Expert Girl- The Freemans (AR) 1941 Randolph K
[My title. From: Randolph, Ozark Folksongs; 4 vols. 1946-50; reprinted Columbia, 1980, II, 92. Randolph notes follow. I've renamed some of his versions without titles by creating local titles.
Randolph attributes his versions to the local murder of Lula Noel in 1892 which, according to a report in History of McDonald County, Missouri (1897), is "One of the most appalling crimes ever committed in McDonald county was the murder of Mary Lula Noel daughter of W. H. and S. E. Noel on the 10 day of December, 1892." Lula Noel and William Simmons (the convicted murderer) are not mentioned in Randolph's versions and neither are the locations Lanagan and Joplin.
The title of Noel Girl is accurate and in some versions he acquired corresponding testimony (Version B, for example). This however does not mean the text of the ballad was changed in any way or all of Randolph's individual should be titled Noel Girl since she is not part of the text.
R. Matteson 2016]
K. "Expert Girl" Sung by Mr. and Mrs. Arlie Freeman, Natural Dam, Ark., Dec. 14, 1941. Mrs. Freeman calls it "that song about the edward stick," but has no idea what the term means.
I fell in love with an Expert girl
To see if she'd be my bride,
I ask her if she'd marry me,
'Twas me she did deny.
They walked along, they talked along
Till they come to level ground,
And there he picked up an edward stick[1]
And knocked that fair maid down.
He picked her up by her yellow hair
And slung her round and round,
He picked her up by her yellow hair
And slung her in to drownd.
Lie there, lie there, you Expert girl,
You'll never be my bride,
Lie there, lie there, you Expert girl,
To me you'll never be tied.
He went into his mother's room
And found her sick in bed,
And she was worried in her sleep
And waked up in a fright.
Oh Willie, my son, what have you done?
There's blood all over your clothes.
The only answer he could give
Was bleeding at the nose.
He called for a handkerchief
To bind his aching head,
He also called for a candlestick
To light himself in bed.
He rolled and he tumbled,
No comfort could he find,
For the flames of hell were round him so,
Oh how his eyes did shine.
1. This is a corruption of edgewood or originally hedge wood.