Ode To Billie Joe-Billie Jo Spears

[ti:Ode To Billie Joe] [ar:Billie Jo Spears] [al:Country Greats] [by:] [offset:0] [00:09.08]It was the third of June another sleepy dusty Delta day [00:17.53]I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay [00:26.13]And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat [00:34.37]And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet [00:43.07]And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge [00:51.12]"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge [01:00.71]And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas [01:08.70]"Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense pass the biscuits please [01:17.19]"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow [01:25.17]And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe anyhow [01:33.74]Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge [01:42.13]And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge [01:51.53]And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe [01:59.33]Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show [02:07.32]And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night [02:16.13]"I'll have another piece of apple pie you know it don't seem right [02:24.62]"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge [02:32.61]"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge [02:42.29]And Mama said to me "Child what's happened to your appetite [02:49.65]"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite [02:58.20]"That nice young preacher Brother Taylor dropped by today [03:06.19]"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday oh by the way [03:14.91]"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge [03:22.83]"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge [03:31.19]A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe [03:40.24]And Brother married Becky Thompson they bought a store in Tupelo [03:47.85]There was a virus going 'round Papa caught it and he died last Spring [03:56.40]And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything [04:04.42]And me I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge [04:12.72]And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge