Export Girl- Jimmie Driftwood (AR) 1954 Parler A
[Ozark Folk Song Collection- online; Reel 213, Item 5. Collected by Mary Celestia Parler; Transcribed by Neil Byer
Listen:
http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/OzarkFolkSong/id/3037/rec/1
R. Matteson 2106]
The Export Girl sung by Jimmie Driftwood of Timbo, Ark. November 5, 1954.
'Twas in the town of Export; the town where I did dwell,
'Twas in the town of Export, I owned a flour mill,
I fell in love with a fine young girl with a dark and rolling eye,
I promised I would marry her if me she'd never deny.
Then I fell in love with another one, that I loved just as well,
The devil put it in my head the first I loved to kill, I said to her,
"We'll take a walk out on the meadow wide";
And little did I dream that I was goin' to take her life.
We walked along; we talked along, till we came to a level ground,
Then picking up a club of hedge, I knocked that fair maid down;
Then falling on her bended knee, "Oh, Lord, have mercy," she cried,
"Oh, Willie dear, don't murder me here, for I'm not prepared to die."
But little attention did I pay, I beat her only the more,
I beat her till the ground all round was in a bloody gore.
Then I picked her up by the yellow locks, and I slung her around and around,
I dragged her to the river side, and I threw her in to drown;
"Lie there, lie there, you Export girl, lie there, lie there," I cried,
"Lie there, lie there, you Export girl, for you never shall be my bride."
I reached my home at the midnight hour, and I fell across my bed,
I cried aloud, "Oh, Mother dear, come bathe my aching head";
"Oh, Willie dear, what have you done that there's blood on your hand and clothes?"
And the answer that I gave to her was "bleeding at the nose."
O, Lord, they're going to hang me; O, how I dread to die;
To be hung up before my friends between the earth and sky.