Ode to Billie Joe/Touch 'Em with Love | 
| Artist: Bobbie Gentry
Label: Raven [Australia]
Category: Music
List Price: $21.98
Buy New: $11.41
You Save: $10.57 (48%)
New (26) Used (7) from $11.41
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 24658
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 287
UPC: 612657028728
EAN: 0612657028728
ASIN: B001EQPCVG
Release Date: October 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Mississippi Delta - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | I Saw an Angel Die - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Chickasaw County Child - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Sunday Best - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Niki Hoeky - Bobbie Gentry, Ford, Jim | | • | Papa, Won't You Let Me Go to Town with You - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Bugs - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Hurry, Tuesday Child - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Lazy Willie - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Touch 'Em with Love - Bobbie Gentry, Wilkins, Ronnie | | • | Greyhound Goin' Somewhere - Bobbie Gentry, Dorsey, Bill | | • | Natural to Be Gone - Bobbie Gentry, Hartford, John | | • | Seasons Come, Seasons Go - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Glory Hallelujah, How They'll Sing - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | I Wouldn't Be Surprised - Bobbie Gentry, Henley, Larry | | • | Son of a Preacher Man - Bobbie Gentry, Hurley, John | | • | Where's the Playground, Johnny - Bobbie Gentry, Webb, Jimmy | | • | I'll Never Fall in Love Again - Bobbie Gentry, David, Hal | | • | You've Made Me So Very Happy - Bobbie Gentry, Gordy, B. Jr. | | • | Scarlet Ribbons - Bobbie Gentry, Danzig, Evelyn | | • | The Girl from Cincinnati - Bobbie Gentry, Ducey, C. | | • | You and Me Together - Bobbie Gentry, Gentry, Bobbie | | • | Let It Be Me - Bobbie Gentry, Bécaud, Gilbert | | • | All I Have to Do Is Dream - Bobbie Gentry, Bryant, Boudleaux | | • | Walk Right Back - Bobbie Gentry, Curtis, Sony | | • | En Todas Partes - Bobbie Gentry, Lennon, John |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Combined for the first time on one CD, two unique albums by the legendary Grammy-Award winning singer/songwriter Bobbie Gentry. With superb quality audio, seven rare bonus tracks, deluxe booklet and detailed liner notes. Best remembered for her first and biggest hit, the bittersweet `Ode to Billie Joe', Gentry continued to prove herself a performer and writer of rare talent, issuing a string of high quality albums until her retirement in the mid 1970s. Her recordings have undergone serious re-evaluation in recent years. Her debut album Ode to Billie Joe (1967) and Touch `em with Love (1969) are superb examples of her artistry at work. Ode to Billie Joe went to #1 on both the Billboard Country and Pop charts. 27 tracks total.
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| Customer Reviews:
They say "good things come to those who wait" and the wait is over! October 17, 2008
J. Wade (USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The legendary Bobbie Gentry's superb 1967 debut, Ode To Billie Joe, and the very worthy 1969 pop album, Touch'em With Love at long last receive a proper remastering by Australian retro label, Raven Records.
In 1967, Gentry recorded for single release the self-penned "Mississippi Delta". The song was a dead ringer for the style of songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The b-side recorded for "Mississippi Delta" was an acoustic story song with an unresolved mystery. The song featured Gentry's own acoustic guitar work and composer Jimmy Haskell's ominous string arrangement. When it was released, the fine A-side was more or less ignored as deejays all over the country preferred the flipside. "ode To Billie Joe" became a Billboard number one pop and country song for no less than four weeks in the fall of 1967. The song would launch Bobbie Gentry's career and later spawn the first motion picture crafted from a song. The popular film was directed by Max Baer [yes, that Max Baer, Jethro of Beverly Hillbillies] with the screenplay by Herman Raucher (Summer of 42) and would star the heartthrob of the mid-70s, Robbie Benson.
The entirety of the Ode To Billie Joe album has a similar theme that of life in the Mississippi Delta region. It is partly autobiographical and an interesting glimpse of the heat, poverty, church, and something any southerner knows about - bugs. Yes, long before Pearl Jam sang of bugs on their Vitalogy album, Bobbie Gentry wrote this amusing ditty lamenting the omnipresence of bugs naming ten different ones in the process. The only song not written by Gentry was the "Niki Hoeky", but it fits in nicely.
The Touch'em With Love album is a much more sophisticated affair that has been rightly compared to the Dusty Springfield masterpiece, Dusty In Memphis. Gentry even covers "Son of a Preacher Man" here, and does it justice. Of the ten songs, eight are well-chosen covers. My personal favorite is her renditon of "You've Made Me So Very Happy" which is the song popularized by Brenda Holloway and later by Blood, Sweat & Tears. The two originals are "Seasons Come, Seasons Go" and "Glory Hallelujah How They'll Sing". The former is a lovely ballad celebrating love of the changing seasons and moods of romance in comparison. The latter describes a typical Sunday in the small protestant churches of the South.
Bobbie Gentry didn't make very many records. The ones she did are some of the best music popular ever recorded. She chose to retire in the late 1970's for personal reasons. It is my hope that she will grace us again with a new album if she so choses someday. (Note to Rick Rubin - you should pay her a visit!) In the meantime, we are fortunate that Raven Records has so far issued six of her albums on three CDs. There remains the Glen Campbell/Bobbie Gentry album of 1968 and a few obscure singles. Perhaps there are others in the EMI vaults that will be procured by Raven for one last collection.
The Final Pairing From Raven December 23, 2008
Mark D. Prouse (Riverdale (Bronx), NY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ditto the review by J. Wade.
I would like to add that there is only one Bobbie Gentry album left which Raven has not released, but it is a duet record, made with Glen Campbell. It is the fourth album, between 1968's LOCAL GENTRY and TOUCH 'EM WITH LOVE, from 1969.
This last pairing is fascinating for displaying Bobbie's artistic evolution in one big jump from her first to her fifth record. Although I do see some parallels on TOUCH with DUSTY IN MEMPHIS (the inclusion of Bobbie's version of "Son Of A Preacher Man" invites comparison), the overall quality of this record is rougher and swampier. Unlike Dusty, Bobbie was a real Southerner by birth. MEMPHIS is a polished, sophisticated and reverential homage, whereas Gentry's work is flavored by its authenticity. ODE was and is a startling and unique creation, as were Bobbie's second and third albums. But the stylistic approaches and song selection of these two Bobbie Gentry albums are quite different, which is why their coupling is so interesting. For one thing, the covers outnumber the originals on TOUCH, whereas Gentry's debut contains but one cover. Other differences include a cohesive, vividly individualistic quality on ODE, and more of a pastiche approach on TOUCH. The guitar rhythms on the first album are mostly based on the same figure, which counts toward a unified feel and consistency of mood, even between the fast and slow songs. TOUCH seems to have been a bid for greater commercial appeal, with "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" becoming a huge hit in England as proof of its success. Gentry's followup album, FANCY, would continue in this same vein, but its title song, Gentry's own, harkens back to "Ode To Billie Joe," as it is a "story song" concerning rural people. Gentry's final album, PATCHWORK, would return Bobbie Gentry to her beginnings, being almost entirely self-penned and conceptual, rather than just a collection of songs. PATCHWORK's atmosphere was similar to ODE's, but its instrumentation was broader, as on TOUCH 'EM WITH LOVE, an album which can therefore be viewed as a transitional work.
Bobbie Gentry's evolving career never caught fire with the general public, once the frenzy over the hit single, "Ode To Billie Joe" died down, and that's a pity. After seven albums and a handful of singles, Gentry packed it in. What she left, however, was a singular body of work that withstands the test of time, perhaps even gaining some luster for its author's mysterious disappearing act. Her like will never be seen again. I recommend all three of Raven's Bobbie Gentry "twofers," and am also thankful for the bonus tracks they each contain.
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