Ode to Billie Joe
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It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
Well, I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was bailin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked up to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the backdoor "Y'all remember to wipe your feet"
Then she said, "I got some news today from Choctaw Ridge
It seems that Billie Joe Macallister
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
Well, Daddy said to Mama as he passed around the black eyed peas
"That Billie Joe, he never had a lick
Of sense, pass the biscuits please
And there's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe anyhow
She said, "Nothin' good ever happens up on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billie Joe's done
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
Oh, Brother said he recollected when him and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night
"I'll have another piece of apple pie
You know it just don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billie Joe's done
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
Well, Mama said, "Child, what's happened to your appetite?
Well, I've been cookin' all morning
And you haven't touched a single bite
Oh, that nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, and by the way
Well, he said he saw a girl that looked
A lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
She and Billie Joe were throwing
Somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
Well, a year's come and gone since we heard the news about Billie Joe
That brother married Becky Thompson and they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And droppin' 'em into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Oh, yeah
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day