quote:Originally posted by SilverHeels:
Whilst surfing radio stations this afternoon, seeking fodder for email requests, I heard the old Bobby Gentry song.I was reminded that I have never really understood what the H*** it was about.
Anyone want to hazard a guess at just what this song is really about?
Ode To Billy Joe
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 at the back door, "Y'all remember to wipe your feet"
Then she said, "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge"
Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick o' sense, pass the biscuits, please
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge
Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy 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 Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge
Mama said to me, "Child what's happened to your appetite?
I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched 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 throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchee Bridge"
A year has come and gone since heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus goin' round, papa caught it and he died last spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to want to do too much of anything
And me I spend a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchee Bridge
Cathy
http://www.cathycowette.com