Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe

Description

July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide. So much for the Summer of Love. "Ode to Billie Joe" knocked the Beatles' "All You Need is Love" off the top of the charts, and Bobbie Gentry became an international star. Almost 50 years later, Gentry is as enigmatic and captivating as her signature song. Of course, fans still want to know why Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. They also wonder: Why did Bobbie Gentry, who has not performed or made a public appearance since the early 1980s, leave it all behind? Through extensive interviews and unprecedented access to career memorabilia, Murtha explores the real-life mysteries ensnarled within the much-disputed origin of Ode to Billie Joe. The result is an investigative pop history that reveals, for the first time, the full breadth of Bobbie Gentry's groundbreaking career-and just may help explain her long silence. Foreword by musician Jill Sobule.

Tara Murtha is a journalist based in Philadelphia, USA.

Tara Murtha examines that song and the rest of Bobbi Gentry's career in Ode To Billie Joe, the latest release in the 33 1/3 series of books. It is a wonderfully compelling book and the best I've read in the series since "Television: Marquee Moon." Perhaps it's her background as a reporter, but Murtha does not go down the pedantic path that many of the books in this series seem to do lately. Instead, the author presents a fascinating study of Gentry and her career-defining debut. That's right; "Ode to Billie Joe" was her debut recording. Wow. -- Steve J * AllMusicBooks * Murtha pulls free the threads of truth from a tangled knot of personal mythology and contradictions. Her book is likely to be a hit with casual listeners and pop-culture obsessives alike. -- Katie Haegele * Utne Reader * Philadelphia journalist Tara Murtha has dug deep into the story behind Gentry's song with the latest entry in the '33 1/3' book series devoted to various pop albums of significance... Murtha charts Gentry's challenges as a musician who in her teens was most interested in selling her songs to other singers, not recording them herself. But once she did get into the position of recording, she was up against a male-dominated record industry that offered little validation to a young woman with her own ideas about performance and production. -- Randy Lewis * L.A. Times * While Murtha's exploration of the Gentry myth is fascinating, the writer also takes pains to ensure that the myth - as well as Gentry's sexual aura - will not eclipse her real achievement [...] Murtha's gem of a book is, above all, a testament to the enduring complexity of Bobbie Gentry. -- Helen W. Mallon * Philly.com * Murtha's book conveys a Bobbie Gentry who knew what she wanted and then went about to get it. For the past 30 years, Bobbie Gentry has wanted to be left alone. The closest Murtha gets to Gentry is when she tries on an old fur coat of hers that ended up in the closet of her step-brother in Oregon, who only met Gentry once. This isn't nearly enough for Murtha ... Tara Murtha's accessible and engaging book is a welcome addition to the 33 1/3 Series. I believe her Ode to Bobbie Gentry will succeed in attaining renewed attention and interest in her music. -- Aaron Goldstein * The American Spectator * In Ode To Billie Joe, a new contribution to Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series, journalist Tara Murtha puts Gentry's feminism and efforts to control her own image at the center of the work, which re-introduces the world to Bobbie Gentry ... Today, it is unclear where she lives and remains in touch with only a few friends from her days in show business - leaving many questions unanswered. Ode To Billie Joe is a 'looking glass that cuts both ways,' Murtha writes. 'The wild commercial success of 'Ode' transformed Gentry from an unknown working musician to an international star. But it also ... ultimately served to obscure a larger, richer body of work - and caged the artist into a persona she spent the rest of her career trying to transcend.' -- Audrey White * The Quietus * Excerpted and Interviewed * Wondering Sound * Q&A: With Tara Murtha, Bobbie Gentry Expert * PHAWKER * Who was Billie Joe McAllister and why did he die? ... There's another riddle to be solved: that of Gentry herself ... The American journalist Tara Murtha, in her recently published book Ode to Billie Joe (Bloomsbury), attempts to solve these mysteries. Her book, then, is a reporter's quest that takes her across America to find people who knew Gentry and are willing to talk ... She finds plenty of them. -- Karl Whitney * Irish Times *