| [00:10.15] |
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day |
| [00:20.85] |
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay |
| [00:31.31] |
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat |
| [00:41.19] |
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet |
| [00:49.35] |
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| [00:51.66] |
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge |
| [00:58.60] |
|
| [01:01.60] |
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [01:12.04] |
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| [01:12.91] |
Papa And said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas |
| [01:19.73] |
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| [01:22.48] |
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please |
| [01:28.11] |
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| [01:32.05] |
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow |
| [01:38.57] |
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| [01:41.39] |
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow |
| [01:46.79] |
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| [01:51.59] |
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [02:00.02] |
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| [02:00.84] |
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [02:07.40] |
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| [02:11.59] |
And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe |
| [02:17.52] |
|
| [02:20.75] |
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show |
| [02:26.44] |
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| [02:30.94] |
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night |
| [02:36.50] |
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| [02:39.86] |
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right |
| [02:45.53] |
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| [02:50.34] |
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge |
| [02:58.09] |
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| [02:59.28] |
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [03:06.40] |
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| [03:09.96] |
And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite |
| [03:17.16] |
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| [03:18.92] |
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite |
| [03:25.79] |
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| [03:28.73] |
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today |
| [03:34.77] |
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| [03:37.96] |
"Said he'd be pleased to on have Sunday, dinner oh, by the way |
| [03:45.05] |
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| [03:47.73] |
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [03:54.92] |
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| [03:57.61] |
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [04:03.29] |
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| [04:07.60] |
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe |
| [04:12.77] |
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| [04:17.27] |
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo |
| [04:23.89] |
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| [04:26.40] |
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring |
| [04:34.70] |
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| [04:36.38] |
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything |
| [04:41.32] |
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| [04:46.33] |
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [04:51.91] |
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| [04:54.78] |
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
