Apparition

Back in '67 Bobby Gentry released "Ode to Billy Joe".



it was the 3rd of june
another sleepy dusty delta day
i was out choppin' cotton and my brother was bailin' hay.
at dinner time we stopped off on down to the house to eat
and mama hollered out the backdoor y'all remember to wipe your feet.

she said i heard bit of news this mornin' from choctaw ridge
seems that billy joe macallister's jumped off the tallahatchee bridge.

well papa said to mama as he passed around the black eyed peas
billy joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits please
there's 5 more acres in the lower 40 i got to plow
mama said was a shame about billy joe anyhow
seems that nothin' never comes to no good up on choctaw ridge and now you
tell me billy joe has jumped off the tallahatchee bridge.

brother recollected when he and tom and billy joe
put a frog down my back at the carol couty picture show
and wasnt i talkin' to him after church last sunday night
i'll have another peice of apple pie but oh it dont seem right
saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on choctaw ridge
and now you tell me billy joe has jumped off the tallahatchee bridge

mama said to me child what's happened to your appetite?
i've been cooking all morning and you havent touched a single bite

that nice young preacher brother taylor dropped by today,
said he'd be pleased have dinner on sunday,
oh by the way
said he saw a girl who looked alot like you up on choctaw ridge
and she and billy joe was throwin' something off the tallahatchee bridge.

a year's come and gone since we heard the news about billy joe
brother married becky thompson and they bought a store in tupelo
was a virus goin round and papa caught and he died last spring
now mama doesnt seem to wanto do much of anything
me i spend alot of my time pickin flowers up on choctaw ridge
and throw 'em into the muddy water off the tallahatchee bridge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Billy Joe and the subject of the song threw something off the Tallahatchee. Bridge , then next day poor old Billy Joe proceeded to leap from same bridge.
A year later, the girl threw flowers off the same bridge.

Now , I've read all the online stuff about what or who it could have been...but I'm intrigued to discover what you adept gossip-mongers on here can come up with..........
Fire Away !
Yve

fast bloke

They threw a body off the bridge - next day the subject of the song couldn't eat cos he was worring about it and Billy Joe was overcome with guilt and jumped

ricardo

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1623&

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

They threw their love child off the bridge, then BJ had an attack of guilt and jumped. Good riddance

Alcazar

BTW: it was an AWFUL song anyway, typical c&w crap, reminded me of the limerick:

There was a young man from Japan,
Who's limericks never quite scanned.
When asked why this was,
He answered, "Because,
I always try to cram as many words into the last line as I possibly can."

Alcazar

Swen6

<Dr Evil Voice on>RRRRRRRrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllyy yyyyyyyyyyy<Voice off>

Bubba po

Who are you calling mongers? That's not very PC.

amazinggrace

Were you listening to Radio 2 sometime between 9 and 9.30 sometime last week? 'Cos I thought the same thing, What did they throw?

Apparition

Yes I was..... and yesterday...Brian Matthews sounds of the 60's.
And, they actually didn't throw anything specific according to the writer. Mad. But it got a discussion going.

This got me thinking about another such song..."Angie baby" By Helen Reddy. Another wierd one.
Yve

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Yes, "Angie baby" WAS weird. There seemed to be a few like it around at the time. "Oh Superman" being another............

Alcazar