(verse 1)
D
I met a little girl in Knoxville
G D
A town we all know well
D
And every Sunday evening
G A
Out in her home I’d dwell
D
We decided to take an evening walk
G D
About a mile from town
D
I picked a stick up off the ground
G D
And beat that fair girl down
(Right here you go nuts all over the d chord for two bars)
(verse 2)
D G D
She fell down on her bended knee for mercy she did cry
D G A
«Oh Willy dear, don’t kill me here, I’m unprepared to die.»
D G D
She never spoke another word, I only beat her more.
D G D
Until the ground around us, with all her blood did pour.
(Nuts on the D)
(verse 3)
D G D
I took her by her golden curls and drug her round and round,
D G A
throwing(ed) her into the river that flows through Knoxville town.
D G D
Go down, go down you Knoxville girl with dark and rolling eye.
D G D
Go down, go down you Knoxville girl, you can never be my bride.
D
(verse 4)
D G D
I headed back to Knoxville, got there about midnight.
D G A
My mother she was worried and woke up in a fright.
D G D
Saying, «dear son what have you done to bloody your clothes so?»
D G D
I told my anxious mother I was bleeding out my nose.
D
(verse 5)
D G D
I called for me a candle to light myself to bed.
D G A
I called for me a hankercheif to bind my aching head
D G D
Rolled and tumbled the whole night through as troubles was for me
D G D
Like flames of Hell around my bed and in my eyes could see
D
(verse 6)
D G D
They carried me down to Knoxville and put me in a cell
D G A
My friends all tried to get me out but none could go my bail
D G D
I’m here to waste my life away down in this dirty old jail.
D
Because I murdered that Knoxville girl,
G(once)
The girl I loved so
D(once)
well…