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Ode to Billie Joe - Flatt & Scruggs

It was the third of June

Another sleepy dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton

And my brother was bailin' hay

And at dinner time we stopped

And walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered at the backdoor

You all remember to wipe your feet

And then she said I got some news

This morning from Choctaw Wridge

Today Billie Joe Macallister

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama as he passed

Around the black eyed peas

Billie Joe never had a lick of sense

Pass the biscuits please

There's five more acres

In the lower forty I got to plow

And mama said it was a shame

About Billie Joe anyhow

Seems like nothing ever comes

To no good upon Choctaw Wridge

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 Caroll 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 just don't seem right

I saw him at sawmill yesterday

On Choctaw Wridge

Now you tell me Billie Joe's

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Mama said to me child

What's happened to your apetite

I've been cooking all morning

And you haven't touched a single bite

And nice young preacher brother

Tailor dropped by today

Said he'd be pleased to have dinner

On Sunday oh by the way

Said he saw a girl that looked a lot

Like you upon Choctaw Wridge

She and Billie Joe was throwin' something

Off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Year's come and gone

Since we heard the news about Billie Joe

Brother married Becky Thompson

And they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus goin' round papa

Caught it and he died last spring

Now mama doesn't seem to

Want to do much of anything

And me I spent a lot of time pickin'

Flowers upon Chotaw Wridge

And dropped 'em into the muddy water

Off the Tallahatchie Bridge