February 1999 and such and such Gentry Lane |
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Ode to Bobbie Gentry
Not just any kind of girl. She's a powder blue, rhinestone-bedazzled jumpsuit-sporting,
big jet-dyed bouffant back-combing, heavy black liquid eyeliner-wearing,
early 1970s country rock female phenomenon. She wrote her own songs.
She sang her own backup vocals. She really played her own guitar with two-inch
long fingernails a good 15 years before acrylics were even invented. She did
duets with Glen Campbell. She made several guest appearances on his variety
show. She could've kicked the shit out of Tanya Tucker if she cared to.
She sang prettier than Janis Joplin and was just as forthright. She said her
clothes weren't but her name was Fancy and she would date your son and didn't
care whether you thought she was white trash or not. She was the one who made
Billy Joe McCallister jump off the Tallahatchee Bridge. And she spelled
Mississippi "em eye double es eye double es eye double pee eye."
She didn't stand by her man or belong to the Harper Valley PTA. She also
didn't need DDD-sized breasts to soar to the top of country rock stardom.
She had several smash hit albums and best-selling eight-track cassettes before
she retired at the height of her fame. Bobbie Gentry married a millionaire,
moved to Las Vegas and never performed again just because she didn't have to
if she didn't want.
Before that, her home base was Dallas, Texas. Bobbie Gentry was so bad-
ass, my parents named their first born after her (and they named my little
sister Shelby after the beagle that lived in the yard behind ours).
in the junk drawer:
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Bobbie Gentry is a girl and don't you forget it.
