September #6: Bobbie Gentry

6. Bobbie Gentry - The Girl From Cincinnati

I was reading Huey Morgan's excellent music book Rebel Heroes: The Renegades of Music & Why We Still Need Them and was impressed by the respect he gave Bobbie Gentry for being one of the first ladies of country music to take serious control of her own career, writing and producing a lot of her own work. I wasn't familiar with much of her work, beyond the big hits (Ode To Billie Joe, her Number One cover of Bacharach & David's I'll Never Fall In Love), so I picked up a CD that combined two of her most successful albums, Ode To Billie Joe and Touch 'em With Love.

There is lots to love on that record, but The Girl From Cincinnati is definitely a favourite at the moment. A bonus track, not on either of the albums, but released as a single in 1972, though it never charted. It's the classic story of a small-time girl lured to LA with big promises only to find it a real struggle to survive. One thing's for certain: she ain't going back to Cincinnati...

I was friendly with producers
And was heading out with the stars
I played the backseat heroine
In a thousand different cars

From Cavalier to Playboy
To the Johnny Carson show
To holding up some dogfood
For a firm in Idaho

I've a screen-test every weekend
And I'm constantly on call
I'll be twenty-five next summer
And thirty-five next fall