365 Days of Song Recommendations: Oct 14

Ode to Billie Joe—Bobbie Gentry

I’m grateful to “Ode to Billie Joe” and Bobbie Gentry for a great many things, and over the years, I’ve had many causes to celebrate this legendary song. But today is a special day. October 14 is the day that “Ode to Billie Joe” knocked Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band off the top of the charts. That’s a beautiful thing.

Comparing the two is actually oddly instructive, albeit in a really remedial way. For example, “Ode to Billie Joe” is one of the greatest songs every written. And “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “Getting Better,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” and “Lovely Rita” are some of the worst songs ever written. So there you go.

Ok, ok, in all seriousness, there are insightful comparisons to be made. Consider “Ode to Billie Joe” vis a vis “A Day in the Life.” They’re both ostensibly about and/or inspired by the death of a young person, and they’re both presented as first-person narratives, yet whereas Gentry’s song is both an enactment of empathy and an indictment of those who lack it, “A Day in the Life” is superficial, snarky, and shot entirely from a distance.

Consider the level and type of observational detail. Gentry’s lyric is rich with small and revealing details—as but one simple example, she cites the actual date—whereas the Beatles…