Оригинален текст
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 blackeyed 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?