Lyrics:

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin` cotton, and my brother was balin` hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eatAnd 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 jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please
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

And 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 him after church last Sunday night?
I`ll have another piece-a apple pie; you know, it don`t seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
And now ya tell me Billie Joe`s 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 nice 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 girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin` off the Tallahatchie Bridge

A year has come and gone since we heard the news `bout Billy Joe
And brother married Becky Thompson; 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 spend a lot of time pickin` flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge