1
of
1
Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe
Series: 33 1/3
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 198 ratings, 41 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2199
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe
$2199
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for readers interested in music history, Southern culture, and investigative pop biographies. Fans of Bobbie Gentry and those curious about iconic songs and their creators will find this book particularly engaging.
Latest News
Why Everyone Should Read the Classics
Book Hero currently holds well over 1,000 classics in stock in our Auckland warehouse, available...
The Book Hero Team's July Reads
July was another busy month at Book Hero especially with all the excitement of attending...
New Releases to add to your TBR (5th August)
Check out this week's new release round up with loads of local new non-fiction, some...
Kiritapu Allan visits Book Hero
We were lucky enough to have Kiritapu Allan visit the team at Book Hero while...
Introducing The Art and Craft of Stephen King
I've been a fan of the horror genre since I was young, I remember making...
See more
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide. So much for the Summer of Love. Ode to Billie Joe knocked the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” off the top of the charts, and Bobbie Gentry became an international star. Almost 50 years later, Gentry is as enigmatic and captivating as her signature song.
Of course, fans still want to know why Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. They also wonder: Why did Bobbie Gentry, who has not performed or made a public appearance since the early 1980s, leave it all behind?
Through extensive interviews and unprecedented access to career memorabilia, Tara Murtha explores the real-life mysteries ensnarled within the much-disputed origin of Ode to Billie Joe. The result is an investigative pop history that reveals, for the first time, the full breadth of Bobbie Gentry’s groundbreaking career—and just may help explain her long silence.
Foreword by musician Jill Sobule.
Series: 33 1/3
View all-
Nick Drake's Pink Moon
Pink Moon explores how Nick Drake's third and final album has puttered and purred its way into a new millennium. The book features interviews with producer Joe Boyd, string arranger Robert Kirby, and even the marketing team behind the VW Cabrio commercial that launched the album to platinum status more than thirty years after its release.Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis
Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Springfield's beautiful and bizarre magnum opus, remains as fine a hybrid of pop and rhythm and blues as has ever been made. In this remarkable book, Warren Zanes explores his own love affair with the record. He digs deep into the album's Memphis roots and talks to several of the key characters who were involved in...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Oasis' Definitely Maybe
A brilliant study of Oasis' debut album, highlighting the band's massive cultural impact and the raw, positive power of those early songs. Oasis’s incendiary 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe managed to summarise almost the entire history of post-fifties guitar music from Chuck Berry to My Bloody Valentine in a way that seemed effortless. But this remarkable album was also a...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Black Sabbath's Master of Reality
Black Sabbath's Master of Reality has maintained remarkable historical status over several generations; it's a touchstone for the directionless, and common coin for young men and women who've felt excluded from the broader cultural economy. John Darnielle hears it through the ears of Roger Painter, a young adult locked in a southern California adolescent psychiatric centre in 1985. Deprived of...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
D’Angelo’s Voodoo
Voodoo, D'Angelo's much-anticipated 2000 release, set the standard for the musical cycle ordained as "neo-soul," a label the singer and songwriter would reject more than a decade later. The album is a product of heightened emotions and fused sensibilities; an amalgam of soul, rock, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, and Afrobeats. D'Angelo put to music his own pleasures and insecurities as a...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Garth Brooks in… The Life of Chris Gaines
Garth Brooks was the best-selling country artist of the 1990s. Actually, he was the best-selling artist of the ‘90s period. So why did he close out that triumphant decade by transforming into a fictional rocker named Chris Gaines? He devised an outrageous backstory for the character—complete with sex addiction, facial reconstructive surgery, wildfires, and chainsaws—and even recorded a “pre-soundtrack” to...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly
Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore album in the hours after its release. To Pimp a Butterfly was widely hailed as an instant classic, garnering laudatory album reviews, many awards, and even a canonized place in Harvard’s W. E. B. Du Bois...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Madonna's Erotica
Everyone wanted Madonna’s 1992 album Erotica to be a scandal. In the midst of a culture war, conservatives wanted it to be proof of the decline of family values. The target of conservative loathing, gay men reeling from the AIDS epidemic wanted it to be a celebration of a sexual culture that had rapidly slipped away. And Madonna herself wanted...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Madvillain's Madvillainy
This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to hip-hop. Written from the alternating perspectives of three fake music journalist superheroes—featuring interviews with Wildchild, M.E.D., Walasia, Daedelus, Stones Throw execs,...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Sinead O’Connor's Universal Mother
With Universal Mother, Sinead O’Connor explores childhood trauma and her experiences as a woman, mother, target of scorn, and ultimate phoenix. Released in the winter of 1994, Universal Mother was the first recorded work from O’Connor since her duo of protests in 1992 (Saturday Night Live, Madison Square Garden). The sadistic blowback she faced for publicly outing the child abuse...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Various Artists' Red Hot + Blue
Red Hot + Blue is a meditation on music’s capacity to find us, transform us, and help us make sense of our historical moment. Blending memoir and cultural history, Professor John S. Garrison recalls his coming out at the height of the AIDS crisis alongside the music industry’s first major response to the epidemic. In 1990, a groundbreaking effort by...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
Hailed as a “quiet masterpiece” upon release, Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out proposed a radical new future for rock music. Released at a time when the music industry was changing dramatically thanks to the rise of online file sharing, it suggested that the only way for a band to survive was to listen to themselves. A...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Steve J from AllMusicBooks praises the book as a compelling and accessible study of Bobbie Gentry’s debut and career, avoiding pedantic detail while offering a fascinating read. Katie Haegele of Utne Reader highlights Murtha’s skill at untangling myth from reality, making the book appealing to both casual listeners and pop-culture enthusiasts. Reviewers appreciate the author's journalistic approach and the fresh perspective on Gentry’s artistic challenges and achievements.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781623569648
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 12 February 2015
Country: United States
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 10.0mm
Width: 120.0mm
Height: 164.0mm
Weight: 145g
Pages: 160
Collections
About the Author
Tara Murtha is a journalist based in Philadelphia, USA.
More from Arts & Culture
View all-
Dylan's PickBold Types
A tribute to 32 truly independent bookshops throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, from north of Auckland down to Dunedin, and coast to coast. Jane Ussher's photographs show every bookstore in its unique nature - including behind the counter, smoko rooms, the mess which tells the hardworking story behind the joy of matching books with customers. Jemma Moreira's careful editing has crafted...Hardback$5999Elsewhere:$7000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseDisney Moana: The Official Cookbook
Embark on a culinary adventure with Moana of Motunui with Pacific recipes inspired by Moana and Moana 2! After a long day of sailing to see how far you’ll go or keeping the demigod Maui out of trouble with Te Fiti, catch a break with the delicious dishes in Moana: The Official Cookbook! Featuring more than 50 recipes spanning the...Hardback$4499Elsewhere:$5299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Did I Ever Tell You This?
In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world’s most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his...Paperback$3799Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
This Angry Pen of Mine
This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...Hardback$7299Elsewhere:$8999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
They Bloom Because of You
Bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic and the fleeting. ‘A raw and honest read that makes you feel seen and understood in a way that will bring you to tears.’ - Hilary Swank ‘A book to keep close and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinLeaves of Grass
A collectible new Penguin Classics series offers beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouragement led to what would become a lifelong project, as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death...Hardback$2200Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Odyssey
Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage and family; about travellers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative....Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3599Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
30% offGreat Writers and the Cats who Owned Them
Throughout history, cats and writers have bonded together in a magical combination of comfort, companionship and inspiration. The famous authors featured here range from Samuel Johnson, whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, and Edward Lear, whose charismatic cat Foss was missing half his tail, to Margaret Mitchell, L. M. Montgomery and Dorothy L. Sayers, who rescued her kitten Blitz from...Hardback$2800Usually:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Beautiful Chaos
The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Selected poems from bestselling author and Instagram poet, Jessica Urlichs. 'These words awaken the magic of life by celebrating the ordinary.' - Giovanna Fletcher Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood, capturing everything...Paperback$2900Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Wreck This Journal: Now in Colour
The creative journey continues with Wreck This Journal: Now in Colour by Keri Smith, the latest and most vibrant edition of the groundbreaking series that redefined journaling. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this edition brings the playful destructiveness of the original to life in dazzling full colour, adding a dynamic new dimension to the beloved prompts. Whether you're a seasoned Wreck-er,...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
A Thousand Feasts
THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER From award-winning writer Nigel Slater, comes a new and exquisitely written collection of notes, memoir, stories and small moments of joy. 'Nigel Slater’s prose is the rarest delicacy of all: exquisite yet effortless, filled with heart, tenderness, yearning and humour' ELIZABETH DAY For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Deliver Me from Nowhere (Movie Tie-In)
An updated movie tie-in edition of the fascinating story behind the making of Bruce Springsteen's most surprising album, Nebraska, and its pivotal role in the rock legend's career. The inspiration for the major motion picture starring Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong. The fascinating story behind the making of Bruce Springsteen's most surprising album, Nebraska, revealing its pivotal role in...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
