Apple pie is considered quintessentially American. I don't think you quite "got" the song, though. It's a huge tragedy revolving around the suicide of a young man. The first person voice is that of a girl who was apparently dating him, although they kept it quiet so much so that her family apparently didn't even know. They were seen throwing "something" off the Tallahatchie bridge. It is never revealed in the song, although one could speculate what that might have been, and many people have. Bobby Gentry herself said that the real horror of the story was the casual, cavalier attitude of her family to the news of this young man committing suicide, as if it held no importance whatsoever.
"Dating" may be what you call it now - they were kind of sweet on each other, and he was secretly 'courting' her after hours, but not yet sexual - personally I liked the movie. It was produced and directed by Max Baer, Jr. - yep, Jethro Bodine!
@@Code9 That's a stretch, I never thought that sounded possible, myself. Considering Bobby Gentry was very affected by the Emmet Till story, the cruelty angle is much more important than what was thrown off the bridge. I personally think it was flowers they were throwing, as she says at the end that is what she spends time doing after his death.
Her description was perfect. Having grown up in the fifties and sixties with depression and WW two survivors as parents, I remember that feeling. As a continuous human civilization, you hope that people overcome unconscious cruelty. That's what being WOKE means, a society overcoming conscious cruelty, which there seems to be a lot of in 2023, humans should now know better and be more empathetic.
The casual indifference to Billie Joe's death is obvious. But I'm also struck in the lyrics by the indifference to the narrator of the song. The mother asks what's happened to her appetite, as if she doesn't comprehend that her own daughter is devastated.
A note about the lyrics. When Bobby says they came in from the field for dinner, she means the midday meal, i.e. lunch. Dinner in the Southern United States often means lunch (especially among older people) and the evening meal is usually called supper.
Funny because yesterday I was talking on the phone to an older friend in Texas and she was telling me about her childhood and how her family would eat dinner around noon . This was in the 1940s/ early "50s
Actually farming families usually ate their largest meal at lunch. In the afternoon you would not want to heat up the house for a second big meal. And people could burn off their meal plowing the north forty. The repressive nature of southern culture in the sixties is clear in the song. There were still lynchings going on. The Civil rights movement was gradually gaining steam and yes Till's brutal murder woke up the world. Just like Selma.
I don't think you guys completely caught the tragedy in this song. It is not a sweet song, but a tragic song of suicide. Although many kids jump off bridges into rivers in the summer time here in CA, this particular song talks not of fun hot summer days jumping, but that of death. It talks of the cruel blind reaction of families to the tragedy of a youth taking their own life over eating apple pie at the dinner table. It also talks about their daughter who secretly was seeing Billy Joe apparently behind her parents back, and how she and Billy Joe were seen throwing "something" off the bridge and into the river. Bobby Gentry never mentions what the "item" is, but with two young people secretly seeing one another, one can speculate as to what the "item" was and why the girl was so despondent and unable to eat dinner with her family. The daughter was also seen seeking the council of her priest in secret, so it is clear that whatever was thrown off the bridge was something that carried a heavy guilt. The fact that Billy Joe felt such guilt about the deed that he felt he had nothing left in life but to join the "item" in the murky depths of the river. Very sad song, not one to smile and laugh at.
So many of the people "reacting" to this song haven't listened carefully and many don't understand what they've heard. But that's often the case in our daily lives; many people don't listen and don't understand what they're told.
People. Petcive thinhs in Diffrent ways. How do you know the Book you've just Txt is Right. Thats your opinion. Not Evetyones ffs. Go and Write anothet book
The tragedy in this song is the casual attitudes of the family about the death of someone the first-person character (the daughter) cared about. Indifference to the deceased, and Indifference to their daughter's loss, as if it weren't anything to get upset over. The dad basically said the kid was a dumbass.
This was a huge hit in 1967 and you really can't appreciate it because the times today are so different! The violin at the end 9:50 symbolizes musically her dropping the flowers off of Tallahatchie bridge!
I was born the year this song came out and was raised in the Deep South of the USA, and although my immediate family unit was much smaller, the banter around the dinner table when we’d visit my grandparents on the Florida panhandle was EXACTLY as described in the song (thankfully without the local suicide), but Bobbie Gentry had nearly a cinematic ability to relay a story around a melody. That’s an all-time classic song, masterclass of composition, and basically a demo track to which the producer added only the string section. Other than that it was just the writer, her voice, and her parlour guitar. I’d put it right up there with “Wichita Lineman”, to be honest.
Bobby Gentry said this song was about unconscious cruelty. She never said what they threw off the bridge-that wasn’t the point. And Gentry is pronounced like your “landed gentry” in the UK. American apple pie is mostly baked from the heart instead from a recipe. Double crust pastry filled with sliced apples which are seasoned with sugar, cinnamon, and (optional) nutmeg, then topped by some slices of butter before the top crust is added. Simple but delicious!!
She told a brilliant tale, I first heard it as a young child and at 60 years old, it is still in my head. She actually did a live recording on the BBC when this was first released.
Bobbie Gentry did more than that on the BBC: "In 1968, after appearing on In Concert, Gentry became the first female songwriter to front a TV series on the BBC network. Impressed with Gentry's performances on- and off-screen, the head of the BBC invited her, in 1968, to host a variety show on BBC 2, making her the first female songwriter to host a series on the network. The Bobbie Gentry series was a 6-week special, broadcast weekly from July 13 to August 17, 1968. It featured musicians from the Mississippi countryside, as well as guests such as Glen Campbell, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Elton John, Alan Price, Billy Preston, and Pan's People. [20] It was produced and directed by Stanley Dorfman,[21] who credited Gentry as his co-director. Dorfman told author Tara Murtha, "After a few episodes, she was pretty much co-directing the show because she had such great ideas. [But] the BBC wouldn't have it, wouldn't have an artist credited as a director or producer, so the credit went to me as producer and director. But she definitely contributed as much as I did creatively to the show."
Even though for years people speculated on what was thrown off the bridge…..The main theme of the song was the terrible indifference people show to tragic events. She was devastated and her family just carried on with their supper, totally unfeeling for the loss of someone they knew.
Well done lads. She's brilliant. I'm obsessed with Bobbie Gentry. She's maybe the best all around female singer/performer. Underrated big time... our loss..
Bobbie Gentry tried to get signed as a recording artist. She didn't have any luck. So she set her sights on getting signed as a staff writer and sent a demo tape as part of that effort. They basically took her demo tape and added the string section, and released that. It was a big hit. So big that it marked the end of the Psychedelic Rock Era's chart dominance.
Bobby Gentry, wow she could really tell a story. This is actually a song of suicide. The first time I heard it, I got chills. I can still remember all of the words
Instead of the Apple Pie perhaps you might ponder on the reason why the girl had lost her appetite. Perhaps It's because she knows exactly why Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge and because she is absolutely devastated by the news. If you read between the lines, they had a secret. It's a tragic story and the family's chatty indifference to the boy's death speaks volumes. The song us about what is not said rather than what is said. It's brilliant. All of the foregoing is, of course, just my opinion. Her name is Gentry with a soft g sound...."Jentry".
Gentlemen in country music it is called a fiddle not a violin. To this day people debate what she and Billy Joe threw of that bridge that would make him commit suicide.
A phyc major in college Bobby claimed the song is a character study in man's indifference to man, a kind of "O-well" attitude for hard working hard living people in the deep south.
@@elisekuby2009 yes she was. I think I remember her saying there is no one meaning, the overarching theme is this kind of dismissive attitude over the tragic death of the young man. My father, now 89 years old holds very different attitudes about those who commit suicide. My father's generation saw the issue more a character flaw then an illness, born in the thirties my father thought suicide the cowards way out. Sounds harsh but remember in Bobbie Jo and my father's time a man who committed suicide was abandoning his responsibilities to family. Wives and children of suicide were victims.
@@josephclarke4244 True! I myself grew up learning that suicide was the coward's way out. But how many folks grow up now, learning that life is about duty and responsibility? We are beset by entire nations of narcissists, who actually believe that everything must be about them or not at all. Are the new generations taught that actions have consequences? Do they understand the nature of cause and effect? In my imagination, the 'cause' of Bobbie Jo actions led to the consequence of his actions. He was mostly likely terrified out of his mind, being 'churchy' sort of folk and the thought of the victims left behind may not ever have been in the forefront of his chaotic 'thinking.' I imagine that all he could react to was the terror in his mind.
@@elisekuby2009 great observation and yet I think Gentry's idea was to tell the story of the attitude of those left behind! For what it's worth however even the Catholic church now allows for Catholic burial in the case of suicide. My own attitude is a mix of my father's and my own attitude on suicide, I take the attitude if no one is relying on you...have at it, that being said if your doing it to run out on responsibilities of a wife and children...If I do shed a tear; it will be for those ya ran out on! Thanks for the interaction...helps me understand the world and people around me a little better!
@@josephclarke4244 That may well be true and I certainly will not dispute her attitude. We all have our own methods of trying to make sense of the world - which is easy, and trying to make sense of humanity, which is impossible. Her song is a poignant reminder that humans and their behaviour are hard, if not impossible to predict. However...we must shuffle on as best as we can under trying circumstances. Maybe just gathering flowers on Chaoctaw Ridge and letting them float down the river. I don't know if I spelled Chaoctaw correctly, but what does it matter?
Bobby Gentry is a great storyteller. Someone else mentioned a live performance of her song Fancy. It's amazing. Reba MacIntyre covered it years later and it was a big hit for her. I always preferred Bobby's version as it felt more raw, less "produced". She really draws you in immediately and you have to know what happened!
The 'biscuits' referred to here are not the thin crispy kind that Brits might be thinking of, but something more like scones. Southern U.S. biscuits are a type of shortbread (i.e., no yeast, but rises from baking powder and baking soda), flour, and milk (often with buttermilk added). The dough is rolled out in layers and folded over with bits of chilled butter in between to promote flakiness, cut round by pressing into the layers with a cutter, and the lumps of dough arranged in the pan just touching, so as they bake and rise, they crowd into each other, leaving the crust on the tops and bottoms only, resulting in a dense roll about 6-8 centimeters round and about 2/3 of that tall. This form of shortbread has been a staple in rural Southern homes for generations.
The saying is "As American as apple pie." Nuff said. This song came out the summer I graduated from High School and it was an enormous hit and since it wasabout a tragic teen romance resonated with us.
Apple pie is now like a mythological "all American" thing. I don't know many who actually eat it often. The story in the song is really sad. The girl had to hide from her family she was dating him, and when he committed suicide, her family acted like no one really cared about him jumping or about her pain.
That is patently not true. Apple pie is often served as a dessert with home cooked family meals, especially when having guests, and on holidays. Let me guess, your family only eats fast food.
I have never seen this written down but I think it is, at some level, Gentry's creative response to Eleanor Rigby. The setting is entirely American, and there is no musical similarity, but there is something that links them in the very spare use of orchestration, lyrics that come close to poetry and a subject matter that is way beyond what anyone would have considered appropriate to a pop record. She certainly followed Lennon and McCartney and covered their songs.
There was a film made after this, but it rang hollow with me. I believe the story is that the protagonist and Billy Joe were lovers, ( didn't I see you talking to him after church last Sunday night?), she bore a stillborn child that they buried in water, (he said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge. And she and Billy Joe was (sic) throwin' something off the Tallahatchee Bridge.) Billy Joe was so devastated by the events and what they had to do that he jumped himself, committing suicide. At the end she spends her time picking flowers (tributes) up on Choctaw Ridge, and (marking the graves of the child and Billy Joe) toss them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchee Bridge. It's very poetic, an American tragedy, if you will. I've been told by English teachers that I glean the meat of a poem, and I believe I'm correct here.
Bobby Gentry is an American singer-songwriter who was one of the first female artists to compose & produce her own material. A lot of her songs were stories. Her biggest hit was in 1967 with "Ode To Billy Joe". Other songs are "Mississippi Delta", "Fancy", "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", "Sunday Mornin" (with Glen Campbell) etc.
Apple pie is so big in America that there's a saying,. It's as American as apple pie!! I do love a good apple pie although if I had a choice between apple and pecan Apple would come in second. 2nd is still better than all the other kind of pies you can have. I was 13 when this song came out. I listened to it as often as I could, captivated by the story . I am a southerner and I also love the way she sang it just like a southerner telling a tale on the front porch on a hot summer night. To this day I still want an answer. What did they throw off the bridge???
My personal take on this is that they threw an infant off that bridge - their infant. Possibly born prematurely or aborted. Why else mention the young preacher showing up at the farm? Billie Joe was unable to live with their common crime and thus ended the torture his life had become.
@@berktv2936 Whaaaat?? Even Billy Joe would have had enough sense not to throw an apple pie off the bridge. How could you even think of anything so profane? 🤦♂ (I can’t believe the YT censors would let that go…reporting for blasphemy)
Now you have to do Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C. Riley. (31M views- kkiilljjooy) It's another southern story-telling song that was a hit around the same time as Ode to Billie Joe.
The story here is a tragedy, on many levels, brought to life by Bobbie's amazing voice, picking, arrangement and strings accompaniment, transporting the careful listener directly into the hot, humid delta region of the southern U.S. It is a study in casual indifference, and therefore unconscious cruelty, at the news of a local boy throwing himself off a bridge. But beyond noticing the girl's loss of appetite, and seeing that only as a sleight against the mother's hard work cooking the midday meal, the girl's family is oblivious to the devastating effect the news has on her. As the story unfolds, we learn that the boy and someone who looked like her were seen throwing 'something' off that bridge, just days before the boy threw himself off of it. The girl was apparently seeing the boy in secret, and the 'something' that was thrown off, some have speculated, could have been the baby she lost, and the grief ended up being more than the young father could bear. The movie referenced here had a different object thrown, and plot, but TV in those days rarely if ever gave voice to this more dire interpretation, judging it as too adult a theme.
Great old classic! Had no idea it was such a big song. It was nominated for eight Grammy Awards; Gentry and arranger Jimmie Haskell won three between them. Gentry's writing was adapted for the 1976 film Ode to Billy Joe. The song appeared on Rolling Stone's lists, 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and Greatest Country Songs, while Pitchfork featured it on their 200 Best Songs of the 1960s list. In 2023, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Fun reaction as normal! Cheers Gents!
She studied psychology in college, & did a brilliant job of telling the story of a tragic, secret love affair, in which the boyfriend commits suicide. She's the sad young girl throwing flowers after her love. Good luck with your apple pie, & thanks for your reaction!
Her real name was Roberta Jo Streeter. At age 13 she moved from Mississippi to California, with her mother, and I don't know if she ever returned to Mississippi.
Apple pie is essential. Serving it is where the creativity comes in. Some serve it with whipped cream, some with vanilla ice cream, and some with a slice of cheddar cheese. The question is what did they throw off the bridge????
She had also done modeling in the 1960's, especially in swimsuits! This woman was gorgeous and an unbelievable body! She purposely retired in the early 1980's and was rarely heard from. She is still alive today. There is a video of her singing a song called Fancy! She wears a form fitting red pants suit...GORGEOUS!!
You ever hear the saying, "It's as American as apple pie."? The point of the song was that this tragedy occured, and the family was treating it as casually as if it was just another occurrence in daily life.
A few interesting trivia on this song. The recording was actually done initially as a guitar demo that Bobbie recorded herself in the studio. The producers liked it so much they just added the strings and bass and released it and it became a number one hit. Also, the song originally had about 11 or 12 verses. The producers cut it down to a length that could be played on radio. Those original complete verses are locked away in the Mississippi State Archives and have never been publicly released to be read. Also, Bobbie has never divulged what the characters in the song dropped in to the river or why Billy Joe jumped to his death off the bridge. The movie script of course, took liberties to write their own story around the song, but keep in mind, that's only Hollywood's creation of what the story is about. (The beauty of this song is that it leaves it to your imagination to fill in what may have happened.) And finally, the actual Tallahatchie Bridge which you see in this video was later burned by vandals and had to be torn down. A newer one was rebuilt in it's place I believe.
@@39thala Admittedly spell-check can be helpful, but at other times it can be aggravating or completely wrong! Every time I write the word “were”, IT thinks I wanted to say “we’re” and adds the apostrophe for me. 😡 [It did it as I was writing this as a matter of fact.] 🤦♂
Back in the 60’s on the radios, you could hear several genres on the same radio station in an hour! From Country, Rock, Pop. Rhythm & Blue etc. it was great, no prejudice concerning music!
Interesting fact ~ Bobbie was born and raised in her younger days one county over in Mississippi from where Elvis Presley grew up. In the song, she talks about her brother buying a store in Tupelo. Tupelo, MS is where Elvis was from!
Apple pie is an American dessert staple. It is my second favorite pie after cherry. I am not much of a baker, so no recipe, but I am sure that a good one will come your way. Thanks for listening to this one.
This was such a huge hit in the UK I'm surprised you hadn't heard it. We would spend hours in the cafe arguing about what they chucked of the bridge. Great days!
They planted a LOT of apple trees in the U.S. about 200 years ago. We also have a lot of apple groves in NW U.S. So apples have been a big part of desserts for a long time. Thus apple pie. Most apple pie recipes use green apples rather than the red varieties. They are a little more bitter and tangy, so they contribute more interesting flavors. I've always heard her name pronounced like jentry.
Definitely go green and tart with pie apples! An old variety that is perfect are Newtown Pippins - I often put two or three different varieties in my pie.
Apple pie is a popular dessert in the southern states especially. Bobby explained that she wrote this song about the unconscious cruelty of people. The family had been working all morning in the fields and they came in for the midday meal(the midday meal in the south is called dinner and the evening meal is called supper). Her mom brings up that Billie Joe jumped off the bridge and everyone just kept on passing around food and acting as if it was nothing. She obviously had feelings for him and her family seemed almost uncaring.
Bobbie Gentry pronounced 'Jentry' said that this song is an exercise in unconscious cruelty. Some say that what she and Billy Joe threw their premature baby off the bridge so no-one knew about it. The movie starring Robbie Benson, a huge star in those days leads the viewer to believe that Billy Joe was gay...a horrible life in those days in that area of the country.
The “American Apple Pie” was originally brought to America by Brits. Of coarse it has evolved and changed over the years but is now considered “American”
Speaking as an American, apple pie is the THE quintessential American dessert in that it’s very representative of a common thread/theme within our culture though, obviously, it’s not THE only favored or tasty dessert found here- we’re all aware of that. State fairs, festivals, etc. quite often feature apple pie-baking contests for the best tasting one (obviously) or just pie baking contests in general- fun!!😊
@the cottage mouse You are more than welcome to add your own score as you see fit, it's just for a little fun that we give a score and we are clueless to be honest. All the best
@@BritPopsReact Clueless, yes...as evidenced by your flip reaction to this masterpiece, says I. (Forgive my 'attitude', but I. LOVE. Bobbie (not Bobby) Gentry (as in 'the landed gentry).
Ever heard the saying......"American as Apple Pie"...... They are one of the same things! That is how much Apple Pie is associated with America. Great reaction and interesting to see you both listen to this song. Bobby Gentry was very ahead of her time, on producing and writing. Gentry is the same sound as JENTRY....so that is how you pronounce the G.
This song was a smash - everybody loved the deep, dark drama in her voice. Bobbie Gentry as in "Gentle On my Mind". Now there's another fantastic hit song!
Apple pie recipe. Apples: Peel enough to fill a pie crust, add lemon, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour then mix it all together with a large spoon. Buy a pillsbury ready made pie crust, mix everything up, put it in the pie crust, place another pie crust on top, bake at 400 degrees F until the crust is golden and the pie filling is bubbling, take out and cool a little before serving. I don’t measure my ingredients. I make it to my own taste. Don’t be afraid it’s easy.
A few odds and ends: Gentry is pronounced "Jentry" as in gentle, gentlmen, gentry and so on. I was living in England at the time she sang Burt Bacharach's "Raindrops keep fallin on my head" on Top of the Pops in 1970. You got the feeling she was sick of singing what she was told to sing, and that this was one of those. She has several great songs on her last album Patchwork, which I believe was entirely her own work, including producing. I have her up there with Paul McCartney as a songwriter, and I don't say that lightly. Check out Beverly, Miss Clara and Mean Stepmama Blues. Apple pie is American the way steak and kidney pie is English.
GENTRY - as in 'gentrified' (J sound) - you know, The Gentry, Gentlemen! "As American as Apple Pie" is more than just an expression. My mother made several different apple pies; Deep Dish Apple Pie, Mile High Apple Pie, Apple Pan Dowdie, etc. --> I recommend watching the film - it fills in the blanks and was produced and directed by Max Baer, Jr.
I'm an American & a Southerner & a bit unusual in that I don't like Apple Pie. It is, indeed, very popular. So are other fruit pies like Cherry Pie etc. I much prefer cream pies (also popular) like Coconut Cream Pie, Chocolate Pie, Banana Cream Pie. Most traditional Southern cooks have a scrumptious recipe for Coconut Cream Pie & it's usually to die for. Banana Pudding too. So yummy! It's funny..even though I don't much like fruit pies I do make a mean Peach Cobbler. People always ask for seconds. Fixing & serving it for friends & family really brings out the Southern Belle in me. 💙🤗🌿
Was it suicide, or was Billy Joe murdered? First he jumped off the Bridge, and now the story has changed to Two people (one that looked like her) throwing something off the Bridge. I'm 67 yrs. old, and remember in 1968 when this came out, (12 yrs. Old) that everyone was talking about this song. It was played on both soft rock AM radio, and Country Western AM Radio. It was such a huge hit song. Thanks Fellas
Apple pie is considered quintessentially American. I don't think you quite "got" the song, though. It's a huge tragedy revolving around the suicide of a young man. The first person voice is that of a girl who was apparently dating him, although they kept it quiet so much so that her family apparently didn't even know. They were seen throwing "something" off the Tallahatchie bridge. It is never revealed in the song, although one could speculate what that might have been, and many people have. Bobby Gentry herself said that the real horror of the story was the casual, cavalier attitude of her family to the news of this young man committing suicide, as if it held no importance whatsoever.
The movie added other elements to the story, too. I don't personally like the movie.
"Dating" may be what you call it now - they were kind of sweet on each other, and he was secretly 'courting' her after hours, but not yet sexual - personally I liked the movie. It was produced and directed by Max Baer, Jr. - yep, Jethro Bodine!
@@jollyrodgers7272 Maybe they did have a sexual encounter, she got pregnant, lost the child in a miscarriage and they threw the fetus off the bridge.
@@Code9 That's a stretch, I never thought that sounded possible, myself. Considering Bobby Gentry was very affected by the Emmet Till story, the cruelty angle is much more important than what was thrown off the bridge. I personally think it was flowers they were throwing, as she says at the end that is what she spends time doing after his death.
And there are lots of different recipes for apple pie. Dutch, lattice, etc.
She described the song as a study in unconscious cruelty.
Her description was perfect. Having grown up in the fifties and sixties with depression and WW two survivors as parents, I remember that feeling. As a continuous human civilization, you hope that people overcome unconscious cruelty. That's what being WOKE means, a society overcoming conscious cruelty, which there seems to be a lot of in 2023, humans should now know better and be more empathetic.
Also known as the 'casual brutality' of humanity at large.
Robert Kennedy said to some South Afrcans once that"We have to realize the reallty of our brutal existence".
The casual indifference to Billie Joe's death is obvious. But I'm also struck in the lyrics by the indifference to the narrator of the song. The mother asks what's happened to her appetite, as if she doesn't comprehend that her own daughter is devastated.
Her family cavalierly discuss Billie Joe's suicide without realizing the daughter is dating him.
A note about the lyrics. When Bobby says they came in from the field for dinner, she means the midday meal, i.e. lunch. Dinner in the Southern United States often means lunch (especially among older people) and the evening meal is usually called supper.
In the Midwest also...
@@HalfNordic Not true at all.
@@keithleereynolds Perhaps not where you are?
Funny because yesterday I was talking on the phone to an older friend in Texas and she was telling me about her childhood and how her family would eat dinner around noon . This was in the 1940s/ early "50s
Actually farming families usually ate their largest meal at lunch. In the afternoon you would not want to heat up the house for a second big meal. And people could burn off their meal plowing the north forty. The repressive nature of southern culture in the sixties is clear in the song. There were still lynchings going on. The Civil rights movement was gradually gaining steam and yes Till's brutal murder woke up the world. Just like Selma.
I don't believe I ever saw anyone chuckle their way through this song before. unorthodox reaction.
I don't think you guys completely caught the tragedy in this song. It is not a sweet song, but a tragic song of suicide. Although many kids jump off bridges into rivers in the summer time here in CA, this particular song talks not of fun hot summer days jumping, but that of death. It talks of the cruel blind reaction of families to the tragedy of a youth taking their own life over eating apple pie at the dinner table. It also talks about their daughter who secretly was seeing Billy Joe apparently behind her parents back, and how she and Billy Joe were seen throwing "something" off the bridge and into the river. Bobby Gentry never mentions what the "item" is, but with two young people secretly seeing one another, one can speculate as to what the "item" was and why the girl was so despondent and unable to eat dinner with her family. The daughter was also seen seeking the council of her priest in secret, so it is clear that whatever was thrown off the bridge was something that carried a heavy guilt. The fact that Billy Joe felt such guilt about the deed that he felt he had nothing left in life but to join the "item" in the murky depths of the river. Very sad song, not one to smile and laugh at.
So many of the people "reacting" to this song haven't listened carefully and many don't understand what they've heard. But that's often the case in our daily lives; many people don't listen and don't understand what they're told.
I dont get how folks don't cry when they hear this song.. tragedy on so many levels.
@@creinicke1000 Some (many?) people cry.
@@creinicke1000you said the reason: tragedy. Something most relate too.
People. Petcive thinhs in Diffrent ways. How do you know the Book you've just Txt is Right. Thats your opinion. Not Evetyones ffs. Go and Write anothet book
What's great about this song is it brings you right to the dinner table with them.
The tragedy in this song is the casual attitudes of the family about the death of someone the first-person character (the daughter) cared about.
Indifference to the deceased, and Indifference to their daughter's loss, as if it weren't anything to get upset over. The dad basically said the kid was a dumbass.
Love the little bit of side gossip about 'Becky Thomson buying a store in Tupelo'
At 70 I still get tears hearing this song. Everyone has a Tallahatchie bridge.
Wow you sure got that right well said..
One of the most brilliant, stunning songs ever written.
This was a huge hit in 1967 and you really can't appreciate it because the times today are so different! The violin at the end 9:50 symbolizes musically her dropping the flowers off of Tallahatchie bridge!
Vous ne trouverez plus une chanteuse comme elle aujourd'hui belle voix classe texte bref une artiste
Hauntingly beautiful. Nothing so great as a woman singing with such a heart felt voice.
I was born the year this song came out and was raised in the Deep South of the USA, and although my immediate family unit was much smaller, the banter around the dinner table when we’d visit my grandparents on the Florida panhandle was EXACTLY as described in the song (thankfully without the local suicide), but Bobbie Gentry had nearly a cinematic ability to relay a story around a melody. That’s an all-time classic song, masterclass of composition, and basically a demo track to which the producer added only the string section. Other than that it was just the writer, her voice, and her parlour guitar.
I’d put it right up there with “Wichita Lineman”, to be honest.
It’s a tragic look into how disconnected families can be. The singer was dating Billy Joe, he committed suicide and the family didn’t even notice.
A study in unconscious cruelty as Bobby said. By the way she's studied philosophy. But her phrasing on this is just exquisite.
Bobby Gentry said this song was about unconscious cruelty. She never said what they threw off the bridge-that wasn’t the point. And Gentry is pronounced like your “landed gentry” in the UK.
American apple pie is mostly baked from the heart instead from a recipe. Double crust pastry filled with sliced apples which are seasoned with sugar, cinnamon, and (optional) nutmeg, then topped by some slices of butter before the top crust is added. Simple but delicious!!
She told a brilliant tale, I first heard it as a young child and at 60 years old, it is still in my head. She actually did a live recording on the BBC when this was first released.
Bobbie Gentry did more than that on the BBC:
"In 1968, after appearing on In Concert, Gentry became the first female songwriter to front a TV series on the BBC network. Impressed with Gentry's performances on- and off-screen, the head of the BBC invited her, in 1968, to host a variety show on BBC 2, making her the first female songwriter to host a series on the network. The Bobbie Gentry series was a 6-week special, broadcast weekly from July 13 to August 17, 1968. It featured musicians from the Mississippi countryside, as well as guests such as Glen Campbell, James Taylor, Randy Newman, Elton John, Alan Price, Billy Preston, and Pan's People. [20] It was produced and directed by Stanley Dorfman,[21] who credited Gentry as his co-director. Dorfman told author Tara Murtha, "After a few episodes, she was pretty much co-directing the show because she had such great ideas. [But] the BBC wouldn't have it, wouldn't have an artist credited as a director or producer, so the credit went to me as producer and director. But she definitely contributed as much as I did creatively to the show."
Same here a 60 year old and always had this song in my head
Those BBC Bobbie Gentry Shows have been restored and available to watch for free in the UK on the i-player. The edition with Donovan is my favourite.
After the young preacher came by, the mother then knew that her daughter was the girl seen in the area.
She is still alive, she has never explained the mystery but promised to tell all before she dies. The G in Gentry is the same as in gentlemen.
Even though for years people speculated on what was thrown off the bridge…..The main theme of the song was the terrible indifference people show to tragic events. She was devastated and her family just carried on with their supper, totally unfeeling for the loss of someone they knew.
As an Alabamian, I'm tickled pink to listen to Brits review this song. Glad they liked it. :)
Well done lads. She's brilliant. I'm obsessed with Bobbie Gentry. She's maybe the best all around female singer/performer. Underrated big time... our loss..
Bobbie Gentry tried to get signed as a recording artist. She didn't have any luck. So she set her sights on getting signed as a staff writer and sent a demo tape as part of that effort. They basically took her demo tape and added the string section, and released that. It was a big hit. So big that it marked the end of the Psychedelic Rock Era's chart dominance.
Bobby Gentry, wow she could really tell a story. This is actually a song of suicide. The first time I heard it, I got chills. I can still remember all of the words
Instead of the Apple Pie perhaps you might ponder on the reason why the girl had lost her appetite. Perhaps It's because she knows exactly why Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge and because she is absolutely devastated by the news. If you read between the lines, they had a secret. It's a tragic story and the family's chatty indifference to the boy's death speaks volumes. The song us about what is not said rather than what is said. It's brilliant. All of the foregoing is, of course, just my opinion. Her name is Gentry with a soft g sound...."Jentry".
Gentlemen in country music it is called a fiddle not a violin. To this day people debate what she and Billy Joe threw of that bridge that would make him commit suicide.
A phyc major in college Bobby claimed the song is a character study in man's indifference to man, a kind of "O-well" attitude for hard working hard living people in the deep south.
I believe that Gentry may have been a psych major in college.
@@elisekuby2009 yes she was. I think I remember her saying there is no one meaning, the overarching theme is this kind of dismissive attitude over the tragic death of the young man. My father, now 89 years old holds very different attitudes about those who commit suicide. My father's generation saw the issue more a character flaw then an illness, born in the thirties my father thought suicide the cowards way out. Sounds harsh but remember in Bobbie Jo and my father's time a man who committed suicide was abandoning his responsibilities to family. Wives and children of suicide were victims.
@@josephclarke4244 True! I myself grew up learning that suicide was the coward's way out.
But how many folks grow up now, learning that life is about duty and responsibility? We are beset by entire nations of narcissists, who actually believe that everything must be about them or not at all.
Are the new generations taught that actions have consequences? Do they understand the nature of cause and effect?
In my imagination, the 'cause' of Bobbie Jo actions led to the consequence of his actions. He was mostly likely terrified out of his mind, being 'churchy' sort of folk and the thought of the victims left behind may not ever have been in the forefront of his chaotic 'thinking.' I imagine that all he could react to was the terror in his mind.
@@elisekuby2009 great observation and yet I think Gentry's idea was to tell the story of the attitude of those left behind! For what it's worth however even the Catholic church now allows for Catholic burial in the case of suicide. My own attitude is a mix of my father's and my own attitude on suicide, I take the attitude if no one is relying on you...have at it, that being said if your doing it to run out on responsibilities of a wife and children...If I do shed a tear; it will be for those ya ran out on! Thanks for the interaction...helps me understand the world and people around me a little better!
@@josephclarke4244 That may well be true and I certainly will not dispute her attitude. We all have our own methods of trying to make sense of the world - which is easy, and trying to make sense of humanity, which is impossible.
Her song is a poignant reminder that humans and their behaviour are hard, if not impossible to predict.
However...we must shuffle on as best as we can under trying circumstances. Maybe just gathering flowers on Chaoctaw Ridge and letting them float down the river.
I don't know if I spelled Chaoctaw correctly, but what does it matter?
She is a southern women 😆 😆 That is why she has southern accent , like you have a British one.
Bobby Gentry is a great storyteller. Someone else mentioned a live performance of her song Fancy. It's amazing. Reba MacIntyre covered it years later and it was a big hit for her. I always preferred Bobby's version as it felt more raw, less "produced". She really draws you in immediately and you have to know what happened!
Great song, full of imagery, you can envision every thing she is speaking about.
The 'biscuits' referred to here are not the thin crispy kind that Brits might be thinking of, but something more like scones. Southern U.S. biscuits are a type of shortbread (i.e., no yeast, but rises from baking powder and baking soda), flour, and milk (often with buttermilk added). The dough is rolled out in layers and folded over with bits of chilled butter in between to promote flakiness, cut round by pressing into the layers with a cutter, and the lumps of dough arranged in the pan just touching, so as they bake and rise, they crowd into each other, leaving the crust on the tops and bottoms only, resulting in a dense roll about 6-8 centimeters round and about 2/3 of that tall. This form of shortbread has been a staple in rural Southern homes for generations.
Every time that I hear this song, I can see myself sitting at the dinner table listening to the conversation.
The saying is "As American as apple pie." Nuff said.
This song came out the summer I graduated from High School and it was an enormous hit and since it wasabout a tragic teen romance resonated with us.
Apple pie is now like a mythological "all American" thing. I don't know many who actually eat it often. The story in the song is really sad. The girl had to hide from her family she was dating him, and when he committed suicide, her family acted like no one really cared about him jumping or about her pain.
That is patently not true. Apple pie is often served as a dessert with home cooked family meals, especially when having guests, and on holidays. Let me guess, your family only eats fast food.
Eaten all the time. Especially delicious warm with vanilla ice cream.
I have never seen this written down but I think it is, at some level, Gentry's creative response to Eleanor Rigby. The setting is entirely American, and there is no musical similarity, but there is something that links them in the very spare use of orchestration, lyrics that come close to poetry and a subject matter that is way beyond what anyone would have considered appropriate to a pop record. She certainly followed Lennon and McCartney and covered their songs.
There was a film made after this, but it rang hollow with me. I believe the story is that the protagonist and Billy Joe were lovers, ( didn't I see you talking to him after church last Sunday night?), she bore a stillborn child that they buried in water, (he said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge. And she and Billy Joe was (sic) throwin' something off the Tallahatchee Bridge.) Billy Joe was so devastated by the events and what they had to do that he jumped himself, committing suicide. At the end she spends her time picking flowers (tributes) up on Choctaw Ridge, and (marking the graves of the child and Billy Joe) toss them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchee Bridge. It's very poetic, an American tragedy, if you will. I've been told by English teachers that I glean the meat of a poem, and I believe I'm correct here.
Bobby Gentry is an American singer-songwriter who was one of the first female artists to compose & produce her own material. A lot of her songs were stories. Her biggest hit was in 1967 with "Ode To Billy Joe". Other songs are "Mississippi Delta", "Fancy", "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", "Sunday Mornin" (with Glen Campbell) etc.
"Raindrops keep falling on my head" was a cover of a Burt Bacharach song, as was" I'll never fall in love again".
Apple pie is so big in America that there's a saying,. It's as American as apple pie!! I do love a good apple pie although if I had a choice between apple and pecan Apple would come in second. 2nd is still better than all the other kind of pies you can have.
I was 13 when this song came out. I listened to it as often as I could, captivated by the story . I am a southerner and I also love the way she sang it just like a southerner telling a tale on the front porch on a hot summer night.
To this day I still want an answer. What did they throw off the bridge???
My personal take on this is that they threw an infant off that bridge - their infant. Possibly born prematurely or aborted. Why else mention the young preacher showing up at the farm?
Billie Joe was unable to live with their common crime and thus ended the torture his life had become.
They threw an apple pie off the bridge.
@@berktv2936 Whaaaat?? Even Billy Joe would have had enough sense not to throw an apple pie off the bridge. How could you even think of anything so profane? 🤦♂ (I can’t believe the YT censors would let that go…reporting for blasphemy)
One of my favorite songs .It never gets old.
Now you have to do Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C. Riley. (31M views- kkiilljjooy)
It's another southern story-telling song that was a hit around the same time as Ode to Billie Joe.
The story here is a tragedy, on many levels, brought to life by Bobbie's amazing voice, picking, arrangement and strings accompaniment, transporting the careful listener directly into the hot, humid delta region of the southern U.S. It is a study in casual indifference, and therefore unconscious cruelty, at the news of a local boy throwing himself off a bridge. But beyond noticing the girl's loss of appetite, and seeing that only as a sleight against the mother's hard work cooking the midday meal, the girl's family is oblivious to the devastating effect the news has on her. As the story unfolds, we learn that the boy and someone who looked like her were seen throwing 'something' off that bridge, just days before the boy threw himself off of it. The girl was apparently seeing the boy in secret, and the 'something' that was thrown off, some have speculated, could have been the baby she lost, and the grief ended up being more than the young father could bear. The movie referenced here had a different object thrown, and plot, but TV in those days rarely if ever gave voice to this more dire interpretation, judging it as too adult a theme.
Great old classic! Had no idea it was such a big song. It was nominated for eight Grammy Awards; Gentry and arranger Jimmie Haskell won three between them. Gentry's writing was adapted for the 1976 film Ode to Billy Joe. The song appeared on Rolling Stone's lists, 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and Greatest Country Songs, while Pitchfork featured it on their 200 Best Songs of the 1960s list. In 2023, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Fun reaction as normal! Cheers Gents!
Mom and Apple pie......the most patriotic thing to have at your side while you salute the flag
She studied psychology in college, & did a brilliant job of telling the story of a tragic, secret love affair, in which the boyfriend commits suicide. She's the sad young girl throwing flowers after her love. Good luck with your apple pie, & thanks for your reaction!
Her real name was Roberta Jo Streeter. At age 13 she moved from Mississippi to California, with her mother, and I don't know if she ever returned to Mississippi.
Well, to answer your question, in a nut shell: the {un}official Mid-Century American motto was: "Baseball, Apple Pie, hot dogs and Chevrolet"
Apple pie is essential. Serving it is where the creativity comes in. Some serve it with whipped cream, some with vanilla ice cream, and some with a slice of cheddar cheese.
The question is what did they throw off the bridge????
She had also done modeling in the 1960's, especially in swimsuits! This woman was gorgeous and an unbelievable body! She purposely retired in the early 1980's and was rarely heard from. She is still alive today. There is a video of her singing a song called Fancy! She wears a form fitting red pants suit...GORGEOUS!!
Fancy - Fanny means something else in UK
You ever hear the saying, "It's as American as apple pie."? The point of the song was that this tragedy occured, and the family was treating it as casually as if it was just another occurrence in daily life.
A few interesting trivia on this song. The recording was actually done initially as a guitar demo that Bobbie recorded herself in the studio. The producers liked it so much they just added the strings and bass and released it and it became a number one hit. Also, the song originally had about 11 or 12 verses. The producers cut it down to a length that could be played on radio. Those original complete verses are locked away in the Mississippi State Archives and have never been publicly released to be read. Also, Bobbie has never divulged what the characters in the song dropped in to the river or why Billy Joe jumped to his death off the bridge. The movie script of course, took liberties to write their own story around the song, but keep in mind, that's only Hollywood's creation of what the story is about. (The beauty of this song is that it leaves it to your imagination to fill in what may have happened.) And finally, the actual Tallahatchie Bridge which you see in this video was later burned by vandals and had to be torn down. A newer one was rebuilt in it's place I believe.
@39thala
Hello and thank you for all the great information.
All the best
Maybe spell-check got you there but it is the “Tallahatchie” bridge, not Tallahassee.
@@psidvicious Thanks, yes that gets me sometimes. Correction made.
@@39thala Admittedly spell-check can be helpful, but at other times it can be aggravating or completely wrong!
Every time I write the word “were”, IT thinks I wanted to say “we’re” and adds the apostrophe for me. 😡
[It did it as I was writing this as a matter of fact.] 🤦♂
This song got a lot of airplay when I was a kid. It's haunting.
I can hear my grandma’s voice in this song calling me in to eat supper. Supper is the southerner’s dinner.
Just as genuine as it gets.
Bobby was brilliant.
Nuf' said.
The first time I heard his song it sent chills down my spine. My imagination went wild. The movie did not do the song justice.
Back in the 60’s on the radios, you could hear several genres on the same radio station in an hour! From Country, Rock, Pop. Rhythm & Blue etc. it was great, no prejudice concerning music!
1967 is the perfect example of the diversity of pop radio. My favorite year in music. (I was 20).
I love listening to her and a fan. She has an amazing voice. I lived closed to where she grew up in Mississippi.
I currently live in Chickasaw County, MS just 10 miles north of Woodland, MS where Bobby grew up early on. She's a staple down here!!
Interesting fact ~ Bobbie was born and raised in her younger days one county over in Mississippi from where Elvis Presley grew up. In the song, she talks about her brother buying a store in Tupelo. Tupelo, MS is where Elvis was from!
Apple pie is an American dessert staple. It is my second favorite pie after cherry. I am not much of a baker, so no recipe, but I am sure that a good one will come your way. Thanks for listening to this one.
Storytelling at it's best, she is great at getting you to visualize everything, great reaction
Lost on these 2 I’m afraid-too busy wanting an apple pie recipe.
Classic, what a voice, amazing. Cheers.
This was such a huge hit in the UK I'm surprised you hadn't heard it. We would spend hours in the cafe arguing about what they chucked of the bridge. Great days!
We always thought it was a baby…since they weren’t married.
She said that this song was about “unconscious bias”….Billie Joe jumped off the bridge and everyone is fixated on plowing the fields or eating, etc.
unconscious cruelty.
It's also about the apathy of the family. They eat and talk about the tragedy like it's part of the day.
Beautiful, smooth, incredible story telling and tremendous job of painting a lyrical picture. [and what a hottie Bobbie was, eh?!]
@psidvicious
I will take your word on that cus I was of course not checking that out, being as Mrs. BP2 reads the comments too!
Cheers
This is sad is so sad and haunting. A boy committed suicide and it was just dinner conversation. The girl and the boy had a secret relationship.
Apple pie is best when it is warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream dumped on it.
They planted a LOT of apple trees in the U.S. about 200 years ago. We also have a lot of apple groves in NW U.S. So apples have been a big part of desserts for a long time. Thus apple pie. Most apple pie recipes use green apples rather than the red varieties. They are a little more bitter and tangy, so they contribute more interesting flavors.
I've always heard her name pronounced like jentry.
Yeah there are different varieties of apple for baking and cooking vs just eating. Also depends how soft you want the apple to be after cooking.
Definitely go green and tart with pie apples! An old variety that is perfect are Newtown Pippins - I often put two or three different varieties in my pie.
Apple pie is a popular dessert in the southern states especially. Bobby explained that she wrote this song about the unconscious cruelty of people. The family had been working all morning in the fields and they came in for the midday meal(the midday meal in the south is called dinner and the evening meal is called supper). Her mom brings up that Billie Joe jumped off the bridge and everyone just kept on passing around food and acting as if it was nothing. She obviously had feelings for him and her family seemed almost uncaring.
I think it's popular all over the United States. That's how the saying "American as Apple pie" came to be well known.
@Atheos B. Sapien (Ubi dubium ibi liberatas) Jeez what’s with the contempt? Fun at parties I bet.
How can you not know any American country or pop and we know all about your music and royalty Godsave the Queen
The description fit my Southern upbringing quite well. She and Glen Campbell did some nice duets together also.
These are actually places in mississippi
Classic country storytelling. Very specific, relatable imagery "don't forget to wipe your feet", coupled with some tragedy.
Whichever recipe you choose, serve it hot out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. HEAVEN!
She made three series for the B.B.C, each consisting of six shows, the first in 1968 and the last in1971, there were various guest artist featured
Bobbie Gentry pronounced 'Jentry' said that this song is an exercise in unconscious cruelty. Some say that what she and Billy Joe threw their premature baby off the bridge so no-one knew about it. The movie starring Robbie Benson, a huge star in those days leads the viewer to believe that Billy Joe was gay...a horrible life in those days in that area of the country.
The “American Apple Pie” was originally brought to America by Brits. Of coarse it has evolved and changed over the years but is now considered “American”
My dad had this brilliant album, played it constantly, I can still remember the words to many of the songs.
I remember Bugs! So sweet and so real about the South.
Warm apple pie with vanilla icecream on top! Yummm
i used to play this on my guitar,,such a sad haunting melody so glad to hear it again after so many years!
Bobby Gentry- one of the greats in my opinion. By the way how about another Lucy Thomas cover- support your fellow Brit! 🙂
Speaking as an American, apple pie is the THE quintessential American dessert in that it’s very representative of a common thread/theme within our culture though, obviously, it’s not THE only favored or tasty dessert found here- we’re all aware of that. State fairs, festivals, etc. quite often feature apple pie-baking contests for the best tasting one (obviously) or just pie baking contests in general- fun!!😊
Great reaction guys
I give Bobby a 10!!!
Just saying
@the cottage mouse
You are more than welcome to add your own score as you see fit, it's just for a little fun that we give a score and we are clueless to be honest.
All the best
@@BritPopsReact Clueless, yes...as evidenced by your flip reaction to this masterpiece, says I. (Forgive my 'attitude', but I. LOVE. Bobbie (not Bobby) Gentry (as in 'the landed gentry).
Apple pie is essential for any picnic, church potluck, Sunday dinner and holidays. Always a debate on who makes it best!!
Ever heard the saying......"American as Apple Pie"...... They are one of the same things!
That is how much Apple Pie is associated with America.
Great reaction and interesting to see you both listen to this song.
Bobby Gentry was very ahead of her time, on producing and writing.
Gentry is the same sound as JENTRY....so that is how you pronounce the G.
This song was a smash - everybody loved the deep, dark drama in her voice. Bobbie Gentry as in "Gentle On my Mind". Now there's another fantastic hit song!
Apple pie is literally my favorite food. It’s best served warm with some vanilla ice cream.
Apple pie recipe. Apples: Peel enough to fill a pie crust, add lemon, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour then mix it all together with a large spoon. Buy a pillsbury ready made pie crust, mix everything up, put it in the pie crust, place another pie crust on top, bake at 400 degrees F until the crust is golden and the pie filling is bubbling, take out and cool a little before serving. I don’t measure my ingredients. I make it to my own taste. Don’t be afraid it’s easy.
warm apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream will be lovely...cheers
This song was made into a MOVIE in either the later 70s or early 80s. The actor Robby Benson played BILLY JOE.
A few odds and ends:
Gentry is pronounced "Jentry" as in gentle, gentlmen, gentry and so on.
I was living in England at the time she sang Burt Bacharach's "Raindrops keep fallin on my head" on Top of the Pops in 1970. You got the feeling she was sick of singing what she was told to sing, and that this was one of those.
She has several great songs on her last album Patchwork, which I believe was entirely her own work, including producing. I have her up there with Paul McCartney as a songwriter, and I don't say that lightly. Check out Beverly, Miss Clara and Mean Stepmama Blues.
Apple pie is American the way steak and kidney pie is English.
The Flag, the Bible, and Apple Pie are all Symbols & icons that define America.
A famous expression over here is,
“That as American as apple pie.”
Classic “ Southern Gothic” storytelling right here. The Flannery O’Connor of songwriting!
She's got a great voice, nice song!
GENTRY - as in 'gentrified' (J sound) - you know, The Gentry, Gentlemen! "As American as Apple Pie" is more than just an expression. My mother made several different apple pies; Deep Dish Apple Pie, Mile High Apple Pie, Apple Pan Dowdie, etc. --> I recommend watching the film - it fills in the blanks and was produced and directed by Max Baer, Jr.
There was a saying a few years back: "As American as apple pie."
I'm an American & a Southerner & a bit unusual in that I don't like Apple Pie. It is, indeed, very popular. So are other fruit pies like Cherry Pie etc. I much prefer cream pies (also popular) like Coconut Cream Pie, Chocolate Pie, Banana Cream Pie.
Most traditional Southern cooks have a scrumptious recipe for Coconut Cream Pie & it's usually to die for. Banana Pudding too. So yummy!
It's funny..even though I don't much like fruit pies I do make a mean Peach Cobbler. People always ask for seconds. Fixing & serving it for friends & family really brings out the Southern Belle in me.
💙🤗🌿
Love this one!
Was it suicide, or was Billy Joe murdered? First he jumped off the Bridge, and now the story has changed to Two people (one that looked like her) throwing something off the Bridge. I'm 67 yrs. old, and remember in 1968 when this came out, (12 yrs. Old) that everyone was talking about this song. It was played on both soft rock AM radio, and Country Western AM Radio. It was such a huge hit song.
Thanks Fellas