Back about eighteen hundred and some
A Louisiana couple had a red-headed son
No name suited him, Jim, Jack or Joe
They just called him Billy Bayou

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

Billy was a boy, kinda big for his size
Red hair and freckles and big blue eyes
Thirteen years from the day he was born
Billy fought the battle of the little big horn

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

One sad 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

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

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 'cause he didn't either one

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