[ti:Ode To Billie Joe]
[ar:Nancy Wilson]
[al:]

[00:10.03]It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
[00:19.84]I was out choppin  cotton and my brother was balin  hay
[00:30.75]And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
[00:40.87]And Mama hollered out the back door  y all remember to wipe your feet 
[00:50.93]And then she said  I got some news this mornin  from Choctaw Ridge 
[01:01.77] Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge 
[01:10.11]
[01:12.70]And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
[01:22.31] Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please 
[01:31.25] There s five more acres in the lower forty I ve got to plow 
[01:40.93]And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
[01:50.76]Seems like nothin  ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
[02:00.86]And now Billy Joe MacAllister s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[02:10.06]
[02:11.38]And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
[02:20.39]Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
[02:30.39]And wasn t I talkin  to him after church last Sunday night?
[02:40.24] I ll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don t seem right 
[02:50.84] I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge 
[03:00.27] And now you tell me Billie Joe s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge 
[03:09.39]
[03:10.28]And Mama said to me  Child, what s happened to your appetite? 
[03:19.75] I ve been cookin  all morning and you haven t touched a single bite 
[03:29.69] That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today 
[03:38.81] Said he d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way 
[03:49.13] He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge 
[03:58.15] And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin  off the Tallahatchie Bridge 
[04:07.94]A year has come  n  gone since we heard the news  bout Billy Joe
[04:08.33]
[04:17.37]And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
[04:26.79]There was a virus going  round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
[04:36.68]And now Mama doesn t seem to wanna do much of anything
[04:46.57]And me, I spend a lot of time pickin  flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
[04:54.02]
[04:56.54]And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[05:06.57]