Music: Ode to Billie Joe / What was Thrown Off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

Each generation has its own name and description:

Lost Generation (1883–1900)

Greatest Generation (1901–1924)

Silent Generation (1925–1942)

Baby Boomers (1943–1960)

Generation X (1961–1981)

Generation Y (1982–2001)

Generation Z (2001–)

For us Baby Boomers (who are now getting a bit long in the tooth), as for Generations X, Y Z etc, a song can transport you back to a particular time in history or a time in your life. So it is that lately I have had Ode to Billie Joe going round in my head after I came across it on You Tube whilst looking up something else.

So set the Wayback Machine to 1967 Sherman, visit

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/bobbie_gentry/ode_to_billie_joe.html

and have a listen to Bobbie Gentry from Chickasaw County, Mississippi sing that Worldwide No 1, Ode to Billie Joe. Then let's consider what actually was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

The lyrics (also on the above web page) are as follows:

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay

And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And Mama hollered out the back door "Y'all remember to wipe your feet"

And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"

"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas

"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"

"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"

And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe

Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show

And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?

"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"

"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"

"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"

"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"

"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"

"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"

"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe

And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring

And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything

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

The question, now as back in 1967, is: what did they throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? (Btw there was a Tallahatchie Bridge until destroyed in a flood in 1972).

Bobbie Gentry herself has said that she did not have anything in mind as being thrown off the bridge when she wrote the song and that her intention was not to focus on the suicide but on the matter of fact way the family was discussing it at the dinner table, unaware that Billie Joe (I was going to use his initials but thought better of it after I typed them) may have been the narrator’s boyfriend.

That is not the end of it, however. Many songwriters have declined to explain lyrics, if only to keep the mystery and interest alive. Don McLean has famously refused to explain the lyrics to American Pie. We can’t therefore rely on Bobbie Gentry and must look at the source document, the lyrics themselves.

The following comes from various internet sites and sources but primarily

http://www.filibustercartoons.com/billyjoe.htm

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1623

http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=148823

It was the third of June,

another sleepy, dusty Delta day.

This is the Delta region in northern Mississippi. There really is a Choctaw Ridge in Carroll County. It is therefore set in the South.

I was out choppin' cotton

This is consistent with it being in the South. This chore, picking cotton, has traditionally been associated with Southern blacks, leading some to conjecture that perhaps Billie Joe was black and that the speaker is either white or black. However, it is unlikely that the speaker would be white if Billie Joe was black because in that period the races would not have mixed to the degree in the lyrics, nor would he have put a frog down her back. The food being eaten and the mother’s use of the word “Child” are suggested as supporting that the speaker is black.

and my brother was balin' hay.

The kids are working the farm.

And at dinner time we stopped,

and we walked back to the house to eat.

And mama hollered at the back door

"y'all remember to wipe your feet."

And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,

"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense,

Dad doesn’t seem too fond of Billie Joe, possibly because the speaker may be too friendly with him and because he comes from a less desirable area.

pass the biscuits, please."

This jump from talking about Billie Joe’s death to asking for the biscuits to be passed reinforces the central theme of indifference to death, lack of closeness, lack of caring for those around us. Billie Joe’s death is a topic for conversation at the dinner table, they don’t even see the speaker’s sadness at the news. Bobbie Gentry: "The message of the song revolves around the nonchalant way the family talks about the suicide. The song is a study in unconscious cruelty."

"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow."

Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,

It would appear that Choctaw Ridge is the “wrong side of the tracks”. Even Mama seems to think so and she is the more sympathetic. The news of his death also came from here.

And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe

Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.

The indication is that the speaker’s brother was a friend of Billie Joe’s, at least at one time.

And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?

"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right.

I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,

And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?

I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite.

Some state that loss of appetite is a common feature after giving birth or being depressed.

That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today,

Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday.

Brother Taylor has mama’s approval, unlike Billie Joe from Choctaw Ridge. The impression is that Billie Joe wasn’t that highly regard by Papa and to a lesser extent Mama, and that maybe Brother Taylor, who’ coming to dinner on Sunday, would be more suitable.

Oh, by the way,

He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

So what was thrown from the Tallahatchie Bridge?

- The 1975 movie made it up and said that it was the speaker’s rag doll, with Billie Joe killing himself when he found out he was gay after making love to another guy. Scrub that, there is nothing in the song to support it.

- An alternative version is that Billie Joe and the speaker were boyfriend and girlfriend, in secret, but that there was pressure on her from the family not to have anything to do with Billie Joe, perhaps the nice young preacher was more appropriate. Unfortunately, she is pregnant with Billie Joe’s child, a no no in that period and even more so if the relationship was a mixed race one. She and Billie Joe procure an abortion or it is born and they throw it off the bridge (the lyrics say they threw something off the bridge together). Billie Joe, either racked by guilt or distraught because the speaker has sought to end their relationship, then jumps from the bridge. (The Sinead O’Connor version actually has a baby's cry at the point that something is thrown off the bridge).

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe.

Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.

Life goes on. Brother gets married and leaves, leaving mama to her own grieving

There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died last spring,

Papa’s death doesn’t get mentioned until after her brother got married. This indifference to death mentioned earlier also seems to be part of the speaker’s psyche.

And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything.

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.

And the river just keeps flowing.