My Ten Favorite Murder Ballads: Knoxville Girl (#3)

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Earlier in my series of discussions about great murder ballads I mentioned that there are a lot of these in country music, and a number of them go way, way back to folk songs handed down from generation to generation. Here's a great example of this. #3: Knoxville Girl - Louvin Brothers This song has its origins in England in the 19th century, a song called "Oxford Girl." And that was based on a 17th century poem called The Cruel Miller, which may or may not be a true account. At any rate, this is one of those "if you're gonna play country or bluegrass music you'd better know this song" tunes. There are a blue bazillion versions of this song. However, it's only the made the Billboard country chart twice: a short and relatively sanitized version by the Wilburn Brothers, and the longer and more descriptive version by the Louvin Brothers. Despite the fact that the Wilburn Brothers' version won the Billboard chart war (peaking at #18 while the Louvins' version peaked at #19...in a horse race that would be a photo finish! ), I went with the Louvins' version for three reasons. One, even though I think the Wilburns are the most grotesquely overlooked act in country music history when it comes to Hall of Fame shuns, the Louvin Brothers are my favorite duet. Secondly, and maybe a little more significantly, the Louvins more or less "own" this song, despite the fact that it's a centuries-old song that a blue bazillion people have done. When you see people doing this song they say they're doing a Louvin Brothers song. Also, down in Knoxville, Tennessee, not too far from "the river that flows through Knoxville town," there is a plaque on the Country Music Walking Tour about the song. Guess who's on the plaque? Ira and Charlie Louvin. And finally, if you ever get the book 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die you'll find the 6th or 7th album in the book, and the first country album on the list, is Tragic Songs of Life, the album from which the Louvins' version of this song came. As for the song....Charlie Louvin once told Eddie Stubbs in a radio interview that he hated this song because, as he said, "it never says why he killed her." There's a reason for that: back in those days (this was a hit in 1959, remember, and I have versions of this song going back to the 40s), there was this artificial perception of morality. As I mentioned in discussing "The Battle of New Orleans," you couldn't say "hell" in a song (unless discussing the place of eternal torment). And sex? Why, that never happened, especially not between unmarried people. The general consensus, especially given the original poem that inspired the song, is that a girl "with the dark and roving eyes" is "sneak it past the censors" code that the girl was pregnant "out of wedlock." So, the jealous/jilted boyfriend kills her and tosses her body in the river. And, as this was the days of "morality," he pays: "I'm here to waste my life away down in this dirty old jail because I murdered that Knoxville girl, the girl I love so well." It's a classic in country music song, from a classic album in country music. Knoxville Girl Traditional Recorded by the Louvin Brothers From Tragic Songs of Life, 1956 Not the original, but most people consider it the best: