Ode to Billy Joe

Key of F, Common Time "With a beat"

Words and music by Bobbie Gentry

It was the third of June,

Another sleepy, dusty,

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 at the back door,

"Y'all remember to wipe your feet."

Then she said,

"I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billy Joe McAllister

Jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge."

Michael shaw

shaw95@wharton.upenn.edu