Nachdem ich „Ode to Billie Joe“ mal eine ganze (zweistündige) Sendung gewidmet habe (klick, Playlist), musste ich dem Gerücht in Sachen Ford mal rasch nachsteigen, der erste Fund ist der hier:
Authorship question
On NPR’s „Fresh Air“, singer/songwriter Nick Lowe talked about songwriter Jim Ford and said the following: „He claimed to have written „Ode to Billie Joe“… and really, in the light of what Bobbie Gentry’s done – I mean, it’s such an extraordinary song and so typical of a Jim Ford song, and Bobbie Gentry’s never really done anything that’s remotely like that – I think he, you know, it might be possible.“ According to Ford’s entry on allmusic.com, Bobbie Gentry was once his girlfriend.
Just because Nick Lowe says it, doesn’t make it true and frankly, have you looked at what happened to Jim Ford? A recent religious conversion and comeback attempt may be behind any claims that he wrote the song. He had been down and out and living in poverty until a fan scraped him up off the floor and helped him get back on his feet. He may have some bitterness of Gentry’s success. Gentry herself is no longer in the public eye so I don’t know if she’s had time to respond to such an attack on her character. If Nick Lowe believes this and he can prove it, he should sue the woman on Jim Ford’s behalf. I’ll look around and see if any reliable sources comment on this but Nick Lowe is merely reporting hearsay and his own opinion.LiPollis (talk) 18:13, 7 June 2010 (UTC)
The Un. of Mississippi has just posted some of the original rough drafts of Ode to Billie Joe (written in Bobbie’s own hand) on their web site.They show the creative process of constructing the song with crossed out lyrics and some of the discarded verses that Capitol Records edited out of the original recording sessions. Bobbie donated the papers to their Faulkner room in 1973. skytorchSkytorch (talk) 03:27, 7 September 2010 (UTC) Sept 2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AOde_to_Billie_Joe
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Und hier geht’s weiter:
Jim Ford
Nick Lowe, whose music I love and respect, went on NPR’s Fresh Air to tell Terry Gross how Jim Ford claimed to have written “Ode to Billie Joe.” It’s my understanding that Nick is inclined to believe Jim because, well, you can read it for yourself…
He was an extraordinary man. He wrote lots of songs for Bobby Womack and he also claimed to have written “Ode to Billie Joe.” You know the song? And, really, in the light of what Bobbie Gentry has done… I mean, it’s such an extraordinary song and so typical of a Jim Ford song and Bobbie Gentry’s never really done anything that’s remotely like that. I think that, you know, it might be possible. – Nick Lowe
I’ve got a few disagreements, here, but let’s talk about Jim Ford for a minute, first.
“Harlan County” is the song most people think of when they hear the name Jim Ford. It came out in 1969. It’s a good example of southern soul music and it’s a great song. Jim did not invent this wheel. In fact, he was pretty late to the party because it seems like he spent the previous seven years doing his best imitation of whichever artist happened to be the big thing.
Listen to the song “College Queen” to hear what Jim sounded like in 1962 – basic pop and a fake accent. When Jim Ford pops back up in 1967? It’s with a Bob Dylan impersonation that is frankly embarrassing to listen to, in the form of a song called “Ramona.” Again, 1967 is the year “Ode to Billie Joe” came out and “Ramona” is what Jim Ford, the supposed secret author of “Ode to Billie Joe,” was doing at the time. But he also happened to be dating Bobbie Gentry at the time, which some people think supports Jim’s claim that he wrote the song.
Here’s a fact about Jim Ford: he was a cocaine addict.
Jim had a reputation for writing a song and selling it to as many producers around town as he could until someone realized they’d all bought the same song and it was now essentially worthless. There’s another story about Jim pretending to be too drunk to function in a recording session because he’d already sold all his songs to other producers and didn’t have anything he could record.
Before Barry White was Barry White, he was an A&R man for a small label in Hollywood. Barry remembers Jim Ford bringing Bobbie and “Ode to Billie Joe” to him and trying to sell the song for $50. Barry loved it but his boss didn’t so they turned it down. Now, if Jim Ford wrote “Ode to Billie Joe” and thought so little of it that he was prepared to sell it for $50… Why, after the monumental hit it became, why didn’t Jim spend the rest of his life churning out more versions of this song to make millions of dollars as Bobbie Gentry did?
People who think Jim wrote the song like to say Bobbie never wrote another song like “Ode to Billie Joe.” These people either haven’t listened to much of Bobbie Gentry’s music or their definition of a song like “Ode to Billie Joe” is a song with a MacGuffin in it. We’ll get to the rest of Bobbie’s music in a minute but, I should say, I’m a fan of Jim Ford’s music. I’m very familiar with it and he never in his life wrote a song anything like “Ode to Billie Joe.” The only similarity I can see in his work is drawing images from live in the South but when you take a look under the hood, there’s a completely different engine in there. So, let’s pop the hood.
The vast majority of Jim’s songs follow a simple pop songwriting formula. You could even use the word “trite” to describe most of them. Here are some song titles: “She Turns My Radio On,” “I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind,” “I’m Gonna Make Her Love Me,” “Dr. Handy’s Dandy Candy.” These are mostly good songs but even the best of his writing is a completely different style than Bobbie Gentry’s. You never get the idea that Jim is alluding to something other than precisely what he’s telling you.
The song “Harlan County” has this lyric in it: “Big Jack caught Daddy cheatin’ and he shot him over 15 cents to buy a loaf of bread with.” There’s two entire crimes laid out in one line with perpetrator, victim, and their respective motives described, down to the penny. That’s not even in the same universe as the restraint and narrative control on display in “Ode to Billie Joe” and this level of detail is highly typical of Jim Ford’s songwriting.
Jim Ford’s “Big Mouth USA” has this verse: “just last Wednesday, me and Judy Hensley was down by the river side / Ol’ Widow Brown came ogling around and told the biggest lie around town / you’d have thought Judy was going to have a baby, come Saturday night / and all we was doing was hugging and kissing down by the river side”
See? He has to explain everything in detail. He just can’t help himself. If Jim Ford wrote “Ode to Billie Joe,” we would all know exactly what was thrown off the bridge, exactly when and exactly why.
Here’s what else we know about Jim Ford. When Jim ended up working with Bobby Womack, they were always arguing because Bobby Womack got tired of Jim trying to tinker with Womack’s songs just to get a co-writing credit. Womack would go record the song without waiting for Jim’s notes and Jim would claim the song was stolen away from him. If anything, Jim Ford probably tried something similar with “Ode to Billie Joe.”
Add in the fact that Ford never made any attempt to bring a lawsuit against Gentry or Capitol Records, even after Bobby Paris successfully did so to get his 1% of the song. Add in the fact that the only song on her first album not written by Bobbie Gentry is a song by Jim Ford and the Vegas brothers, who are all given total credit for their work. One of Jim’s closest friends at the time said he thinks Jim was straight up trying to take credit for Bobbie Gentry’s song. The allegations of Bobbie Gentry stealing this song just do not add up.
I love Jim Ford’s music. He was a talented man but it’s time to put this rumor to bed. Jim Ford did not write “Ode to Billie Joe.” A young woman in her early 20s named Bobbie Gentry wrote that song.
Of course, the lifespan of the rumor is not at all surprising. The pop music industry is just as sexist as the country music industry. Jim is not the only man given credit for Bobbie Gentry’s work.
Von hier:
https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/bobbie-gentry-exit-stage-left
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