Ode To Billie Joe
Bobbie Gentry
D7
Twas the D7third of June, another sleepy, dusty delta day
I was D7out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at G7dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama D7hollered out the back door "Y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she G7said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today D7Billy Joe MacAllister jumped C7off the Tallahatchie D7Bridge"
And D7Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas
"Well, Billy D7Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's G7five more acres in the lower forty I got to plow"
And Mama D7said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like G7nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now D7Billy Joe MacAllister jumped C7off the Tallahatchie D7Bridge
And D7brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a D7frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't G7I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have D7another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I G7saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you D7tell me Billie Joe's jumped C7off the Tallahatchie D7Bridge"
D7Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been D7cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That G7nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be D7pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He G7said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and D7Billy Joe was throwin' somethin' C7off the Tallahatchie D7Bridge"
A D7year has come an' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
And D7brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a G7virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last spring
And now D7Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And G7me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them D7into the muddy water C7off the Tallahatchie D7Bridge