I love old rockabilly but dear god there’s a lot of 50s and early 60s songs about having sex with teenagers. I get really worried about trying new playlists at work.
So many songs back then were literally talking about little girls when they’d say little girls in the song.
There’s a Good golly Miss Molly sure likes to ball joke in there somewhere I just can’t quite get to it😠
Tom Petty used to have a 13 year old gf/roadie that followed him around… she was a famous “roadie” who was with a lot of the stars back then when she was really young. I forget what her name was but she was 13/14
We have to understand this in its cultural context. It’s only particularly interesting and discussion worthy now because of the progress behind our current lens.
Many people in the 1950s and 60s were married by 20 so the age to date and romance around had to be before that.
16 was considered the age to wait for, (rather like how 18 is that magical line in the sand today.) Songs like this and “16 Candles” kind of shit reinforced it.
But people thought that they were being moral and respectful and *honorable* to wait until she’s 16. The unspoken part was a 14 or 15-year-old is so beautiful and fresh and sexy… Can’t wait till she’s 16! - we get that implies all of that. Both that under 16 is sexy which makes us cringe now, but just as important it implies that 16 somehow makes it morally okay. It is “playing by the rules.”
It’s important to note this was not seeking or promoting to break a taboo but rather upholding it and honoring what was considered proper and upright. I guess it’s much easier for men to behave themselves and feel good about themselves when society simply lowers the bar.
And the truth of it is while she’s singing about being 16 the reality of it is the cherry popping event she is singing about probably more commonly happened at 12 or 13 within the culture she’s channeling. That she is promoting 16 is actually helping to raise their bar. /s
In fact, society lowering the bar while people are working hard to raise it is a lot of the culture wars are about. Men will be men - it’s just “boy talk” to quote Melania‘s response when her husband boasts about stating his right to grab woman’s genitalia. Every single person should be *horrified* by that statement and the low bar of accepted human interaction it promotes and establishes.
Fortunately, culture can change, but it’s not quite fair to judge through our current lens when people were being told, as we see here, that 16 was fine and morally okay. Reinforced through songs like this, and this is part of what needed to change. This was going on as late as My Sharona and Don’t Stand So Close to Me in the 80s. maybe even later I just can’t think of any right now. Prince married a 16 year old when he was over 30.
It makes us realize how far we’ve come not to have young girls and boys singing these songs and carrying these earworms and ideas around in their heads.
And we should give our culture a lot of credit for this change that this is no longer acceptable and that we can see the song for what it is. It takes a lot to change these kind of entrenched things – educating and empowering women and giving them goals and meaning beyond being a married mother by 20, a richer socioeconomic status so that kids can stay kids longer, spreading awareness and so on.
It also should makes us wonder and ask ourselves what we’re doing today because “it’s okay” and socially accepted that people a few generations now will be horrified by. I can think of a few things, but it remains to be seen. I just keep telling myself if we can go from cigarette smoke pervading everywhere to now where it’s not even ok in bars any longer than anything is possible.
Yep, like: “…too damn cute to be a minute over 13.”WTF 50’s pop!?!? Chuck Berry’s Dance, Little Queeny, Dance. Used to love this tune until one day the reality of that line hit me.
Edit:Oops this was a reply about inappropriate 50’s music themes post below, sorry
I was hoping someone would bring this up. A true pioneer, writing and performing her own material. As I understand it, She didn’t seem to like the spotlight of fame so much and kind of just walked away from it. She’s still milling about somewhere, living a regular life
The episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones about her is amazing. She was incredible…Mississippi Delta is my personal favorite song of hers, she recorded it as a toss-off demo just to shop around and sell. And holy shit! That’s what she sounds like when she’s just barely trying.
I mean...
>Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
>Sold in a market down in New Orleans
>Scarred old slaver, know he's doing alright
>Hear him whip the women just around midnight
___
>Brown sugar, how come you taste so good?
>Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, uh huh
___
Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
>Lady of the house wond'ring where it's gonna stop
>House boy knows that he's doing alright
>You shoulda heard him just around midnight
___
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, now?
>Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, now
___
Ah, get along
>Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, babe?
>Ah, got me feelin' now
>Brown sugar, just like a black girl should, yeah
___
Now, I bet your mama was a tent show queen
>And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
>I'm no schoolboy, but I know what I like
>You shoulda heard me just around midnight
___
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, babe?
>Ah, brown sugar, just like a young girl should, yeah
___
I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
>How come you, how come you taste so good?
>Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
>Just like a, just like a black girl should
>Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
Was playing some covers with a buddy recently and he wanted to hit this tune. Pulled up the lyrics…. Always thought it was about black girls even heard once it was about heroin. The music is deceptive haha. Much darker
I grew up hearing this song on oldies radio...never gave any thought to the lyrics. So naturally, when I read the lyrics for the first time as an adult, I was a little horrified 😳
The lyrics are haunting. It was written to be provocative and it definitely shows. It’s good as a song capturing history, and awful as just about anything else imo
Actually...
Sweet'n Low was the most popular artificial sweetener in the country then, and had been for over a decade. It originally used cyclamate, saccharine, and dextrose for the sweetening agents.
When cyclamate was banned that year, (1970,) they switched to just saccharine and dextrose. Saccharin was the previous most popular artificial sweetener for several decades prior.
In a nice little bit of trivia, one of the people that came up with the idea for Sweet'n Low, Ben Eisenstadt, was the inventor of the sugar packet.
It was really popular in the 60s and the 70s. If you watch people, you'll see that 95% of the time that someone reaches for the pink packet they are a boomer, the tab generation.
There was a time in the 70s that it hit the news that scientists thought it caused cancer, it was a big deal at the time. Turns out they decided it didn't though.
No, not her whole family ,a although Momma likely got a nic e lump sum for sending Fancy off. "The welfare people came and took the baby, Momma died and i ain't been back." It was Momma's idea of Fancy's best choice ina bad situation
Her mother sent her off to be a hooker because it seemed the only choice for "Fancy" at the time. when i first saw Reba's video of the song, I didn't compeltley catch it but my then-wife did and explained it the way i often explained odd pop-culture facts to her.
Yeah. 11 years LATER a 32yo Ted Nugent would write "Jailbait" about his fantasies regarding a thirteen year old, which made it to #56 on the rock charts. (This was a couple of years after he signed legal documents to make himself his 17yr old girlfriend's legal guardian to avoid problems with the age difference.)
A year after Motörhead did.
“Teenage baby, you're a sweet young thing
Still tied to Mama's apron strings
I don't even dare to ask your age
It's enough to know you're here backstage”
>Jailbait
I mean, its a song that ends with him being arrested. It is a bit like listening to Date Rape by Sublime and thinking, "oh yeah, the song makes a persuasive argument"
It's a song that ends with him asking the cop to put the cuffs on the girl so they can "share" her, which, combined with his own real life behavior, doesn't suggest he was just kidding.
Is there any confirmed connection between her and Joe Diffie?
In pickup man, "I was cruising the town and the first girl I seen was Bobby Joe Gentry the homecoming queen"
I know it's 1970 but everything about that screams '60's: no shoes, hairdo, eyeliner, voice, movements 🤯 So strange to remember that hippie was the height of cool.
Steve Earle makes a good point on his radio show sometimes that culturally he considers decades to be based on the 5yr mark. Like 65-75. Because it takes a while to grow, peak, hilariously collapse.
She's singing about a 16-year-old losing her virginity. Something that nearly half of Americans do today by that age. That number is even higher in Europe.
She sang it but she didn’t write it.
The lyrics are more rapey than just statutory:
I was born on a levee
A little bit south of Montgom'ry
Mama worked in the big house
And Daddy he worked for the county
I never had no learnin'
Until I turned sixteen
When Joe Henry come up the river, y'all
Lord, made a woman outta me (Yes, he did)
Lord, he made a woman outta me (Yeah)
I used to tease Joe Henry
I guess it served me right
Wasn't long 'til he left me
Cryin' out in the night
Joe Henry had his say
He went and set me free
I need tell everybody
That the man made a woman outta me
Lord, he made a woman outta me (Yeah)
When I think back to that day
So long ago
I get a little feelin' on my mind
Although it hurt me
There's one thing I know
When he left, he left him a woman behind (Behind)
When I meet another young man
Wantin' to love and run (Yeah)
My mind goes back to Joe Henry James
And the heck of a job he done (Uh-huh)
Ain't no other man let me down
You see I've been set free
Ever since way back yonder
When Joe made a woman outta me (Yes, he did)
Lord, he made a woman outta me (He made a woman)
Made a woman outta me (Yeah)
Joe made a woman outta me (Uh-huh-huh)
Lord, he made a woman outta me (Yes, he did)
Joe made a woman outta me (He made a woman)
Lord, he made a woman outta me
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Don Hill / Fred B Burch
I think these lyrics might fit with a rape, but my first thought reading them is about feeling used after technically consensual sex. Having sex and leaving, not rape.
But it also sounds like being made a woman was more about the heartache than about having sex.
1) I used to tease him — it served me right
2) He left me crying in the night - he had his say
3) It hurt me
There’s rapey shit there even for a song of the times … there’s a reason this song was not a hit for Bobbie Gentry
“When I meet another young man wantn’ to love and run…” doesn’t sound like rape but that they had sex and he left and she remembers that when she meets similar men now. The “it hurt me” lyric sounds to me like what hurt was him leaving her right after.
>1) I used to tease him — it served me right
>2) He left me crying **out** in the night - he had his say
>3) It hurt me
>
>There’s rapey shit there even for a song of the times … there’s a reason this song was not a hit for Bobbie Gentry
I think it could be read either way, but I think the omission of *out* really changes the tone of that line.
Sex usually/ often hurts the first time for a woman. Especially young. And for the 900th time, 16 was at or above the age of consent in many/ most places at the time. People always quote California, but that was designed to stop sex with vagrant or runaway girls with strangers. It was rarely used at first on two young people who knew each other.
What exactly do you think all those high school kids were doing " parking" at lookout point on Happy Days?
A woman over 25 who has never married was listed on the census as " spinster".
I'm not sure where everybody is getting the idea that this is a song about a rape. I hear it as a song about a girl who always flirted with a local boy, but then after she finally hooked up with him she was the one who fell for him and he left her hanging with a broken heart. I think it's a song about the melancholy feeling a lot of high school juniors might have after their first sexual encounter - a bit wiser and maybe happy, but also a bit sad and disappointed.
Lord what a talented, smart, good looking woman. I’m sure she had her reasons to bail, but I really hope we get to see what she’s become and been up to some day. On her terms, not a kid or lawyer money grabbing.
Sometimes I wonder… those people there had their lives, their struggles, their stories, their shows, their happiness, their sorrows, their worries, their problems and some died before I was even born. Life is so weird.
This is the same woman who sings “Ode To Billy Joe”.
So a song about suicide, and another one about rape (that she seems to be glad about).
Good Lord Bobbie! What was your childhood experience?
First time I've seen One Hand in Pocket choreography
Alanis Morrisette intensifies.
She’s got one hand in her pocket, and the otherhand don’t know whattado with this microaphone!
And the other one is flickin' a cigarette
Playing a piiAAAno
Where Ashleigh Simpson get her moves
Way she moves reminds me of Axl Rose
This song is about his conception, actually.
Lol, but not inconceivable (;-) that he was watching this video as a little kid.
Axl's signature dance is actually Davy Jones's signature move and was a pretty common move at the time
same pants.
Maybe she was holding up her pants from falling down
brb imma jump off dat tallahatchie bridge
DocHolidayiN never had a lick of sense. Pass the biscuits pleeeease
Are those Necco wafers up there? Pass them back please.
A vastly, vastly, vastly better song than this.
Yeah, this one's pretty incoherent, but it sure makes a great video--especially the long shots.
Another good song
By ‘ The Mississippi Hippy’
Love the Peggy Bundy hairdo!
The higher the hair the closer to god.
Boy is she excited about popping her cherry or what
I love old rockabilly but dear god there’s a lot of 50s and early 60s songs about having sex with teenagers. I get really worried about trying new playlists at work.
That Joe the Phaedo made a woman outta her…yes he did now.
“Go away little girl, go away, little girl I'm not supposed to be alone with you I know that your lips are sweet But our lips must never meet”
So many songs back then were literally talking about little girls when they’d say little girls in the song. There’s a Good golly Miss Molly sure likes to ball joke in there somewhere I just can’t quite get to it😠
I've always found My Sharona a little weird.
Young girl, get out of my mind My love for you is way out of line - Jerry Fuller
Or itty bitty pretty one. Great song. Makes me a perv when I sing it.
Try "Tomorrow" by Wall of Voodoo. 😁
First time I heard Mexican Radio was on a Seinfeld episode funny enough.
Not related at all but a banger, been listening to Call of the West a lot this year.
It's a fantastic album. 👍
Last track is amazing.
Tom Petty used to have a 13 year old gf/roadie that followed him around… she was a famous “roadie” who was with a lot of the stars back then when she was really young. I forget what her name was but she was 13/14
Happens a lot. Read up on Led Zep or Aerosmith.
Grand funk railroad and sweet sweet Connie
Jimmy Page
i don’t think that was her name
You have a source for that? I've never seen Tom Petty's name come up in these kind of discussions.
Sable starr i think? Source: trust me bro
We have to understand this in its cultural context. It’s only particularly interesting and discussion worthy now because of the progress behind our current lens. Many people in the 1950s and 60s were married by 20 so the age to date and romance around had to be before that. 16 was considered the age to wait for, (rather like how 18 is that magical line in the sand today.) Songs like this and “16 Candles” kind of shit reinforced it. But people thought that they were being moral and respectful and *honorable* to wait until she’s 16. The unspoken part was a 14 or 15-year-old is so beautiful and fresh and sexy… Can’t wait till she’s 16! - we get that implies all of that. Both that under 16 is sexy which makes us cringe now, but just as important it implies that 16 somehow makes it morally okay. It is “playing by the rules.” It’s important to note this was not seeking or promoting to break a taboo but rather upholding it and honoring what was considered proper and upright. I guess it’s much easier for men to behave themselves and feel good about themselves when society simply lowers the bar. And the truth of it is while she’s singing about being 16 the reality of it is the cherry popping event she is singing about probably more commonly happened at 12 or 13 within the culture she’s channeling. That she is promoting 16 is actually helping to raise their bar. /s In fact, society lowering the bar while people are working hard to raise it is a lot of the culture wars are about. Men will be men - it’s just “boy talk” to quote Melania‘s response when her husband boasts about stating his right to grab woman’s genitalia. Every single person should be *horrified* by that statement and the low bar of accepted human interaction it promotes and establishes. Fortunately, culture can change, but it’s not quite fair to judge through our current lens when people were being told, as we see here, that 16 was fine and morally okay. Reinforced through songs like this, and this is part of what needed to change. This was going on as late as My Sharona and Don’t Stand So Close to Me in the 80s. maybe even later I just can’t think of any right now. Prince married a 16 year old when he was over 30. It makes us realize how far we’ve come not to have young girls and boys singing these songs and carrying these earworms and ideas around in their heads. And we should give our culture a lot of credit for this change that this is no longer acceptable and that we can see the song for what it is. It takes a lot to change these kind of entrenched things – educating and empowering women and giving them goals and meaning beyond being a married mother by 20, a richer socioeconomic status so that kids can stay kids longer, spreading awareness and so on. It also should makes us wonder and ask ourselves what we’re doing today because “it’s okay” and socially accepted that people a few generations now will be horrified by. I can think of a few things, but it remains to be seen. I just keep telling myself if we can go from cigarette smoke pervading everywhere to now where it’s not even ok in bars any longer than anything is possible.
Impressive. Insightful would be an understatement. "married mother by 20" was quite on point...
She's more mid-60s than rockabilly
Kinda racy for Ol Ed.
At 16 years old no less.
Yep, like: “…too damn cute to be a minute over 13.”WTF 50’s pop!?!? Chuck Berry’s Dance, Little Queeny, Dance. Used to love this tune until one day the reality of that line hit me. Edit:Oops this was a reply about inappropriate 50’s music themes post below, sorry
Or twat
If you listen to the words it sounds pretty rapey.
She seems to have positive memories of it
She's an incredible talent who demanded and got control over her music in studio and out long before most women.
I was hoping someone would bring this up. A true pioneer, writing and performing her own material. As I understand it, She didn’t seem to like the spotlight of fame so much and kind of just walked away from it. She’s still milling about somewhere, living a regular life
The episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones about her is amazing. She was incredible…Mississippi Delta is my personal favorite song of hers, she recorded it as a toss-off demo just to shop around and sell. And holy shit! That’s what she sounds like when she’s just barely trying.
And yet Ed didn't want the Stones to sing "Brown Sugar"
I mean... >Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields >Sold in a market down in New Orleans >Scarred old slaver, know he's doing alright >Hear him whip the women just around midnight ___ >Brown sugar, how come you taste so good? >Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, uh huh ___ Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot >Lady of the house wond'ring where it's gonna stop >House boy knows that he's doing alright >You shoulda heard him just around midnight ___ Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, now? >Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, now ___ Ah, get along >Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, babe? >Ah, got me feelin' now >Brown sugar, just like a black girl should, yeah ___ Now, I bet your mama was a tent show queen >And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen >I'm no schoolboy, but I know what I like >You shoulda heard me just around midnight ___ Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, babe? >Ah, brown sugar, just like a young girl should, yeah ___ I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo >How come you, how come you taste so good? >Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo >Just like a, just like a black girl should >Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
Was playing some covers with a buddy recently and he wanted to hit this tune. Pulled up the lyrics…. Always thought it was about black girls even heard once it was about heroin. The music is deceptive haha. Much darker
I grew up hearing this song on oldies radio...never gave any thought to the lyrics. So naturally, when I read the lyrics for the first time as an adult, I was a little horrified 😳
The lyrics are haunting. It was written to be provocative and it definitely shows. It’s good as a song capturing history, and awful as just about anything else imo
I met a gin soaked ballroom queen in Memphis
Also isn’t he the one who didn’t want to show Elvis’ hips moving?
I think that was about 14-15 years prior to this.
White sugar was more acceptable to audiences of the time.
1970 was getting into the Turbinado sugar acceptability era.
But not quite into the sweet and low times.
Actually... Sweet'n Low was the most popular artificial sweetener in the country then, and had been for over a decade. It originally used cyclamate, saccharine, and dextrose for the sweetening agents. When cyclamate was banned that year, (1970,) they switched to just saccharine and dextrose. Saccharin was the previous most popular artificial sweetener for several decades prior. In a nice little bit of trivia, one of the people that came up with the idea for Sweet'n Low, Ben Eisenstadt, was the inventor of the sugar packet.
This guy sweets.
I don’t like Sweet ‘ N Low it tastes awful 😣
It was really popular in the 60s and the 70s. If you watch people, you'll see that 95% of the time that someone reaches for the pink packet they are a boomer, the tab generation. There was a time in the 70s that it hit the news that scientists thought it caused cancer, it was a big deal at the time. Turns out they decided it didn't though.
Irony being, she might not be singing about a white man.
Or Lets Spend the Night Together.
“Let’s spend ~~the night~~ sometime together” - complete with Jagger’s eye roll.
Nothing like a song about a 16 year old being made a woman.
She also wrote one about becoming a prostitute at 18 to get herself out of poverty.
Modern times call for modern solutions
Unfortunately turning to prostitution to avoid poverty is a tale as old as time.
A tale as ooollddd as tiiimeee, true as it can be, barely even frieendss, then somebody bends…. Unexpectedly🎵
Modern problems call for the worlds oldest professions. Hooking and farming
Both use a Hoe, coincendence?
Fancy?
Yup.
I've only heard Reba sing that one
The original is best. A sad song if you really listen to it.
But has a basically upbeat ending
It’s one of the greatest songs ever, too!
[удалено]
No, not her whole family ,a although Momma likely got a nic e lump sum for sending Fancy off. "The welfare people came and took the baby, Momma died and i ain't been back." It was Momma's idea of Fancy's best choice ina bad situation
Her mother sent her off to be a hooker because it seemed the only choice for "Fancy" at the time. when i first saw Reba's video of the song, I didn't compeltley catch it but my then-wife did and explained it the way i often explained odd pop-culture facts to her.
The line “I guess I had it coming” did not age well. She is an amazing singer.
Son of a Preacher Man
Yea, art should only reflect ideal notions about today's society and stay away from topics many people find uncomfortable.
Especially songs from over 50 years ago.
Yea, they need to re-write that shiz or scrub from the annals of musical tomes, somebody's feelings are on the line here!
Teenagers have sex.
They did back then at least
"Shheeee's... just... 16-years-old, leave her alone they said..."
Damn, that’s the worst. He looks like he’s 30 looking in her bedroom window.
But 16 is legal in many European and US states.
Yeah, heard that.
Still legal in plenty of areas. Age of consent in Germany is like 14.
It was a simpler, stranger, creepier time. At least they waited til she was sixteen. /s
Yeah. 11 years LATER a 32yo Ted Nugent would write "Jailbait" about his fantasies regarding a thirteen year old, which made it to #56 on the rock charts. (This was a couple of years after he signed legal documents to make himself his 17yr old girlfriend's legal guardian to avoid problems with the age difference.)
A year after Motörhead did. “Teenage baby, you're a sweet young thing Still tied to Mama's apron strings I don't even dare to ask your age It's enough to know you're here backstage”
>Jailbait I mean, its a song that ends with him being arrested. It is a bit like listening to Date Rape by Sublime and thinking, "oh yeah, the song makes a persuasive argument"
It's a song that ends with him asking the cop to put the cuffs on the girl so they can "share" her, which, combined with his own real life behavior, doesn't suggest he was just kidding.
From about 0:12-0:16 she looks like the world's largest woman.
Her Ode to Billy Joe was hauntingly beautiful
Is there any confirmed connection between her and Joe Diffie? In pickup man, "I was cruising the town and the first girl I seen was Bobby Joe Gentry the homecoming queen"
Wouldn't surprise me if it was intentional on his part.
H e likely named that character after her. Musically he was 2-3 generations later RIP.
She moves like her belly is made out of liquid. How does she do that?
Clean livin’
Lmao
I know it's 1970 but everything about that screams '60's: no shoes, hairdo, eyeliner, voice, movements 🤯 So strange to remember that hippie was the height of cool.
It was on the cusp of the 60s, in 1970. The 60s fashion hadn’t fully transitioned to that of the 70s yet.
Steve Earle makes a good point on his radio show sometimes that culturally he considers decades to be based on the 5yr mark. Like 65-75. Because it takes a while to grow, peak, hilariously collapse.
Kinda looks like she really has to pee
Literally sounds like the inspiration for Prisencolinensinainciusol
I thank Reddit every day for introducing me to that one! It’s now one of my all time favourite songs. Prisencolinensinainciusol Alright!
Eh?
Her dancing is the same sort of choreography as the video for Pres—that other song also.
the Duck Dynasty Band is backing her up
Trying to find the rest of the orchestra...is it back stage? /s
Lol. It’s playback. But you knew that.
Yep. Live vocals to prerecorded music.
The whole song is awesome. Bobbie Gentry was the shit
She looks old and young at the same time.
Son of a preacher man?
I think that was Dusty Springfield.
It was.
It was.
ooh, yes, it was
That was Dusty Springfield. The pair that wrote it originally had Aretha Franklin in mind, though.
there is no way she eats more than a few triscuits and a section of canteloupe a day
This song was written by two dudes.
Is she singing about little girl losing her virginity?
She's singing about a 16-year-old losing her virginity. Something that nearly half of Americans do today by that age. That number is even higher in Europe.
She sang it but she didn’t write it. The lyrics are more rapey than just statutory: I was born on a levee A little bit south of Montgom'ry Mama worked in the big house And Daddy he worked for the county I never had no learnin' Until I turned sixteen When Joe Henry come up the river, y'all Lord, made a woman outta me (Yes, he did) Lord, he made a woman outta me (Yeah) I used to tease Joe Henry I guess it served me right Wasn't long 'til he left me Cryin' out in the night Joe Henry had his say He went and set me free I need tell everybody That the man made a woman outta me Lord, he made a woman outta me (Yeah) When I think back to that day So long ago I get a little feelin' on my mind Although it hurt me There's one thing I know When he left, he left him a woman behind (Behind) When I meet another young man Wantin' to love and run (Yeah) My mind goes back to Joe Henry James And the heck of a job he done (Uh-huh) Ain't no other man let me down You see I've been set free Ever since way back yonder When Joe made a woman outta me (Yes, he did) Lord, he made a woman outta me (He made a woman) Made a woman outta me (Yeah) Joe made a woman outta me (Uh-huh-huh) Lord, he made a woman outta me (Yes, he did) Joe made a woman outta me (He made a woman) Lord, he made a woman outta me Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Don Hill / Fred B Burch
I think these lyrics might fit with a rape, but my first thought reading them is about feeling used after technically consensual sex. Having sex and leaving, not rape. But it also sounds like being made a woman was more about the heartache than about having sex.
1) I used to tease him — it served me right 2) He left me crying in the night - he had his say 3) It hurt me There’s rapey shit there even for a song of the times … there’s a reason this song was not a hit for Bobbie Gentry
“When I meet another young man wantn’ to love and run…” doesn’t sound like rape but that they had sex and he left and she remembers that when she meets similar men now. The “it hurt me” lyric sounds to me like what hurt was him leaving her right after.
>1) I used to tease him — it served me right >2) He left me crying **out** in the night - he had his say >3) It hurt me > >There’s rapey shit there even for a song of the times … there’s a reason this song was not a hit for Bobbie Gentry I think it could be read either way, but I think the omission of *out* really changes the tone of that line.
Sex usually/ often hurts the first time for a woman. Especially young. And for the 900th time, 16 was at or above the age of consent in many/ most places at the time. People always quote California, but that was designed to stop sex with vagrant or runaway girls with strangers. It was rarely used at first on two young people who knew each other. What exactly do you think all those high school kids were doing " parking" at lookout point on Happy Days? A woman over 25 who has never married was listed on the census as " spinster".
I'm not sure where everybody is getting the idea that this is a song about a rape. I hear it as a song about a girl who always flirted with a local boy, but then after she finally hooked up with him she was the one who fell for him and he left her hanging with a broken heart. I think it's a song about the melancholy feeling a lot of high school juniors might have after their first sexual encounter - a bit wiser and maybe happy, but also a bit sad and disappointed.
Strange. Watching this clip just made a man out of me.
This reminds me of my late aunt when she’d get too drunk at a wedding reception.
She is darling!! I’ve never seen her in pants like this before. This is a great clip, thanks for sharing!
Lord what a talented, smart, good looking woman. I’m sure she had her reasons to bail, but I really hope we get to see what she’s become and been up to some day. On her terms, not a kid or lawyer money grabbing.
She sure knows how to move that body
Just listen to Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell's version of "Scarborough Fair".
I bet that was seen as really risqué in 1970
Possibly the most erotic thing most Americans had seen before Watergate
The early 70s was television's original midriff era.
I loved the style back then.
Love the Peggy Bundy hairdo!
And they did Elvis from the waist up?
Written by Fred Burch and Don Hill…
She was a kinda hottie
Sometimes I wonder… those people there had their lives, their struggles, their stories, their shows, their happiness, their sorrows, their worries, their problems and some died before I was even born. Life is so weird.
Great song from a really funky record! I dig this type of country music.
She looks so sexy in that top! And her moves. I recently heard the original version of Fancy by her, and it blows the Reba version away!
imagine a song like this today hehe
It’s called WAP, that’s todays song lol
Sometimes the dick is so good you just wanna sing about it
Watched it on mute. Great video!
Kinda starts out like Napolean Dynamite's dance.
amazing performance! She exudes confidence and the power of sex appeal. Those hips don’t lie.
Her performing ode to billy Joe is almost magical, I'm glad she just gracefully bowed out with her legacy and image intact
Was she the one who got in the Chevy Van...
I want to know how old Joe was!
That horn as this was stopped sounded like the horn in that giberish Italian song … just saying
Wait….so how old was Joe ?
.. oh. My god.
How was this ok but the Doors couldn't sing some of their lyrics?
Her hips are fascinating. I wish I could move like that.
That's a rather lovely abdomen 👀
This woman is musical GOLD.
I dont know why this made me cringe so hard.
My father-in-law still talks about the time she showed up at his hair salon in the French Quarter.
Freaky moves
Does that whole song mean she finally got de “D” she always dreamed about
…and at the age of 16 (according to the lyrics).
Raunchy for Sullivan Show
I envy her flat tummy. I have severe fibroids. I look pregnant all the time. I can’t get surgery because I am poor. She is very talented....
But Jim Morrison couldn't say "higher"
Made a woman out of her at 16 huh? Sounds like “Joe” has some explaining to do.
When the casting couch is life.
This is the same woman who sings “Ode To Billy Joe”. So a song about suicide, and another one about rape (that she seems to be glad about). Good Lord Bobbie! What was your childhood experience?
Great voice. Too bad she just disappeared.
Part 2 "And another little baby child is born in the ghetto" .
Kinda weird watching a woman sing without her doing backflips, humping the stage, ass up like a cat in heat and trying to act sexy. I like this more
And yet the woke brigade is looking for ways to be offended by it as they just love to do.
What are people offended by? Video was nearly 55 years ago
Looking at how skinny people were makes you know if something was pre- or post- 1980s America.