[00:10.15]It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
[00:20.85]I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
[00:31.31]And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
[00:41.19]And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet
[00:49.35]
[00:51.66]And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
[00:58.60]
[01:01.60]"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[01:12.04]
[01:12.91]Papa And said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
[01:19.73]
[01:22.48]"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please
[01:28.11]
[01:32.05]"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
[01:38.57]
[01:41.39]And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
[01:46.79]
[01:51.59]Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
[02:00.02]
[02:00.84]And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[02:07.40]
[02:11.59]And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
[02:17.52]
[02:20.75]Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
[02:26.44]
[02:30.94]And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night
[02:36.50]
[02:39.86]"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right
[02:45.53]
[02:50.34]"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
[02:58.09]
[02:59.28]"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[03:06.40]
[03:09.96]And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite
[03:17.16]
[03:18.92]"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite
[03:25.79]
[03:28.73]"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today
[03:34.77]
[03:37.96]"Said he'd be pleased to on have Sunday, dinner oh, by the way
[03:45.05]
[03:47.73]"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
[03:54.92]
[03:57.61]"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[04:03.29]
[04:07.60]A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
[04:12.77]
[04:17.27]And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
[04:23.89]
[04:26.40]There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
[04:34.70]
[04:36.38]And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
[04:41.32]
[04:46.33]And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
[04:51.91]
[04:54.78]And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge