This song is so ingrained that we can become blind to what it shows us. Or it is reduced to a mystery: What were they throwing off the bridge? Why did Billie Joe commit suicide?
Close your eyes. Listen to it fresh. It is a cold song, chilling in the harshness of what we hear. The narrator is distraught over the suicide of Billie Joe, yet her family mentions it the way they might the crop report. The tragedy does not concern them, so it does not touch them. The details, the specifics of the dialogue, no matter how banal, make it work.
And the narrator learns. By the song’s end, her father has died and her mother is distraught, but she shows no emotion. She’s off picking flowers and tossing them off the bridge. She’s alone. We’re alone.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/cJZ_ViDADOE?si=QJ7AxHbMM6ZiVkc1
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4FdDorlbJTVHcH3djLbIfn?si=c5854b0c17fa4ccd