100 best covers: #36 Sinéad O’Connor “Ode to Billy Joe”

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This wasn’t going to be next post. In fact, it wasn’t even supposed to be any of the next few posts. However, I was recently contacted by email (once again) by someone who mentioned they were enjoying the list and asked after the rest of it. And of course, I had to explain (yet again) how I am still working my way through it.

To be fair, I did start counting down this list of my favourite 100 covers over eight years ago and I’m not quite three quarters of the way through yet. I’ve always happily noticed that these posts attract attention whenever a new one goes up and can attest that a number of the pieces in the series are among the most popular that I’ve done. So I guess I owe it to those of you who have been following along to get to number one sooner, rather than later. Thus, I give you number thirty-six on my list of the best 100 cover songs (according to me): Sinéad O’Connor’s take on “Ode to Billy Joe”.

Originally recorded by Bobbie Gentry as a demo only, the song was meant to be sold for someone else to sing. Instead, strings were added to a re-recording, just as stripped down as the original, and it was released as a single by Gentry herself to wide success. It has since been listed as one of the greatest songs of all time.

“Ode to Billie (Billy) Joe” is a first person narrative account, mostly of a family dinnertime conversation, where it is mentioned that a young man, well known to the narrator, has committed suicide and many in the family dismiss the news as unworthy of further thought. Like many of Gentry’s other tunes, especially on that first album, the song is inspired by her own memories of events growing up in Mississippi. It is skillfully written and contains a number of nuggets that fans over the years have picked at and ultimately surmised further connection between the young man and the narrator, something that Gentry has never properly confirmed or denied, the mystery of it all adding to the song’s allure. The song and its story became so popular that a film adaptation was made in 1975 fleshing out the narrative.

I know the original quite well because it was a favourite of my father’s. Whenever it would come on the oldies radio station in the station wagon (and later, the van), he would turn it up and sing along under his breath. Not sure if my mother loved it as much but she definitely enjoyed the Max (“Jethro”) Baer Jr directed adaptation, which I’ve also seen but I only vaguely remember it.

Sinéad O’Connor’s cover of the song was recorded back in 1995 for the Help Warchild album, a compilation that I’ve mentioned a few times on these pages and a handful of whose songs* have already appeared on this list. The compilation was recorded in the mid 90s as a benefit to raise funds for war torn Bosnia and Herzegovina and was recorded all in one day, mixed the next, and released to the buying public the day after that. Legend has it that O’Connor’s recording arrived by courier just as the finishing touches were being put to the track list and production. Technically past the deadline for inclusion, the song moved the War Child folks so much, they bent their own rules.

Like Gentry’s version, O’Connor’s is sparse in instrumentation, each allowing its singer’s voice to foment and stretch out for maximum effect. But where the original has for its backbone a bluesy acoustic guitar riff, this particular cover is percussion heavy, punctuated with bass and piano riffs and true to O’Connor’s roots, it is decorated with Celtic flute throughout. And interestingly, she adds a sample of a baby cry after the lyrics “she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge”, playing upon another theory about what it was that was actually thrown off the bridge.

Which one do I prefer? It’s hard to argue with the beauty and emotion of the original so I won’t. But I do love this cover.

Cover:

Original:

*Other tracks have appeared at the #100, #74, and #53 positions on this list.

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.