Bobbie Gentry – Ode To Billy Joe chords

           E                        D                 E1. It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day,
                                    D               E    I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay.
             A    And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat,
              E                                 D                E    and Mama hollered at the back door, "Y'all remember to wipe your feet!"
                  A    And then she said, "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge.
          E                         D                     E    Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

       E                    D                          E2. And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,
                                    D                         E    "Oh, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please.
            A    There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plough."
              E                 D               E    and Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.
                A    ”Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,
            E                           D                    E    and now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
 
        E                           D                   E3. And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
                                  D                    E    put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.
               A                                    And wasn't  I  talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
                E          -              D                    E     "I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right.
        A    I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,
                E                        D                  E    and now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
 
         E                         D                    E4. And Mama said to me, "Child, what's happened to your appetite?
                                       D                E    I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite."
           A                                             That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today,
                 E                              D             E    said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday,     oh, by the way,
        A    he said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge,"
                E                             D                  E    And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
 
     E                              D                     E5. A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe,
                                         D                      E    and Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
                A                                      There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring,
            E                        D             E    and now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything.
        A    And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge,
                 E                  D                    E    and drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
 
    (Bobbie Gentry)