Lyr Req: Ode to Billie Joe (Bobbie Gentry)

Subject: Lyr Add: ODE TO BILLIE JOE (Bobbie Gentry)
From: Gene Graham
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 09:06 PM

I didn't pay close enough attention to notice the missing verses... only checked the index listing and verified the song was at COWPIE.

Here are the missing verses:

ODE TO BILLIE JOE
Written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry, 1967

1. It was the third o' June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton an' my brother was bailin' hay,
And at dinner time we stopped an' walked back to the house to eat,
An' 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 Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

2. Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas,
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick o' sense—pass the biscuits, please.
There's five more acres in the lower forty I got to plow."
An' Mama said it was a shame about Billie Joe anyhow.
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,
An' now Billie Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

3. 'N' brother said he recollected when he an' Tom an' Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show,
An' wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece o' apple pie—you know, it don't seem right.
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge,
An' now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

4. Mama said to me, "Child, what's happened to your appetite?
I been cookin' all mornin' an' 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,
An' she an' Billie Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

5. A year has come an' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe.
Brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus goin' 'round, Papa caught it, an' he died last spring,
An' now Mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything,
An' me, I spend a lot o' time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
An' droppin' 'em into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Subject: RE: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 08:19 PM

Actually it was Jeannie C. Riley who did Harper Valley PTA (song, and then there was a movie). The hair distracted me.

Subject: RE: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From: Peter Timmerman
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 06:36 PM

the movie was certainly based on the song (as was Harper Valley P.T.A. the hideous follow up smash). The whole question of who threw what off the bridge was a mild obsession of the time. I remember that Bobbie G. gave an interview for Life (?) magazine where she said that there was more money in mystery than in spelling it out. This obviously doesn't seem to have stopped the moviemakers. Two of the lines missing are: "Chile, what's happened to your appetite, I've been cooking all morning and you haven't touched a single bite."

Subject: RE: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From: belter
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 05:17 PM

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?

Subject: RE: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From:
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 01:48 PM

If I recall, the song more mysteriously says that someone saw someone who looked a lot like you, and she and Billie Joe were throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge. As a footnote, Peter Seeger once remarked that the Tallahatchie Bridge was less than a mile from where Emmet Till was killed. So Black people knew who had really been tossed off that bridge.

Subject: Chords Add: ODE TO BILLIE JOE (Bobbie Gentry)
From: Bo Vandenberg
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 12:35 PM

Thanx for the title! I checked cowpie and found....

ODE TO BILLIE JOE
Key of F, Common Time "With a beat"
Words and music by Bobbie Gentry

            F7
  It was the third of June,
           Cm7                    F7
  Another sleepy, dusty, Delta day.
        F7
  I was out choppin' cotton
          Cm7                   F7
  And my brother was bailin' hay
          Bb7
  And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
            F7
  And Mama hollered at the back door,
           Cm7                       F7
  "Y'all remember to wipe your feet."
              Bb7
  Then she said,    

"I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
         F7
  Today Billie Joe McAllister
         Eb7                        F
  Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

is this it? Are there more verses?

HTML line breaks and preformat commands added. --JoeClone, 26-Mar-02.

Subject: RE: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From: Gene Graham
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 02:19 AM

The "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry in 1967 - you can find the lyrics/chords at http://www.roughstock.com/cowpie under g/gentry...

Subject: RE: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From: Gene Graham
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 02:15 AM

It was 1967 when Bobbie Gentry sang "The Ode to Billie Joe."

Subject: lyrics ? Jumped off a bridge
From: bo Vandenberg
Date: 23 Apr 97 - 12:44 AM

This has been bugging me for a week or more. Its a relatively well known song about someone jumping off a bridge. I've only heard bits or rip offs and I want to see the real lyrics.

I think it might be Tallahassee bridge.

any help would be appreciated

-bo