mitchy: (Smirk)
mitchy ([personal profile] mitchy) wrote2010-06-03 03:34 pm
Entry tags:

A Minute's Silence, please, for 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 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 MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed 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 MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And 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 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, 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 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


Get this song stuck in my head every 3rd June :P

[identity profile] sanba38.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
My ex-stepsister--Billy Ray's daughter--lives in Tupelo. I heard she got married.

[identity profile] voluta.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahh Bobbie Gentry. Now I'll be humming this song all day. Truly one of classic ballads in American music history. The lyric describes the hot muggy summer days so well. The only thing missing is the sound of locusts in the woodlines.

[identity profile] sanba38.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Cicadas!

[identity profile] jenni411.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
You die now.

Here, this happened on June 3rd, too, and I'd much rather have this stuck in my head all day: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Casey_at_the_Bat

[identity profile] thessalian.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Was just telling [livejournal.com profile] mitchy that I know that one from the animated short Disney did of Casey at the Bat. I loved that as a little girl.

[identity profile] mitchy.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Could be worse, I wasn't able to link to the song from work (stupid out of date browsers) Course, 'm home now :D

[identity profile] itsjustaname.livejournal.com 2010-06-04 11:27 am (UTC)(link)
Don't know if you're a Penn & Teller fan, but if you are see if there's their escapology act from Penn & Teller Go Public on t'internet - Teller escaping from a straitjacket while Penn recites Casey At The Bat. Brilliant stuff.
ext_8753: (Default)

[identity profile] vickita.livejournal.com 2010-06-03 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
This was one of my faaaaavorite songs when I was a little girl!

[identity profile] itsjustaname.livejournal.com 2010-06-04 11:28 am (UTC)(link)
Love that song, which is lucky given it's going to be stuck in my head for days now!

[identity profile] minmorton.livejournal.com 2010-06-04 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I *love* this song!! Loved it for years before I even knew who she was ... then they did a programme on BBC2 about the Queens of Country (I think) and I became an addict ... eventually I'll buy the albums - I have a compilation at the moment ...