“Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry

“Ode to Billie Joe,” written and performed by Bobbie Gentry, was released in 1967. It received several Grammy nominations, and quickly rose to the top of the charts.

The song is soulful and emotionally complex. The narrator, a young woman who spent her morning chopping cotton, comes into the house for dinner. As she serves up the food, the narrator’s mother casually announces that she “got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge. Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”

Each family member reacts differently to the news. The narrator’s father says that Billie Joe never had “a lick of sense” and asks his wife to pass him a biscuit. The narrator’s brother remembers how he and Billie Joe used to tease the narrator. The mother says it’s a shame that it happened. The narrator doesn’t reveal her feelings, but she says she lost her appetite for lunch and was reprimanded by her mother.

A mystery is also dropped into the song when the mother said the preacher had dropped by:

“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 Billie Joe was throwin’ somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”

Credit: mindful balance.org

The song never reveals whether Billie Joe was with the narrator or someone that resembled her, nor does it reveal what they threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge. No reason is offered for Billie Joe’s suicide. In interviews, Bobbie Gentry said she knew what was thrown over the bridge – though she refused to make the information public – but she does not know why Billie Joe killed himself.

This is often the case when people complete suicide. Even those closest to them don’t know why, though they may have a piece of the puzzle. Since suicide is frequently a taboo subject, survivors rarely get together to support each other or share information that might help the death make more sense.

For instance, the end of the song finds the narrator’s mother grieving the death of her husband and the narrator is still grieving the death of Billie Joe. They don’t seem able to comfort each other in any way.

“And now Mama doesn’t seem to 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.”