It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day...boy, this mysterious song just drips pure Mississippi. Bobbie Gentry, born Roberta Lee Streeter, came from Woodland, Miss. in the Delta but upon her mom's divorce they moved to Arcadia in Southern California. Bob Hope encouraged a teenage Bobbie to get into show biz. This was meant as a B-side, and the unreleased demo runs over seven minutes. The idea of a family sitting around the supper table and matter-of-factly discussing a suicide is SO very Southern. "Ol' Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please." A cottage industry sprung up around the untimely demise of Billie Joe. The wooden bridge over the Tallahatchie River was burned by vandals and collapsed in 1972. These days Bobbie is basically a recluse, living in a gated community near Memphis, and she will NOT discuss the meaning of this song. Video is from the Smothers Brothers show.
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