Bobby Gentry called Ode To Billy Joe "a study in unconscious cruelty." It's not about anything really specific other than the girl who's eating dinner talking to her parents who mention that Billy Joe died jumping off the Tallahatchie River Bridge. And that a girl that looked liked her had been seen before hand with Billy, throwing something off it as well. In reality, the aforementioned bridge was only a few feet deep and people who consequently jumped off it just ended up in muddy water. The song is more about how terrible things are trivialized and fall into the background with the passage of time. But its one of those songs that almost has a mythology all by itself. Funny, but if you listen to the song "Fancy" by Bobby Gentry, the one Reba McEntire covered, that story draws straight from Gentry's own life and personal reflections. Sadly, Reba's version overshadows Gentry's which I feel is superior in every way.