Luyện nghe bài hát Ode To Billie Joe

(B. Gentry)

It was the of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and we back to the house to eat
And mama hollered at the back door "y'all remember to wipe feet"
And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Ridge
Today Billie Joe MacAllister off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Papa said to mama as he passed the blackeyed peas
"Well, Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
Mama said it was shame Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Joe
Put a frog down my back at the County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it just don't right"
"I saw him at the sawmill on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

Mama said to me "Child, what's to your appetite?"
"I've cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Ridge"
"And she and Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
Brother married Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, papa caught it and he died Spring
And now doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie