“Ode+to+Billy+Joe”+lyrics+sheet

 =Ode to Billie Joe Lyrics =

by 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 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"

Then she said, "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas

"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick o' 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 nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billie Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge 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 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 on Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge Mama said to me, "Child what's happened to your appetite?

I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched 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 Billie Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" A year has come and gone since I heard the news 'bout Billie Joe

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 want to 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

 