Ode to billie joe-artist: bobbie gentry-peak billboard position # 1 for 4 weeks in 1967-words and music by bobbie gentryit was the third of june, another sleepy, dusty delta dayi was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hayand at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eatand 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"'n' 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"'n' mama said it was shame about billy joe, anyhowseems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on choctaw ridgeand now billy joe macallister's jumped off the tallahatchie bridge'n' brother said he recollected when he and tom and billie joeput a frog down my back at the carroll county picture showand wasn't i talkin' to him after church last sunday night?"i'll have another piece-a apple pie, you know it don't seem right""i saw him at the sawmill yesterday on choctaw ridge""and now ya tell me billie joe's jumped off the tallahatchie bridge"'n' 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'n' brother married becky thompson, they bought a store in tupelothere was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died last springand now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anythingand me, i spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on choctaw ridgeand drop them into the muddy water off the tallahatchie bridgetranscribed by robin hood