Mercury Rev, Lucinda Williams - Ode to Billie Joe lyrics

It was the third of June
Another sleepy dusty Delta day
I was out chopping cotton and
My brother was baling 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"
Then she said she got some news
This morning from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billie Joe MacAllister jumped
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama
As he passed around the black-eyed peas
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick
Of sense pass the biscuit's, please
There's five more acres in the
Lower forty I gotta plow"
And mama said it was shame about Billie Joe
Anyhow seems like nothin' ever comes up no
Good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister jumped
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge

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 talking 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 cooking all morning and you
Haven't touched a single bite"
And 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 throwing
Somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge

A year has come and gone since we
Heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
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 Bridge