Moderator Note
Two threads on the same topic (one originally in MPSIMS) have been merged.
Posts are ordered by time posted and not by original thread, which may cause some confusion.
^ Nah, I just really like biscuits. 
So give us the Straight Dope:
Why did Billy Joe jump off the bridge?
It was a baby.
Bobbie Gentry, who wrote and sang the song, has never revealed what he threw off the bridge and why he jumped from it:
Bobby Gentry, who wrote and sang the song, has never revealed what he threw off the bridge and why the jumped from it:
Sorry about the duplication. I’m getting really slow response today. What’s going on?
They’re chopping cotton and baling hay? In June??
And Papa hasn’t got his plowing finished? In June??
The real mystery is where did all that food on the table come from? This family can’t farm for shit!
Labdad, that’s the best laff I’ve had in a month; thanx!
They’re chopping cotton and baling hay? In June??
And Papa hasn’t got his plowing finished? In June??
The real mystery is where did all that food on the table come from? This family can’t farm for shit!
I’ll never forget how quickly and completely it grabbed everyone’s attention. It was an amazing achievement: a (nearly) solo recording–music, lyrics, vocals, and guitar–all by an unknown 23-year-old woman from Mississippi.
I remember my mother didn’t believe me for years that Gentry was white, because her Delta accent was so authentic. (Mom finally conceded when we were in a record store, and I showed her an album cover). It was rare then for mainstream recordings to feature voices like Gentry’s. Even country singers were trying to sound like city folk.
Gentry was married to country singer and comedian Jim Stafford. After they had divorced, he was on a talk show where they asked him about Gentry. Stafford explained that they were no longer married–“She wouldn’t tell me what they were throwing off that damn bridge!”
And a dynamite sweetening track written by one of Hollywood’s top composers, Jimmie Haskell, played by the Sid Sharp strings.
Little Sister don’t miss with a gun.
What?
Because the song isn’t about Billie Joe’s suicide. It’s about the family’s reaction – and obliviousness – to what is clearly a shocking tragedy to the young girl who’s telling the story. Gentry called it “a study in unconscious cruelty”.
FANTASTIC string arrangement!
You betcha! Note how Haskell doesn’t feel obligated to fill EVERY second with strings; he doesn’t use the entire section always; he uses unison spreading to harmony for interest; and he likes sweeps which work very well with professional string players.
I had the good fortune to work with Mr. Haskell only once – for a Cashman & West album, 3 songs. I received his pencil-scratch charts late at night and had to prepare ink versions for a 9AM session. I remember asking him if the sweeps, which he did not detail – should be written as individual notes. He told me to just draw a line from the lowest note to the highest, indicate how many steps there were, whether it was chromatic or diatonic, and the string players would figure it out on the fly, perfectly. They did – Sid Sharp was an awesome concertmaster. Here’s one of the songs we did that day; note all the characteristics I mentioned are here (including some violin harmonics!):
Really cool, Musicat.
Well the planting and harvesting seasons can be alot longer in the south. I never understood what “chopping cotton” meant? By this era they had stopped manually picking cotton anyways and used machines. I assumed it was cutting out weeds???
As for the food; black eyed peas, biscuits (assuming made from basic biscuit flour, water, and lard), and maybe greens are really darn cheap. Often found growing wild. Many people I knew growing up also had well over half their meat from hunting and fishing.