Ode to Billy Joe

artist:Bobby Gentry

, writer:Bobby Gentry

Chords:

 {t:Ode to Billy Joe}
{artist:Bobby Gentry}
{key: D}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv33eaygVDQ 

[D7]

[D7] It was the third of June, another [Am7] sleepy, dusty, delta [D7] day
[D7] I was out chopping cotton, and my [Am7] brother was bailing [D7] hay,
And at [G7] dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat.
And Momma [D7] hollered out the back door "Y'all re - member to wipe your feet!"
And then she [G7] said, I got some news this mornin from Choctaw Ridge
Today [D7] Billie Joe MacAllister jumped [C7] off the Tallahatchie [D7] Bridge.

[D7] And Poppa said to Momma as he [Am7] passed around the blackeyed [D7] peas
[D7] Well Billie Joe never had a lick of sense - [Am7] pass the biscuits [D7] please
"[G7] There's five more acres in the lower forty - I got to plow.
And Momma [D7] said it was shame - about Billie Joe anyhow,
Seems like [G7] nothing ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge.
And now [D7] Billie Joe McAllister jumped [C7] off the Tallahatchie [D7] Bridge.

[D7] And Brother said he recollected - [Am7] when he and Tom, and Billie [D7] Joe
[D7] Put a frog down my back at the [Am7] Carroll County Picture [D7] Show
[G7] And, "Wasn't I talkin' to him after church, last Sunday night.
[D7] I'll have a-nother piece of apple pie, you know, it don't seem right.
I [G7] saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on Choctaw Ridge.
And now you [D7] tell me Billie Joe's jumped [C7] off the Tallahatchie [D7] Bridge.

[D7] Momma said to me "Child what's [Am7] happened to your appe-[D7]tite?
[D7] Why, I've been cookin' all morning, and you [Am7] haven't touched a single [D7] bite.
[G7] That nice young preacher Brother Taylor dropped by today.
[D7] Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, [D7] oh, by the way.
[G7] He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge.
And she and [D7] Billie Joe was throwing [C7] something  off the Tallahatchie [D7] Bridge."

[D7] A year has come and gone since we [Am7] heard the news bout Billie [D7] Joe
[D7] Brother married Becky Thompson they [Am7] bought a store in Tupe-[D7]lo,
[G7] There was a virus going round Poppa caught it and he died last Spring. 
And now [D7] Momma doesn't seem to wanna do much - of anything
And [G7] me, I spend a lot of time pickin flowers up on Choctaw Ridge.
And drop them [D7] into the muddy water [C7] off the Tallahatchie [D7] Bridge. (fade on) [D7]

Song Info

Title: Ode to Billy Joe

Artist: Bobby Gentry

Writer: Bobby Gentry

Song Types: Blues

Key: D

Info: Ode to Billie Joe" is a song written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry, a singer-songwriter from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The single, released on July 10, 1967, was a number-one hit in the US and a big international seller. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song of the year.It generated eight Grammy nominations, resulting in three wins for Gentry and one for arranger Jimmie Haskell. "Ode to Billie Joe" has since made Rolling Stone's lists of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and the "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time" and Pitchfork's "200 Best Songs of the 1960s".

The song takes the form of a first-person narrative performed over sparse acoustic accompaniment. It tells of a rural Mississippi family's reaction to the news of the suicide of Billie Joe McAllister, a local boy to whom the daughter (and narrator) is connected. Hearsay around the "Tallahatchie Bridge" forms the narrative and musical hook. The song concludes with the demise of the father and the lingering, singular effects of the two deaths on the family. According to Gentry the song is about indifference and unshared grief

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Ode to Billy Joe

artist:Bobby Gentry

, writer:Bobby Gentry

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