Karaoké Ode to Billy Joe Bobbie Gentry

It was the third of June another sleepy dusty delta day

I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay

And at dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered at the back door

Ya'll remember to wipe your feet

And then she said

I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billy Joe

McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And papa said to mama as he passed around the black eyed peas

Oh 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 Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe

He put a frog down my 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 don't seem right

I saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on

Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me Billy Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And mama said to me

Child, what's happened to your appetite?

Why 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 by the way

He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

And she and Billy Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge

A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe

And brother married

Becky Thompson they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus goin' '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 pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop 'em into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge