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Ode (from the Ancient Greek ὠδή) is a type of lyrical verse.^{[citation needed]} A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode.^{[citation needed]} Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist. It is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally.^{[citation needed]}

Greek odes were originally poetic pieces accompanied by symphonic orchestras.^{[citation needed]} As time passed on, they gradually became known as personal lyrical compositions whether sung (with or without musical instruments) or merely recited (always with accompaniment).^{[citation needed]} For some, the primary instrument of choice was either the aulos or the lyre (the latter of which was the most revered instrument to the Ancient Greeks).^{[citation needed]} The written ode, as it was practiced by the Romans, returned to the lyrical form of the Lesbian lyricists.^{[citation needed]}

There are three typical forms of odes:the Pindaric, Horatian, and irregular.^{[citation needed]} Pindaric odes follow the form and style of Pindar.^{[citation needed]} Horatian odes follow conventions of Horace; the odes of Horace deliberately imitated the Greek lyricists such as Alcaeus and Anacreon.^{[citation needed]} Odes by Catullus, as well as other poetry of Catullus, was particularly inspired by Sappho. Irregular odes are rhyming, but they do not employ the three-part form of the Pindaric ode nor the two- or four-line stanza of the Horatian ode.^{[citation needed]}

English ode[link]

An ode is typically a lyrical verse written in praise of, or dedicated to someone or something which captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration for the ode.^{[citation needed]}

The initial model for English odes was Horace, who used the form to write meditative lyrics on various themes. The earliest odes in the English language, using the word in its strict form, were the Epithalamium and Prothalamium of Edmund Spenser.^{[citation needed]}

In the 17th century the most important original odes in English are those of Abraham Cowley and Andrew Marvell. Marvell, in his Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland uses a regular form (two four-foot lines followed by two three-foot lines) modelled on Horace, while Cowley wrote "Pindarique" odes which had irregular patterns of line lengths and rhyme schemes, though they were iambic. The principle of Cowley's Pindariques was based on a misunderstanding of Pindar's metrical practice but was widely imitated nonetheless, with notable success by John Dryden.^{[citation needed]}

With Pindar's metre being better understood in the 18th century, the fashion for Pindaric odes faded, though there are notable actual Pindaric odes by Thomas Gray, The Progress of Poesy and The Bard.^{[citation needed]}

The Pindarick of Cowley was revived around 1800 by William Wordsworth for one of his very finest poems, the Intimations of Immortality ode; irregular odes were also written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley who wrote odes with regular stanza patterns. Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, written in fourteen line terza rima stanzas, is a major poem in the form, but perhaps the greatest odes of the 19th century were Keats's Five Great Odes of 1819 which included Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Psyche, and To Autumn. After Keats, there have been comparatively few major odes in English. One major exception is the fourth verse of the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon which is often known as "The Ode to the Fallen" or more simply as "The Ode".^{[citation needed]}

W.H. Auden also wrote 'Ode', one of his most popular poems from his earlier career when based in London, in opposition to people's ignorance over the reality of war. In interview Auden once stated that he had intended to title the poem My Silver Age in mockery of the supposedly imperial Golden age, however chose 'Ode' as it seemed to provide a more sensitive exploration of warfare.^{[citation needed]}

The English ode's most common rhyme scheme is ABABCDECDE.^{[citation needed]}

Notable practitioners of the ode[link]

• John Keats
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• William Wordsworth
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Edmund Spenser
• Pablo Neruda
• Horace
• Catullus
• Ovid
• Sappho
• Rudyard Kipling
• Emily Dickinson

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gosse, Edmund (1911). "Ode". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

• 'Ode' - JPiC Forum For Writers Glossary Term of the Day
•  "Ode". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2010)

Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American former singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material.^[1] Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.

Gentry shot to international fame with her intriguing Southern Gothic narrative "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The track was fourth in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967^[2] and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. Gentry charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40.^[3] Her album Fancy brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She lost interest in performing in the late 1970s and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.

Early life[link]

Gentry was born Roberta Streeter and is of English and Portuguese ancestry.^{[citation needed]} She was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, to Robert and Ruby (Bullington) Streeter. She has an older brother, Robert Streeter, Jr. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and her mother moved to California. She was raised on her grandparents' farm in Chickasaw County. Her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, and seven-year-old Bobbie composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog". She attended school in Greenwood, Mississippi, and began teaching herself to play the guitar, bass, banjo, and vibes.

At 13, she moved to Arcadia, California, to live with her mother. Gentry graduated from Palm Valley School in 1960. She chose her stage name from the 1952 film Ruby Gentry about a heroine born into poverty but determined to make a success of her life and began performing at local country clubs. Encouraged by Bob Hope, she performed in a revue at Les Folies Bergeres nightclub of Las Vegas.

Gentry then moved to Los Angeles to enter UCLA as a philosophy major. She supported herself in clerical jobs, occasionally performing at nightclubs. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to develop her composition and performing skills. In 1964, she made her recording debut in two duets – "Requiem for Love" and "Stranger in the Mirror" with rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds. She continued performing in nightclubs until Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon heard a demo she had recorded in 1967.

Professional career[link]

In 1967, Gentry produced her first single, the country rock "Mississippi Delta"; however, it was the flipside, "Ode to Billie Joe" with its sparse sound and controversial lyrics that started to receive airplay in the U.S.^[4] Capitol's shortened version added to the song's mystery. Questions arose among the listeners: what did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and why did Billie Joe commit suicide? Gentry herself has commented on the song, saying that its real theme was indifference:^[5]

The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in August 1967 and placed #4 in the year-end chart.^[2] The single hit #8 on Billboard Black Singles and #13 in the UK Top 40^[3] and sold over three million copies all over the world.^[1] Rolling Stone magazine listed it among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2001.

	"Ode to Billie Joe" noicon Sample from "Ode To Billie Joe".
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The LP replaced Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the top of U.S. charts. It also reached #5 of the Billboard Black Albums charts. Gentry won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She was also named the Academy of Country Music's Best New Female Vocalist.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1968, Gentry took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo, as one of two performers (alongside Al Bano) of the song "La siepe" by Vito Pallavicini and Massara. In a competition of 24 songs, the entry qualified to the final 14 and eventually placed ninth.^[6]

Bobbie Gentry's second album, The Delta Sweete, released in 1968, did not match the success of her first. It yielded a Billboard top-sixty hit "Okolona River Bottom Band". She also collaborated on the album Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, which earned a gold record certificate. Gentry made numerous guest appearances on TV shows hosted by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Andy Williams, Carol Burnett and Bobby Darin. Among them was her performance of the Cajun number "Niki Hoeky" on The Summer Smothers Brothers Show.^[7][8] In 1969, she released Touch 'Em with Love, her most critically acclaimed album, which gave her a number-one hit in the UK with "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. In January 1970, it became a number-six hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for Dionne Warwick. Gentry hosted her own series on BBC-TV in London, which was later widely shown in Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and elsewhere.

In 1970, she received recognition for her composition "Fancy", which rose to #26 on the U.S. Country charts and #31 on the pop charts.^[1] Gentry's personal view on the song:^[9]

The album, as was the case with the rest of her post-"Ode to Billie Joe" recordings, had little commercial success. However, it brought Gentry an Academy of Country Music Award and a Grammy nomination, both in the category of Best Female Vocalist.^[10]

Stage performances and television work (1971-1981)[link]

Gentry continued to write and perform, touring Europe, generating a significant fan base in the United Kingdom. She signed a million-dollar contract to headline in her own $150,000 nightclub revue in Las Vegas for which she produced, choreographed, and wrote and arranged the music. She said,^[5]

In 1974, Gentry hosted a short-lived summer replacement variety show, The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour, on CBS. The show, which was her version of Campbell's hit series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, also on CBS, was not renewed for a full season. That same year, Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director Max Baer, Jr.'s film, Macon County Line. In 1976, Baer directed the feature film Ode to Billy Joe, which was based on her hit song ^[11] and starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. In the movie, the mystery of the title character's suicide is revealed as a part of the conflict between his love for Bobbie Lee Hartley and his emerging homosexuality. Gentry's re-recording of the song for the film hit the pop charts, as did Capitol's reissue of the original recording; both peaked outside the top fifty. Her behind-the-scenes work in television production failed to hold her interest. After a 1978 single for Warner Bros. Records, "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right" failed to chart, Gentry decided to retire from show business. Her last public appearances as a performer were on Christmas Night 1978 as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and on 10 May 1981 on All-Star Salute to Mother's Day.^[12] After that, she settled in Los Angeles and remained out of the public eye.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Gentry has been married three times. Her first marriage was to casino magnate Bill Harrah in 1969 and lasted only weeks. She married singer and comedian Jim Stafford on October 15, 1975; they divorced a few years later after the birth of their son Tyler. She has since remarried.^[13]

Artistry[link]

In the hectic atmosphere of 1967, Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" stood out with its simplicity and integrity.^[14] Gentry is one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material.^[1] Typically her songs have autobiographic characteristics.^[14]

Legacy[link]

Bobbie Gentry charted 11 singles in Billboard Hot 100^[1] and four singles in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. ^[3]

Beth Orton recorded a song entitled "Bobby Gentry" featured on her The Other Side of Daybreak album. Similarly, Jill Sobule recorded "Where Is Bobbie Gentry?" for her album California Years. Gentry's 1969 composition "Fancy" provided a top-ten country hit for Reba McEntire, who covered the song in 1991.

Producer and singer Joe Henry, in a 2011 interview, cited "Ode" as "an incredibly deft bit of writing in the way that that story is unfolded. ... [I]t places the character in a moment, and then the story just starts to unfold around it", and was a song that influenced him early in his life listening to music on the radio.^[15]

In May, 2012, BBC Radio 2 in the UK broadcast a documentary entitled 'Whatever Happened to Bobby Gentry?', presented by country music artist Roseanne Cash.^[16]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

B-Sides[link]

References[link]

The Raveonettes
Background information
Origin	Copenhagen, Denmark
Genres	Garage rock, indie rock,[1] shoegazing, noise pop, surf rock
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Sony Records Fierce Panda Records Vice Records
Website	http://www.theraveonettes.com/
Members
Sune Rose Wagner Sharin Foo
Past members
Manoj Ramdas Jakob Hoyer Anders Christiensen

The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock^[1] duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner (born 1973, Sønderborg, Denmark) on guitar, instruments, and vocals, and Sharin Foo (born 22 November 1973, Emmelev, Denmark) on bass, guitar and vocals. Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers^[2] coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise, very similar to The Jesus and Mary Chain.^[3] Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of '50s and '60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats, and often dark lyrical content (e.g., crime, drugs, murder, suicide, love, lust, and betrayal), similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground.

Biography[link]

The duo met in Copenhagen and, after forming the band, began recording Whip It On at Once Was & Sauna Recording Studio, a former Sony Studios facility. They booked the studio for three weeks during non-session down time late in 2001 and handled all production chores by themselves. Adding guitarist Manoj Ramdas and jazz drummer Jakob Hoyer, The Raveonettes booked one of their first gigs at the SPOT festival in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. After the release of Whip It On on the seminal Danish Crunchy Frog label, Hoyer and Ramdas would contribute to the next three Raveonettes albums, along with other additional musicians. However, by the time Lust Lust Lust was released in 2007, Sune and Sharin would be the only two musicians credited, showing a return to the dynamic around the time of the mini-album.

Officially, the band was discovered by Rolling Stone editor David Fricke at the SPOT festival, and his rave review of the duo immediately resulted in a number of offers from major labels. Unofficially, the band discovered that David Fricke would be present at the SPOT festival, and they rushed a band together and headed for the festival. The band is managed by Scott Cohen (music business) and Richard Gottehrer, who have been with them from the start. Cohen and Gottehrer orchestrated a bidding war for the band which culminated in the $2 million Columbia Records signing in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Whip It On was named "Best Rock Album of the Year" at the Danish Music Awards (Denmark's Grammy equivalent) on March 1, 2003, while The Raveonettes were picked by Rolling Stone and Q Magazine as being among the harbingers of the "Next Wave" of contemporary music.

In 2006, Blender named Sharin Foo one of rock's hottest women, alongside Courtney Love, Joan Jett, and Liz Phair.^[4]

[edit] Chain Gang of Love

The band's first full-length album, Chain Gang of Love, was produced by Richard Gottehrer and The Raveonettes' own Sune Rose Wagner. The album was recorded in Denmark and New York from October 9–17, November 6–12, and December 4–10, 2002, and mixed in London in early 2003. The thirteen songs on Chain Gang of Love are written by Sune Rose Wagner with the exception of "That Great Love Sound", which Sune co-wrote with Gottehrer. Portions of this song were featured in a U.S. ad for Kmart. The album is notable, in that all the songs were written in the key B-flat major.

[edit] Pretty in Black

Wikinews has related news: The Raveonettes on love, death, desire and war

The band's follow-up album, Pretty in Black, broadened their musical palette, featuring guest vocals from Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes as well as guest instrumental spots from Maureen Tucker (of The Velvet Underground) and Martin Rev (of Suicide). This was their first album in which Sharin Foo did not play bass; instead, The Raveonettes added bass player Anders Christensen, who had toured with seminal jazz drummer Paul Motian, amongst others. Christensen recorded on the album and toured with the band. At the end of the 2005 tour, guitar player Manoj Ramdas left the band to concentrate on his new band SPEKTR.

The video for the single "Love in a Trashcan", directed by Peder Pedersen, features pink bars and blocks with words like "Vamp" and "Teaser" scrolling by the band members, and is reminiscent of an early-1960s cosmetic ad.

[edit] Lust Lust Lust

The duo's third studio album, Lust Lust Lust, was released in November 2007 in Europe and February 2008 in the U.S. The album received generally positive reviews, with the NME's Hardeep Phull describing it as "their most engrossing album."^[5]

In December 2008, Sune Rose Wagner released a solo album, simply titled Sune Rose Wagner. All of the songs are sung in his native language of Danish.^[6]

[edit] In and Out of Control

The Raveonettes' fourth album, In and Out of Control, was released October 6, 2009, with "Last Dance" released as the lead-off single. The album was co-written and produced by Thomas Troelsen. Both "Last Dance" and "Suicide", another song from the album, have been featured on The CW's Gossip Girl.^[7]

[edit] Raven in the Grave

Raven in the Grave, The Raveonettes fifth album, was released April 4, 2011. The album has produced three singles to date.

Gear[link]

During live performances, the band usually utilizes Fender instruments (Sune uses a number of Jazzmasters while Sharin opts for either Mustang or jazz bass, and a Jazzmaster). Sune plays a number of different guitars and basses on their albums, including different Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretsches. In the fall of 2005, the tour van containing the band's equipment (including Sune's prized 1960 Jazzmaster and Sharin's treasured Gretsch 6120) was stolen during their tour of the U.S.

On their 2007 tour, the band used the following effects pedals:^[8]

Sune:

• Electro-Harmonx Pulsar
• ProCo Rat Distortion
• Boss Mega Distortion MD-2
• Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz
• Boss Digital Reverb RV-2 & RV-5
• Danelectro Spring King
• Boss Chromatic Tuner TU-2

Sharin:

• Boss TR-2 Tremolo
• ProCo Rat Distortion
• Boss Digital Reverb RV-5 (3x)
• Zvex Fuzz Factory Vexter
• Boss Chromatic Tuner TU-2

Band line-up by album[link]

Chain Gang of Love

• Sune Rose Wagner: guitars and vocals
• Sharin Foo: bass and vocals
• Manoj Ramdas: guitars
• Jakob Hoyer: drums

Pretty in Black

• Sune Rose Wagner: guitars, vocals, synth, percussion, drums, bass, and programming
• Sharin Foo: vocals and percussion
• Jakob Hoyer: drums and percussion
• Anders Christiensen: bass, percussion, and organ
• Manoj Ramdas: guitar

Lust Lust Lust

• Sune Rose Wagner: instruments and vocals
• Sharin Foo: vocals

Discography[link]

Sune Rose Wagner

Sharin Foo

Studio albums[link]

Notes

¹ Lust Lust Lust's inclusion of 3D glasses rendered it ineligible for the UK Albums Chart.

EPs[link]

• Whip It On (August 6, 2002) (UK #114)^[14]
• Sometimes They Drop By EP (September 23, 2008)
• Beauty Dies EP (October 21, 2008)
• Wishing You a Rave Christmas EP (November 25, 2008)
• Into the Night EP (April 24, 2012)

Compilations[link]

• Rarities/B-Sides (December 15, 2011)

Singles[link]

Soundtracks & Compilations[link]

• FIFA 2004 (2003) with "That Great Love Sound"
• Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack (2005) with "My Boyfriend's Back" (The Angels cover)
• Nordkraft - Original Soundtrack (2005) with "Please You"^[20]
• Amnesty International's Instant Karma (2007) with "One Day at a Time" (John Lennon cover, download only)
• Whip It! Soundtrack (2009) with "Dead Sound"
• Drive Angry Soundtrack (2011) with "You Want the Candy"
• Batman: Arkham City (2011) with "Oh, Stranger"
• Catch .44 Soundtrack (2011) with "Dead Sound"
• Van God Los de serie (2012) with "Evil Seeds" ^[21]

References[link]

Interviews[link]

• Interview with Sune Rose Wagner at www.bmoretunes.com
• In-depth interview with Sharin Foo, 2005
• The Scenestar - May 2007
• Interview with Raveonettes' Sharin Foo at No Ripcord
• Psycho Interview at Brightest Young Things
• Interview with Sune Rose Wagner at Blast
• Interview with Sharin Foo by Rob Townsend
• The Raveonettes' Sharin Foo: The New Gay Interview
• The Raveonettes' Lollapalooza 2009 Interview and Live Performance

External links[link]

• The Raveonettes' website
• The Raveonettes' entry at Trouser Press
• The Raveonettes' entry at Allmusic
• Hollywood Reporter Concert Review
• Interview March 2008
• BBC
• The Scene Star
• Article
• Raveonettes "Dead Sound" live at The Current/Free Yr Radio SXSW 2008 broadcast
• http://www.dailymusicguide.com/Reviews/raveonettes-19122009-1632.aspx Live at Newcastle Academy