It was the third of June

... and throw them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

I was out chopping cotton and my brother was bailing hay...

And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat...

Some people think Billie Joe was black hence the family's indifference. They didn't know their daughter was dating a black guy.

And Mama hollered out the back door ya'll remember to wipe your feet

Pass the biscuits, please.

Are there Black people named Billie Joe?

I love how she's sitting there barefoot with that hairdo. It sure held up well while chopping cotton.

I like to get right up in Peoples faces and go M I S S I S S I P P I.

Never saw the movie where Billie Joe was a closeted gay.

The legend was that she and Billie Jo were throwing their aborted fetus off the bridge.

Y’all remember to wipe your ass.

I never though that Billy Joe was black - just white trash/lower on the totem pole, if you will. That's why the rest of the family shrug their shoulders at the whole thing.

"Legend," honey?

There was no aborted fetus except the chance your mother missed. Billie Joe

Don't you Yankees get Southern Gothic Fried Enigmatic?

Why not bury an aborted fetus?

Because then it wouldn't tie into Billy Joe jumping.

Billie Joe was getting cornholed by the local police chief.

he was throwin' his 2xist drawers in the water!

Most people assumed they were throwing a baby off the bridge.

Later, with the TV movie, Billie Joe was supposedly a man who liked The Homosex.

In the book it was a ragdoll. Also the Homosex.

He threw the homosex off a bridge?

They threw the doll off a bridge because Homosex had occurred! It symbolized their lost innocence!

I’m not buying the baby thrown off the bridge theory. Granted, Billie Joe wasn’t the brightest bulb on the Ridge, but bodies float.

How was Billie Joe related to Billy Jack?

Bob Dylan was obsessed with this song. He even made a parody of it, "Clothes Line Saga."

And then she said I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Beautiful woman.

Yeah, I keep thinking of a gay Indian with an ice creamcone who got a woman preggers. I probably have the dementia.

SNL had a hilarious parody of this song in a sketch called “Ode to a Tracking Number” but the damn thing has never been uploaded by NBC to the SNL YouTube.

The film made it pretty clear he died of homosex guilt.

Such a great song.

Billy Joe never had a lick o' sense

There was a virus goin' round papa caught it and he died last spring....

These things just happen! No need for masks and lockdown FFS!

IMO, this is the standard of how to tell a story in a song lyric.

Pass the biscuits, please!

Apparently, that particular bridge is/was right where Medgar Evers was murdered.

Wasn't Medgar Evers gunned down in his driveway?

Is the lyric "and throw them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge" or "and throw them into the BLOODY water off the Tallahatchie Bridge"?

And gay me, who loves this song, has rewritten it to be sung by a man alluding to a gay liaison that led Billie Joe to jump. I sing it to myself in the shower - my guilty pleasure.

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 guy that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

And he and Billie Joe was doin' somethin' down by Tallahatchie Bridge

I was with a MAANN!

lucky maann

Muddy water.

ITS SPELLED “BOBBIE” — NOT “BOBBY!!!”

Here's your one chance, Fancy.....don't let me down!

R36, you’re right. I meant Emmett Till.

Sad that we mix up the black men murdered by racists in Mississippi.

Bobbie Gentry is amazing-she’s downright Fancy…

June 3 is my birthday, and I LOVE this song.

Speaking of viruses goin round…

A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe....

To the day

Billie Jo was a baby FTM who, following a rape, miscarried the resulting fetus and, with the help of his best friend, threw the body into the river. Torn by guilt, Billie Jo committed suicide the next morning.

RIP, Billie Jo

Til next year, Billie Joe thread!

R47 Wrong. Billie Joe threw his prolapsed anus into those muddy waters.

Billie Joe threw his Jeff Stryker dildo into the river.

Belated birthday greetings, R44.

James Best who fucked Billie Joe in the movie was a cousin to the Everly Brothers.

NPR did a nice "Third of June" tribute some years ago. It is still a good listen. We may not have these nice things in the future after funding cuts.