Knoxville Girl- Bessie Musick (VA) c.1932 Scarborough B
[From Scarborough; A Song Catcher; 1938- ballads collected circa 1932 (ref. Bronson).
R. Matteson 2016]
B. Knoxville Girl - sent by Miss Bessie Musick, of Artrip, Buchanan County, VA.
'Twas in that town of Knoxville
I use to live and dwell,
And in that little town of Knoxville
I owned a flour mill.
I fell in love with a Knoxville girl
With dark and roaming eyes.
I promised her I would marry her
If she would never deny.
I called at her sister's house
At nine o'clock one night,
And in that little father's lane,
I owned her with a smile.
I asked her if she'd take a walk
Into the meadows gay,
That we might have a social talk
And name our wedding day.
We walked along, we talked along,
Until we came to the meadows gay,
And there I picked up a big hedge wood stick
And knocked that fair girl down.
She fell upon her bending knee,
Lord, have mercy, she cried!
Oh, Willie, dear, don't murder me
I'm unprepared to die!
I did not listen to her pleading cry
But struck her all the more,
Until I saw the crimson blood
In which I couldn't restore[1].
I took her by the yellow hair,
I drug her round and round.
I carried her by the still water deep
That flowed through Knoxville town.
Her sister swore my life away,
She swore it out and out,
She swore that I was the very man
That laid her sister out.
Now they're going to hang me
A death I hate to die.
They're going to hang me up so high
Between the earth and sky.
1. usually rhymes "gore"