Just a small detail but it surprised me to suddenly realize after knowing this song for decades that maybe Bobbie Gentry got a little careless in the interest of finding a good rhyme (spring, anything). died last spring." It's still spring! I suppose they could be early into summer of 1954, but then then it should probably be "this spring." Even then, a recent spring death might be arguably too recent to portray Momma as long-term inconsolably listless. If it's before June 21,1954 then it seems impossible that "Papa. So the narrator is telling her story about a year later in 1954. Papa caught it and he died LAST SPRING." I wonder, which spring is that? Billie Joe died in late spring (June 3) a little over a year ago ("a year has come and gone"). There was a virus going 'round papa caught it, and he died last springĪnd now mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything." "A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy JoeĪnd brother married Becky Thompson they bought a store in Tupelo Peter K from WhitestoneI love the song but there's something in the lyrics that doesn't seem factually correct:.This is the only story that’s ever made sense to me. And here the young mother sits, in torture from having to give up her man and her baby, having to now listen to how he couldn’t live with himself, not being able to marry her and raise his child like he should have been able to do…. So of course the two of them having being seen together was of no consequence to her family. And her family is completely unsuspecting of the two having anything to do with each other, because who would DREAM such a thing was even possible? Back then, back there. Except, it’s precisely because of the impossibility of the situation that the couple had to dispose of any reality of their love… I’ve always believed it’s a baby. Everything this man says is exactly what I’ve always seen in the song. And yes, what could be more illicit than a black/white pairing? Back then, back in the backcountry. Tina from New MexicoRe: the remark from Handsomeproudoldboybrady - this is the only theory that DOES make sense to me.I am going by what the writer of this song says about it and nothing more, that it was about how folks talked about tragedy, not about any mystery of the tragedy itself. Plenty of time there between April and the following June for the mother to be still mourning and listless. The narrator relates it's been a year since Billie Joe, Papa died last spring. Vonfisch from OhioPeter K, the news of Billie Joe was on June 3, let's say Papa died the following April.Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it, and he died last springĪnd now mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anythingĪnd me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw RidgeĪnd drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw RidgeĪnd she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie BridgeĪ year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie JoeĪnd brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw RidgeĪnd now ya tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeĪnd mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite? I'll have another piece-a apple pie you know, it don't seem right Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture showĪnd wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night? Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw RidgeĪnd now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeĪnd brother said he recollected when he, and Tom, and Billie Joe There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plowĪnd mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please Today, Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeĪnd papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hayĪnd at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eatĪnd mama hollered out the back door, y'all, remember to wipe your feetĪnd then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
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