Ode To Billie Joe Uke tab by Bobbie Gentry

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