Ode To Billy Joe

The weird video doesn't do justice to the beautiful beautiful song, but at least you get the chance to listen again...



The first thing we did in class was listen to the song, note down key phrases and categorise them under the following headings:

- Family Meal
- Life & Geography of the Area
- Farm Life
- Other details

Now listen again and fill the gaps:

It was the ______________, another sleepy, dusty Delta day. I was out ______________ and my brother was baling hay. And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to ______________. And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to ______________," And then she said "I got ______________ this morning from Choctaw Ridge," "Today, Billy Joe MacAllister ______________ the Tallahatchie Bridge." And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the ______________: "Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass ______________." "There's ______________ in the lower forty I've got to plow." And Mama said it was a ____________________________, anyhow. Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up ______________. And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe, Had put _________________________ at the Carroll County picture show. And wasn't I talking to him after ____________________________? "I'll have another _______________________; you know it don't seem right. "I saw him at the sawmill ______________ 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 ______________? "I've been cooking all morning and you haven't _______________________. "That nice young preacher, ______________, dropped by today. "Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, ______________. "He said he saw a girl that looked ________________ up on Choctaw Ridge. "And she and Billy Joe was ______________ off the Tallahatchie Bridge." A year has come and gone since we ____________________________, And brother married Becky Thompson, they _________________________. There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and ____________________. And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna ____________________________. And me, I spend a lot of time picking ____________________________. And drop them into the muddy water ____________________________.

If you just want to check the original lyrics you can find them here and there are some interesting "facts" about the song here.