Ode to Ode to Billy Joe

One song from the 1960s that has never lost its power and mystery for me is Bobbie Gentry's oddball 1967 hit "Ode to Billy Joe."

Bobbie on the Tallahatchie Bridge

If you weren't around back then, it's the story of a young girl who learns about the apparent suicide of her friend (boyfriend?) in a casual dinner conversation as her family passes around the black-eyed peas. Details of the death emerge between bits and pieces of other increasingly oppressive small talk.

One tidbit seems especially ominous. The narrator's mother said that a preacher had mentioned that he thought he saw Billy Joe and the girl throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge -- the same bridge from which Billy Joe lept to his death the next day.

Greil Marcus wrote in Invisible Republic:  

The singer is like the woman who walks the hills in "Long Black Veil": she knows why Billie Joe went to his death, she knows what they threw into the black water, but not only will she not tell, no one around the table even thinks to ask. There is a meal to get over with, there is work to be done. So not a voice is raised or even inflected. Billie Joe’s suicide rests on the same moral; plane as the black-eyed peas on the table. Everything is flat. Everything is quiet. Outside the kitchen window camped an entire country, listening in. ,

The question "What did they throw off the bridge?" haunted America for months to come. Gentry herself once said:

 "The song is 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 the people expressed in the song. What was thrown off the bridge really isn’t that important."

"Ode to Billy Joe" was covered by a wide range singers in a variety of styles. I'll start with a version by Bobbie and follow with some of my favorites.



King Curtis made it funky




The song is a natural for Sinead.



Here's a twangy instrumental take from a band called Nashville West, which included Clarence White and Gene Parsons (both would later become Byrds) and Gib Gilbeau.



(It looks like you might need to have Spotify to listen to the next two)

I saw Joe Tex lipsynch his version of "Ode" on American Bandstand in the late '60s. As much as I love the atmospherics of the original, Tex's irreverent take is priceless. As a wise-ass kid myself, it made me want to spit watermelon seeds off the Tallahatchie Bridge myself.


And speaking of irreverent, Bob Dylan wrote a parody of sorts.

eMusic January

Here's a month's worth of downloads on my eMusic account.

* Daddy Rockin' Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos.  Never heard of Nolan Strong or The Diablos? Don't feel bad. I didn't either. I downloaded this because it has songs by The Dirtbombs, The Reigning Sound, The A-Bones, Andre Williams,  Lenny Kaye and many more greats.

And I wasn't disappointed.

A little historical backtracking here. After enjoying the various interpretations of songs by this mystery man, I learned that Strong, who died in 1977, was a Detroit doo-wop and R&B lord, who was on Fortune Records, the same label as Williams and the late Nathaniel Mayer.

 Strong was known mainly for a minor hit called "The Wind." This is one of those spooky quasi-mystical doo-wop ballads where the singer seemingly pours out his soul from some distant, barren edge of reality.

Mark Sultan covers it here as the opening number. He gives it a dramatic instrumental intro before slowing down to a crawl and delivering the song in a sad falsetto.

The Dirtbombs take on "Daddy Rockin' Strong," which basically is a fairly faithful rewrite of "Daddy Rolling Stone." This version is a tough garage-band take that makes me look forward to some new material from The Dirtbombs.

The Reigning Sound does a fine job on "Mind Over Matter." This one reminds me of Bob Seger's  classic "Ramblin', Gamblin' Man." Meawhile, The Hentchmen's take on "Mambo of Love" is nothing short of a hoot. Is this the birth of punk mambo?

Kaye, Patti Smith's longtime guitarist, does a slow, soulful and reverent interpretation of "I Wanna Know." Williams, backed by The A-Bones practically loves to death the song "The Way You Dog Me Around."

Honestly, there isn't a bad cut on this tribute. Hopefully someone will make available some of Strong's own music sometime soon.

* Crash the Party by Benny Joy. This is just the first of the multi-volume retrospective of this Florida rockabilly who never made it to the same stratosphere as Elvis, Jerry Lee and Gene Vincent.

But this joyful noise sounds like he had a lot of fun trying.

This 15-song set includes some of Joy's best-known songs -- "Spin the Bottle," "Crash the Party," and "Button Nose," (which seems based around the basic "Peter Gunn" riff). There are several demos of Joy alone with his guitar, and some soulful ballads like "I Remember Darling" and "We'll Meet Again."

Several teenage lust tunes here will take you straight to Riverdale High circa 1959. I'm talking about "Miss Bobbie Sox," "Steady With Betty" and especially "In Study Hall," which contains the immortal rhyme, "Her eyes were blue / Her hair was pretty too."

* Slaughterhouse by Ty Segall Band. This is one of three (!) albums the prolific Californian released this year. I like Slaughterhouse best because it’s the noisiest and the most relentlessly rocked out, though there’s enough melody to keep it interesting. It’s a wild and thrilling show from the first cut, and blah blah blah ...

Sound familiar? I wrote a little more about this album in Terrell's Tuneup not long ago.  Indeed, this was one of my top 10 albums of 2012. Check that out HERE. (And seriously, it gets better with each listen.)

Plus:

* "I Can't Get No Nookie" and "I Am the Japanese Sandman" from The Complete Deity Recordings by The Masked Marauders. No that's not Mick Jagger growling "I Can't Get No Nookie" here. And none of The Beatles really took part in "Japanese Sandman." This entire album, originally released in 1969, is based on a joke review by Greil Marcus (using the nom de spoof T.M. Christian) in Rolling Stone about a supposed bootleg of a supposed "supergroup" session that included Bob Dylan and various Beatles and Stones. Amazingly, many readers took the review serious. Marcus and Rolling Stone crony Landon Winner couldn't resist recruiting a Berkeley band,  Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band (which sounds more fake than "The Masked Marauders") to record some of the songs mentioned in the review. Most people just forgot about this silly lark, but whispers of the fabled supergroup apparently survived into the new millennium. The Masked Marauders actually got the Snopes treatment in 2007.

* And, (tipping my hand that the downloads listed my January eMusic post weren't really downloaded in January)  ... several Christmas songs! It seems like forever ago, but I nabbed "Christmas Tree on Fire" by Holly Golightly and "City of Christmas Ghosts" by Poly Styrene & Goldblade (both from A Damaged Christmas Gift for You) and "Papa Ain't No Santa Claus, Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree" by Butterbeans & Susie and "Santa's Helper" by Joe Poovey (both from a compilation called Papa Ain't No Santa Claus, Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree). I used all of these on the 2012 Big Enchilada Christmas Special.

In the Spirit of Porter, The Marty Stuart Show

Reading an article about Marty Stuart in Saving Country Music last night I learned that Marty has his own variety show on RFD-TV. (He's only had it since 2009, so I can't blame you if you say "Duh!")

Apparently the show is modeled after those great syndicated country music shows I grew up watching -- The Buck Owens Ranch, The Wilburn Brothers Show and of course The Porter Wagoner Show.

I checked Marty's list of guests and there are some impressive names from the world of classic country music -- Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels, Del McCoury, Earl Scruggs  and of course Marty's wife, Connie Smith -- plus lesser-known greats who never cracked the Nashville Country Industrial Complex like Deke Dickerson, Kentucky Headhunters,  Old Crow Medicine Show and Carolina Chocolate Drops.

I have Comcast cable these days. Comcast carries RFD-TV, but apparently it's a premium channel.
Fortunately, there's the magic of YouTube.

Check these out:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

 OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Body Combat by The Black Lips
I Need Lunch by The Dead Boys
Ghostified by Persian Claws
Juicy Lucy by Lovestruck
Packed by Gotham City Mashers
She's Hit by The Birthday Party
Hang a Picture by Thee Oh Sees
Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White by Marshmallow Overcoat

Satisfaction by Devo
Musicians Are Scum by Pere Ubu
Can Your Pussy Do The Dog by The Rockin' Guys
The Girl With the Exploding Dress by The Electric Mess
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
Love Fuzz by Ty Segall
Life on the Dole by The Molting Vultures
Pink Slip by Unband
Charlie Laine Ate by Brain by The Ruiners

Rock 'n' Soul Music by Country Joe & The Fish
Everything by Public Enemy featuring Gerald Albright and Sheila Brody
Body Snatcher by The Dynamites with Charles Walker
Snatch it Back and Hold it by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Tryin' to Get Next to You by Wiley & The Checkmates
Frog Man by King Khan & The Shrines
I Got High by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
You Don't Know What You Mean to a Lover Like Me by Lee Fields & The Sugarman 3
Bad Girl by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Mama Don't Like My Man by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

It's a Good Day Today by David Lynch
The Eraser by Night Beats
Hey Mr. Rain by The Velvet Undergruund
Mind Over Matter by Reigning Sound
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, Jan. 18 , 2013 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
 OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
I Lie When I Drink by Dale Watson
From a Jack to a King by Cornell Hurd
Day Dreaming by Wanda Jackson
Corn Liquor Made a Fool of Me by The Bad Livers
Skip a Rope by The Kentucky Headhunters
In Your Wildest Dreams by The Reverend Horton Heat
The Deadening by Legendary Shack Shakers
Ding Dong by The World Famous Headliners
The Wreck of the Old 97 by Rhett Miller

Ring of Fire by Ronnie Dunn (with members of Mariachi Buenaventura)
Stay Away from the Cociane Train by Johnny Paycheck
The Savior by The Imperial Rooster
Hog-Tied Over You by Tennessee Ernie Ford & Ella Mae Morse
Man with the Gallows Eyes by The Chatham Singers
Little But I'm Loud by Rosie Flores
Southern Cannonball by Hank Snow
Dumb Blonde by Dolly Parton
Whoa Boy by Luke McDaniel

Alligator Chomp by Shooter Jennings with Tony Joe White
Ain't Living Long Like This by Waylon Jennings
Five Brothers by Marty Robbins
Riley's Got a Woman by Dr. Ruth & The Pleasure Seekers
Long Gone Lonesome Blues by The Grievous Angels
Jackson by Carolina Chocolate Drops
How Did the Young Man Lose His Leg by The Perch Creek Family Jug Band
Cotton Fields by Creedence Clearwater Revival
How Cold Hearted Can You Get by Hank Thompson & His Brazos Valley Boys

Precious Time by Broomdust Caravan
A Little Mo' Love by Chris O'Connell
California Cottonfields by Merle Haggard
Feeling Mortal by Kris Kristofferson
Dollar Dress by Jon Langford
Old Faded Memory by Rachel Brooke with Lonesome Wyatt
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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