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I met a little girl in Knoxville |
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A town we all know well |
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And every sunday evening |
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In her home I'd dwell |
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We went to take an evening walk |
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About a mile from town |
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I picked a stick up off the ground |
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And I knocked that fair girl down |
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She fell down on her bended knees |
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For mercy she did cry |
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"Oh Willy, dear, don't kill me yet |
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I'm unprepared to die" |
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She never spoke another word |
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I only beat her more |
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Until the ground around me |
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With her blood did flow |
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I took her by her golden curls |
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And I dragged her 'round and 'round |
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Throwing her into the river |
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That flows from Knoxville town |
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Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl |
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With your dark and roving eyes |
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Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl |
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You can never be my bride |
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I started back to Knoxville |
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Got there about midnight |
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My mother, she was worried |
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She woke up in a fright |
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Saying, "Dear son, what have you done |
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To bloody up your clothes?" |
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I told my anxious mother |
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That I was bleading in my nose |
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I called for me a candle |
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And I called for me a bed |
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And I called for me a handkerchief |
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To bind my aching head |
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I rolled and thrashed the whole night through |
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All horrors I did see |
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The devil stood at the foot of my bed |
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Pointing his finger at me |
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They carried me down to Knoxville |
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And put me in a cell |
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My friends all tried to get me out |
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But none could grow my bail |
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I'm here to waste my life away |
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Down in this dirty old jail |
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Because I murdered that Knoxville girl |
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The girl I loved so well |
