It was the third of June another sleepy dusty Delta day

It was June 3rd and there were only a precious couple of days left in my junior year of high school. It seemed like the whole world was ahead of me and that opportunities were endless. Even as the years blur and often erase the memories of many events in my life, that one moment in time stays with me because it is inexorably linked to music.

Driving in my neighborhood, I recall the DJ on the oldies station making a point of the date, June 3, because two pop songs use that date as part of the story they tell. "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobby Gentry tells the muddy tale of a family affected by the apparent suicide of a young man. A dissection of the song lyrics can be found here

The second song, "Desiree" by Neil Diamond is about Neil's character losing his virginity to a woman twice his age. Apparently statutory rape was acceptable in the 70's.

In the years that followed on June 3 I would listen to oldies stations hoping that the DJ would know what the significance of that date. He/she apparently never did as I would listen and smugly think I had greater musical knowledge than the person on the other side of the radio.

Now I can just play the songs on my ipod (listened to them twice already today) and recall a time of youthful exuberance.

Below is the Bobby Gentry song

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and the Neil Diamond song

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