Friday, 6 June 2008

"He loved his gal so well he beat her to death with a stick and threw her in the river..."

God, this is a great version of Knoxville Girl.

It's all the better because, looking at Jim & Jesse, I'm sorry to say that I firmly believe they could be capable of pretty much anything.... check out Jim's - or is it Jesse's - rather sinister introduction to the song. Why is he smirking? And laughing shiftily? Sumthin' you wanna tell us, boy?
at

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous11 June 2008 at 12:56

    I love it. Sick sick sick!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12 June 2008 at 16:02

    It's a OK version, but the Louven Brothers one have to be the best one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Graeme Thomson12 June 2008 at 16:53

    Oh agreed, the Louvin Bros. one is the definitive version of 'Knoxville Girl.'

    But I like Jim and Jesse, and I'd never heard it - or them - before. Are they well known in the States?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous17 June 2008 at 12:22

    Good grief! This is the kind of music that could inspire the Coen Brothers to write the script for a major horror movie.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous23 June 2008 at 09:43

    This is the American version of the English folk song The Oxford Girl

    THE OXFORD GIRL

    I fell in love with an Oxford girl
    She had a dark and a roving eye.
    But I feel too ashamed for to marry her,
    A-being so young a maid

    I went up to her father's house
    About twelve o'clock one night,
    Asking her if she's take a walk
    Through the fields and meadows gay.

    I took her by the lilywhite hand
    And I kissed her cheek and chin,
    But I had no thoughts of murdering her
    Nor in no evil way

    I catched a stick from out the hedge
    And I gently knocked her down,
    And blood from that poor innocent girl
    Came a-trinkling to the ground

    I catched fast hold of her curly, curly locks
    And I dragged her through the fields,
    Until we came to a deep riverside
    Where I gently flung her in.

    Look how she goes, look how she floats,
    She's a-drowning on the tide,
    And instead of her having a watery grave
    She should have been my bride

    (Paul Bryant)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Graeme Thomson23 June 2008 at 12:34

    Correct Paul.

    Actually, it's an American version of the Wexford Girl, which is the Irish verison of the Oxford Girl, which is derived from the Elizabethean murder ballad The Cruel Miller.

    But let's not split hairs!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Graeme Thomson23 June 2008 at 14:13

    Oh, and I'll put up the Shirley Collins version of The Oxford Girl one day. It's a cracker.

    ReplyDelete