[00:10.33]It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
[00:20.75]I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
[00:27.74]
[00:31.29]And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
[00:37.84]
[00:40.96]And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
[00:47.76]
[00:51.70]And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
[00:57.37]
[01:01.49]"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
[01:08.37]
[01:12.49]And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
[01:17.48]
[01:20.23]"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
[01:27.84]
[01:32.08]"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
[01:38.14]
[01:41.38]And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
[01:47.25]
[01:51.49]Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
[01:58.04]
[02:00.48]And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
[02:07.15]
[02:08.96]And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
[02:16.89]
[02:20.13]Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
[02:25.94]
[02:30.93]And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
[02:36.11]
[02:39.79]"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
[02:45.47]
[02:50.40]"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
[02:55.14]"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
[03:04.69]
[03:09.93]And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
[03:15.61]
[03:18.98]"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
[03:24.97]
[03:28.77]"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
[03:34.33]
[03:37.76]"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
[03:44.12]"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
[03:53.48]
[03:57.23]"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
[04:01.72]
[04:07.71]A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
[04:14.02]And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
[04:27.43]There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
[04:33.55]
[04:36.10]And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
[04:41.03]
[04:45.78]And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
[04:51.33]
[04:54.70]And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge