I was intrigued to remember this 70's song when I recently heard an instrumental version of "Big Country," a bluegrass recording by Bela Fleck and others. Reminded me somewhat of Delta Dawn and the c.1841 "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond," so... I wanted to look into the meaning.
At first the song meaning provided here and on Wikipedia sounded legitimate, the woman with mental illness etc. But I just now saw an online video interview of one of the writers, Alex Harvey, about this song. It's at YouTube. Search for "Story Behind the Song: Delta Dawn." He gives an almost entirely different take, only partially explaining the song, which puzzles the commenters over there on YouTube. Meanwhile the Wikipedia backstory for the song is poorly sourced. I may do some more research on this later. I don't see anything citing the story of the supposed "Delta Dawn" woman with any authority. What a pretty melody though!
I was intrigued to remember this 70's song when I recently heard an instrumental version of "Big Country," a bluegrass recording by Bela Fleck and others. Reminded me somewhat of Delta Dawn and the c.1841 "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond," so... I wanted to look into the meaning.
At first the song meaning provided here and on Wikipedia sounded legitimate, the woman with mental illness etc. But I just now saw an online video interview of one of the writers, Alex Harvey, about this song. It's at YouTube. Search for "Story Behind the Song: Delta Dawn." He gives an almost entirely different take, only partially explaining the song, which puzzles the commenters over there on YouTube. Meanwhile the Wikipedia backstory for the song is poorly sourced. I may do some more research on this later. I don't see anything citing the story of the supposed "Delta Dawn" woman with any authority. What a pretty melody though!
@Deepdiving I saw the same video. The writer explained that Delta Dawn is his mother and the song is basically about how his mother met his father.
@Deepdiving I saw the same video. The writer explained that Delta Dawn is his mother and the song is basically about how his mother met his father.