Bobbie Gentry-Ode To Billie Joe lyrics

^. . . .

It was the third of June,
another sleepy dusty delta day
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped
and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered from the back door-:
''Ya'll remember to wipe your feet''
And then she said ''I got some news this morning
from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billie Joe Mc Allister jumped off
the Tallahatchee Bridge''

And papa said to Mama
as she passed around the black-eyed peas-:
''Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense,
pass the biscuits please.
There's five more acres in the lower forty
I've got to plow''
And Mama said it was a shame
about Billie Joe anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good
up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe Mc Allister's jumped off
the Tallahatchee Bridge''

My brother said he recollected
when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back
at the Carroll County picture show
''And wasn't I talking to him
after church last Sunday night
I'll have another piece of apple-pie,
you know it don't seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday
on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off
the Tallahatchee Bridge''

And Mama said to me-: ''Child,
what's happened to your appetite-?
I been cookin' all morning
and you haven't touched a single bite
That nice young preacher Brother Taylor
dropped by today
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday,
oh and by the way,
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you
up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billie Joe was throwin' something off
the Tallahatchee Bridge''

A year has come and gone
since we heard the news about Billie Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson,
they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus goin' around,
Papa caught it and he died last Spring
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 drop them into the muddy water off
the Tallahatchee Bridge...