New song....

Billy Joe committed suicide by jumping off the Tallahatchie bridge, but we're not told what he and the girl threw off it.

And the Threepeny Opera ( Mackie Messer/Mack the Knife) is based on John Gay's Beggar's Opera, 1728 (or thereabouts). There are lots of echoes of other ballads in Delilah. John Dooley comes to mind. There are three quite prominent themes in traditional ballads which pop up all the time in modern songs: unwanted pregnancy and betrayal, women murdering unfaithful or violent husbands and men murdering unfaithful women. I have no idea what 'Billy Joe' is about! What did they throw off the Tallahatchee Bridge? Why did everything go wrong?

I didn't realise Delilah was about a murder (mind you, I was only about 11) and the whole family used to sing along to it at parties! I wonder if they knew?

Then again, I can remember requesting, at a Christmas Dinner & Dance, for the DJ to play Relax (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) as I used to love dancing to that - I didn't know it was referring to sex - and the DJ thanked me, over the mike, for requesting it <blush>

It just goes to show that the meaning of the words of songs don't always sink in.

She's STILL dead.
It's a bit too close to the present, isn't it, I think?
Past works are from a different culture so I don't think about them in the same way.

Here's part of the article - note by a man and American

"To be clear, this article does not condone murder. Using the word ‘murder’ in any state, be it past, present, or future tense on your Facebook status will create no amount of issues somewhere down the line so it’s best to never use it. Ever. Or do it, double ever. There is a little-used caveat for artists because they can pretend to do it consequence-free as poetic license.

At one time singers use to be story-tellers, using words to say things that didn’t involve the repetitive use of the word ‘baby’ as song filler. Great songs told stories of love, redemption, war, and with an occasional thought-provoking commentary on religion and civilization. Very few songs were created about the darker things of life.

In today’s world, there are still relatively few songs about murder that make it onto the radio, being such a hot potato of a subject. When it does happen, there’s something about noticing your partner/moody best friend/Mom humming along to a song on the radio about killing a man that makes you really look at them in a new and different (albeit worrisome) light."

I think there is a bit more to "Delilah" than just a song about murder. It does set out the desperation and remorse of the man involved.

I am not condoning it but if we banned everything like this we would have no drama or Opera or anything else.

Macbeth Othello Hamlet. etc etc. Carmen. Tosca Madame Butterfly, A lot of them are all the same tale.

Depending on who sings it and what it does say?

And when it was written, does matter.

'Delilah' came out in 1968 - the 60s, a time when all kinds of rules of conduct were being relaxed, most but not all for the good!
Attitudes to women did change during the 70s.

I am looking for an article I found the other day...may put some of it here.

As Lilygran says, folk songs and ballads are full of 'foul deeds' and the point of them is IMO to show the seriousness of these acts and to show the consequences. Just because it is in a song it doesn't mean it is being treated in a lighthearted way. I like a song which makes me think a bit.

Oh dear, so do I.
But I've always taken it in its historical context (pre-war Germany)...it's a bit like reading an old novel that uses the n-word...

I like that one too grumppa

I think Delilah is a horrible song, both for it's lyrics and it's tune. Most people just end up shouting it.

grumpa Isn't that different because of the context?

Oh dear, Meckie Messer (Mack the Knife) is one of my eight Desert Island discs. Murder, adultery, arson, robbery, all in one song.

I've always hated 'Ode to Billie Joe'; more because of the miserableness of the music than the story it tells. It gives me the creeps .

I like 'Goodbye Earl' as well, 'one of those missing persons nobody ever missed'. There are so many songs about murder, Alie. Think of all the folk songs and ballads for a start.

Oh right! I get it now. Sorry.

(Must admit I'm watching strictly at the same time as GNing)

No Ana you are absolutely right

But I could be wrong...

I think annsixty might be agreeing that KatyK's post was just a joke about the chorus of the song, jingl, and that she was not making light of murder.

I would never ever joke about rape or murder and indeed havn't.

Interesting that when the Dixie Chicks recorded a song about taking murderous revenge on "Earl" who "walked right through that restraining order and put her in intensive care", there was a lot of outrage and some radio stations refused to play it. No one made much of an objection to "I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more".

My last post:
People make jokes about murder. People make jokes about rape.
(Try googling, there are plenty online)
These are two kinds of joke I don't laugh at.

Have you not read from the top?

All of it

Jbf what part of my post do you not understand?

Pardon.