That's an interesting historical note. There was a movie made based on the song, I'm guessing, or maybe the song was based on it.

In the movie, the boy committed suicide after being raped by a friend of his family. Then his girlfriend let people think he did it because he had gotten her pregnant, rather than reveal the truth. I doubt that any of that happened, because it doesn't jive with the note above.

By the way, there are more verses. I can't remember them exactly, but the way it goes, the family discusses Billie Joe's death over dinner with all the empathy you'd show for a beef steer that's been butchered, and wonder why she's not eating. Then it talks about time going on. Her father gets a fever and dies, and her mother pines away, and she spends a lot of time up on Choctaw Ridge.

I'd like to get the lyrics too. Can some one explain why Billie Joe is dead if she and Billie Joe were seen throwing someone else off? You can conjecture that they killed someone, threw him off the bridge, and Billie Joe disappeared and was assumed to be the body that washed up. Or a few other guesses could be made, but what is it supposed to mean?