Ode to Billie Joe (feat. Lucinda Williams)

It was the third of June
Another sleepy dusty Delta day
I was out chopping cotton
And my brother was baling 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"
Then she said she got some
News this morning from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billie Joe MacAllister
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama
As he passed around the black-eyed peas
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense
Pass the biscuits, please
"There's five more acres in the
Lower forty I gotta plow"
And mama said it was a
Shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to
No good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

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 talking 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 cooking all morning and
You haven't touched a single bite
And 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 Billie Joe was throwing
Somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge

A year has come and gone since
We heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
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
Want to 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