ARTIST: Bobbie Gentry TITLE: Ode to Billie Joe Lyrics and Chords 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 Tallahatchee Bridge" / D7 - - - / / G7 - - - / D7 - - - / G7 - - - / D7 C7 D7 - / 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 Tallahatchee 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 Tallahatchee Bridge" Mama said to me, "Child what's happened to your appetite? I been cookin' all mornin' 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 throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchee Bridge" A year has come and gone since we 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 Tallahatchee Bridge
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