"The Girl From Chickasaw County" by BOBBIE GENTRY – 'Highlights' 46-Track 2CD Compilation Edited From The September 2018 UMC Eight-CD Box Set 'The Girl From Chickasaw County (The Complete Capitol Masters)'. Includes Stereo Tracks on Capitol Records from 1967 to 1972 with Guests Glen Campbell and The Fame Gang at Muscle Shoals Studios alongside Arranger Jimmie Haskell and Producers Kelly Gordon, Kelso Herston and Rick Hall (August 2022 UK UMC (Universal Music Catalogue) 2CD 'Highlights' Compilation with 2018 Simon Gibson and Andrew Batt Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

 

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 ****

"...A Little Bit Of Perfume On My Salty Cheek..."

 

Compiler ANDREW BATT won the hearts of every BOBBIE GENTRY fan when after years of collating, creation and pantsuit locating - the 8CD vaults-trawl Box Set 'The Girl From Chickasaw County (The Complete Capitol Masters)' was issued worldwide in September 2018 on UMC (short for Universal Music Catalogue).

 

That mammoth offered a 10" x 10" Box Set with an 84-Page Hardback Book, a huge 76 Previously Unreleased and Remixed/Remastered Audio for nine albums in Stereo (eight released between 1967 to 1972 with one post compilation from 2014) and almost all of it sounding like it was recorded only last week for some Folk and Country Audiophile label. Penned by the Tallahassee Lassie with long flowing hair and a bedroom-promise voice - Grammy-nominated Acoustic Folk-Rock, Country-Folk, Country-Soul and its feminist acoustic gut-string guitar plucking had never sounded so sexy.

 

But all that Presentation excellence and Herculean effort did not come with a cheap-as-chips price tag. So I suppose it was inevitable that some form of truncated version would be culled from that Motherlode and here it is - a 'Highlights' 2CD best of the best with the same name 'The Girl From Chickasaw County' just minus 'The Complete...' adage. It's time therefore 'non-swamp people' to hop on board a greyhound bus and head down to the Mississippi Delta. Here are the intimate details...

 

UK released 5 August 2022 - "The Girl From Chickasaw County" by BOBBIE GENTRY on UMC (Universal Music Catalogue) 5395653 (Barcode 600753956533) is a 'Highlights' 46-Track 2CD Compilation Edited From The September 2018 Universal Music 8CD Box Set 'The Girl From Chickasaw County (The Complete Capitol Masters)' that plays out as follows:

 

CD1 (68:35 minutes):

1. Ode To Billie Joe

2. I Saw An Angel Die

3. Chickasaw County Child

4. Sunday Best (Alternate Take)

5. Hurry, Tuesday Child (Demo)

6. Niki Hokey / Barefootin' (Live at the BBC)

7. Mississippi Delta (Alternative Version)

8. The Seventh Son (Band Version)

9. Okolono River Bottom Band

10. Mornin' Glory

11. Jessye' Lisabeth

12. Refractions

13. Courtyard

14. Feelin' Good (Demo)

15. Sweete Peony (Alternate Version)

16. Casket Vignette *

17. Recollection *

18. Eleanor Rigby *

19. Sittin' Pretty

20. Hushabye Mountain *

21. The Conspiracy Of Homer Jones

22. Sunday Mornin' (Alternate Version)

23. Let It Be With Me – Duet with GLEN CAMPBELL

NOTES on CD1:

ALBUMS:

Tracks 1 to 3 from her debut album "Ode to Billie Joe", released 28 June 1967 in the USA on Capitol ST-2830 in Stereo

Tracks 9 to 13 from her second album "The Delta Sweete", released 5 February 1968 in the USA on Capitol ST-2842 in Stereo

Tracks 16 to 19 from her third album "Local Gentry", released 26 August 1968 in the USA on Capitol St-2964 in Stereo

Track 23 is from her fourth album "Bobbie Gentry And Glen Campbell", released 16 September 1968 on Capitol ST-2928 in Stereo

COMPILATIONS:

Track 6 from the VINYL LP compilation "Live At The BBC", released 21 April 2014 on UMC/Capitol 6717729

Tracks 4, 5, 7, 8, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 from the "The Girl From Chickasaw County (The Complete Capitol Masters)", an 8CD Box Set released 21 September 2018 on UMC (Universal Music Catalogue) 5383971

* Remixed for this release (Tracks 16, 17, 18 and 20)

 

CD2 (74:17 minutes):

1. Supper Time

2. God Bless The Child

3. This Girl's In Love With You

4. Touch 'Em With Love (Stereo Version)

5. Greyhound Goin' Somewhere

6. Seasons Come, Seasons Go (Demo)

7. Glory Hallelujah, How They'll Sing (Alternate Take)

8. Fancy

9. Find 'Em, Fool 'Em And Forget 'Em

10. He Made A Woman Out Of Me

11. Rainmaker

12. Circle 'Round The Sun

13. Apartment 21 (Stereo Version)

14. Billy The Kid (Live At The BBC)

15. Benjamin

16. But I Can't Get Back

17. Belinda (Acoustic Version)

18. Mean Stepmama Blues

19. Lookin' In

20. Smoke

21. Joanne

22. You And Me Together

23. The Girl From Cincinnati

NOTES on CD2:

 

ALBUMS:

Track 5 from her fifth studio album "Touch 'Em With Love", released 7 July 1969 in the USA on Capitol ST-155 in Stereo – Producer Kelso Herston

Tracks 8 to 11 from her sixth album "Fancy", released 6 April 1970 in the USA on Capitol ST-428 in Stereo – Produced by Bobbie Gentry and Rick Hall, Arrangements by Jimmie Haskell – featuring The Fame Gang at Muscle Shoals Studios. Released July 1970 in the UK with the same tracks but as "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" on Capitol ST 21609

Tracks 15, 16, 18 and 19 from her seventh (and last album for Capitol Records) "Patchwork", released 26 April 1971 in the USA on Capitol ST-494

Tracks 23 and 22 (note order) are the A&B-sides of an August 1972 US stand-alone 45-single on Capitol 3413 – its picture sleeve is in the booklet

COMPILATIONS:

Track 14 from the VINYL LP compilation "Live At The BBC", released 21 April 2014 on UMC/Capitol 6717729

Tracks 1 to 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20 and 21 from the "The Girl From Chickasaw County (The Complete Capitol Masters)", an 8CD Box Set released 21 September 2018 on UMC (Universal Music Catalogue) 5383971

 

You get a card slipcase with a Gold Hype Sticker (mostly praising the 8CD box set from whence this 2CD Highlights set came from), a beautifully laid out 36-page booklet and the same ANDREW BATT and SIMON GIBSON Remasters from the 2018 Box Set. It cannot be overstated how good this set sounds – just gorgeous STEREO throughout – even on quiet demos like "Hurry, Tuesday Child" – it has clear and fulsome imaging. For sure the "Live At The BBC" stuff doesn't do much for me and a couple of the Alternate Takes sound a tad scrawny around the edges. But these occurrences are rare to say the least. However, I am docking a star for the truly dumb exclusion of the studio hit version of "Mississippi Delta" (a deeply popular BG track) that is presented here only as an Alternate Take. Although the AT version is good, it's not the same.

 

As you wade through CD1, you stumble on deep LP cuts like "Refractions" and "Courtyard" from her second LP "The Delta Sweete" - Bridget St. John/Lesley Duncan-sounding pretties in gorgeous audio (dig those orchestrations and doubled almost soulful vocals). "Courtyard" was used as the flipside to the magnificent "Fancy" 45-single from November 1969 in the USA (Capitol 2675) while over in Blighty they tapped the equally cool "Okolono River Bottom Band" as its B-side (October 1970 on Capitol CL 15660). Amazing discoveries include a truly lovely "Feelin' Good (Demo)" – itself followed by a far funkier alternate of "Sweete Peony". Compiler Batt does the smart thing with the "Local Gentry" LP that was too top-heavy with cheesy covers and instead he taps into the session outtakes for better songs. There's a lovely version of the Chitty Chittty Bang Bang ballad "Hushabye Mountain" which he right chooses and praises, but I'm not as nearly enamored with her far-too-fast take on The Beatles "Revolver" diamond "Eleanor Rigby" (how can you ruin a classic like this and yet to my ears she does). Batt also gives us her de-strung duet with Glen Campbell on their cover of the Everly Brothers classic "Let It Be Me" which again sees the song with more soul than radio schmooze. To CD2...

 

Even now in July 2023 - listening to a beautifully remastered Stereo cut of "Fancy" - about a white-trash girl being advised by her mum to make a break for it - it's so lyrically charged it's astonishing. Gentry even called it her feminist clarion call and hearing its cold-and-cruel words about mean men and their using ways – it is truly stunning stuff. That is in turn followed by the vicious sentiment in "Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, And Forget 'Em" – Daddy passing on more cold advice to his naïve daughter. The song had been done by Soul Boy George Jackson and in the hands of a male voice, it just sounded like another male egotistcal-struter. But given the role reversal (a woman singing it), Gentry suddenly sounds like she's going to chainsaw everything in her path - "Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, And Forget 'Em" is downright provocative and dangerous and Gentry sings it with such defiance that you can only admire the sheer ballsiness of it. 

 

Following that is another fabulous statement song "He Made A Woman Out Of Me" where Joey makes a woman out of BG but of course leaves her in his young buck's rear-view mirror. But again - unrepentant – Billie takes that character-shaping sting forward with her so that now, no sucker gets to peddle the same bull ever again. The Muscle Shoals Brass and Strings gives her cover version of Nilsson's "Rainmaker" an aural oomph (heat from the street). There is beautiful orchestration to the Traditional "Circle 'Round The Sun" – very Robert Kirby – her voice soaring as he hooks into the melody's beauty. Other lovelies on CD2 include a gorgeous and heartfelt acoustic ballad version of the Billie Holiday classic "God Bless The Child", a non saccharine take on the Bacharach/David gem "This Girl's In Love With You" and deep LP cuts like "Greyhound Goin' Somewhere" (towns name-checked) and a very clear Acoustic/Voice only Demo of "Seasons Come, Seasons Go".

 

In the end there are probably too many same-sounding songs here – that acoustic style she mastered at the outset and seemed to rigidly stick too. But given the strength of the material and those outtake discoveries allied with world-class audio – and you would have to say this twofer is a Goody Two Shoes – in with a bullet.

 

Get "...A Little Bit Of Perfume On My Salty Cheek..." in your life. And watch out for those roaches slithering across your high-heel shoes as they scurry past the rotten black-eyed peas discarded from a passing farmer's truck as you cross the Tallahassee Bridge looking for the ghost of Billie Joe McAlister and his crew of no-marks..