Supremes - Ode To Billie Joe lyrics

rate me

(B. Gentry) <br />

<br />

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day<br />

I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay<br />

And at dinner time we stopped and we walked back to the house to eat<br />

And mama hollered at the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"<br />

And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge<br />

Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge<br />

<br />

Papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas<br />

"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"<br />

"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"<br />

Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow<br />

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge<br />

And now Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge<br />

<br />

And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe<br />

Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show<br />

And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?<br />

"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it just don't seem right"<br />

"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"<br />

"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"<br />

<br />

Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"<br />

"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"<br />

"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"<br />

"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"<br />

"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"<br />

"And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"<br />

<br />

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe<br />

Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo<br />

There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died last Spring<br />

And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything<br />

And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge<br />

<br />

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge