Ode To Billie Joe Chords by Bobbie Gentry

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Was the 3rd of [Am] June, another sleepy dusty [D] Delta day
_ _ _ I _ was out chopping [Am] cotton and my brother was [D] baling hay _ _ _ _
And [G] at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to _ _ eat _
_ And [D] Mama hollered at the back door, y'all remember to wipe your feet _ _ _
And [G] then she said, I got some news this morning from Choctaw _ _ Ridge
_ _ [D] Today Billy Joe McAllister [C] jumped off the Tallahatchie [D] _ Bridge _
_ _ _ And Papa said to [Am] Mama as he passed around the black [D] eyed peas _ _
_ _ Well Billy Joe never had a lick [Am] of sense, pass the [D] biscuits _ please
_ _ _ [G] There's 5 more acres in the lower 40 I got to plow _
And _ _ [D] Mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe anyhow _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up on Choctaw _ _ Ridge
_ And [D] now Billy Joe [C] McAllister's jumped off the [D] Tallahatchie Bridge _
_ _ _ _ Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe _ _
_ Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County Picture Show _ _
_ _ And [G] wasn't I talking to him after church last Sunday _ night _
I'll _ have [D] another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right _
I _ _ [G] saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw _ Ridge _
_ _ And now [D] you tell me Billy Joe's [C] jumped off the Tallahatchie [D] Bridge _ _
_ _ _ _ Mama said to me, child [Am] what's happened to your [D] appetite _ _ _
I've _ been cooking all morning [Am] and you haven't touched a [C] single [D] bite _
That _ _ _ [G] nice young preacher brother Taylor dropped by today _ _
_ _ Said [D] he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh by the way _ _
_ _ _ [G] He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw _ _ Ridge
_ And [D] she and Billy Joe was throwing [C] something off the Tallahatchie [D] _ Bridge _
A _ _ year has come and gone [Am] since we heard the news [G] about [D] Billy Joe _ _
[D] _ Brother _ _ married [Am] Becky Thompson, they bought a store in [D] Tupelo _ _ _
_ _ There [G] was a virus going round, Papa caught it and he died last _ spring _
_ And [D] now Mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] And me I spend a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge _ _
_ _ And drop [D] them into the muddy [C] water off the [G] Tallahatchie Bridge
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