«É UMA TRISTEZA. PASSA-ME AÍ O PÃO, SE FAZ FAVOR.»

A história cantada e contada por esta Ode a Billie Joe é uma história triste, a de um jovem que se suicida atirando-se da ponte do rio Tallahatchie no Mississippi. Mas o que a distingue é o desprendimento como a tragédia é comentada à mesa da família da narradora/cantora: o pai, depois um comentário pouco abonatório sobre o suicida, pede que lhe passem o pão; o irmão mostra mais respeito pelo defunto, mas o pesar não o impede de repetir a tarte de maçã; só a narradora se mostra afectada a ponto de perder o apetite, atitude em que apenas a mãe repara. Pela continuação da história, percebe-se como ela partilha um segredo com o malogrado Billie Joe McAllister, segredo esse que a letra da canção nunca chega a desvendar qual é. E é esse mistério que se tornou num dos segredos da mística da canção. Isso e o facto da ponte de Tallahatchie, de onde o hipotético Billie Joe se havia atirado, se ter desmoronado em 1972, quatro anos depois deste sucesso musical cantado acima pela autora, Bobbie Gentry, numa sua aparição na BBC.

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?
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