Bobbie Gentry - The Best of Bobbie Gentry: The Capitol Years

2007 double CD collection from the singer/songwriter best known for the hit 'Ode To Billie Joe'. Gentry was one of the first Country artists to write and produce most of her own work and although she came out of Nashville during the mid '60s, her Pop flavored sound was innovative and helped pave way for other strong-minded talented female Country performers. This comprehensive collection spans her years with Capitol Records 1967-1971. EMI. Album Description

Awesome

All of us who love Dusty in Memphis need to listen to the first disc of this amazing two-disc set. Gentry did it first, and did it better. Beyond that, she wrote her own material. No one-hit wonder; she produced an amazing body of work between 67-71. And then she walked away... February 22, 2008

Great collection

What were Billy Joe and the girl in the song throwing off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

Why did Billy Joe jump off later?

"Ode to Billy Joe" launched Bobbie Gentry's career with a mystery that nobody's ever quite solved. In interviews, Ms. Gentry claimed she didn't know, either. The movie inspired by this song had a theory--but I suspect everyone who loves this song has their own thoughts.

That song, sadly, was the biggest hit Gentry had, but there's a lot more to this Mississippi girl with a voice reminiscent of hard liquor and hot peppers.

The songs in this collection are about real life--and much of it is hard. "Fancy" is about a poor girl whose mother can't care for her, so she buys her daughter a fancy dress--and tells her to go out and make her living.

There's also a lot of historical vignettes here. "Rainmaker" which was popularized by the 5th Dimension talks about a rainmaker coming to Kansas to stop a drought--and the dire consequences when the town doesn't pay him.

"Papa's Medicine Show" talks about the itinerant families selling medicines around the turn of the 19th century:

One bottle, two bottle, three bottle, four
Mama looks twenty, but she's really eighty four...

And the harsh reality for the family who 'just sold enough liniment to barely get along.'

Papa started ailing and passed away last fall
We all had to pick cotton to pass the funeral hall...

This is a great collection of folkloric country. If you missed Gentry the first time around, you might want to give her a listen. She's definitely worth the time.

My one complaint about this CD is it could have been re-engineered to sound a little less like the original vinyl album I bought. The sound is very monaural and something of a disappointment at the price for the 2-disk set.

July 19, 2007

Such harsh sounds for such a fine artist!

Yikes! I've been eagerly awaiting someone to reissue Bobbie Gentry's back catalogue on cd and was thrilled to learn that UK-based Zonophone planned to do the deed. They started with this compilation billed as the Best of the Capitol Years (which is a silly subtitle as she only ever recorded for Capitol, but oh well). It's easy to forgive the titular foolishness, but the mastering on this is another matter. It's an utter mess. The vocals seem to be pushed way to the front and sound harsh; the instrumentation fades into a background mush on subtle tracks such as "Sweet Peony." "Casket Vignette," for example, sounds as if it were mastered from a cassette tape that had been run over by a John Deere tractor. I hope to goodness that they figure out what Bobbie Gentry sounds like before they release the albums!

The rare and unreleased tracks make this a must-own for diehards like me. For neophytes, there are much better Bobbie Gentry comps out there. The organization principle on this is clever (self-penned tunes on disc 1, covers on disc 2), but not especially revelatory or interesting. March 28, 2007

Seven Tracks Not Yet on Other CDs

I don't have this yet (the star rating is simply for the songs). But as of March 12, 2007, I count seven tracks here that I never have found on any other Bobbie Gentry album CDs, "best of" CDs or compilation CDs. That includes four songs that apparently never were available on vinyl, either ("Windows of the World," "Smoke," "Siepe" and "Citta E'Grande"). The other three never-before-on-CD are "Delta Man" and "Rainmaker" from Gentry's "Fancy" album, and "But I Can't Get Back" from "Patchwork."

(UPDATE: Two days after posting this review, I heard from someone at Australian label Raven Records that they will be releasing a two-for-one CD of "Fancy" and "Patchwork" "in about two months" -- which would put the release date around May 2007. Raven already has released an excellent-sounding two-for-one of Gentry's "The Delta Sweete" and "Local Gentry," which also includes bonus tracks.)

Here's the full breakdown of what is on this new 2-CD collection: six tracks are from "Ode to Billie Joe," six from "The Delta Sweete," four from "Local Gentry," six from "Touch 'Em With Love," five from "Fancy," four from "Patchwork," five non-album tracks that previously have appeared on other compilations, and the four otherwise unavailable tracks.

Even taking this new compilation into account, two tracks from "Fancy" ("Something in the Way He Moves" and "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody") and four tracks from "Patchwork" ("Miss Clara/Azusa Sue," "Jeremiah," "Belinda" and "Mean Stepmama Blues") never have appeared on CD, so far as I know. Which means the upcoming Raven label two-for-one of those two albums still will be a required purchase for any Gentry fanatic! March 13, 2007

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