Ode To Billie Joe-Clydie King

[00:10.03]It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day [00:19.84]I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay [00:30.75]And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat [00:40.87]And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet" [00:50.93]And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" [01:01.77]"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" [01:10.11] [01:12.70]And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas [01:22.31]"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please" [01:31.25]"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow" [01:40.93]And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow [01:50.76]Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge [02:00.86]And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge [02:10.06] [02:11.38]And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe [02:20.39]Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show [02:30.39]And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night? [02:40.24]"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right" [02:50.84]"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge" [03:00.27]"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" [03:09.39] [03:10.28]And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?" [03:19.75]"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite" [03:29.69]"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today" [03:38.81]"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way" [03:49.13]"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge" [03:58.15]"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" [04:07.94]A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe [04:08.33] [04:17.37]And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo [04:26.79]There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring [04:36.68]And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything [04:46.57]And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge [04:54.02] [04:56.54]And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge [05:06.57]