Bobbie Gentry Appreciation thread. Ode to Billie Joe

[DanCa]

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

[wildhorses]

1. love that song

"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"


love that line....you can feel her heart breaking while the family goes about their noon meal

[Montauk6]

2. I'm still wondering after all these years if the Billie Joe was supposed

to be a woman.

[wildhorses]

3. I don't think so...

tis a mystery

[donheld]

6. Since we'll never know the truth

why can't it be so if that's the way you want to think of it?

[wildhorses]

8. sure, think of it that way

it is open to interpretation...

[RebelOne]

4. And it is still a mystery as to what they threw into the Tallahatchie.

[texanwitch]

5. In the movie they threw a little doll into the river and then Billie Joe

killed himself because he had gay sex.

[wildhorses]

9. I thought he had been with some goochie goochie girl

over in Carroll County...

[wildhorses]

7. always did like a mystery

guess that is another reason why I always liked this song

[Montauk6]

10. But let us not forget this wonderful singer's other work

Hurry, Tuesday Child
Louisiana Man
Apartment 21
I Saw An Angel Die (oh, the chills this one sends)

among others

[jobycom]

11. Brilliant!! nt