# "Ode to Billie Joe" - that nice, young preacher Brother Taylor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954 "2010-06-12T22:04:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/41 "2010-06-15T17:41:58Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > So the “aborted baby” theory has declined in popularity? I thought this was the obvious solution. She had a back-room abortion (impregnated by Billy Joe), the couple dump the aborted fetus off the bridge, and the twist is that “the man” felt so guilty he killed himself. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/42 "2010-06-15T19:48:03Z")
Some ten years ago, I posted what seemed to be a fairly authoritative response as to what or who might have been thrown off the now famous bridge, it (the response) coming from the… ‘horse’s mouth’ as it were: > **[Ode to Billy Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=46278)** > > In this lone hit song for Bobby Gentry, I’ve always been puzzled by one part of the song. There is a reference to the narrator of the tale (the singer that is) and Billy Joe throwing some off the Tallahachie Bridge a few days before Billy Joe kills... (post #6) Ten years later, it would appear that the same existential questions surface periodically… ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/43 "2010-06-16T13:53:35Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > What \*was \*Billie Joe doing at the sawmill? Maybe you need to ask WHO Billie Joe was doing at the sawmill? ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/44 "2010-06-16T13:57:13Z")
> [@rolandgunslinger](#): > > Not trying to hijack but damn! [Bobbie Gentry](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dyo_xZnvsA) was hot. You aren’t kidding; and when I hear the song Son of a Preacher Man… hummina hummina hummina. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/45 "2010-06-16T16:32:42Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I thought this was the obvious solution. She had a back-room abortion (impregnated by Billy Joe), the couple dump the aborted fetus off the bridge, and the twist is that “the man” felt so guilty he killed himself. Never saw the movie but remember the song well. I never had any doubt then nor have I now, that they had an illicit affair, she got pregnant and they in desperation threw the baby off of the bridge. B.J. couldn’t live with the guilt and killed himself and she too was riven with guilt and thats why she was so quiet. The nice young preacher man is just the “nice” sort of person the mother wants her daughter set up with. His mentioning that he saw them up at the bridge etc.was just a plot device to let us in on what was happening. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/46 "2010-07-01T18:58:06Z")
The problem with the “back room abortion” hypothesis is that, to the best of my knowledge, such places do not wrap up the remains of the foetus for the mother to take home. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/47 "2010-07-02T06:03:09Z")
I always envisioned it as a miscarriage, and they were ceremonially saying goodbye to it. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/48 "2010-07-02T11:06:09Z")
They through a baby off the bridge. [Unbeknownst to them, the baby survived and grew up to become a songwriter.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIPww9xv4Bw) (YouTube Link: She throws out the autobiographical reveal in the final verse 1:52.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/49 "2010-07-02T11:09:58Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > I’ve read interviews where she stated she wasn’t _interested_ in the back-story and didn’t develop it, but the idea that there was **no** back-story at all isn’t realistic. After all, if _nothing_ was going on behind the scenes, then the song loses all its’ mysterious allure - it becomes a recounting of a drab lunch-time conversation in a deep south kitchen. That’s not nearly as interesting. It may not be as interesting, but I don’t see how it qualifies as “isn’t realistic”; sometimes there really _ **isn’t** _ much of anything going on behind the scenes, and the _ **point** _ is that it’s notably drab lunch-time conversation. (I mean, it doesn’t especially matter what the backstory is if you’re only telling the story to emphasize that the response to hearing of someone’s death is _“well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please.”_) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954/50 "2010-07-02T15:22:19Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve read interviews where she stated she wasn’t interested in the back-story and didn’t develop it, but the idea that there was no back-story at all isn’t realistic. After all, if nothing was going on behind the scenes, then the song loses all its’ mysterious allure - it becomes a recounting of a drab lunch-time conversation in a deep south kitchen. That’s not nearly as interesting. But it being drab might be the point. The tragedy of the song is the girl realizing that she missed her chance. Billie Joe said he loved her and he wanted them to run off together to California or something like that. But she was afraid, so she told him no. She turned down Billie Joe because she felt she should find a more conventional boyfriend, one that her family and the rest of the town would approve of. And now she’s realizing that she’s going to spend the rest of her life in this small town, marrying somebody like the reverend and living the same kind of drab life as everyone else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ode-to-billie-joe-that-nice-young-preacher-brother-taylor/542954.md?page=2)