Strange Question - Ode to Billie Joe?

[MoGrubb]

There was never any doubt in my mind that she was white, beings I'm white an' all.

[Alexander]

  MoGrubb said:

There was never any doubt in my mind that she was white, beings I'm white an' all.

Does that mean that you have "whitedar"?

[RDK]

Damn. It don't do no good to discuss a song's lyrics without posting the damn 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 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 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 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 Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' 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 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

Yeah, I see no relationship with Emmet Til either.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

It's even better to read that than to hear the Gentry recording, in my view.

Thanks.

MG

[Teasing the Korean]

  MoGrubb said:

There was never any doubt in my mind that she was white, beings I'm white an' all.

Yes, when the song first broke, many assumed she was a black singer.

[RDK]

Her family was pretty clueless, weren't they?

[MoGrubb]

  Teasing the Korean said:

  MoGrubb said:

There was never any doubt in my mind that she was white, beings I'm white an' all.

Yes, when the song first broke, many assumed she was a black singer.

That's because they probably didn't have any relatives, (poor) farming people, that lived in the lifestyle of the ones in the song, e.g. like mine ; not to say black folks didn't live the same way. Plus, Gentry sounded white to my ears.

Wow, those lyrics sound like a conversation like my grandparents might have had sitting around the kitchen table. Thanks for posting them, RDK.

[Jazzmoose]

I agree with you, McGrubb; I can see how Yankees might assume she was black though...

[Jazzmoose]

This is definitely a song that divides...personally, I think it's fantastic. Always went with the aborted baby theory myself, but I'm not sure. I must admit, a connection with Emmet Till never occurred to me. And still doesn't.

[paul secor]

The first one or two times I heard the song back in 1967, it sounded ok - nothing more. It became so popular and so ubiquitous in a very short time, that I came to despise it. Never had any interest in what was thrown off the bridge - bringing up that subject almost seemed to me like a ploy to make the song even more popular than it was.

[MoGrubb]

  Jazzmoose said:

I agree with you, MoGrubb; I can see how Yankees might assume she was black though...

fixed