Chords for Why Bobbie Gentry Vanished - 'Ode To Billie Joe' Singer's Secret History
Tempo:
117 bpm
Chords used:
C
A
D
Am
G
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[D] [G]
Have you ever thought about rekindling an old romance but the guy-girl you're thinking
about was kinda lukewarm to the whole idea so you just said, nah screw it.
That's pretty much what happened professionally with Bobby Gentry and her old producer Jimmy
Haskell in the early 90s, and it's pretty much why no one [A] knows what one of music's
most influential vocalists is up to today.
Thanks Jim.
Oh thanks for nothing then.
Actually he died a few [E] years ago so rest in peace dude but if he'd just [A] shown a little
bit more enthusiasm [C] for your girl, this 4 decade old [N] mystery would be put to bed.
Alas.
This secret history of country music has answers about why the Ode to Billy Joe singer quit
suddenly in the early 80s, where she's been hiding, and where her music lives on today.
Thumbs up this video if you think Bobby is super underrated and let us know why in the
comments section below.
It's true, Gentry had one major hit but to describe her as a one hit wonder would be disrespectful.
So rude.
Gonna skip her early life biography because stories at the Guardian and Washington Post
do a much better job of it, but long story short, she wrote, reluctantly [E] recorded, and
definitely produced Ode to Billy Joel, a [Dm] huge number one hit in 1967 that knocked the Beatles
off the top of the pop charts on its way to millions of singles sold.
I could play some of the song for you, but publishing companies seem not to [C] understand
fair use, [G] so I'll just let you soak in [A] some of the best lines of this 5 verse southern
gothic tale of Billy Joe's suicide on the Tallahatchie Bridge over [C] a [Am] bossa nova beat.
[N]
A rhythmic strum not unlike that is found on nearly every song of Gentry's debut album,
so even if lyrically and vocally the songs were dynamic, the mainstream audience can
be forgiven for getting a little bit sleepy.
Artists didn't.
Singers and songwriters didn't.
A country website called Highway Queens has a list of songs inspired by the Grammy winning
Ode to Billy Joe, including Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker and Harbor Valley PTA.
Cheryl Crow, KD Lang, Reba, Emmylou Harris, and so so so many more call Gentry an influence.
Kacey Musgraves?
Definitely.
Miranda?
Sure.
Taylor Swift's 2012 song The Lucky One is said to be written about her or Joni Mitchell,
which is quite a thing because Bobby Gentry disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa in 1982, except
she's still alive and we know where she's hiding.
To understand why, you have to understand her motivations to begin with.
As a radio artist, she did so so and was a country one hit wonder before she started
working with Glen Campbell [B] and [D] together they notched a couple of top 20s, but Gentry [Am] enjoyed
much more success as a pop artist, which the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast argues convincingly
is where [C] she belongs.
She was also [G] kind of in it [A] for them dollar bills.
Gentry [E] grew up poor, watched her mama marry up, [Am] and liked it.
In the early days, she said to me, Jimmy, I'm gonna be rich.
Eskel told [E] Medium, Gentry told em.
[A] Songwriting, producing, recording, performing.
She did it all and took it all to Las Vegas where she starred in a successful review for a decade.
A movie based on her biggest song?
Yeah, I'll do that and cash them checks too.
Here's the most Bobby [C] Gentry thing she did.
[E] In the late 60s, [A] she took 50 grand and invested in the [C] NBA's Phoenix [E] Suns.
No [A] idea how much the team was worth when she got out in the late [Am] 80s, but it was worth
[A] over 270 million dollars 15 years after [C] that, [Am] so it's likely she turned 50 grand into millions.
Get it, girl.
I'd count over two dozen greatest hits albums or compilation albums, but she only [Em] cut seven
[A] studio albums, albeit [C] over four busy years.
The last of Gentry's albums was Patchwork in 1971, and that album ended with a song
called Looking In, [D] which can only be described as a Dear John letter to the [C] music biz.
[D] Cocaine and Rhinestones has [C] even more about how she kinda told us what she had planned
a decade before she did it.
Wait [G] a second, do you think because she was a woman in the music business, nobody [N] took her seriously?
Yeah, there's a lot to that, and we don't really have time for it.
Gentry [C] would do the Vegas thing [G] for a long time, [Ab] married Jim Stafford in the late 70s,
and they had a kid, although the marriage [G] wouldn't last.
Her last Vegas show was in 1980, she did a [Am] TV thing the next [D] year, attended [C] the ACM Awards
the [D] year after that, and when she canceled the show [G] with Mac Davis in 1983, [Am] she exited
through fame's trap door.
Before we [Bm] get to where she is, a word on why [G] she stopped doing media.
It's likely [Am] that like so many artists, she just [D] didn't [Am] enjoy talking to the press.
It's also likely that the press pissed her off.
Some pegged her first marriage to casino magnate Bill Hera as a money grab, even though she
was doing pretty fine by the time, and reportedly divorced with no alimony.
Then, Star Magazine [C] said she was having [D] Elvis' baby, [Am] yeah that cost them like $2 million.
[E] So in [D] 2016, when a [A] reporter with the Washington Post found her living in [C] a mansion near [G] Memphis,
and dialed her [A] phone number, Gentry said, uh, [C] there's no [E] one here by that name, and hung [A] up.
Realtors confirmed that it was her [C] house, however, so [A] there she sits, just two hours
away from the Tallahatchie [C] Bridge that started their [G] career.
One [B] last note.
Remember that comeback story?
In the 90s, her producer Haskell recalled her saying she was looking to make music again.
He said he didn't have time and recommended [A] someone.
She never called that person [F] and never talked to Haskell [D] again.
Dude.
By the way, [C] Medium has a pic of her from the year 2000, where [D] she is seen as [A] stately and
thin, blonde hair, [Am] and a great smile.
[E] Quite a beauty, in fact.
Her FaceApp recreation of her was not as generous.
Have you ever thought about rekindling an old romance but the guy-girl you're thinking
about was kinda lukewarm to the whole idea so you just said, nah screw it.
That's pretty much what happened professionally with Bobby Gentry and her old producer Jimmy
Haskell in the early 90s, and it's pretty much why no one [A] knows what one of music's
most influential vocalists is up to today.
Thanks Jim.
Oh thanks for nothing then.
Actually he died a few [E] years ago so rest in peace dude but if he'd just [A] shown a little
bit more enthusiasm [C] for your girl, this 4 decade old [N] mystery would be put to bed.
Alas.
This secret history of country music has answers about why the Ode to Billy Joe singer quit
suddenly in the early 80s, where she's been hiding, and where her music lives on today.
Thumbs up this video if you think Bobby is super underrated and let us know why in the
comments section below.
It's true, Gentry had one major hit but to describe her as a one hit wonder would be disrespectful.
So rude.
Gonna skip her early life biography because stories at the Guardian and Washington Post
do a much better job of it, but long story short, she wrote, reluctantly [E] recorded, and
definitely produced Ode to Billy Joel, a [Dm] huge number one hit in 1967 that knocked the Beatles
off the top of the pop charts on its way to millions of singles sold.
I could play some of the song for you, but publishing companies seem not to [C] understand
fair use, [G] so I'll just let you soak in [A] some of the best lines of this 5 verse southern
gothic tale of Billy Joe's suicide on the Tallahatchie Bridge over [C] a [Am] bossa nova beat.
[N]
A rhythmic strum not unlike that is found on nearly every song of Gentry's debut album,
so even if lyrically and vocally the songs were dynamic, the mainstream audience can
be forgiven for getting a little bit sleepy.
Artists didn't.
Singers and songwriters didn't.
A country website called Highway Queens has a list of songs inspired by the Grammy winning
Ode to Billy Joe, including Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker and Harbor Valley PTA.
Cheryl Crow, KD Lang, Reba, Emmylou Harris, and so so so many more call Gentry an influence.
Kacey Musgraves?
Definitely.
Miranda?
Sure.
Taylor Swift's 2012 song The Lucky One is said to be written about her or Joni Mitchell,
which is quite a thing because Bobby Gentry disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa in 1982, except
she's still alive and we know where she's hiding.
To understand why, you have to understand her motivations to begin with.
As a radio artist, she did so so and was a country one hit wonder before she started
working with Glen Campbell [B] and [D] together they notched a couple of top 20s, but Gentry [Am] enjoyed
much more success as a pop artist, which the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast argues convincingly
is where [C] she belongs.
She was also [G] kind of in it [A] for them dollar bills.
Gentry [E] grew up poor, watched her mama marry up, [Am] and liked it.
In the early days, she said to me, Jimmy, I'm gonna be rich.
Eskel told [E] Medium, Gentry told em.
[A] Songwriting, producing, recording, performing.
She did it all and took it all to Las Vegas where she starred in a successful review for a decade.
A movie based on her biggest song?
Yeah, I'll do that and cash them checks too.
Here's the most Bobby [C] Gentry thing she did.
[E] In the late 60s, [A] she took 50 grand and invested in the [C] NBA's Phoenix [E] Suns.
No [A] idea how much the team was worth when she got out in the late [Am] 80s, but it was worth
[A] over 270 million dollars 15 years after [C] that, [Am] so it's likely she turned 50 grand into millions.
Get it, girl.
I'd count over two dozen greatest hits albums or compilation albums, but she only [Em] cut seven
[A] studio albums, albeit [C] over four busy years.
The last of Gentry's albums was Patchwork in 1971, and that album ended with a song
called Looking In, [D] which can only be described as a Dear John letter to the [C] music biz.
[D] Cocaine and Rhinestones has [C] even more about how she kinda told us what she had planned
a decade before she did it.
Wait [G] a second, do you think because she was a woman in the music business, nobody [N] took her seriously?
Yeah, there's a lot to that, and we don't really have time for it.
Gentry [C] would do the Vegas thing [G] for a long time, [Ab] married Jim Stafford in the late 70s,
and they had a kid, although the marriage [G] wouldn't last.
Her last Vegas show was in 1980, she did a [Am] TV thing the next [D] year, attended [C] the ACM Awards
the [D] year after that, and when she canceled the show [G] with Mac Davis in 1983, [Am] she exited
through fame's trap door.
Before we [Bm] get to where she is, a word on why [G] she stopped doing media.
It's likely [Am] that like so many artists, she just [D] didn't [Am] enjoy talking to the press.
It's also likely that the press pissed her off.
Some pegged her first marriage to casino magnate Bill Hera as a money grab, even though she
was doing pretty fine by the time, and reportedly divorced with no alimony.
Then, Star Magazine [C] said she was having [D] Elvis' baby, [Am] yeah that cost them like $2 million.
[E] So in [D] 2016, when a [A] reporter with the Washington Post found her living in [C] a mansion near [G] Memphis,
and dialed her [A] phone number, Gentry said, uh, [C] there's no [E] one here by that name, and hung [A] up.
Realtors confirmed that it was her [C] house, however, so [A] there she sits, just two hours
away from the Tallahatchie [C] Bridge that started their [G] career.
One [B] last note.
Remember that comeback story?
In the 90s, her producer Haskell recalled her saying she was looking to make music again.
He said he didn't have time and recommended [A] someone.
She never called that person [F] and never talked to Haskell [D] again.
Dude.
By the way, [C] Medium has a pic of her from the year 2000, where [D] she is seen as [A] stately and
thin, blonde hair, [Am] and a great smile.
[E] Quite a beauty, in fact.
Her FaceApp recreation of her was not as generous.
Key:
C
A
D
Am
G
C
A
D
[D] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ Have you ever thought about rekindling an old romance but the guy-girl you're thinking
about was kinda lukewarm to the whole idea so you just said, nah screw it.
That's pretty much what happened professionally with Bobby Gentry and her old producer Jimmy
Haskell in the early 90s, and it's pretty much why no one [A] knows what one of music's
most influential vocalists is up to today.
Thanks Jim.
Oh thanks for nothing then.
Actually he died a few [E] years ago so rest in peace dude but if he'd just [A] shown a little
bit more enthusiasm [C] for your girl, this 4 decade old [N] mystery would be put to bed. _
_ Alas.
This secret history of country music has answers about why the Ode to Billy Joe singer quit
suddenly in the early 80s, where she's been hiding, and where her music lives on today.
Thumbs up this video if you think Bobby is super underrated and let us know why in the
comments section below.
It's true, Gentry had one major hit but to describe her as a one hit wonder would be disrespectful.
So rude.
Gonna skip her early life biography because stories at the Guardian and Washington Post
do a much better job of it, but long story short, she wrote, reluctantly [E] recorded, and
definitely produced Ode to Billy Joel, a [Dm] huge number one hit in 1967 that knocked the Beatles
off the top of the pop charts on its way to millions of singles sold.
I could play some of the song for you, but publishing companies seem not to [C] understand
fair use, [G] so I'll just let you soak in [A] some of the best lines of this 5 verse southern
gothic tale of Billy Joe's suicide on the Tallahatchie Bridge over [C] a [Am] bossa nova beat.
_ _ _ _ _ [N]
A rhythmic strum not unlike that is found on nearly every song of Gentry's debut album,
so even if lyrically and vocally the songs were dynamic, the mainstream audience can
be forgiven for getting a little bit sleepy.
Artists didn't.
Singers and songwriters didn't.
A country website called Highway Queens has a list of songs inspired by the Grammy winning
Ode to Billy Joe, including Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker and Harbor Valley PTA.
Cheryl Crow, KD Lang, Reba, Emmylou Harris, and so so so many more call Gentry an influence.
Kacey Musgraves?
Definitely.
Miranda?
Sure.
Taylor Swift's 2012 song The Lucky One is said to be written about her or Joni Mitchell,
which is quite a thing because Bobby Gentry disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa in 1982, except
she's still alive and we know where she's hiding.
To understand why, you have to understand her motivations to begin with.
As a radio artist, she did so so and was a country one hit wonder before she started
working with Glen Campbell [B] and [D] together they notched a couple of top 20s, but Gentry [Am] enjoyed
much more success as a pop artist, which the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast argues convincingly
is where [C] she belongs.
She was also [G] kind of in it [A] for them dollar bills.
Gentry [E] grew up poor, watched her mama marry up, [Am] and liked it.
In the early days, she said to me, Jimmy, I'm gonna be rich.
Eskel told [E] Medium, Gentry told em.
[A] Songwriting, producing, recording, performing.
She did it all and took it all to Las Vegas where she starred in a successful review for a decade.
A movie based on her biggest song?
Yeah, I'll do that and cash them checks too.
Here's the most Bobby [C] Gentry thing she did.
[E] In the late 60s, [A] she took 50 grand and invested in the [C] NBA's Phoenix [E] Suns.
No [A] idea how much the team was worth when she got out in the late [Am] 80s, but it was worth
[A] over 270 million dollars 15 years after [C] that, [Am] so it's likely she turned 50 grand into millions.
Get it, girl.
I'd count over two dozen greatest hits albums or compilation albums, but she only [Em] cut seven
[A] studio albums, albeit [C] over four busy years.
The last of Gentry's albums was Patchwork in 1971, and that album ended with a song
called Looking In, [D] which can only be described as a Dear John letter to the [C] music biz.
[D] Cocaine and Rhinestones has [C] even more about how she kinda told us what she had planned
a decade before she did it.
Wait [G] a second, do you think because she was a woman in the music business, nobody [N] took her seriously? _ _ _ _ _ _
Yeah, there's a lot to that, and we don't really have time for it.
Gentry [C] would do the Vegas thing [G] for a long time, [Ab] married Jim Stafford in the late 70s,
and they had a kid, although the marriage [G] wouldn't last.
Her last Vegas show was in 1980, she did a [Am] TV thing the next [D] year, attended [C] the ACM Awards
the [D] year after that, and when she canceled the show [G] with Mac Davis in 1983, [Am] she exited
through fame's trap door.
Before we [Bm] get to where she is, a word on why [G] she stopped doing media.
It's likely [Am] that like so many artists, she just [D] didn't [Am] enjoy talking to the press.
It's also likely that the press pissed her off.
Some pegged her first marriage to casino magnate Bill Hera as a money grab, even though she
was doing pretty fine by the time, and reportedly divorced with no alimony.
Then, Star Magazine [C] said she was having [D] Elvis' baby, [Am] yeah that cost them like $2 million.
[E] So in [D] 2016, when a [A] reporter with the Washington Post found her living in [C] a mansion near [G] Memphis,
and dialed her [A] phone number, Gentry said, uh, [C] there's no [E] one here by that name, and hung [A] up.
Realtors confirmed that it was her [C] house, however, so [A] there she sits, just two hours
away from the Tallahatchie [C] Bridge that started their [G] career.
One [B] last note.
Remember that comeback story?
In the 90s, her producer Haskell recalled her saying she was looking to make music again.
He said he didn't have time and recommended [A] someone.
She never called that person [F] and never talked to Haskell [D] again.
Dude.
By the way, [C] Medium has a pic of her from the year 2000, where [D] she is seen as [A] stately and
thin, blonde hair, [Am] and a great smile.
[E] Quite a beauty, in fact.
Her FaceApp recreation of her was not as generous. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Have you ever thought about rekindling an old romance but the guy-girl you're thinking
about was kinda lukewarm to the whole idea so you just said, nah screw it.
That's pretty much what happened professionally with Bobby Gentry and her old producer Jimmy
Haskell in the early 90s, and it's pretty much why no one [A] knows what one of music's
most influential vocalists is up to today.
Thanks Jim.
Oh thanks for nothing then.
Actually he died a few [E] years ago so rest in peace dude but if he'd just [A] shown a little
bit more enthusiasm [C] for your girl, this 4 decade old [N] mystery would be put to bed. _
_ Alas.
This secret history of country music has answers about why the Ode to Billy Joe singer quit
suddenly in the early 80s, where she's been hiding, and where her music lives on today.
Thumbs up this video if you think Bobby is super underrated and let us know why in the
comments section below.
It's true, Gentry had one major hit but to describe her as a one hit wonder would be disrespectful.
So rude.
Gonna skip her early life biography because stories at the Guardian and Washington Post
do a much better job of it, but long story short, she wrote, reluctantly [E] recorded, and
definitely produced Ode to Billy Joel, a [Dm] huge number one hit in 1967 that knocked the Beatles
off the top of the pop charts on its way to millions of singles sold.
I could play some of the song for you, but publishing companies seem not to [C] understand
fair use, [G] so I'll just let you soak in [A] some of the best lines of this 5 verse southern
gothic tale of Billy Joe's suicide on the Tallahatchie Bridge over [C] a [Am] bossa nova beat.
_ _ _ _ _ [N]
A rhythmic strum not unlike that is found on nearly every song of Gentry's debut album,
so even if lyrically and vocally the songs were dynamic, the mainstream audience can
be forgiven for getting a little bit sleepy.
Artists didn't.
Singers and songwriters didn't.
A country website called Highway Queens has a list of songs inspired by the Grammy winning
Ode to Billy Joe, including Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker and Harbor Valley PTA.
Cheryl Crow, KD Lang, Reba, Emmylou Harris, and so so so many more call Gentry an influence.
Kacey Musgraves?
Definitely.
Miranda?
Sure.
Taylor Swift's 2012 song The Lucky One is said to be written about her or Joni Mitchell,
which is quite a thing because Bobby Gentry disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa in 1982, except
she's still alive and we know where she's hiding.
To understand why, you have to understand her motivations to begin with.
As a radio artist, she did so so and was a country one hit wonder before she started
working with Glen Campbell [B] and [D] together they notched a couple of top 20s, but Gentry [Am] enjoyed
much more success as a pop artist, which the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast argues convincingly
is where [C] she belongs.
She was also [G] kind of in it [A] for them dollar bills.
Gentry [E] grew up poor, watched her mama marry up, [Am] and liked it.
In the early days, she said to me, Jimmy, I'm gonna be rich.
Eskel told [E] Medium, Gentry told em.
[A] Songwriting, producing, recording, performing.
She did it all and took it all to Las Vegas where she starred in a successful review for a decade.
A movie based on her biggest song?
Yeah, I'll do that and cash them checks too.
Here's the most Bobby [C] Gentry thing she did.
[E] In the late 60s, [A] she took 50 grand and invested in the [C] NBA's Phoenix [E] Suns.
No [A] idea how much the team was worth when she got out in the late [Am] 80s, but it was worth
[A] over 270 million dollars 15 years after [C] that, [Am] so it's likely she turned 50 grand into millions.
Get it, girl.
I'd count over two dozen greatest hits albums or compilation albums, but she only [Em] cut seven
[A] studio albums, albeit [C] over four busy years.
The last of Gentry's albums was Patchwork in 1971, and that album ended with a song
called Looking In, [D] which can only be described as a Dear John letter to the [C] music biz.
[D] Cocaine and Rhinestones has [C] even more about how she kinda told us what she had planned
a decade before she did it.
Wait [G] a second, do you think because she was a woman in the music business, nobody [N] took her seriously? _ _ _ _ _ _
Yeah, there's a lot to that, and we don't really have time for it.
Gentry [C] would do the Vegas thing [G] for a long time, [Ab] married Jim Stafford in the late 70s,
and they had a kid, although the marriage [G] wouldn't last.
Her last Vegas show was in 1980, she did a [Am] TV thing the next [D] year, attended [C] the ACM Awards
the [D] year after that, and when she canceled the show [G] with Mac Davis in 1983, [Am] she exited
through fame's trap door.
Before we [Bm] get to where she is, a word on why [G] she stopped doing media.
It's likely [Am] that like so many artists, she just [D] didn't [Am] enjoy talking to the press.
It's also likely that the press pissed her off.
Some pegged her first marriage to casino magnate Bill Hera as a money grab, even though she
was doing pretty fine by the time, and reportedly divorced with no alimony.
Then, Star Magazine [C] said she was having [D] Elvis' baby, [Am] yeah that cost them like $2 million.
[E] So in [D] 2016, when a [A] reporter with the Washington Post found her living in [C] a mansion near [G] Memphis,
and dialed her [A] phone number, Gentry said, uh, [C] there's no [E] one here by that name, and hung [A] up.
Realtors confirmed that it was her [C] house, however, so [A] there she sits, just two hours
away from the Tallahatchie [C] Bridge that started their [G] career.
One [B] last note.
Remember that comeback story?
In the 90s, her producer Haskell recalled her saying she was looking to make music again.
He said he didn't have time and recommended [A] someone.
She never called that person [F] and never talked to Haskell [D] again.
Dude.
By the way, [C] Medium has a pic of her from the year 2000, where [D] she is seen as [A] stately and
thin, blonde hair, [Am] and a great smile.
[E] Quite a beauty, in fact.
Her FaceApp recreation of her was not as generous. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _