Ode to Billy Joe - Tom Scott
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 back walked to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door
"y'all remember to wipe your feet
And then she said "I got some
News this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister
Jumped off Tallahatchie the Bridge
And Papa said to Mama as he
Passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well Billy Joe never had lick a of sense
Pass the biscuits please
"There's five more acres in the
Lower forty I've got to plow
And Mama said it was shame
About Billy Joe anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to
No good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And 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 Tallahatchie Bridge
And 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 Billy Joe was throwing
Somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And 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 wanna 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
I dropped them into the muddy water
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge
I dropped them into the muddy water
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge
