A Bridge To Billy Joe

Cherry

By mykle

Sun, 22 Feb 2009
  • 3215 reads
11 comments
 

It's many long years since
and I'm feeling my age
Long gone the hot anger
'n' cold feelin's of rage
Yet still with the Summer
in the last days of May
My mind turns to Billy Joe
and what happened that day...
that caused the tomorrow
up there on Choctaw Ridge
'n' ended with Billy Joe MacAllister
jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Just two years after Papa died
Mama caught a virus too
She followed him to Heaven
In the Spring of 62
'n' I have lived alone since
findin' ways to fill my time
Trying not to think of Billy Joe
Wonderin' if the Lord forgave my crime
Wonderin' what had driven Brother
To come up onto Choctaw Ridge
Watch me and Billy throw our past
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

I still go out choppin’ cotton
But my brother’s far away.
He up and left one dark mornin’
Though I begged that he would stay
Went off to make his fortune
Left me to bale the hay
Mama hardly noticed
She’d been fading day by day
I would fetch her flowers
From up on Choctaw Ridge
The place where my future died
near the Tallahatchie Bridge.

If we could see the future
What a different it would make
If we could see the destination
of the paths we choose to take
How could I think that Brother Taylor
Might be a better choice
Ignore the songs of Billy Joe
'n' the love he used to voice
Wrap them in a blanket
up there on Choctaw Ridge
make Billy Joe help me throw them
off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Now Brother's store is thrivin'
'n' Becky has the life -
I dreamed of when I told Billy Joe
That I'd never be his wife.
That he'd never amount to nothin'
That his songs were would never sell
That we'd both end up as paupers
Trapped in some living hell
Then I took all of his music
up there on Choctaw Ridge
and with my heart I threw them
off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

With acknowledgement and thanks to Bobbie Gentry
for her wonderful Ode To Billy Joe!

It might sound crazy but I felt a responsibilty to the character.
Since I hope God will write me a good ending
I thought I might try to do the same.

A knock came on my door today
Tom is back in town
We talked about poor Billy Joe
'n' Tom said with a frown
"Billy Joe come see me 'n'
told me you were through.
Told me he was leavin' town
'n' because I loved you too
I didn't try to change his mind
imagined us up on Choctaw Ridge.
a kissin' 'n' a cuddlin'
by the Tallahatchie Bridge."

We talked 'bout the good ol' days
laughed about the frog
Tom said that the only love he had
Was Billy Joe - his dog
We talked about the loneliness
We talked about the pain
'n' something deep inside me
Seemed to come to life again
Tom says he'll help me sell the farm
'n' then we'll go to Choctaw Ridge
Say our goodbyes to Billy Joe MacAllister
'n' the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Certificate U
Poem
More
Love

Comments

Submitted by shoebox on
Great talent.

Submitted by mykle on
Thank you, that's very kind, shoebox. I have a fondness for lyrics.

Submitted by Dynamaso on
Great rise to the IP and could very well play as part 2 to the original.

 

Submitted by mykle on
Thanks Dynamaso.

Submitted by mykle on
Thinking about your suggestion that it colud play as a part 2, Dynamaso. I suppose many would expect it to have the original music and I could alter it to fit. However, I thought since it's set much later the music should have evolved with the story. Mind you. I'm quite nostalgic :O)

Submitted by Dynamaso on
'Part 2' could perhaps be more contemporary folk/blues or maybe a piece built around a sample of the original music. Hmm, food for thought... I might see if I can dig up the original and have a crack at it. I'll keep you posted.

 

Submitted by mykle on
To be honest I'd prefer to keep it essentially Country 'n' Western, Dynamaso. Fairly close to the original but different enough to stand on its own. Having said that I'd love to hear any version... Still, I'm not sure whether it would be okay to use the style and characters of Bobby Gentry and I'd want to be sure that she, or her representatives, didn't mind. There is a Youtube link to the original included in the IP Tony posted. I can't say how good the version is as I haven't the bandwidth to play it... but it was her brilliant, haunting, performance of the song that made it so special.

Submitted by Dynamaso on
She is still alive, at least according to a bit of research I've done. She might even welcome a bit of a revival of the song. Who knows? I thought you might be intersted in the following information about the song I found on a message board: "Gentry sent a demo to the record company with just her voice and an acoustic guitar. They were so impressed with this rendition of the song that instead of re-recording it, they added strings and orchestration to the original demo, resulting in the version that became a huge hit."

 

Submitted by mykle on
Well, no response from Capitol Records and I'm not sure how to proceed... It would be great to hear someone sing the lyrics but I wouldn't want to upset Bobbie and there is no way of knowing how she might feel about the evolution of her ode.

Submitted by mykle on
Thanks again Dynamaso. I though Capitol did a great job with its additions to Bobbies recording. I always felt that Eva Cassidy's camcorder recording of "Over the Rainbow" was far superior to the version which appeared on her Songbird compilation. I've made an attempt to contact Bobbie to get her permission to use the new lyrics...

Submitted by mykle on
It seems to me that the main reason that the world is in such a bad way is that so many people no longer want to help. The greedy grab all they can regardless while the lazy have minimised the effort needed to get through life, protecting themselves with rules and regulations, so that they can simply do the bare minimum... they don't seem to realise (or parhaps care) that this is a blinkered, short-term approach which inevitably leads to stagnation and decline. The morality of materialism is dog eat dog and so dogs we become! Thank goodness for those who realise that helping others helps us all and points to the path back to humanity.