Mississippi Delta Queen

an ode to bobbie gentry

[goat-fish-deactivated20181218]

[ourladyoftheundergroundx]

Bobbie Gentry, 1967

[thesmutgoddess]

And Gentry spoke to a reporter, for this story, apparently for the first time in three decades. We caution you not to get too excited about that. It’s one sentence. Could be two. Then she hung up.

Whatever happened to Bobbie Gentry? In search of country music’s great vanished star. (via vampyredoll)

[thesydbarrettexperience]

Bobbie Gentry

[thesydbarrettexperience]

Bobbie Gentry

[ourladyoftheundergroundx]

I’ve never seen a colour version of this Bobbie Gentry photo before. The painting on the cover of Fancy is based on a photo from this session and is rumoured to have been painted by Gentry herself.

[thesydbarrettexperience]

Bobbie Gentry

[retrogirly]

[cherryhillpark]

Left to right: Bobbie Lee Gentry, a girl, another girl.

[kahuna68-deactivated20171208]

Bobbie Gentry.

[bigbennklingon]

Bobby Gentry

[elizabitchtaylor-deactivated202]

Bobbie Gentry was so progressive and never gets the credit for it. She explored a lot of themes in her music that feminists of the time never even touched- for instance, suicide and mental illness (Ode to Billie Joe), sex work (Fancy, Belinda) and rural poverty (basically every other song). Come to think of it a lot of mainstream feminists still don’t talk about those issues. I really love her!

[toonarmyist]

Bobbie Gentry

[heyumdonttalktome-deactivated20]

Yes, country music is awful, but people tend to ignore the factual issues with the genre:

-Promotes rape culture

-Got its start with deeply racist roots

-Glorifies the “all-American girl trope” of blue-eyed, blonde-haired young women

-Historically misogynistic and still is to this day

-No amount of “feminist” Dixie Chick-style musicianship can erase all that

[popsicle-prince]

I finally have MORE than one excuse to justify why I hate country music.

[brizzenda]

All right, so this shit pisses me off and I just can’t take it anymore. First of all, I challenge you to give me a music genre that doesn’t fall into one or more of the above criticisms. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be critical of music at all; I’m just wondering why the two most picked on genres of music are (1) country music, which is historically associated with poor and rural people, and (2) rap music, which is primarily associated with poor and black people. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. IMAGINE THAT.

Anyway, let’s go line by line:

1. ‘Promotes rape culture.’ Oh I’m sure there are plenty of country songs that do. I just don’t see how this is a criticism that is unique to country music (”Blurred Lines” anyone?) and isn’t a problem that’s endemic to all forms of artistic production. Just like every genre of music, there’s shitty stuff, and great stuff, and it’s fucking insulting that you country-music haters seem to think that the women of country music haven’t been writing and singing about their experiences with sexism and rape culture since forever.

Counterpoint: “What Part of No (Don’t You Understand?)” by Lorrie Morgan. An entire song about a woman who keeps getting hit on in a bar and just wants to be left the fuck alone. 

2. ‘Got its start with deeply racist roots.’ Okay, but literally what hasn’t? Again, I’m not dismissing this criticism, I just don’t understand why we’re singling out country music on this point. White people claim credit for inventing rock and roll, when its roots are with black Americans, and white people still do their best to erase this history. That’s a hella racist legacy, if you ask me. Are there racist country music songs? Hell yeah there are. Are are there anti-racist country music songs? Holy shit yes there are it’s like music genres aren’t monolithic who knew??

Counterpoint: “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow,” by Johnny Cash. “The Man Who Hated Freckles,” by Tom T. Hall. 

3. ‘Glorifies the “all-American girl trope” of blue-eyed, blonde-haired young women.’ I am not sure what this means? Are you claiming that country music stars all look like this? Or are you saying that the songs promote this body type? All forms of western media are guilty of promoting unrealistic and racist standards of beauty. Again, not unique to country music, and this criticism erases the voices of country music women who speak out against these types of beauty standards, so way to erase and ignore the voices of women. Real progressive, y’all.

Counterpoint: This body-positive anthem, “Real Live Woman” by Trisha Yearwood, actual plus-size goddess. “This One’s For the Girls,” a girl-power anthem by Martina McBride, which specifically praises women of all types and ages. 

4. ‘Historically misogynistic and still is to this day.’ Okay, this one really pisses me off, because how the fuck can you sit here and claim that there are literally no women in country music who write and sing songs about their experiences with sexism and misogyny (and classism)? Like, yeah, there are some gross as fuck misogynist songs by country men, but guess what? Our entire fucking society is sexist, which means every genre of music (or film or literature or whatever) has sexist shit in it which is obviously a problem. But we don't’ stop that by dismissing entire genres of art. Instead, we fix it by making art that is explicitly anti-sexist.

Counterpoint: oh man, so many that I need a bulleted list. 

For those of you who think only modern country can be anti-sexist, I give you Loretta Lynn’s 1975 ode to birth control, “The Pill” (in which she explicitly says she loves birth control because it allows her to have as much sex as she wants). 

EVEN EARLIER than that in 1968, Jeannie C Riley performed the classic “Harper Valley PTA” in which a single mom schools a small town PTA for their sexist double-standards. 

Dolly Parton has been sticking it to both the patriarchy (in “Just Because I’m a Woman”) AND capitalism (in “9 to 5″) for DECADES and even though she’s 69 years old she’s still slaying and calling out femme-phobia to this day (in “Backwoods Barbie”). 

The ladies of country get the real serious shit, too. Not only to the Dixie Chicks punish an abuser in “Goodbye Earl,” but Martina McBride metes out literal firey death to an abuser in “Independence Day.” 

Mary Chapin Carpenter sings a beautiful song about a woman who does what’s expected of her and the struggles she faces when she changes her mind, in “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her.”  

Loretta Lynn (returning champ) sings about the patriarchal perils that befall divorced women in “Rated X.” 

Queen of country music, Reba McEntire has way too many to list here, but a couple highlights include her pretty sex-positive ballad about sex work in “Fancy,” and this incredibly touching song about a married woman who achieves her dream of going to college with the support of her family (and this music video is a testament to the glory of 90s country music videos on the whole) in “Is There Life Out There?”

5.  ‘No amount of “feminist” Dixie Chick-style musicianship can erase all that.’ Really? Because it looks to me like scores of female country music artists have been doing just that for ALMOST A CENTURY and I’d really like to know why you think the women (and men) of country aren’t capable of writing and singing about oppression in general, and specifically their own struggles with sexism and classism. In case you need more, here’s a link to a mix of country music songs with feminist themes and messages.

I’m not saying country music isn’t flawed, or that it doesn’t have any artists or songs that are problematic. It certainly does. But SO DOES LITERALLY EVERY GENRE OF MUSIC EVER and I just want to challenge people to think about why they’re willing to dismiss an entire genre that has a long history of badass female artists, and is also most closely associated with poor and rural communities, and not willing to dismiss every other genre of music, all of which have an equal proportion of problematic elements, but aren’t associated with poor and rural people. 

[the60sbazaar]

Bobbie Gentry

[vinyloid]

Bobbie Gentry - Touch ‘Em With Love

[andygarthb]

Been listening to Bobbie Gentry- a truly underrated songwriter and musician. Here she is recording at Muscle Shoals for her 1970 album ‘Fancy’.