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What Was Thrown Off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

Think back, think way back... it's 1967 and the voice on the AM starts:

It was the third of June,
another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay.

Midway through the song the preacher says the other day he saw a girl with Billy Joe throwing something off the bridge. What was thrown? Anybody from Choctaw Ridge have an answer?

BTW, the real Tallahatchie Bridge collapsed in 1972.
128x128onhwy61
rfigster
45 posts
 
It was a ring.
theduke
372 posts
 
"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon.
No, no, it's about Mick Jagger!
rfigster
45 posts
 
It's about Warren Beatty. Mick Jagger sings the back-round vocals. This is very old news.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61 OP
5,134 posts
 
The reason I started this post is because two weekends ago I saw Lucinda Williams. She was great. Did primarily older material, but also did 4 or 5 new songs. Says she has enough recorded material for two new albums. Anyway, her final encore was "Ode to Billie Joe". It just got me thinking about how conroversial the song was when it first came out. A song about suicide with a mystery element. I'm not sure it really matters what was thrown off the bridge. It's kind of like all suicides, even if there is a note, you never really understand why.
newbie13
242 posts
 
A baby. How exactly is someone going to see a ring being thrown off a bridge?
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