Dedication Page Vol.4

Dengan kemewahan teknologi yang dia punya, temen gw si Scarlet mengirim dua file lagu lewat messenger. Satu adalah lagu kebangsaan dia, Scarlet Ribbon, satunya lagi lagu yang udah setahunan ini gw cari-cari... Ode To Billy Joe, setelah sebelumnya dia mengirimi gw The Death of Lhakpa-nya Bruno Coulais ("Himalaya-l'enfance d'un chef") yang juga susah banget gw dapet dari Net. Ah, temen yang baik (juga rada manis pas anteng difoto)... di sela-sela kesibukan dan problem berat yang menimpanya, dia masih menyisakan waktu buat lucu-lucuan seperti ini.

Nah, buat manjang-manjangin postingan, gw paste lyric dari lagu itu di sini...


Ode To Billie Joe (Bobbie Gentry)

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "Y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black eyed peas
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?"
I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Ini adalah lagu yang sangat simpel, minimalis banget melodinya kayak musik pengamen. Tapi lyric-nya sampai sekarang masih dibahas orang. Sangat sederhana, yakni tentang misteri bunuh diri seorang pemuda, yang tak disangka-sangka punya hubungan erat dengan si subject-lyric. Sebagai "puisi naratif" yang struktur rima dan meter-nya cermat, lagu ini lumayan lentur cara bertuturnya. Nggak mbulet tapi "kosong" kayak kebanyakan lagu2 zaman sekarang.

Dah ah, tar dibilang sok njelimet...