It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out chopping, packing and my brother was a-bailing hay
About dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
Mama all about the back door, y'all remember, wipe your feet
She said, I got some news this morning from Chuck Coleridge
Today Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Pop said to Mama as she passed around the black-eyed peas
Billy Joe never had liquor since, pass the biscuits please
That's five more acres and lower forty I got to buy
Mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up on Chuck Coleridge
Now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe
Pulled a frog down the back at the Carroll County Picture Show
Hey, what not talking to him at the 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 up on Chuck Coleridge
And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite
I've been cooking all morning and you haven't touched a single bite
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 Chuck Coleridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Well now a year has come and gone since we heard the news about Billy Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson and they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going round and Papa caught it, he died last spring
Now Mama just sits around, she don't want to do much of anything
And me, I spent a lot of time picking flowers up on Chuck Coleridge
And dropping them down into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge