Basically a song about stalking and murder. It's pretty clear from the lyrics that "Delilah" is the male character's "woman", that she cheats on him which he views from outside her home "I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blind" which drives the male into a jealous rage "....as she deceived me I watched & went out of my mind".
The stalking aspect becomes more clear in the second verse "At break of day as that man drove away I was waiting"....clearly Delilah's new beau spent the night and the jealous boyfriend waited outside her home all night waiting to see him leave. After that comes the inevitable confrontation between the male character & Delilah, during which she taunts him "She stood there laughing..." and he reacts with violence "I felt the knife in my hand, and she laughed no more".
Based around the unusual musical arrangement of a 2-2 time signature like a classic waltz, speed up considerably, with opening parts that imitate the background music for the shower stabbing scene in the movie "Psycho", this had to be one of the more different sounding songs on the pop charts in 1968 when it was released, also one of the darkest since it's dominating themes are infidelity, stalking, & murder.
Jones has stated in interviews that when the single was first released he was booked on The Ed Sullivan Show, a huge coups at the time. Before they would let him sing the song however he had to change the lyric in the 2nd verse about the new man leaving the Delilah's home because it implied he spent the entire night there. According to Jones he questioned why it upset the censors that the cheating male spends the entire night at Deliliah's when it's OK for the original boyfriend to wait outside all night stalking Delilah, who clearly is portrayed as engaging some sort of sexual activity aka "flickering shadows of love on her blind", not too mention the whole stabbing her to death part, and basically got little answer except the other male character couldn't spend the entire night. Crazy as that sounds, in order to get a prime spot on the show Jones changed that random line to something llke "At break of day as the night went away I was waiting", which eliminated the other man from his overnight visit but still implies the stalking aspect.
Even more odd, Jones was not asked to edit the song lyrics when he sang it on his own TV show a year later, although that was on a different network (Sullivan was on CBS, This Is Tom Jones was on ABC)
@FlairFan01 waltzes are usually in 3-4, this is most likely in 3-4 or 6-8. 2-2 would imply that there are 2 beats in each bar that are each subdivided into 2, making 4 beats. 6-8 means there are 2 beats in each bar subdivided in to 3 each, making 6 quick beats.
@FlairFan01 waltzes are usually in 3-4, this is most likely in 3-4 or 6-8. 2-2 would imply that there are 2 beats in each bar that are each subdivided into 2, making 4 beats. 6-8 means there are 2 beats in each bar subdivided in to 3 each, making 6 quick beats.
Basically a song about stalking and murder. It's pretty clear from the lyrics that "Delilah" is the male character's "woman", that she cheats on him which he views from outside her home "I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blind" which drives the male into a jealous rage "....as she deceived me I watched & went out of my mind".
The stalking aspect becomes more clear in the second verse "At break of day as that man drove away I was waiting"....clearly Delilah's new beau spent the night and the jealous boyfriend waited outside her home all night waiting to see him leave. After that comes the inevitable confrontation between the male character & Delilah, during which she taunts him "She stood there laughing..." and he reacts with violence "I felt the knife in my hand, and she laughed no more".
Based around the unusual musical arrangement of a 2-2 time signature like a classic waltz, speed up considerably, with opening parts that imitate the background music for the shower stabbing scene in the movie "Psycho", this had to be one of the more different sounding songs on the pop charts in 1968 when it was released, also one of the darkest since it's dominating themes are infidelity, stalking, & murder.
Jones has stated in interviews that when the single was first released he was booked on The Ed Sullivan Show, a huge coups at the time. Before they would let him sing the song however he had to change the lyric in the 2nd verse about the new man leaving the Delilah's home because it implied he spent the entire night there. According to Jones he questioned why it upset the censors that the cheating male spends the entire night at Deliliah's when it's OK for the original boyfriend to wait outside all night stalking Delilah, who clearly is portrayed as engaging some sort of sexual activity aka "flickering shadows of love on her blind", not too mention the whole stabbing her to death part, and basically got little answer except the other male character couldn't spend the entire night. Crazy as that sounds, in order to get a prime spot on the show Jones changed that random line to something llke "At break of day as the night went away I was waiting", which eliminated the other man from his overnight visit but still implies the stalking aspect.
Even more odd, Jones was not asked to edit the song lyrics when he sang it on his own TV show a year later, although that was on a different network (Sullivan was on CBS, This Is Tom Jones was on ABC)
@FlairFan01 waltzes are usually in 3-4, this is most likely in 3-4 or 6-8. 2-2 would imply that there are 2 beats in each bar that are each subdivided into 2, making 4 beats. 6-8 means there are 2 beats in each bar subdivided in to 3 each, making 6 quick beats.
@FlairFan01 waltzes are usually in 3-4, this is most likely in 3-4 or 6-8. 2-2 would imply that there are 2 beats in each bar that are each subdivided into 2, making 4 beats. 6-8 means there are 2 beats in each bar subdivided in to 3 each, making 6 quick beats.