Yes, darlings, 44 years ago, on that date, according to Miss Bobbie Gentry, Billy Joe McAllister did jump off the Tallahatchie Bridge. And the song still intrigues and mystifies to this day. And Miss Gentry still is not talking.
The key to the mystery are the lines, "He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge/And she and Billy Joe was throwin' something' offa Tallahatichie Bridge."
The girl in question is the first person narrator, whom Miss Gentry is portraying. This happened when she was a young girl. NOW, there are two versions, either of which you many choose to believe.
The 1976 version is interesting in light of present day circumstances. In the film, the key reason Billy Joe kills himself is an inability to accept or difficulty reconciling his sexuality. He does love Bobbie Lee (whose name has always made me question how autobiographically close this song was to Miss Gentry's experience) but he also had sexual relations with Dewey Barksdale (played by James Best), and this conflict is what caused him to take that plunge from the Tallahatchie.
Does this sound just a bit familiar, darlings?????? Maybe, to a certain young man of recent vintage named Tyler Clementi???? One thing it proves is this--back in 1976, when I saw the film, I could not believe Billy Joe would kill himself over homosexuality; eight years beyond Stonewall, I thought those days were gone. Well, here we are twenty five years past this film, and almost one year ago, a tormented young man took a plunge from a famous Metropolitan Area bridge. Not only does it go to show how wrong I was, it supports that classic adage, "Le plus ca change, le plus meme chose?"
Personally, I still maintain this was not the true reason for the suicide. A homosexual encounter does not support something being thrown from the bridge. What?
Bloodied underwear????? Used condoms???? I don't think so.
I still maintain that what they threw off of Tallahatchie Bridge was a baby.
How Bobbie Lee, still a teen, kept the pregnancy hidden could be a mystery, but then maybe she did not show much OR (and this is more likely) maybe she miscarried or aborted before she began to show. So the damaged fetus was put in a bag, and thrown off the bridge, with no one the wiser. One wonders, if the body is ever found and traced, would the couple be culpable for manslaughter charges. What is the baby was still born, legitimately? And how could that be proven?
Anyway, the guilt of getting rid of the baby in so callous a manner is what pushed Billy Joe over the edge, with guilt, and caused him to do what he did. Maybe Bobbie Lee aborted without telling him, and he feels remorse about that. And Bobbie Lee, at the end of the song, drops those flowers into the river off the bridge in memoriam to both Billy Joe and their child. And nothing can change my mind on this account. Unless Miss Gentry, before she leaves this earth, comes forward, to reveal this as actual truth, OR something else altogether.
We shall have to wait and see. Along with who Carly Simon is actually writing about in "You're So Vain," this is pop music's biggest mystery.
The resemblance between the Clementi tragedy and the film, I have to say, is eerie. If I were of that household, I would not be too keen on listening to this song, OR seeing the film.
But you can't face June 3, without remembering this song. It is part of our consciousness.
And remember, girls, NOTHING ever comes to no good, up on Choctaw Ridge!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment