Ode To Billy Joe

It was the third of June
Another sleepy dusty Delta day
I was out picking cotton
My brother was baling hay
And at dinner time we stopped
Back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door
Y’all remember to wipe your feet
She said I got some news today
From up on Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe MacAllister
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to Mama as he
Passed around the blackeyed peas
Well Billy Joe he never had a lick of sense
Pass the biscuits please
I’ve got four more acres
In the lower forty still left to plow
Mama said it was shame about
Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good
Up on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billy Joe
Has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Tell me brother

Sister let me recollect
How me and Bob and Billie Joe
We put a frog down your back
At the Carroll County picture show
Weren’t you talkin’ to him
After church last Sunday night
I’ll have another piece of apple pie
Lord I know that that ain’t right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday
Up there on that Choctaw Ridge
And now ya tell me Billie Joe’s
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Mama said to me, Child
What’s happened to your appetite?
Said I’ve been cookin’ all morning
And you haven’t touched a single bite
By the way that nice young preacher, Brother Robert
Stopped by today
Said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday
Oh, by the way
He said he saw a girl
That looked a lot like you
On Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin’
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge

A year has come and gone
Since we heard the news bout Billy Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson
They bought a store in Tupelo
There was a fever going round
Papa caught it and he died last Spring
Now Mama doesn’t seem
To wanna do much of anything
Me, I spend a lot of time
Pickin flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And throw them down into the muddy waters
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And throw them down into the muddy waters
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge