The Knoxville Girl

1. I met a little girl in Knoxville
A town we all know well
And every Sunday evening
Out in her home I'd dwell
We went to take an evening walk
About a mile from town
I picked a stick up off the ground
And knocked that fair girl down.

2. She fell down on her bended knees
For mercy she did cry
Oh, Willie dear, don't kill me here
I'm unprepared to die
She never spoke another word
I only beat her more
Until the ground around me
Within her blood did flow.

3. I took her by her golden curls
And I drug her 'round and 'round
Throwing her into the river
That flows through Knoxville town
Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl
With the dark and roving eyes
Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl
You can never be my bride.

4. I started back to Knoxville
Got there about midnight
My mother she was worried
And woke up in a fright
Saying, "Dear son, what have you done
To bloody your clothes so?"
I told my anxious mother
I was bleeding at my nose.

5. I called for me a candle
To light myself to bed
I called for me a handkerchief
To bind my aching head
Rolled and tumbled 
the whole night through
As troubles was for me
Like flames of hell around my bed
And in my eyes could see.

6. They carried me down to Knoxville
And put me in a jail
My friends all tried to get me out
But none could go my bail
I'm here to waste my life away
Down in this dirty old cell
Because I murdered that Knoxville girl
The girl I loved so well.


Based on the old English Ballads of the Berkshre Tragedy, The Bloody Miller and Wexford Girl.  An 1892 murder in Missouri led to localized versions, with Knoxville showing up in versions from 1917 and 1925.  Recording it made it better-known, and it's still popular today.  See planetslade.com/knoxville-girl.html