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Ode To Billy Joe

by Thad Foster

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about

This is a remake of the Bobbie Gentry song from 1968. Since she was a woman and since I am a male the pronouns were changed. But I also slightly changed three lines of the song so that I could give my interpretation of just what it was they were throwing off the bridge because that question has been at the forefront of this song for many years.

Since there has always been such a mystery about what the singer and Billy Joe were throwing off the bridge and since I am a male singer and I had to change the pronouns...I went a little further with it.

My interpretation of this classic is Billy Joe is a girl. She killed herself because she was afraid to come out. They were childhood friends, and he was the only that knew. If you listen carefully, it's all there with my slightly modified lyrics.

lyrics

Ode to Billy Joe

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was bailin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And 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, Billy Joe MacAllister’s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Billy Joe never was a normal girl; pass the biscuits, please
Well there's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
And mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

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 talkin' to her after church last Sunday night?
I'll have another piece-a apple pie; you know, it don't seem right
I saw her at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
And now ya tell me Billie Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite
That 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 boy who looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
He and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge

A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe
My brother married Becky Thompson; then 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 want to do much of anything
And me, I take more of Billy Joe’s letters to Choctaw Ridge
And I throw her secrets in the water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

credits

released April 23, 2022
Drums: Brandon Davis
Bass: Drake Campbell
Hammond B3 Organ: Thad Foster
Wurlitzer Electric Piano: Thad Foster
Clavinet: Thad Foster
Additional Keyboards: Marc Santos
Harmonica: Ol' Shady Pete
Produced by Thad Foster
Engineering, mixing and mastering by Robert Roth at CRC Studio.

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Thad Foster Parker, Arizona

Thad Foster is an Americana/Roots Music storyteller from Arizona.

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