Nancy Wilson - Ode To Billie Joe lyrics

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 Billy Joe MacAllister jumped
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

'n' Papa said to Mama as he
Passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well Billy Joe never had a lick
Of sense, pass the biscuit's, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower
Forty I've got to plow"
'n' 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

'n' 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-a apple pie
You know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill
Yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now ya tell me Billie Joe's
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

'n' 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"

A year has come 'n' gone since we
Heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
'n' 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