Classic Country Lyrics: "Ode To Billie Joe" von Bobbie Gentry

Diese Ballade hat Geschichte geschrieben, trotz
oder gerade wegen des Themas: es geht um den
Selbstmord eines Klassenkameraden. Bobbie
Gentry hatte damit ihren grössten Hit, und der
Song war so erfolgreich, dass eine Rocksängerin
in der Schweiz, nämlich Sina, sogar eine Version
in Walliser Dialekt davon aufgenommen hat.

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 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 Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie 
Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-
eyed peas
"Well, Billie 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 Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw 
Ridge
And now Billie 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 of apple pie, you know it don't seem 
right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you 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 Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie 
Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie 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 wanna 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