Intro D 

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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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Out 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 beat that fair girl down

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She fell down on her bended knee 
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For mercy she did cry
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"Oh Willy dear, don't kill me here, 
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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 us, 
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With all her blood did pour.

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I took her by her golden curls 
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And drug her round and round,
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Throwing her into the river 
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That flows through Knoxville town
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Go down, go down you Knoxville girl 
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With dark and rolling eye
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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 headed back to Knoxville, 
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Got there about midnight.
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My mother she was worried and 
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Woke up in a fright.
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Saying, "dear son what have you done to 
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Bloody your clothes so?"
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I told my anxious mother I 
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Was bleeding out my nose

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I called for me a candle to 
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Light myself to bed
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I called for me a hankercheif to 
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Bind my aching head
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Rolled and tumbled the whole night through as 
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Troubles was for me
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Like flames of Hell around my bed and 
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In my eyes could see

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They carried me down to Knoxville and 
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Put me in a cell
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My friends all tried to get me out but 
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None could go my bail
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I'm here to waste my life away down 
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In this dirty old jail.
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Because I murdered that Knoxville girl,
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The girl I loved so
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Well...