# What was Billy Joe throwing?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 6, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333 "2003-05-06T04:45:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/1 "2003-05-06T04:45:56Z")
The question here is – what was Billy Joe MacAllister throwing off the Tallahatchie Bridge?
[http://www.swopnet.com/music/ode\_to\_bj.html](http://www.swopnet.com/music/ode_to_bj.html)
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/2 "2003-05-06T05:06:28Z")
And the answer here - can be found in any number of threads. Search GQ for “Tallahatchie” and that should do it.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/3 "2003-05-06T06:02:13Z")
Am I the only one who thought “a rock, it was a glass house”?
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### Author:  [@djf750](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/djf750)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/4 "2003-05-06T06:04:00Z")
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
FLOWERS FLOWERS FLOWERS…they were in love and they would go up there and just drop flowers and talk. The whole song is about young love and how nobody cared that he died but her.
Either that or cocaine. They thought the preacher was a narc so they dumped it all.
FLOWERS
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### Author:  [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/5 "2003-05-06T06:21:38Z")
Its been a long time since I saw the movie or paid attention to the song, but try this…drugs, flowers, babies ? I don’t know, all of the above maybe?
> **[Ode to Ode](https://www.metafilter.com/23096/Ode-to-Ode)**
>
> From one of the most underrated performers on the 1960's came one of the most mysterious records of all time, which inspired not only a movie but an answer record from none other than Bob Dylan....
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/6 "2003-05-06T14:44:05Z")
The dead and mangled corpse of someone who kept asking what he was throwing off the bridge.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/7 "2003-05-06T14:49:51Z")
I think he was throwing the missing dollar off the bridge, after learning that a duck’s quack doesn’t echo.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/8 "2003-05-06T14:58:34Z")
It was the third gry word.
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### Author:  [@djf750](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/djf750)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/9 "2003-05-06T18:32:19Z")
I have also heard that it was the gun that killed JFK the previous November 22. If you look at pictures of the grassy knoll you can clearly see Billie Joe McAlister in profile thru the leaves.
We might as well get that going since this year is the 40th anniversary.
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/10 "2003-05-06T19:36:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \*
> \*\*The dead and mangled corpse of someone who kept asking what he was throwing off the bridge. \*\*
Rats. That’s what I was going to say.
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/11 "2003-05-07T01:26:12Z")
I haven’t seen the movie or search anywhere else but just reading the lyrics…c’mon.
What migth two young, horny teenagers in love find themselves in unexpected possession of, and what to get rid of before anyone else found out? What woould also be painful enough to have to throw off a bridge that you would up and kill yourself later?
C’mon.
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### Author:  [@Payton\_s\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payton_s_Servant)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/12 "2003-05-07T02:03:58Z")
It was a doll.
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### Author:  [@DarbyV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarbyV)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/13 "2003-05-07T03:12:42Z")
Did anyone read that book? Did the song come first or the book? The movie was clearly based on the book, almost verbatim. I had read the book long before I ever heard the song, I think I first heard the song from the movie so I always knew what they were throwing off the bridge. It was Bobbie Lee’s childhood ragdoll Benjamin, and it was a mistake.
Ok, after a trip to Amazon it looks like the book was published in 1976, the movie was also made in 1976, and the song recorded in 1967 so someone named Raucher wrote a book based on the song, which is kinda weird. I always loved that book though, pretty funny in a cheesy 70’s kinda way.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-billy-joe-throwing/173333/14 "2003-05-07T04:04:04Z")
The book was a novelization of the movie. In other words, it was written by a hack professional writer who was paid by the film distributor to turn the script of the film into a novel. It’s pretty common to have someone do a novelization of the film to create a tie-in novel that will make more money for the filmmakers and will publicize the film.