Story Of The Knoxville Girl- Blue Sky Boys (NC) 1937
[From Montgomery Ward 7327 recorded August 2, 1937 in Charlotte, NC. This is just a blatant borrowing of Arthur Tanner's text and tune from 1925 with just a few textual changes like "dirty old jail". The only difference is their tight harmony and mandolin intro. Following in their footsteps were the Louvin Brothers who recorded a very similar version in 1956.
R. Matteson 2016]
Story Of The Knoxville Girl- sung by Blue Sky Boys (Bollick Brothers) from North Carolina in 1937.
(Mandolin intro)
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 I knocked that fair girl down.
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.
I taken her by her golden curls
I drug her 'round and 'round
Throwing her into the river
That flows through Knoxville town.
Go there, go there, you Knoxville girl
Got dark and roving eyes
Go there, go there, you Knoxville girl
You can never be my bride.
Starting back to Knoxville
Got there about midnight;
My mother she was worried
And woke up in a fright.
Saying, "Son, oh son, what have you done
To bloody your clothes so?"
I told my anxious mother
"Been bleeding at my nose."
Called for me a candle
To light myself to bed
Called for me a handkerchief
To bind my aching head.
Rolled and tumbled the whole night through
As troubles were for me
Like flames of hell around my bed
And in my eyes could see.
They carried me down to Knoxville
They put me in a cell
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 jail
Because I murdered that Knoxville girl,
The girl I loved so well.