Ode To Billy Joe Lyrics - Sinead Oconnor

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 Mac Allister 

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" 

And Papa said to Mama as he passed 

Around the black eyed 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 Mac Allister's 

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge 

And Brother said he recollected 

When he and Tom and Billie Joe 

Put a frog down my back a 

A 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 

Tthey 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