Ode to Billy Joe
Written by Bobbie Gentry 1967, Erin Hay, Ashley Gearing
 

Midi 1(Bb120)     Midi 2(A120)*
Midi 3(A120)*-harp
Tabbed by Mark Purintun 12-05 The Mystery!

 

 

 

 

 RRr 7  -6  7      7   -6   7   -6 7 -6     7 -6   7 -6  7 -8  -6   6 -6 7--->
|   It was the | third of June, another | sleepy, dusty Delta day | a a ay. |
-> R -6 7    7-6   7   -6  7  -6  7  -6     7  7   -6  7 -8   -6   6 -6  7--->
|    I was | out chopping cotton and my | brother was baling hay | a  a ay. |
-> R  -8 -9   8  -9 8   -9  -9    8       8    -9    -9  8  8    -9   9 8 -6 7
|    And at | a dinner time we stopped | 'n' walked back t'the house to e  a t. |
 RRr 6  -6 6    -8  7    7   -6   7    7   7 -6     7 7  -6  7  -8   -6    6 -6 7---->
|   And Mama | hollered out the back door "y'all | remember to wipe your | fe e t," |
-> R   8  -8   -9    -9   8  -9   8   -9    8   -9     -9   8    -9 9   8   -6 7 8-->
|    'nd then she | said "I got some news this morn | ing from Choctaw Ri | id g ge,"  |
-> r 6 -6  6  8  7  7   -7 7 -7 6    5       -5  5   -5 5  -5 -5   5     4
|  "Today, a Billy Joe MacAllister jumped | off the Tallahatchie Brid | dge." |
 

The same tab and beat applies easily to the lyric sets below...

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas:
"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please."
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow."
And Mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge.
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe,
Had 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 and 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.
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe,
And brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he 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 into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.