(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...