It was the third of June
Another sleepy dusty Delta day
I was out chopping cotton
And my brother was baling hay
At dinner time we stopped
And walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door
"you all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said
"I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
And Papa said to Mama
As he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense
Pass the biscuits please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty
Got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good
Up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Brother said he recollected
When he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back
At the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talking to him after Church
Last Sunday night
"I'll have another piece of apple pie
You know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
And Mama said to me
"Child what's happened to your appetite "
"I've been cooking all morning
You haven't touched a single bite"
"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"
"And she and Billy Joe were throwing something
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
A year has come and gone since
We heard the news about Billy Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson
Bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going around
Papa caught it died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to
Wanna do much of anything
And me I spend a lot of time picking flowers
Up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them in the muddy water
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge Yeah
Ooh the Tallahatchie Bridge
Oh Muddy Muddy Muddy Water
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Sleepy Dusty Delta Day
Tallahatchie Bridge
