There are certain
songs that retain their mysteries (like who was so vain ?), and Gentry's tale
of a teenage suicide certainly meets this criteria.
She narrates
as the daughter in a rural Southern family ("another sleepy, dusty Delta day"), After a
morning working on the farm, her mother informs them during lunch that "Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped
off the Tallahatchie Bridge". It is interesting to note their differing reactions
to this tragic news - the father is insensitive "Well, Billy Joe
never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please", the son more
reflective remembering their past, but the daughter is so mortified that she
cannot touch her food.
The talk moves on to a visit of the preacher, and then the mother
drops another bombshell ("Oh by the way"), he had earlier seen Billie
and a girl ("alot like you") throwing
something off the bridge. The song then moves on to a year later, the son has married
and left town, "There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died
last Spring" (very eerie writing that now), but the narrator is still in
grief over the loss of Billie Joe.
So the big questions - why did he jump ? And what were they
throwing off the bridge before ? There
has been lots of speculation - engagement ring, unborn baby, draft card -
Gentry has never revealed, but stressed it doesn't matter, the song is about the
family's reactions to the tragedy.
It is such a
well constructed song, concisely telling the story, but adding the flavour of
the South (plow, hay, biscuits, black-eyed peas, even the place names sound exotic)
, Gentry's drawl extends the last word of every sentence. The minimal backing
of her acoustic guitar, supplemented by two cellos and four violins.
In 1967, it
was an unlikely to be a hit single, due to its subject and that it ran over 4
minutes (Gentry wrote even more verses originally), but people were entranced, becoming
a number 1 single, won Grammys and even spawned a movie.
In a whirlwind 5 years, Gentry recorded 7 albums, hosted a
BBC show, and then removed herself from public view since the 1970s. A mysterious
end to the writer of a mysterious classic.
Hear Now - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJZ_ViDADOE
Hear Next -
" The Girl From Chickasaw County " is an exhaustive recent
collection of all her recordings. I can
also highly recommend Mercury Rev's recreation of her "Delta Sweete"
album.
