Song question: Why did Billy Joe MacAllister jump off the bridge?

[Lavender Brown]

And what did the girl in the song have to do with it? Am I missing something? :shrug:

Ode To Billie Joe
( Bobbie Gentry )

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and 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 Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billy 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 shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy 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
And wasn't I 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 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 morning 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 Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

[mac56]

1. Sick to death of that stupid song, I bet.

Actually, that was quite a hot topic of conversation back in the summer of '67.

[hippiechick]

2. uh ...

"...He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"


they pitched a baby or a dead body off the bridge ?

:hippie:

[aden_nak]

7. Bingo.

Remember the good old days, when lyrics didn't have to whack the listener over the head with a coal shovel to tell a story?

[Lavender Brown]

8. Oops

Yeah, I guess that's kind of obvious. :dunce:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. flowers...

"And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

Maybe they were throwing flowers into the river, in memory of someone else who jumped.

[Nordic]

24. he was gay! See the movie

And I wish Kerry had mentioned how much teen suicide is a result of anti-gay prejudice

[fugue]

3. According to the made-for-TV movie back in the 80s . . .

because he was gay. ("I have sinned against nature!")

[patcox2]

11. Robbie Benson, that little drunken tussle in the hay with a man,

Then threw himself off the bridge in remorse, I don't think that was a TV movie, and I think it was 70s. But I remember it.

[HEyHEY]

18. What movie was that? I've seen it once

"I fornicated with a man!"

[patcox2]

21. "Ode to Billy Joe" (small genre, film versions of songs)

How many of this movie genre are there, movie versions of songs? There was Harper Valley PTA, Convoy, but I would not include the Elvis movies where the movie came first and the song was inspired by the movie (Viva Las Vegas, Blue Hawaii).

[fugue]

23. Maybe it wasn't made for TV then . . .

I just know I saw it on TV in the 80s.

[Burma Jones]

4. To Get To The Other Side.........n/t

[CO Liberal]

5. Because It Was There

I remember there was a lot of speculation about that back in 1967, when that song came out. I think they wanted to get married, but their families wouldn't allow it. So they threw the engagement ring off the bridge. And a few days later, Billy Joe MacAllister followed it...

[Dogmudgeon]

6. The ol' gal done killt Billy Joe, she did.

I think Billy Joe was messin' where he shouldn't a-been messin'. But that's another song, innit?

--bkl

[CO Liberal]

9. Nope - She Had an Alibi

"I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was baling hay...."

[Dogmudgeon]

20. She done it BEFORE she went a-bailin' hay

I say, she done killt that ol' boy.

--bkl

[dicknbush]

10. She was raped by GWB............

And wouldn't have an abortion

[daddybear]

12. For love's sweet sake...

is why he "done" it...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Teen depression is nothing new...

Maybe it's worse when there's nothing to do all day but chop cotton, bale hay, go to the sawmill, and hang out at the bridge.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Because He Hated That Song So Much

He figured he'd end it all before he had to hear it again.
The Professor

[ET Awful]

16. Actually,

the song leaves it vague, but the movie tells the story. Billy Joe was raped by a man, and was ashamed because he enjoyed it. He killed himself because he was gay according to the movie. The something off the bridge was a rag doll that was accidentally dropped.

[HEyHEY]

17. That bridge is a hazad and should be taken down.

[tigereye]

25. that's very droll commentary for you Hey Hey

[T Wolf]

19. We will know the truth about JFK's assassination before we know this.

eom

[dpbrown]

22. Blue balls

That damn siren!

[KG]

26. Choctaw Ridge and Tallahatchie Bridge: real places?

:shrug:

[Edwardsgroupie]

27. She did it because Florida State lost.

Oh wait. It was TallaHATCHee. Never mind.

[Zomby Woof]

28. the sawmill laid him off

Damn Bush economy.