Jill Sobule - Where Is Bobby Gentry

Second song this month centered around Bobby Gentry. Gentry did have a coupla good albums way back in the golden oldies days. Why she’s being brought to the attention of a new generation leaves me a bit speechless, but why not? She brought soul to country music, and is bringing a bit of wonder to 21st Century music. What’s really fun about Jill’s song is the narrator is claiming to be the “baby that was thrown off the Tallahachee Bridge.” By my reckoning that baby would be 42 years old, just at the peak of her creative powers. Works for me! Shoutouts include the hilarious Nothing To Prove (“I’m here at a meeting trying to impress someone at a dying record company!”), the swine flu prophetic A Good Life (“tomorrow a tiny cell might grow in everyone, and it’s not the cold”), and the beautiful pop sentiments of a masseuse who has a desire to go to San Francisco (“she looks just like a sparrow, but she’s strong just like a wrestler”). Jill Sobule