You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of Wonder Bread
And went right back to bed
And the history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn't mention us
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads
But they're just old light, they're just old light
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
Told me I was beautiful
And came into my bed
Oh, I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
And kissed me 'til the mornin' light, the mornin' light
And he kissed me 'til the mornin' light
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of Wonder Bread
And went right back to bed
Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down
Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one
And the history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of Wonder Bread
And went right back to bed
And the history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn't mention us
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads
But they're just old light, they're just old light
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
Told me I was beautiful
And came into my bed
Oh, I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
And kissed me 'til the mornin' light, the mornin' light
And he kissed me 'til the mornin' light
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of Wonder Bread
And went right back to bed
Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down
Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one
And the history books forgot about us
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first
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According to the biblical story, Samson was given extraordinary physical strength through God. First he fell in love with a woman named Timnah, a Philistine, and weds her-- at the wedding reception, he promises a group of Philistines that he will provide them with thirty sets of clothes if they can solve a riddle. They are unable to solve it, but they implore Timnah to get the answer from him-- she does, and tells them, and Samson becomes furious because he doesn't have clothing to give to them.
He leaves town and kills thirty other men in a nearby village, steals their clothing, but when he returns, Timnah is now married to a friend of his. Enraged, he ultimately ends up killing a thousand of the Philistines.
When he goes to Gaza, Samson meets and falls in love with Delilah. The Philistines convince her to get him to tell her the source of his power-- he tells her it's his hair (however, it was not *really* in his hair, but because he had already broken two laws of the Nazarite. this was enough for God to take his power away from him).
Delilah cuts off all of Samson's hair, and then he is captured by the Philistines, who gouge out his eyeballs. However, the way he dies is by pulling down the two central pillars in a temple.
This seems to be referred to in the song with the lines "Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down / Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one."
I think the narrator of this song-- Delilah-- is lamenting about what could have been. Because she secretly did love Samson. All of the stories say that Samson loved Delilah, and make no mention of her returning the feelings. The lyric "I loved you first" seems to imply that not only did she love him back, but she loved him before he even loved her.
As I see it, this song is about how she imagined a different ending for their tragic romance. In this version, after she cuts his hair, he just eats a piece of bread, tells her it's okay, it's all right, nothing has changed. They make love and get a happy ending.
And in her version, the Bible doesn't even mention them because what she did didn't matter-- he didn't change history, and they just loved each other, quietly.
Samson knows he is destined to do god's work, but he meets delilah, they fall in love, and he lets her cut his hair so that he will lose his strength and wont be needed by god, which means he'll be able to stay with delilah forever. Delilah cuts his hair and therefore samson never brings the columns down and history books and the bible dont mention them, but they live happily ever after. (unless i'm being really stupid, i'm certain this fits)
"you are my sweetest downfall, i loved you first" > this is delilah saying that she loved samson and their love and life together was "sweet", or beautiful, but their love was in a way her downfall, because by her cutting his hair she let god down.
"Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth" > delilah from this alternate version of the bible story saying beneath the sheets of paper of the bible is her truth and her story, the other ending which is not in the bible.
"ate a slice of wonderbread and went right back to bed" > samson would feel weak after he lost his hair and his strength. he's be eating wonderbread and resting to get over it.
the song kinda is a conflict of samson's love and true feelings and what he is supposed to do for god. i think it could show that maybe love beats all. :)
I think the phrase "you are my sweetest downfall" is meant to be a reclamation of the word "downfall". In the Bible (and cultural parlance) Delilah ruins Samson's covenant with God, causing his death, and is thus his downfall; in Regina's alternate version, Samson is Delilah's "downfall", as in "falling" in love (and thus "sweet").
It also implies the distinction between life choices: simple / quiet / domestic (traditional female virtues), vs fame / renown / misery (traditional male virtues). Maybe, keeping in metaphor, Delilah would have been happy with a "normal" Samson but Samson preferred or was destined death and destruction rather than "normal". Which is actually pretty sad for Delilah, one of history's greatest so-called villains.
In the actual story, Samson used to terrorize his enemies, the Philistines. Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman against God's council. When his enemies realize this, they blackmail Delilah into cutting Samson's hair while he was asleep by threatening to kill her family. Samson wakes up angry. But as he is powerless now, his enemies take him away from Delilah, blind him, and chain him to the two main pillars of their temple to mock him. But his hair grows back and he slowly regains his superhuman strength without his enemies realizing it. Long story short, he is finally able to get back at his enemies by breaking down the pillars temple during a celebration, bringing down the roof, effectively killing himself along with is enemies.
But the twist in this song is Delilah seems to have worked on her own when she cuts Samson's hair. When she does, Samson doesn't wake up angry. In fact he's pleased. Delilah says, "And he told me that I'd done alright". The tamed Samson eats his Wonder bread, like a normal civil man, and goes back to bed, like a normal civil man. No pillars were broken down, no temple came tumbling down. Only "old light" from the stars. No legend was created, no history changed, no stories told in the Bible or anywhere. He has given up his strength, his wildness, his independence, his dominance over his enemies for love.
But the catch that isn't said explicitly in the song (but strongly implied) is that by cutting his hair and taming him Delilah saves his life.
One thing I love about the lyrics is it could be many meanings. I hate when songs hit you over the head with its meaning.
Anyway I think this definitely has to do with Samson, but not Delilah. I think it's like Regina taking the point of view of a woman who came before Delilah, who truly loved Samson instead of just wanting to cut off his hair so he would lose his strength. But Samson loved her and trusted her enough to let himself be vulnerable with her. He let her cut off his hair. But their love ended for whatever reason, and she is reflecting on how beautiful it was even though no one will ever know about it because no one ever mentioned it. At least that's how I look at it...it's a gorgeous song. Also I think "Your hair was long when we first met" sort of meant that he had his guard up, and that he didn't want to let her in. I don't think she regretted cutting his hair at all, I mean it says, "And he told me that I had done alright and kissed me 'til the morning light" so I think they were happy.
But then Delilah came along and that was the story that everyone heard about.
No matter how you look at it, bottom line, very pretty song. And a great way to open up her album Songs.
"Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down
Yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one"
Those lines tells me they could not fight the cancer and he did die.
I found that this thought fit the song in all aspects.
This song means a great deal to me.