That’s strange. The song had massive airplay throughout the 70s and into the 80s, especially after it was re-released in 1976 to coincide with the film.
I am shocked. . .shocked that Hollywood would misrepresent an artist and their vision. Shocked, I say!
It’s still worth pointing this out, and you’ll encounter plenty of people who say “Well, it’s obvious why Billie Joe did what he did” and base this entirely on the film, when there’s absolutely nothing in the song to support it.
Now I suppose you’re gonna tell me it wasn’t a baby that was dropped off the bridge, too.
I’ll be in my bunk.
Interesting. Back when it came out, I tried to figure it out without benefit of sheet music and came up with exactly what you describe. Not bad for an amateur 
. I had no sheet music for anything, nor could I afford it. I figured out songs by finding the change notes (best I can come up with for a description) and building the chords around them. It worked most of the time. But I digress. 
Online chord sites seem to start with a straight D7, alternating with G7, and throws in a C7 for variety. It’s a really well-constructed tune.
I’ll just tell you that there’s nothing in the song’s lyrics that point specifically to this being the case.
It’s a reasonable guess…but it’s still a guess!
On the other hand, for it to work, you would have to assume that the “baby” was either aborted very early in the singer’s pregnancy, or that it was somehow brought to term without her family ever noticing that she was with child.
Thank you for posting this, it’s going onto my personal playlist. Outstanding performance of a great song and the video imagery just makes it that much better.
I hadn’t thought about Jim Stafford in a long time. Kind of a quirky genius or something.
Not to hijack the discussion, but a couple his others are worth an honerable mention:
I wonder if she eventually found her beauty to be an impediment, though it certainly helped get her started. So many people, even today, can’t seem to take beautiful women seriously.
Those are just two different voicings of the same chord. “D7 with an added 2nd” *is *D9. The first voicing just has the 5th omitted.
Because anything big enough to be dropped off a bridge isn’t going to produce a visible pregnancy, or require a more complicated abortion technique than you can DIY.
My first records, 45’s mind you, were “Ode to Billie Joe,” “These Boots are Made for Walkin’”, “Kentucky Rain” and of course, “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” …some good music right there!
Yes, I’m aware of this. But it’s why I called the second voicing (x54555) the “classic” D9 chord…that is, the most common voicing in rock and blues. The character of the x54530 voicing is considerably different, so I referred to the E on top as the 2, as opposed to the 5 on top in the classic voicing (which, as you say, isn’t present at all in the first voicing).
If I were posting lyrics and chords for this song online and didn’t have the luxury of graphic chord boxes, I would use something like D7add2 and D9 to indicate they were different.
Thank you for this from me too. I had that single and a couple of her albums but had never seen her live. That was mesmerizing.
My favorite song by her was another single I had. I still remember when I finally stopped just mindlessly singing along without paying the slightest bit of attention to the words, and REALLY heard it. I was shocked. It’s a song about a mother pimping out her daughter. Maybe she, uh, meant well, and maybe she was conflicted, but damn!
“Just be nice to the gentlemen Fancy, and they’ll be nice to you”
I can’t imagine thinking she is black. What in her voice suggests that?
Damn, I probably haven’t heard that song in thirty years, but as soon as I saw the title I heard “Yippee-i-ay.” I think my neighbor had it on a 45, so we probably listened to it a ridiculous number of times. This thread is definitely making me feel old, and I’m only forty-two and a half damnit.
Also, not one who’s getting why Bobby Gentry sounds black - not that there’s anything wrong with that.
One of my favs of hers is Hurry Tuesday Child.
I guess you could argue that her voice kind of veers towards a very relaxed Roberta Flack at times. I hadn’t really sat down & listened to this song for many years. I was around when it was a hit & pretty much played into the ground. It was like the Freebird of its day - you couldn’t get away from it. I’m glad she’s being appreciated by fresh ears.
That’s funny, because the first time I heard Roberta Flack, I didn’t realize she was black. I mean, I guess I just didn’t think about it one way or another.
It’s probably a stylistic thing. The song is an exemplar of “Delta Blues” music, a genre that 's been pretty much dominated by black artists. I suppose it’s a pretty common assumption, on hearing a song done in that style to picture a black singer.
I first heard “Ode” back in the day when it was a C&W hit. Since one hardly ever heard a black singer on country radio, I never thought Bobbi Gentry was anything but a white southern girl.