is ready for the tribute song treatment just yet. But I know a man who is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD-_x2iofQA
March 31st, 2009 at 5:31 pm
There’s a nice theory that Bob Dylan’s Clothesline Saga (off the Basement Tapes) is an answer record to Ode to Billie Joe. But maybe I’ve gone too deep into Gentryana here. Anyway, if you like this, you need to get everything else she ever recorded, ever, immediately. It’s all good, even the stuff that isn’t. She’s the female Lee Hazelwood. Seen? Seen.
March 31st, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Wow, hadn’t heard that theory before. Just re-listening to Clothes Line Saga: it does sound like a piss take alright. Cheers Paul!
April 1st, 2009 at 8:51 am
Don’t thank me – thank Greil Marcus! He know everythang.