I think Tuner has a point.

Most of what the neighbors had to say about "Momma" was based not upon their concern for her spiritual and moral welfare; it was really a class thing. The "better" classes love to look down their noses at anything and everything their "inferiors" do. This makes the "betters" feel smugly superior about themselves, and also serves as a mechanism by which to keep the "lowers" in their place: quiet, subservient, not "uppity", not challenging or threatening the status-quo. Which is what "Momma" did, and good for her!

Their condemning, condescending attitude has little to do with Christianity!

How very different it would be if someone like Melanie from Gone with the Wind had sat down quietly with "Momma" one day, and said, "Mrs. Taylor, I think of you so often, and how difficult things must be for you, a single parent. I would so love it if you and your daughter would join my family and me for church and dinner in our home one Sunday soon . . ." Melanie is hoping to "convert" Momma, yes, but what a very different way to go about it!
Marion (Mael Muire) | 09.02.06 - 11:50 am | #

What a coincidence! My husband and I heard this song in the car recently, and we both agreed that telling off the PTA is not synonymous with being a good mother.

Actually, we really cannot judge Mrs. Johnson, since we are unable to determine the veracity of the PTA's accusations against her, other than the short skirt.

Note, this version of the song is slightly condensed, so some of Mrs. Johnsons remarks to the PTA are not included -- such as being asked seven times for a date by a PTA officer & why anothers secretary had to suddenly leave this town. I guess we get the point, anyway.

BTW, as per the first verse, since the song is sung by the teenage daughter, does that mean that Jeannie C. Reily is 15 years old?
Karen B. | 09.02.06 - 1:42 pm | #

It's interesting that the audience claps and cheers (with sympathy for Mrs. Johnson, perhaps) at the line
"Well, Mr. Harper couldn't be here 'cause he stayed too long at Kelly's Bar again".

Is a largely female audience relating?

But what's the point?
An absentee husband/ father justifies Mrs. Johnson's high skirts?
Hubby's downfall is Wifey's license to do a little down-fallin' herself?
Nice try Mrs. J, but it doesn't work that way.
Leif | 09.02.06 - 11:09 pm | #

...not that there's anything wrong with high skirts.
(That just lit a fuse for a 225-comment discussion)

And what an era of change, there in 1968, even down to the superficial stuff...
the drummer's got his mop-top hair down a la The Monkeys or a million other men of the era, while the guitarists are still sporting the old rockabilly pompadours. Hang around ten years, Mr. 1968 guitarist and you can do back up for The Stray Cats.
Leif | 09.02.06 - 11:28 pm | #

I'm still trying to figure out what got tossed off the Tallahatchie Bridge...

www.forgotten-ny.com
Kevin Walsh | Homepage | 09.02.06 - 11:55 pm | #

Ditto what Kevin said. Both those songs were active in my radio dj days and somewhere in the back of my head is there some connection between Bobbie Gentry and the Harper Valley song? Did she write it or cover it about the same time as Jeannie C.?
Tough getting old. But then, I was a teenager when those gals were performing, so they must be getting up there too.
Robert N G | Homepage | 09.03.06 - 9:36 am | #

Speaking of finding conservative messages in unlikely places, check out the lyric to Tom Petty's song "All The Wrong Reasons". To me the song is a put down of the break up of the family and the embracing of ME Generation self-centeredness ("It became her new religion").
Viator | 09.03.06 - 1:02 pm | #

Didn't Wham wear T-shirts that said "CHOOSE LIFE" way back when?

Who knows what they had in mind...
Leif | 09.03.06 - 8:06 pm | #