Number 18, Ode to Bobby Gentry

I heard Ode to Billie Jo on the radio today.  It is curious where inspiration comes from for a rhyme.  I did a lot of things today, but this song was the one which tempted the ink out from the little hole at the end of the pen.

Number 18.

Ode to Bobbie Gentry.

Frank Beard has no beard,
And Bobbie Gentry’s disappeared.
To help her many people tried,
But Amy Winehouse sadly died.

Tina Turner’s rocking old,
Tom Jones' still rocking solid gold.
Sid Vicious, even Johnny Rotten
Are not so easily forgotten.

Elvis Presley’s on the moon
Alive and well, he’ll be back soon.
He’s been seen in other places;
Must be a man of many faces.

Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page,
Justin Bieber act your age,
Lest we forget you’re still a child,
While Charlotte Church, grown up’s gone wild.

Why ever not? most pop stars do,
Remember Kylie Minogue who
Was once a little girl in soaps,
With youthful aspirations, hopes.

No chance she’d stay within that box,
She grew into a sexy fox;
Her singing talent soon to foister
Onto all the world, her oyster.

You know Mick Jagger won’t retire;
On stage one day he’ll just expire.
The Rolling Stones at eighty five
Will still be well worth seeing live.

Susan Boyle ain’t no looker,
And no one said to John Lee Hooker,
Pack it in you’re over the hill,
We don’t put oldies on the bill.

Madonna’s on her next big tour,
She can do it that’s for sure.
There are many who would see
Her even in senility.

There is no pension age for these;
Just disappearance when they wheeze.
One day they’re there, and then they’re gone;
You maybe heard their final song.

But all of them will be remembered,
Though legend has their lives dismembered.
Truth and lies, exaggeration;
Great music for our generation.

No matter what the age we’ve got to,
All these icons still we rock to.
But come back down, ever so gently
Where on Earth is Bobbie Gentry?

© Stephen Saunders

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