| [00:10.03] |
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day |
| [00:19.84] |
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay |
| [00:30.75] |
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat |
| [00:40.87] |
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet" |
| [00:50.93] |
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" |
| [01:01.77] |
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
| [01:10.11] |
|
| [01:12.70] |
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas |
| [01:22.31] |
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please" |
| [01:31.25] |
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow" |
| [01:40.93] |
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow |
| [01:50.76] |
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [02:00.86] |
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [02:10.06] |
|
| [02:11.38] |
And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe |
| [02:20.39] |
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show |
| [02:30.39] |
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night? |
| [02:40.24] |
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right" |
| [02:50.84] |
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge" |
| [03:00.27] |
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
| [03:09.39] |
|
| [03:10.28] |
And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?" |
| [03:19.75] |
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite" |
| [03:29.69] |
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today" |
| [03:38.81] |
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way" |
| [03:49.13] |
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge" |
| [03:58.15] |
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
| [04:07.94] |
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe |
| [04:08.33] |
|
| [04:17.37] |
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo |
| [04:26.79] |
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring |
| [04:36.68] |
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything |
| [04:46.57] |
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [04:54.02] |
|
| [04:56.54] |
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [05:06.57] |
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