Letras
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 we 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's jumped off
The Tallahatchie Bridge"
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around
The black-eyed 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 a 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 Bridge"
And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
"It wasn't I who was talkin' 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
Up 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 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 Bridge"
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 goin' 'round, Papa caught it and he died