Ode To Billie Joe

Ode To Billie Joe - Diana Ross & The Supremes

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 we walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered at the back door

"y'all remember to wipe your feet"

And then she said she got some news

This mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billie Joe MacAllister

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama as he passed

Around the blackeyed 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"

Mama said it was shame

About Billie Joe anyhow

Seems like nothin' ever comes

To no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billie Joe MacAllister

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 just 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've 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 Billie Joe

Was throwing somethin' off

The Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since

We heard the news 'bout Billie Joe

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 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 Tallahatchie Bridge