Standard (EADGBE)

Back about eighteen hundred and some

 A Louisiana couple had a red-headed son

No name suited him, Jim, Jack or Joe

 So they just called him Billy Bayou

Chorus

Billy Billy Bayou watch where you go

 If you're walkin' on quicksand, walk slow

Billy Billy Bayou watch what you say

 A pretty girl'll get you one of these days

 A pretty girl'll get you one of these days

Billy was a boy kinda big for his size

Had red hair, freckles and big blue eyes

Thirteen years from the day he was born

Billy fought the battle of the Little Big Horn

Repeat CHORUS

One fine day Billy cried "HO HO"

I can lick the feathers off of Gee-ron-imo

He started off, the chief got mad

This nearly ended our Louisiana lad

Repeat CHORUS

One day in eighteen seventy-eight

A pretty girl walked through Bill's front gate

He didn't know whether to stand there or run

He wound up married cuz he didn't either one

Repeat CHORUS