Before I search the archives, has anyone ever brought up the possibility that Billie Joe was gay? I know that’s been tossed about a bit. I never thought of it as being about the narrator…
That’s the premise of the 1976 movie Ode to Billy Joe, which was pretty shocking back then. I saw it at a drive-in movie with a friend of mine (we are both male) and we didn’t talk for a while afterward.
I wonder why the name’s spelling got changed. It’s the same Bobbie Gentry, and the tagline is What the song didn’t tell you, the movie will.
How about Eleanor Rigby - she certainly was damaged and delusional, but the Beatles didn’t really say why.
Bobbie Gentry claims she didn’t really give much thought to why Billie Joe killed himself. The song was about the callous indifference of the narrator’s family:
Sally Simpson?
Fire and rain
Lou Reeds Berlin LP, everything on it
Velvets All tomorrows parties, new age,
See Emily Play - Pink Floyd
Bag Lady - Todd Rundgren
Cross eyed mary - Jethro Tull
Maybe I should narrow the search parameters here: 70s Fem Glurge = songs by female performers, recorded between 1970-1980, about tragic, unidealized women who are:
–past their peak of attractiveness
–subject to mental illness or depression
–engaged in desperate behavior, possibly including the occult
–surrounded by well-meaning people they cannot confide in
–not completely in control of their own sexuality
I know I’m going slightly outside the time parameters but I think the ne plus ultra of damaged woman songs has to be “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” by Dusty Springfield. It’s about a woman who is willing to debase herself utterly for the tiniest scrap of attention from her man.
The only other song I can think of quite this utterly pathetic is the male equivalent, “Ne Me Quitte Pas” by Jacques Brel (and to get the full effect you need to hear Brel’s version, not Nina Simone’s).
I can think of a worse male equivalent: “Willing to Wait” by Sebadoh. But that’s for a discussion of pathetic beta-male songs of the 80s and 90s.
That’s cool, but you’d have a thread with about 6 posts.
“He hit me and it felt like a kiss”
The Crystals- 4 out of 5?
Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, Queen Jane Approximately
Six posts about songs, six pages of how the question should’ve been worded. :eek:
The weird thing is that the gothic “A Rose for Emily” aspects of those songs don’t seem very 70’s to me. To be seduced and abandoned by some cad is very traditional material for a song, but becoming a barking mad spinster as a consequence is kind of pre-sexual revolution consequence, one would think. Sure, you might throw a “Nothing Compares 2 U” pity party for a month or two, but you don’t expect a full-on Blanche Dubois mental breakdown. Maybe that’s why these songs take place in a Southern milieu. In New York City or Chicago, you get more of a “Frankie & Johnny” motif.
I’ve always had the impression that Tori Amos’s main them is damaged women, though I must admit I don’t know much more than the few songs that got a lot of radio play several years ago. *Silent All These Years *seems to fit the OP somewhat. The song to me has an overall feeling of despair and desperation and the singer (in the song, not Tori herself) feels like she has some mental / emotional problems.
Then there’s always Shannon by Henry Gross. That’s a glurgy, 70s era song about a female who has died. Granted, Shannon is a dog but . . .
Good one. Also Amanda Jones.
And, from the Beatles, Lady Madonna.
Richard Thompson, From Galway to Graceland.
how does this one qualify? BTW, my daughter in law was named after this song.