# What is "Ode To Billy Joe" about? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329 "2004-09-21T14:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/1 "2004-09-21T14:42:45Z")
So… I was listening to the 1967(?) song by Bobbie Gentry, “Ode To Billy Joe”, and was once again set to wondering just what the heck they were throwing off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and if it had anything to do with why poor, lamented Billy Joe committed suicide. I read the IMDb synopsis of the [movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074995/plotsummary) but that doesn’t seem to address the question of what was chucked off the bridge. Likewise, Billy Joe’s supposed sexual confusion isn’t mentioned in the [lyrics](http://www.swopnet.com/music/ode_to_bj.html) of the song. Any thoughts? What was Billy Joe’s problem? And how was the nice young girl who tells the story involved? thwartme ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/2 "2004-09-21T14:49:34Z")
Say, do you suppose people have asked about this before? 😉 I’m not trying to be snarky, BTW. It’s a perfectly legitimate question… one which seems to have fascinated SDMBers for years now. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/3 "2004-09-21T14:52:23Z")
You see… I figured that. But my archive search turned up nothing that seemed to be on point, and a general Google turned up lots of stuff about the flick, but very little about the tune… If you could point me to one of those old threads, it’d be much appreciated. thwartme ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/4 "2004-09-21T14:58:38Z")
He chucked a baby off the bridge…the story is told from the point of view of the Billy Joe’s girlfriend. She had a baby…he tossed it …then the guilt got to him and he jumped. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/5 "2004-09-21T15:08:31Z")
Sinead O’Connor covered this song and added a crying baby as background noise in a part of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/6 "2004-09-21T15:11:51Z")
> **[Billy Joe McAllister (MacAllister?)](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=158391)** > > What exactly did Billy Joe McAllister throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? Thanks. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46278](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46278) > **[Original Ode to Billie Joe lyrics?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=52388)** > > Most people are familiar with the 60s tune “Ode to Billie Joe,” by Bobbie Gentry. But I recently read that the song as originally recorded was over 7 minutes long (!!!), and was totally acoustic. The part that was cut supposedly explains the mystery... According to the sources from those threads, there wasn’t intended to be an answer to that question, as that’s not the point. According to the Billboard Book of Number One Hits: (Thanks **omni-not** for the cite) > [@](#): > > Those who wondered about such matters missed the point of the song, according to Gentry. “The song is a sort of a study in unconscious cruelty. But everybody seems more concerned with what was thrown off the bridge than they are with the thoughtlessness of people expressed in the song. (…) Everybody … has a different guess about what was thrown off the bridge - flowers, a ring, even a baby. Anyone who hears the song can think what they want … but the real ‘message’ of the song, if there must be a message, revolves around the nonchalant way the family talks about the suicide.” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/7 "2004-09-21T15:32:06Z")
I’ve thought if it was a baby, it was one aborted, miscarried or premature early enough to have been born w/o anyone noticing she was pregnant. There was another song with a mystery attached I was wondering about the other day. Anyone have any idea what that was? (It wasn’t “Freshmen” or “Brick”.) ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/8 "2004-09-21T15:40:26Z")
The quote in **Ferret Herder** ’s post is pretty much the last word. But I always assumed Billie Joe and Bobbie Sue were throwing flowers from the bridge. Bobbie Sue’s singing (in the last verse) about picking flowers and throwing them into the river, seemed to spell it out. I assumed he loved her, but she didn’t love him back, thought they were just friends. After his death, reprising the activity they’d shared seemed a bittersweet way of mourning him. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/9 "2004-09-21T15:49:31Z")
“Picking flowers”–sweet, illicit sex. “Throwing flowers into river”–the unwanted baby gets— :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/10 "2004-09-21T15:56:21Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Sinead O’Connor covered this song and added a crying baby as background noise in a part of the song. —No, no . . . that was just the audience. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/11 "2004-09-21T16:00:23Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > “Picking flowers”–sweet, illicit sex. > > “Throwing flowers into river”–the unwanted baby gets— :eek: But that would mean the last line: “And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.” …means that she spends a lot of time having sex up on Choctaw Ridge and throwing the subsequent babies off the bridge. Well, less boring than golf, I suppose… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/12 "2004-09-21T16:08:54Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > But that would mean the last line: > > “And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge > And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.” > > …means that she spends a lot of time having sex up on Choctaw Ridge and throwing the subsequent babies off the bridge. Well, less boring than golf, I suppose… In a small Southern town, full of narrow intolerance, it could also means she has entered a life of prostitution. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/13 "2004-09-21T16:46:06Z")
Well, Bobby Gentry should have expected that everyone would miss her point about samll town indifference and search for clues. She was writing a 1960’s social commentary song (not unknown in C&W; “Harper Valley PTA” also springs to mind), but this ran counter to a much older genre, the Appalacian Murder Ballad. AMB’s are full of infantacides and suicides and murdered girlfriends and gallows lamentations. Precious little homosexuality, though; which may be why the movie producers chose to use it and thereby distance themselves from the familiar themes. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/14 "2004-09-21T17:21:12Z")
Billy Joe did not jump off the bridge, he was thrown! He discovered that it was a space alien that fired the shot that killed JFK from the grassy knoll and that the alien was hired by the Cubans. A young operative for the CIA, in order to prevent all out war, sent a young Bill Clinton to kill Billy Joe. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/15 "2004-09-21T17:47:48Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Billy Joe did not jump off the bridge, he was thrown! > He discovered that it was a space alien that fired the shot that killed JFK from the grassy knoll and that the alien was hired by the Cubans. A young operative for the CIA, in order to prevent all out war, sent a young Bill Clinton to kill Billy Joe. And Richard Nixon was the getaway driver. 😉😃😛 ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/16 "2004-09-21T18:22:13Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Billy Joe did not jump off the bridge, he was thrown! > He discovered that it was a space alien that fired the shot that killed JFK from the grassy knoll and that the alien was hired by the Cubans. A young operative for the CIA, in order to prevent all out war, sent a young Bill Clinton to kill Billy Joe. > [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > And Richard Nixon was the getaway driver. And that “young operative for the CIA”? Oliver Stone! The movie **JFK** was just an elaborate diversion tactic. We are through the looking glass, people. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/17 "2004-09-21T18:25:45Z")
> [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > But I always assumed Billie Joe and Bobbie Sue were throwing flowers from the bridge. Nope. It was a sled. A friggin’ sled. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/18 "2004-09-21T20:06:25Z")
No, it was a brief case that contained the soul of Marsellus Wallace. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/19 "2004-09-21T21:11:38Z")
Thanks everyone! And in particular **Ferret Herder**. I’ll peruse the provided links. Chuckin’ a baby off the bridge just seems a little too on-point fo me. I was hoping for some degree of subtlety. thwartme ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2004, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-ode-to-billy-joe-about/265329/20 "2004-09-22T10:35:31Z")
Last time I posted to a similar thread, some poster with an association called ‘Chicks With Balls’ asked why I hadn’t recognised the homosexual thread in the song. I just sort of liked the music.