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
and then she said i got some news this mornin’ from choctaw ridge
today billie joe macallister jumped off the tallahatchie
and papa said to mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
well billie joe never had a lick 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 billie joe anyhow
seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good up on choctaw ridge
and now billie joe macallister’s jumped off the tallahatchie
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 piecea 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
mama said to me child what’s happened to your appetite
i’ve 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 tallahatchie
a year has come and gone since we heard the news ’bout billie joe
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 want to 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
Artist: Bobbie Gentry
Year: 1967
Decade: 60s
Language: en
Word Count: 197