# Ode to Billie Joe question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 29, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493 "2007-01-29T03:03:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/1 "2007-01-29T03:03:17Z")
IIRC in the movie it was a doll. If it took two people to throw it, it must have been hevier than a doll. So what was it? A body, is that why he killed himself. An illegitimate child?
Lyrics can be found [here](http://www.geocities.com/odetobobbiegentry/lyric/lotbj.htm).
Sgt Schwartz
---
### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/2 "2007-01-29T03:06:12Z")
Ah, but what makes the song so haunting is the enigma of what was thrown.
Bobbie Gentry knows, apparently–from what I’ve read, the first version of the song had more verses, and spelled it all out. I think it was the producer who suggested cutting some of them, and leaving it a bit open to interpretation. Works beautifully, I’d say.
---
### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/3 "2007-01-29T03:10:30Z")
_…she recorded a standard blues song, “Mississippi Delta,” with her own unknown “Ode to Billie Joe” as the B-side. “Ode” was originally seven minutes long and explained a lot more about what was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge. It also had only her own guitar accompaniment, no lush orchestrations. Quickly Capitol execs noticed the strength of the B-side, so they re-recorded it with strings, cut the length almost in half to give the song an air of mystery and make it more suitable for AM radio airplay, and re-released it as Bobbie’s first single._
---
### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/4 "2007-01-29T03:19:13Z")
It was a watch that could boil eggs placed within its band.
I thought everybody knew that.
---
### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/5 "2007-01-29T03:31:26Z")
It was a sled. A friggin’ sled.
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/6 "2007-01-29T03:35:01Z")
It’s a cookbook.
---
### Author:  [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/7 "2007-01-29T03:38:53Z")
Can it core a apple?
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/8 "2007-01-29T03:41:21Z")
Another bridge.
---
### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/9 "2007-01-29T03:42:15Z")
(yelling) Stella-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!
---
### Author:  [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/10 "2007-01-29T03:48:58Z")
Some mobbed up union boss from Detroit. Jimmy Something.
---
### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/11 "2007-01-29T04:24:19Z")
A cheeseburger with large fries.
The girl had bought herself and Billie Joe a McDonalds each, and they had arranged to meet up on Choctaw Ridge. Billie Jo was late so the girl ate hers while she waited. This accounts for her lack of appetite at dinner.
When Billie Jo eventually arrived the couple had a massive row about BJ’s lack of punctuality. In an uncontrollable rage, BJ threw the cheeseburger (and large fries) off the Tallahatchie Bridge into the muddy water. The girl left in huff. BJ had a fit of remorse about ditching the burger in such cavalier fashion so he jumped into the water to try to save it.
Sad, really.
YMMV.
---
### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/12 "2007-01-29T13:49:33Z")
It was a printout of all of [the](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=276903&highlight=Billie) [other](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=146654&highlight=Billie) [threads](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=158391&highlight=Billie) on this topic from over the years, only a few of which are represented here.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/13 "2007-01-29T13:50:35Z")
It’s bigger than a breadbox.
Also, it ends with ‘gry’
---
### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/14 "2007-01-29T19:39:49Z")
A Zuni Fetish Warrior, of course.
---
### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/15 "2007-01-29T19:49:48Z")
A Troll.
(It didn’t know whether it was a fully laden African or European swallow…)
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/16 "2007-01-29T19:51:55Z")
The missing dollar.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/17 "2007-01-29T20:04:30Z")
Her 15 minutes of fame.
---
### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2007, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/18 "2007-01-30T00:14:32Z")
A penny which completely _failed_ to break through somebody’s skull.
---
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/19 "2007-01-30T01:20:08Z")
This is Mississippi in the 60s, right?
One of them “outside agitators?”
---
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493/20 "2007-01-30T02:04:15Z")
(Too soon?)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-question/405493.md?page=2)