(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...