Early years
Gentry spent her childhood living with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi, where she attended elementary school and began teaching herself to play the guitar, the bass guitar, and the banjo. In her early teens, she moved to Palm Springs, California, to live with her mother, Ruby Bullington Streeter, graduating from Palm Springs High School in 1962. It was during this time that the teenage Roberta settled on the stage name "Bobbie Gentry," and began performing at local country clubs, encouraged by no less a Palm Springs celebrity than Bob Hope.
After a short career as a Las Vegas showgirl, Gentry moved to Los Angeles, attended UCLA (where she was a philosophy major) and worked clerical jobs while occasionally performing in local nightclubs. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to hone her composition and performing skills.
Rise to fame
In 1967, Gentry recorded a demo and submitted it to Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon, who quickly signed her to a recording contract and produced her first album. A 45 rpm "single" of two of her songs—"Mississippi Delta" and "Ode to Billie Joe"—was the first issue from this first effort, and even though "Mississippi Delta" was chosen for the "A" side, radio stations were quickly enamored with the quirky tale of Billie Joe McAllister and the mystery of his fate, as hauntingly performed and recorded on the "B" side. Bobbie Gentry had a monster hit on her hands, and Capitol Records had its newest superstar. Gentry went on to win three Grammy Awards that year, including "Best Vocal Performance by a Female", and "Best New Artist."
Gentry's follow-up albums, The Delta Sweete and Local Gentry, both produced by Gordon, were issued in 1968. Though critically acclaimed, neither album garnered the kinds of sales figures that were realized with Gentry's debut effort. The year 1968 also saw the release of an album of duets that paired Gentry with fellow Capitol alumnus Glen Campbell. Gentry and Campbell's harmonies resulted in a gold record and three hit singles, including a cover of the Everly Brothers hit "All I Have to Do Is Dream", which rose to No. 6 on the country charts in the winter of 1969.
Gentry toured briefly with Campbell and performed on a number of U.S. television programs and specials in the late 1960s. Her other notable singles include Doug Kershaw's composition "Louisiana Man" as well as a mellow version of a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". The latter went to No. 1 in Great Britain in 1970, a year after Dionne Warwick had a hit with it in the United States. 1970 also saw the release of another U.S. hit with the self-penned "Fancy," which rose to No. 26 on the Country chart and 31 on the Pop chart. (This enduring tale would later be covered with major success by Reba McEntire in 1991.)
Gentry would go on to record three more albums, while having earlier albums reissued under different titles. These last three albums, Touch 'Em with Love, Fancy, and the ambitious and highly regarded Patchwork, which consisted of all original material, were greeted enthusiastically by critics but, with the exception of the aforementioned title track to Fancy, failed to resonate with the public (though Gentry did generate a significant fan base in the United Kingdom).
Undaunted by declining record sales, Gentry sought other outlets for her creativity. She continued to write and perform, touring Europe and headlining a Las Vegas review in which she produced, choreographed, and wrote and arranged the music. In 1974, Gentry hosted a short-lived summer replacement variety show, The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour on CBS. The show, which served as her own version of Campbell's hit series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, also on CBS, was not picked up for a full season. That same year, Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director (and Beverly Hillbillies actor) Max Baer, Jr.'s film, Macon County Line. Baer would go on to direct a feature film take on Ode To Billy Joe, starring Robbie Benson, in which the mystery of Billie Joe's suicide is revealed as a part of the conflict between his love for Bobbie Lee Hartley and his emerging homosexuality.
By the middle 1970s, Gentry's sellability had waned significantly, and Capitol did not renew her contract. After some behind-the-scenes work in television production failed to hold her interests, Gentry decided to retire from show business. Her last public appearance as a performer was on Christmas night 1978, as a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She has deliberately remained out of the limelight ever since.
Personal life
She was married twice. The first, to casino magnate William F. Harrah in 1969, when she was 27 and he was 58, lasted only three months, a victim of her fame. The second, to novelty singer-songwriter Jim Stafford, ended in 1979, after only eleven months of marriage and the birth of a son, Tyler. The details of Gentry's personal life after her retirement are little known, but it is generally believed that she has settled into a happy life, and enjoys being a private citizen, unhindered by the scrutiny that fame brings. As of January 2003, she was living in Los Angeles County, California.
Rainmaker
Bobbie Gentry Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Last rain was in May
When the rainmaker come to Kansas
In the middle of a dusty day
Said the rainmaker to the people
"Donate what you are prepared to pay"
Said the rainmaker to the people
Ninety degrees 'neath the trees where it′s shady
Hundred and ten in the hot sun
Heat from the street burned the feet of the ladies
See how they run
Ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah
Called down the lightnin'
By a mystical name
And the rainmaker called on the thunder
And then suddenly it began to rain
Then the rainmaker passed his hat to the people
But the people all turned away
And the rainmaker's eyes and the Kansas skies
Well, they both became a darker grey
Ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah
First day in August
Last rain was in May
When the rainmaker come to Kansas
In the middle of a dusty day
And the rainmaker smiled as he hitched up his wagon
And without a word he rode way
And the people of the town heard the sound of his laughter
And they knew the rain had come to stay
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day-ay
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day-ay
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day-ay
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day-ay
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day-ay
In "Rainmaker," Bobbie Gentry tells the story of a drought-stricken Kansas town that turns to a rainmaker for help. On the first day of August, in the middle of the dry season, the rainmaker arrives in town and offers to conjure rain if the people donate what they are prepared to pay. The rainmaker calls down lightning and thunder before the sky opens up and it begins to rain, but when the rainmaker passes his hat around for payment, the people turn away, causing his eyes and the Kansas skies to turn darker grey.
Through her storytelling, Gentry captures the desperation of the townspeople, willing to pay anything for relief from their drought, but ultimately unwilling to give the rainmaker what he's due. The rainmaker's laughter as he rides away raises questions about his true intentions and the sincerity of his abilities, but the townspeople are left with no more answers than they had before.
"Rainmaker" is a haunting cautionary tale about desperate times and questionable solutions, illustrating the dangers of relying on quick fixes and promises that seem too good to be true.
Line by Line Meaning
First day in August
The beginning of August, a time of year when it's typically hot and dry
Last rain was in May
It hasn't rained since May, and the ground is dry and dusty
When the rainmaker come to Kansas
A man who claims to have the power to make it rain has come to Kansas
In the middle of a dusty day
The rainmaker appears on a hot and dusty day
Said the rainmaker to the people
The rainmaker speaks to the people of the town
"Donate what you are prepared to pay"
The rainmaker asks the people to give what they can afford in exchange for making it rain
And I'll conjure up rain today
He promises to make it rain if they pay him
Ninety degrees 'neath the trees where it's shady
In the shade, the temperature is still very hot, around 90 degrees Fahrenheit
Hundred and ten in the hot sun
But out in the sun, the temperature is even hotter, around 110 degrees Fahrenheit
Heat from the street burned the feet of the ladies
The pavement is so hot it burns the women's feet
See how they run
The women are running to avoid the hot pavement
Called down the lightnin'
The rainmaker uses his power to call down lightning from the sky
By a mystical name
He does this by calling out a magical name
And the rainmaker called on the thunder
He then calls on the power of thunder to bring rain
And then suddenly it began to rain
Rain starts to fall, seemingly in response to the rainmaker's powers
Then the rainmaker passed his hat to the people
He asks for payment after delivering on his promise to bring rain
But the people all turned away
The people refuse to pay him for his services
And the rainmaker's eyes and the Kansas skies
The rainmaker and the sky both turn grey, as if the rain was never going to come
Well, they both became a darker grey
The implication being that the rainmaker is connected to the weather and is therefore as disappointed as the crowd
And the rainmaker smiled as he hitched up his wagon
The rainmaker is cheerful despite not getting paid, and prepares to leave town
And without a word he rode away
The rainmaker leaves without speaking to anyone
And the people of the town heard the sound of his laughter
The people can hear the rainmaker laughing as he departs, suggesting that he knew all along that he had made it rain
And they knew the rain had come to stay
The townsfolk realize that the rain is actually going to be around for a while
Rain, rain, go away
A common rhyme that children say to try to stop the rain from falling
Come again another day-ay
Hoping that the rain will stop and they can play outside
Writer(s): H. Nilsson, Bill Martin
Contributed by Gabriella B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.