I realize I'm a couple of days late with this one. Ode to Billie Joe opens with Bobbie Gentry singing on June 3rd...
Was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinnertime 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 Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
That's a great song. It's definitely a top ten story song, and the mystery of the song is enhanced by the mystery of Bobbie Gentry who seemingly disappeared from public in the early 80s. Bobbie, if you're reading this, I'd love a chat. I have questions!
Thinking about Ode to Billie Joe got me thinking of other Ode songs I've dug over the years. I still love the Cranberries song Ode to My Family from No Need to Argue.
My youngest two kids are really into A Mindcraft Movie which features a song from Jack Black called Ode to Dennis.
And then there are Ode jams by Erykah Badu, The Strokes, Twenty One Pilots and the Raveonettes. Weird Al even has a song called Ode to A Superhero about Spiderman.
But the granddaddy of them all, the one that inspired the rest, belongs to a guy named Ludwig van Beethoven and dates all the way back to 1824. Here's a version by The Muppets.
