"Ode to Billy Joe" by Bobbie Gentry

[F7] It was the third of June
Another [Cm7] sleepy dusty delta [F7] day
I was out choppin' cotton and my [Cm7] brother was balin' [F7] hay

And at [Bb7] dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And mama [F7] hollered out the back door
"Y'all [Cm7] remember to wipe your [F7] feet."

And then she [Bb7] said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today [F7] Billy Joe McAllister jumped [Eb7] off the Tallahachee [F] bridge."

[F7] Papa said to Mama
As he [Cm7] passed around the black-eyed [F7] peas
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick o' [Cm7] sense, pass the biscuits [F7] please

There's [Bb7] five more acres in the lower forty I've go to plow."
And Mama [F7] said it was a shame about
[Cm7] Billy Joe any[F7] how

Seems like [Bb7] nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now [F7] Billy Joe McAllister's jumped [Eb7] off the Tallahachee [F] bridge.

[F7] Brother said he recollected
When [Cm7] he and Tom and Billy [F7] Joe
Put a frog down my back at the [Cm7] Carroll County picture [F7] show

And wasn't [Bb7] I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night
"I'll have a [F7] another piece of apple pie,
You  [Cm7] know, it don't seem [F7] right

I [Bb7] saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,
And now you  [F7] tell me Billy Joe's jumped [Eb7] off the Tallahachee [F] Bridge."

[F7] Mama said to me,
"Child, what's [Cm7] happened to your appe[F7]tite
I been cookin' all mornin' and you [Cm7] haven't touched a single [F7] bite

That [Bb7] nice young preacher Brother Taylor dropped by today
Said he'd be [F7] pleased to have dinner on
[Cm7] Sunday, oh, by the [F7] way

He said he [Bb7] saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and [F7] Billy Joe was throwin' somethin' [Eb7] off the Tallahachee [F] Bridge

[F7] A year has come and gone since we
[Cm7] Heard the news 'bout Billy [F7] Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson, they [Cm7] bought a store in Tupe[F7]lo

There was a [Bb7] virus goin' 'round, Papa caught it and he died last spring
And now [F7] Mama doesn't seem to want to
[Cm7] do much of any[F7] thing

And [Bb7] me I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them [F7] into the muddy water [Eb7] off the Tallahachee [F] Bridge