Bobbie Gentry - Gentrification (1969)

Bobbie Lee Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1942) is one of the first female artists to compose and produce her own material, most noticeably with her 1967 Southern Gothic narrative 'Ode To Billie Joe' which spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. She was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, and after her parents divorced and her mother moved to California, she was raised on a farm in Chickasaw County by her paternal grandparents. After her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, Gentry composed her first song, 'My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog', at the age of seven. After graduating from high school, she moved to Los Angeles to enter UCLA as a philosophy major, and supported herself with clerical jobs, and occasionally performing at nightclubs. She transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory Of Music, where she took classes in composition, music theory and arranging, and while attending a Jody Reynolds concert in Palm Springs in 1966, Gentry asked if she could sit in on one of Reynold's recording sessions, which led to an invitation to sing on two duets with Reynolds. 'Stranger In The Mirror'/'Requiem for Love' was released as a single on Titan Records in 1966, but failed to chart. Her original ambition for a career in the music industry was to write songs to sell to other artists, and she only sang on the demo of 'Ode to Billie Joe' as it was cheaper than hiring someone to sing it. On hearing her demo of 'Mississippi Delta', Capitol Records signed her to the label in 1967, and her demo was to be issued as her first single, but after hearing 'Ode To Billie Joe' with a string section dubbed onto it, it was decided that this would be the A-side. The single was released on 10 July 1967, and it still her best-known song. Following the single's success, the rest of her first album was quickly assembled from the 12 demos Gentry recorded, with overdubs completed in a matter of days. The result was a unique combination of blues, folk and jazz elements, that furthered Gentry's recollections of her home, and felt more like a concept album than a hastily assembled collection of songs. 

In February 1968, Gentry took part in the Italian Song Festival competition in Sanremo, as one of two performers of the song 'La Siepe', and after her version placed ninth, it was released as a single by Capitol. Gentry's second album, 'The Delta Sweete', was released in February 1968, and was a definite step forward from her debut in its musical ambition. It was a concept album , drawing inspiration from Gentry's Mississippi delta roots, and as well as writing most of the songs, she also played almost every instrument on the album, including piano, guitar, banjo, bass and vibes. Although the album failed to match the success of its predecessor, only reaching number 132 on the Billboard 200, critics have since hailed it as one of the unsung masterpieces of the 1960's. Gentry's third album 'Local Gentry' was issued six months later, but failed to appear on any of the Billboard album charts, and just one month later, he third album of 1968 appeared, with the release of a duets record with label-mate Glen Campbell. This album did chart, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Top LP's chart, and earned Gentry and Campbell the Academy Of Country Music award for Album of the Year, and Gentry was also nominated for Top Female Vocalist. Her fifth album, 'Touch 'Em With Love', was released in July 1969, and for the first time in her career it featured more cover versions than original material, with only two of the ten songs penned by Gentry. 

1970's 'Fancy' followed this trend, with only the title track being a Gentry original, but for the following year's 'Patchwork' album she wrote all the songs, producing a collection of short stories in song, ranging from country to pop to blues, all stitched together with cinematic interludes to make a cohesive whole. Around the time that 'Patchwork' was released, the entire executive board that had been at Capitol throughout Gentry's career was fired, and a major restructuring at Capitol took place, resulting in the artist roster being slashed from 247 to 81, and although Gentry remained at the label, negotiations stalled over the renewal terms of her contract, as all of her supporters on the board had been fired. Since she was unwilling to release an album with Capitol on the terms offered, she found herself unable to issue an album on another label, meaning she was left with no choice but to wait out the remaining option period of her contract. 'Patchwork' would turn out to be her final record, with a proposed comeback album in 1977 coming to nothing following the failure of the first single from the sessions, 'Steal Away', to make an impact on the charts, and the album being shelved. The 2018 retrospective collection 'The Girl From Chickasaw County' unearthed a number of previously unreleased demos and studio recordings, and so for this post I've picked what I consider to be the best of them, and added in that rare 1966 single, to give an alternative look at the career of one of the first, and the best, female singer/songwriters of the 60's.   

Track listing

01 Stranger In The Mirror (single as Jody And Bobbie with Jody Reynolds 1966)

02 Requiem For Love (b-side of 'Stranger In The Mirror')

03 I Didn't Know (demo 1968) 

04 Show-Off (previously unreleased 1967)

05 La Siepe (Italian single 1968)

06 La Citta E' Grande (b-side of 'La Siepe')

07 Morning To Midnight (demo 1968)

08 Seventh Son (previously unreleased 1968)

09 Cotton Candy Sandman (demo 1968)

10 Supper Time (previously unreleased 1968)

11 Hushabye Mountain (b-side of 'The Fool On The Hill' 1968)

12 Skip A-Long Sam (previously unreleased 1968)

13 Stormy (previously unreleased 1969)

14 Conspiracy Of Homer Jones (previously unreleased 1968)

15 Windows Of The World (previously unreleased 1969)

16 Here's That Rainy Day (previously unreleased 1969)

17 Spinning Wheel (previously unreleased 1969)

18 Since I Fell For You (previously unreleased 1969)

19 More Today Than Yesterday (previously unreleased 1969)