But usually, people are concerned with the mysterious “something” thrown off the bridge. This song has come up on my ipod playlist a few times recently and I got to wondering about the character of “that nice young preacher Brother Taylor.” I was thinking he might have had a larger part to play in the back-story to this song.
The way Mama mentions him as “that nice young preacher” always made me think she had it mind to possibly fix up Bobbie with the preacher. This fits with what Ms. Gentry has said about the song - that the family are casually talking about Bille Joe’s suicide, oblivious to the fact that Bobbie had been in love with him. But I got to wondering if he had a bigger part in the mysterious back story to the song. The whole "oh, and by the way, I just happened to see a girl who may or may not have been your daughter up at Chocktaw Ridge with Billie Joe. That sounds like he was being a bit gossipy - not at all the way a ‘nice young preacher’ ought to be.
I imagined two possible scenarios:
That Brother Taylor was lusting somethin’ fierce for Bobbie, and knew of and was jealous of Billie Joe’s relationship with her. I thought he might have been up on Chocktaw Ridge stalking Bolbbie, and then “just casually mentioned” seeing her with B.J. in order to stir up trouble for her at home.
The alternate scenario hinges on the theory that B.J. offed himself because he was gay (as the movie supposedly suggests, but I never saw it.) Any way, perhaps Brother Taylor had been seeing B.J. on the down-low. After seeing B.J. with some girl whom he thought was Bobbie, he fretted that maybe B.J. had told Bobbie the truth about his sexuality, and about Taylor. So then, Brother Taylor’s remark to Mama was an attempt to fish out information, and maybe a veiled warning to Bobbie to keep her mouth shut.
Either way, Brother Taylor does not come out sounding like a truly “nice, young preacher.” More like a nasty snake. However he does sound like a more interesting character.
Of course there’s nothing in the song to definitely pin either alternative on, but the song’s long popularity has largely hinged on the the way it invites speculation on what really went on.
He is gossipping very snarkily to get her in trouble with her momma …
Momma is supposed to be thinking who else he has mentioned seeing her daughter up the hill with a boy [and in previous eras, going up a hill or into the country or out to the pond were essentially the young couple going off to some isolated area to screw, not something you want spread around.]
So, he was accusing the daughter of going off with her boyfriend to screw, and momma was supposed to worry about who else he was talking about it to. Think of the nasty cat in Peyton Place who accuses the daughter of skinny dipping, personally I would not have a beige bathing suit, as it would look like I was naked.
I’m more intrigued by the line “Said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way.” It reminds me of a particularly unctuous cousin-in-law of mine, a presentable (but always broke) seminarian who kept inviting himself to dinner and restaurant excursions on other people’s dime. The most fascinating gossip and conversation he could muster never quite matched the dread of seein him walk up the driveway to freeload again. Brother Taylor seems very kindred to this kid.
That is the old way that preachers and school teachers were ‘supported’ by their communities. The people would be housed either in a town owned small cottage or boarded with a family. That way the town could get away with paying miimal salaries to them.
I always inferred that she and Billie Joe were throwing Billie Joe off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
There was, incidentally, a movie that purported to answer the question, though like, say, the actual lyrics to “Louie Louie,” it was a hell of a disappointment.
I don’t see how that could work, but probably everyone else knows the song better than I do. I’ve always thought they were supposed to be throwing something incriminating off the bridge, perhaps a little bundle. I must have an awful mind.
Bobbie Gentry has said many times that there is no backstory to the song. There is no meaning to be figured out other than the obvious one: that family members can be completely oblivious of each others’ feelings.
Since the lyrics are meant to evoke a feeling rather than report a story, any “solution” you make up is as valid as any other. But you can’t know the true story because there isn’t one.
It’s a measure of how good the song is that people are still trying to figure out “the true story” 40 years later.
I think it was just a story and the author of the song admits to that. I think that it has stood the test of time and it is thought provoking. Bravo to her.
Fairly typical for a rural Southern preacher, I think. Visiting the flock, passing along local news/gossip in idle conversation, and probably hoping for a dinner invitation which was almost certain to be offered. Feeding the Preacher, especially Sunday Dinner, was and in some places, still is a social coup of sorts.
Nah, it’s just mama’s way of trying to wheedle information out of her daughter about why she’s down in the dumps and not eating (“what’s happened to your appetite? I’ve been cooking all morning and you haven’t touched a single bite.”) Brother Taylor’s supposedly innocent observation gave mama a piece of the puzzle, but she wants to hear the daughter’s story.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today/
Said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way/
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge/
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge
There seems to be some problem in regard to the “oh, by the way”; some think it was a phrase said by Brother Taylor, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. The mother is the one that is talking and it is she that adds this last thought as kind of a post script. “Oh, by the way, there’s something else he told me…do you know anything about it?” is probably the wavelength Mama’s coming from.
As for the narrator’s appetite, it seems logical to assume that she doesn’t really feel like eating upon hearing of the drowning. Period. Nothing unusual there. Or at least this is what the rest of the family may have thought when it was pointed out to them.
Of course, the narrator is the only person who knows what really happened – and she’s not talking.
I think the economics of song writing gives the false appearance of synchronicity.
Gentry only had five verses to tell a story. She had to pack some things together. So she mentioned Brother Taylor as a possible suitor for the singer and used him as a witness to the fact that the singer and Billie Joe were throwing something off the bridge. This covered two points; it hinted both that the singer was somehow involved with Billie Joe and that most people, including her family, were unaware of this relationship.
Gentry could have used two different characters to do this; have Brother Taylor just be the suitor and have some other character like Joe the milkman be the witness to the bridge meeting. But then Gentry would have had to fit an additional character into the song.
Good point. You have to also remember the time constraints of Top 40 radio in those days. “Ode to Billie Joe” was only the fourth song in history to reach the Billboard Top 40 whose running time exceeded four minutes.* Capitol Records knew they had a hit on their hands but were no doubt nervous about the running time.
In the back of my mind, a shard of memory tells me that Gentry once said she wrote many more verses, but ultimately pared them down to the ones heard. But I could be making that up.
*The others:
El Paso –Marty Robbins
Like a Rolling Stone –Bob Dylan
Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles
Note: many radio stations played truncated versions of the first two.
It’s obvious to me now that Billie Joe didn’t commit suicide. Brother Taylor pushed him off the bridge so he’d have a clear shot at Bobbie.
Seriously, though, I think the “something” she and Billie Joe were throwing off the bridge is revealed in the following verse: flowers. Just something the two of them did together to pass the time in a dull little southern town – pick plowers and throw them off the bridge. After his death she continues to do so in his memory. I don’t think it’s more mysterious than that.
Sometimes the mind draws odd connections between things. I always thought of Brother Taylor as a Mr. Collins of the rural south. The gossip, inviting himself over, and the mother’s attitude sort of fit. Not that I thought it was intentional, more along the lines of the same archetype or “tonight’s performance of Brother Taylor will be played by Mr. Collins.”