![Legendary Mississippi Musician: Bobbie Gentry – Magnolia Tribune Legendary Mississippi Musician: Bobbie Gentry – Magnolia Tribune](https://i0.wp.com/magnoliatribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/photo6jpg.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
- Just as we may never know why Billie Joe jumped off the bridge, the mystery of Bobbie Gentry is equally disturbing.
While it’s not June 3, it’s still another “sleepy, dusty Delta day” in Leflore County, and people are still wondering about Billie Joe McAllister and the Tallahatchie Bridge.
The haunting lyrics of “Ode to Billie Joe” were made popular by singer Bobbie Gentry in the summer of 1967. Gentry’s sultry voice and haunting guitar strings and melody were combined with the story of a teenage suicide told during dinner (pass me the cookies). , please) crept into the psyche of the American public. When it was released on July 10, the song caused a sensation. By the end of the summer, it was the number one song, and the album of the same name unseated the Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from its 15-week reign at number one.
The genre-bending song, released on Capitol Records, received airplay on pop, country and R&B stations, and Bobbie Gentry made appearances on several television shows, including Ed Sullivan, The Carol Burnett Show, The Smothers Brothers and The Perry Como Show. .
Born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1942, Gentry grew up near Woodland, a community in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Her mother, Ruby Lee, moved to California shortly after her birth, leaving Gentry to care for her father’s parents on a farm. She lived in Greenwood with her father, Robert Harrison Streeter, for some years. While she was there, she learned to play the banjo and guitar.
Gentry moved to Palm Springs, California when he was 13 years old. Her mother had remarried, and for a short time, Gentry sang with her mother as a duo, Ruby and Bobbie Meyers. She changed her stage name to Bobbie Gentry after watching the 1952 film Ruby Gentry about a poor but beautiful backwoods girl who married the town tycoon.
Gentry married casino owner William Harrah in 1969 and, despite her $150,000 pear-shaped diamond ring, the marriage ended after just four months.
Career
Gentry attended college at UCLA in Los Angeles, where he studied philosophy. He worked part-time in administrative jobs and as a model, and occasionally performed in nightclubs and country clubs. When she appeared at the Las Vegas nightclub Les Folies Bergères, Bob Hope encouraged her to continue performing.
He transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and took classes in composition, music theory, and arranging. Her true ambition was to write songs to sell to other artists. She recorded the demo of her song, “Ode to Billie Joe” at Whitney Recording Studio in Glendale, California, rather than hiring someone else to sing it because it was cheaper to sing it herself.
She took the song to Capitol Records along with a song she wrote called “Mississippi Delta.” A string arrangement by Jimmie Haskell was overdubbed on the original Capitol recording, and the record company’s A&R team decided to make “Ode to Billie Joe” on the A-side. The single sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide and “Ode to Billie Joe” was included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest of all time.
Capitol producers assembled the rest of the album from the twelve demos Gentry recorded. The album had elements of blues, folk and jazz, all featuring Gentry’s memories of his home in Mississippi. Gentry, who just months before was unknown, won three GRAMMY Awards in 1967 and was named most promising female vocalist by the Academy of Country Music.
The following year, Gentry recorded another single and three albums. A far cry from “Ode to Billie Joe,” Gentry participated in the Sanremo Italian Song Festival competition. She was one of two performers who sang “La Siepe” by Vito Pallavicini. Capitol released the song as a single in February 1968. The B-side included another Italian song recorded by Gentry, “La Citta’ e’ Grande.”
Their second album was a concept album in which Gentry played almost all the instruments on every track. He played piano, guitar, bass, banjo and vibes. The Delta Sweete, released in February 1968, was inspired by Gentry’s Mississippi Delta roots and was called one of the unacclaimed masterpieces of the 1960s by critics.
A third album, Local Gentry, was released in August of the same year to little acclaim. Her fourth and final album was released the following month. Bobby Gentry and Glen Campbell perform duets with Campbell. The duo had great chemistry and the album was a huge success. The album went gold, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Top Albums chart and number one on the Top Country Album chart. Gentry was nominated for Best Female Vocalist.
Gentry recorded three more albums with Capitol, Touch ’em with Love (1969), Fancy (1970), and Patchwork (1971). A restructuring at Capitol resulted in Gentry’s removal from the label.
But she was still writing and acting. She wrote “Another Place, Another Time” for Max Baer Jr.’s 1975 film Macon County Line. The song was released as a promotional single. Baer directed the feature film Ode to Billy Joe, based on Gentry’s hit original song, in 1976. The film starred Glynnis O’Connor and Robby Benson. A new version of the single was released, with a spelling that matched the film’s title (Billy vs. Billie), and once again hit the record charts.
out of focus
Bobbie Gentry’s star rose quickly and seemed to fall as quickly as it rose. In the late 1970s, his public appearances became less frequent and recordings of him ceased completely.
She appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in December 1978 and attended the Best of Vegas Awards in March 1980. Her final performance was as one of many celebrity guests on a television special, An All-Star Salute to Mother’s. May Day, 1981, where she performed “Mama, a Rainbow” from the musical Minnie’s Boys.
His last public appearance was when he attended the Academy of Country Music Awards in April 1982.
For 42 years, Bobbie Gentry has managed to stay out of the spotlight or any light. She has not made public appearances or given interviews. In 2016, a Washington Post journalist thought he had solved the mystery of where Bobbie Gentry lives. He claimed she lived in an 8,000-square-foot home in a gated community just a two-hour drive from the Tallahatchie Bridge in Memphis. A couple of years later, a journalist from The Tennessean claimed that she lived in Los Angeles.
Just as we may never know why Billie Joe jumped off the bridge, the mystery of Bobbie Gentry is equally disturbing.
His name is immortalized on a marker, part of the Mississippi Country Music Trail, at the base of the Tallahatchie Bridge (actually called the Ashwood Bridge) that crosses the Tallahatchie River in Leflore County, Mississippi.
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