Why does Bob Dylan like “Delia” – and how he rescued the song.

By Tony Attwood

Between 1960 and October 2012 Dylan played this song 12 times in public, and by general agreement during this time he discovered all the depths there are in this song after they had been destroyed by years and years of mistreatment.  I’ve included two Dylan versions here – this first from 1993 is to me the classic

Here are the lyrics – for anyone like me not 100% familiar with American slang of the era, the word “rounders” is, I believe, a word for drunkards, thieves, burglars, and others of ill-repute, bad or illegal behaviour.

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The most commonly held view is that the song is about Delia Green who was born in 1886 and killed aged 14.  The song appears in many forms but the most common is that she was shot dead on Christmas Day, 1900, by  youth named Houston, after the couple had had an argument, seemingly him boasting that he had been to bed with her many times, and she saying that was not so.  He served 12 years in prison and died in 1927.  Delia Green was buried in an unmarked grave.

Many songs that since emerged based on the story, including one famously by Blind Willie McTell “Delia” which retells the story in a different way.

https://youtu.be/FcS16tpA6-c

But the real interest in the story and the song returned in the 1950s and as time went by the music lost all touch with the lyrics.  Pat Boone’s song shows this completely.

Johnny Cash also recorded a version

Now these songs have nothing much to do with Dylan’s song.  And yet Bob Dylan’s version is noted as “traditional” in the catalogue.  Here is the second Dylan version…

 

Such facts as we have of the real life story because of the work of folk song collectors who have recorded multiple versions of the song.  It seems that at first there was no mention of either protagonist’s age, thus removing a key element from the tale.

The earliest versions also have strong negative references to race, suggesting either the events were of no significance because of the colour of those involved.  Also most early versions are told from the man’s point of view, without any thought of the young woman who died, thus continuing to promote misogyny through the song.

Dylan however does something else – portraying Curtis as a victim of his own situation, as much as Delia.  An interesting approach.

It is a forgotten piece of Dylan’s performance history, but it should not be.  To me this is a wonderful rescuing of an old song that needed reworking.

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