Ode To Billie Joe Cifras

Ode to Billie Joe
 
D7                                Am7
It was the third of June, another sleepy,
             D7
dusty, Delta day
 
D7
I was out chopping cotton, and my
 
Am7                 D7
brother was bailing hay,
 
       G7
And at dinner time we stopped and walked
 
back to the house to eat.
 
    D7
And Momma hollered out the back door
 
"Y'all re - member ...to wipe your feet!"
 
G7
And then she said, I got some news this
 
 mornin ...from Choctaw Ridge
 
 
       D7                     C7
Today  Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off
 
                  D7
 the Tallahatchie Bridge.
 
D7                            Am7
And Poppa said to Momma as he passed
 
                     D7
around the blackeyed peas
 
  D7
 Well Billie Joe never had
 
           Am7
 a lick of sense pass the biscuits
 
  D7
 please
 
 G7
"There's five more acres in the lower forty
 
...I got to plow.
 
D7
And Momma said it was shame ...a – bout
 
Billie Joe any - how,
 
G7
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up
 
on Choctaw Ridge.
 
        D7                    C7
And now Billie Joe McAllister jumped off
 
                 D7
The Tallahatchie Bridge.
 
D7                                Am7
And Brother said he recollected...when he
 
                    D7
and Tom, and Billie Joe
 
 
D7                             Am7
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll
 
               D7
County Picture Show
 
G7
And, "Wasn't I talkin' to him
 
 
after church, last Sunday night.
 
D7
I'll have a-nother piece of apple pie
 
 
You know, it don't seem right.
 
  G7
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on
 
Choctaw Ridge.
 
 
            D7                   C7
And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off
 
                 D7
the Tallahatchie Bridge.
 
D7                                 Am7
Momma said to me "Child” what's happened
 
               D7
To your appe - tite
 
 
Why, I've been cookin' all morning, and you
 
Am7                      D7
haven't touched a single bite.
 
G7
That nice young preacher Brother Taylor
 
dropped by today.
 
D7
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on
 
Sunday!  Oh, by the way.
 
G7
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot
 
like you up on Choctaw Ridge.
 
            D7
And she and Billie Joe was throwing
 
C7                              D7
Something  off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
 
D7                                Am7
A year has come and gone since we heard the
 
                  D7
News bout Billie Joe
 
 
D7
Brother married Becky Thompson they
 
Am7                    D7
Bought a store in Tupe-lo,
 
 
G7
There was a virus going round Poppa caught
 
                                    D7
it and he died last Spring. And now Momma
 
doesn't seem to wanna do much...of
 
any -thing
 
    G7
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin
 
flowers up on Choctaw Ridge.
 
              D7                   C7
And drop them into the muddy water off the
 
             D7
Tallahatchie Bridge.
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