Thanks to my good friends Tim and Peggi, I have a very nice turntable. Couple that with working at a store that buys and sells vintage vinyl and I'm getting to relive my adolescence and buy all the records I couldn't afford when I was 14. I also have my own personal crusade to keep old vinyl alive in the world and have been known to save many a record from certain death by pulling it out of the store dumpster.
This gem being one such record, saved from the dumpster and thrown on to an ever growing stack of records to listen to, which I did the other night and Oh, My God, I Love Bobbie Gentry! You probably know her big hit...Ode to Billy Joe...and may even remember the movie starring Robbie Benson...and if that song wasn't groovy enough...this album is full of blues/swamp/delta/country/hip to the back in the day groove of a songwriter that was WAY ahead of her time.So wanting to know more about Bobbie Gentry and what became of her, I asked our friend the Internet for information and apparently she made a couple more albums, toured with Glen Campbell, married Mr. Harrah of "Harrah's casino fame", divorced him and then left show business and has apparently fallen of the radar of the entire world. There are a few clips on youtube of funky variety show performances...and she's been given credit as a studio muscian on a few albums in the last 10 years, but not even the internet knows where she is, She has lots of people from the south who claim to be her cousin...but no one knows her whereabouts for sure. Most agree it is most likely somewhere in southern California...which means you, my California friends, could be standing next to her in line at Vons...buying your groceries!
So, if you see her tell her for me, or Bobbie if you're reading this, the world is waiting! Drop the musical world another ode...if you have it in you...I'm waiting and listening!
1 comment:
Cool...I still have the Buckingham Nicks album, my all time favorite, and all my old Chicago's too!
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