Ode To Billie Joe – BOBBIE GENTRY***

Mississippi Delta/I Saw An Angel Die/Chickasaw County Child/Sunday Best/Niki Hoeky/Papa Woncha Let Me Go To Town With You/Bugs/Hurry Tuesday Child/Lazy Willie/Ode To Billie Joe

Mississippi country singer Bobbie Gentry enjoyed massive success with her atmospheric Ode To Billy Joe which topped the US singles chart and reached No. 13 in the UK. The accompanying debut album was also a US chart topper dethroning Sgt Pepper in the process. (US:1)

"There may not be much stylistic variety here but the songs are great, as is her voice. She's got a smoky, slightly rough sounding voice that really adds a lot to the atmosphere of the songs here.”

"A trip to the Deep South. Otherworldly. The title song is almost sinister. You can feel the heat and you can smell the magnolias when you listen to Bobbie Gentry. This is really what I think of as swamp rock. Rich is atmosphere and foreboding, soulful singing. Gentry was very active for a couple of years and then she vanished."

"Gentry's first album is an uncluttered, straight down the line collection of smoky voiced gems, mostly with the simplest guitar accompaniment. So few female artists wrote their own material and even fewer were able to pen a tune like Bobbie could."

"This album is interesting not only because it was her first, but also because it's so different from the others. It has a rushed feel to it - as if the massive success of the single Ode To Billie Joe caused the label to push Bobbie to write an album's worth of songs in a couple of weeks. If you've heard Ode you don't need to listen to Bugs, Lazy Willie and Chickasaw County Child, because the melody and guitar accompaniment are almost the same - only the words and tempo are different. These songs could easily have been eliminated. Besides the title track, the standout numbers are I Saw An Angel Die and Hurry Tuesday Child."

"Album built around brilliant single - OTBJ is still one of the most powerful and mysterious songs ever recorded, but the rest of the LP is basically variation on the same sound, repeated until the trick became painfully obvious. Niky Hoeky is great fun, but still, we heard it all before. Gentle, acoustic ballads like Sunday Best and I Saw An Angel Die hint at different direction in the future and thankfully, Gentry moved on very soon."