| [00:10.33] |
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day |
| [00:20.75] |
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay |
| [00:27.74] |
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| [00:31.29] |
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat |
| [00:37.84] |
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| [00:40.96] |
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet" |
| [00:47.76] |
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| [00:51.70] |
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" |
| [00:57.37] |
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| [01:01.49] |
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
| [01:08.37] |
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| [01:12.49] |
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas |
| [01:17.48] |
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| [01:20.23] |
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please" |
| [01:27.84] |
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| [01:32.08] |
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow" |
| [01:38.14] |
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| [01:41.38] |
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow |
| [01:47.25] |
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| [01:51.49] |
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [01:58.04] |
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| [02:00.48] |
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
| [02:07.15] |
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| [02:08.96] |
And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe |
| [02:16.89] |
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| [02:20.13] |
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show |
| [02:25.94] |
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| [02:30.93] |
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night? |
| [02:36.11] |
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| [02:39.79] |
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right" |
| [02:45.47] |
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| [02:50.40] |
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge" |
| [02:55.14] |
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
| [03:04.69] |
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| [03:09.93] |
And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?" |
| [03:15.61] |
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| [03:18.98] |
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite" |
| [03:24.97] |
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| [03:28.77] |
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today" |
| [03:34.33] |
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| [03:37.76] |
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way" |
| [03:44.12] |
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge" |
| [03:53.48] |
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| [03:57.23] |
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
| [04:01.72] |
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| [04:07.71] |
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe |
| [04:14.02] |
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo |
| [04:27.43] |
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring |
| [04:33.55] |
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| [04:36.10] |
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything |
| [04:41.03] |
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| [04:45.78] |
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge |
| [04:51.33] |
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| [04:54.70] |
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
