Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry

[pinto]

[LakeVermilion]

1. Name the other popular song

that names June third as a significant marker in time.

[Politicalboi]

2. Desiree Neil Diamond

That date has stuck in my head for years. 06/03/1977 getting my drivers license and Rocky!

[Laxman]

3. Its This Crummy Song....

I hope you're not a Neil Diamond fan. This was was just such an annoying song on the radio when I was a freshmen in college. I hated it but the stupid lyrics (It was the third of June.....) are burned into my memory.

[byronius]

4. Beautiful, sad song. What a voice.

[49jim]

5. This song was playing on

WABC in NY (my AM car radio) as I commuted to Suffolk Community College as a Freshman in September 1967.

[John1956PA]

6. Here is a link to a relatively long and interesting 2006 DU thread about this song.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5880696&mesg_id=5881921

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I'm glad to see everyone else is as perplexed as I am

about that song. It somehow really hooked me 'way back when, and I always wondered what they threw off the bridge.

The link was fascinating.

[BodieTown]

7. Somebody I know talked with her at a party...

...and she was asked the inevitable question, what does the song mean?

"Absolutely nothing." It was just a song, a story, and nothing more to it.

It's always been a favorite of mine.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. Movie scene

clip from the movie 'Ode To Billy Joe' with Robbie Benson

and how they marketed it based on the mystery of the song's lyrics

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. I love the jazz guitar cover of that tune by the late great Joe Pass

on the album Intercontinental.

[seabeyond]

11. love the song. talking to son about the movie all those yrs ago, ....

allowed an interesting conversation and had to play him the song.

thumbs up

[groundloop]

12. Billy Joe ARMSTRONG?

[butterfly77]

13. My grandmother used to love this song...

I was a kid but I would always sing the part about the Tallahasse bridge.

[Plucketeer]

14. A trip back in time

I remember workin' late into the morning when this song was a hit.

[zeemike]

15. That song was too melancholy for me.

After listening to it I wanted to jump off the Tallahatchie bridge.

[pinto]

16. Besides being a really well done piece, it was a discussion opener for a lot of us back when.

Stuff not generally talked about. For some reason it stands out for me. The times they were a changing as Dylan showed up later to note.