• Home
  • Newest
  • Browse
  • Request
  • List
  • More
    Library
    Community Artists Libraries Suggest Map About
    Login
Ode To

Billlly Jloe

Made Famous Byz BOBBIE GENTRY

(Q www.singtotheworld.com
El III E El El
It was the third of June.

Another sleepy, dusty
Delta day
It was the third of June.

Another sleepy, dusty
Delta day
l was out chopping

cotton and my brother
was baling hay
And at dinner time we
stopped and walked
back to the house to

eat
And Mama hollered out
the back door, Y'all

remember to wipe your
feet
And then she said,
I got some news this

morning from Choctaw
Ridge
Today,
Billy-Joe MacAllister

jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge
And Papa said to Mama
aslhe passed around
the black-eyed peas
Well, Billy-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
Billy-Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever

comes to no good up
on Choctaw Ridge
And now
BiIIy-Joe MacAllister's

jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge
And brother said he

recbllected when he
and Tom and Billy-Joe
Had 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, y'know it
don't seem right
I saw him at the

sawmill yesterday on
Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me
Billy-Joe's jumped off
the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Mama said to me,

Child, what's happened
to your appetite?
I've been cooking 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, by the way
He said he saw a girl
that looked a lot like you
up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and
BiIIy-Joe was throwing

something off the
Tallahatchie Bridge
A year has come
and gonk since we

heard the news 'bout
Billy-Joe
And brother married
Becky Thompson.

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 wanna do much
of anything
And me, I spend a lot of

time picking flowers up
on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into
the muddy water, off the
Tallahatchie Bridge
Previous Next
Title
Ode To Billy Joe
Artist
Gentry, Bobby
Brand
Sing to the World
(3 Other Versions)
Code
STTW2934-04