‘Delia’s Gone . . .’

by whiteray

Delia, oh, Delia
Delia all my life
If I hadn't shot poor Delia
I'd have had her for my wife
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone 

So sang Johnny Cash on his 1993 album American Recordings. But who was Delia? 

Well, she was a real person. Her name was Delia Green. Here’s part of what Wikipedia has to say about her: 

Delia Green (1886 – December 25, 1900) was a 14-year-old African-American murder victim who has been identified as the likely inspiration for several well-known traditional American songs, usually known by the titles “Delia” and “Delia’s Gone.” 

According to contemporaneous reports published in Georgia newspapers, Green was shot by 15-year-old Mose (or Moses) Houston late on Christmas Eve, 1900, in the Yamacraw neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia, and died at 3:00 a.m. on Christmas Day. Houston, the newspapers implied, had been involved in a sexual relationship with Green for several months. The shooting took place at the home of Willie West, who chased down Houston after the shooting and turned him over to the city police. 

Green’s murder and Houston’s trial in the spring of 1901 were reported in the Savannah Morning News and the Savannah Evening Press. Although Houston reportedly had confessed to the murder at the time of his arrest, at his trial he claimed the shooting was accidental. Other witnesses, however, testified that Houston had become angry after Green called him “a son of a bitch.” 

Wikipedia notes that Green was buried in an unmarked grave in Laurel Grove Cemetery South in Savannah. Someone, in recent years, has installed a memorial stone for her at Laurel Grove:

As to the music that’s kept her memory alive, the earliest version of any of the songs inspired by Green’s fate listed at Second Hand Songs is “Delhia,” a 1939 Decca recording by Jimmie Gordon and His Vip Vop Band. From that point, the list of recordings has a gap covering the entire 1940s, with recording picking up in the 1950s. After that, versions of the songs “Delia” and “Delia’s Gone” (sometimes as “Delia Gone”) came from, among many others, Josh White, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Acker Bilk, Pat Boone, Bobby Short, Burl Ives, Glenn Yarbrough, and Pat Green & Cory Morrow. 

Second Hand Songs notes: 

There are reputedly recordings of “Delia” going back to the 1920s. It was collected in print form not later than 1927, and possibly earlier. Versions have been recorded as, among others, “Little Delia,” “Deliah” and “Delia’s Gone.” The latter title apparently originated in the Bahamas when the song – with substantially different lyrics – migrated there. As early as 1935, Alan Lomax recorded a local version by The Nassau String Band. In 1959, Karl Silbersdorf and Dick Toops made a questionable copyright with the same title, used by Johnny Cash in 1962 and many to follow. 

The mention of “substantially different lyrics” echoes a comment about the songs and their titles found at Wikipedia: “The songs inspired by Green’s murder now appear in two forms; both forms were staples of the ‘folk revival’ of the 1950s and early 1960s. One version, usually attributed to Blake Alphonso Higgs [better known as Blind Blake], is known as ‘Delia’s Gone.’ It is explicitly told from her killer’s point of view. The second version, usually attributed to Blind Willie McTell, is usually known as ‘Delia’ and is told from the point of view of a loved one of Delia’s.” 

Trying to make all the information and suppositions in all of that square up in a nice pile is difficult (and might be impossible even with further research), but that’s often the way it goes with folk songs. 

Both of Cash’s recordings were of “Delia’s Gone,” told from the point of view of the killer (as could be inferred from the verse at the top of this piece). The 1962 version referenced by Second Hand Songs was released on the album The Sound Of Johnny Cash. Thirty-two years later, in 1993, he re-recorded the song for the above-mentioned album American Recordings. Here’s how he told the tale the second time: 

Delia, oh, Delia
Delia all my life
If I hadn't shot poor Delia
I'd have had her for my wife
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone 

I went up to Memphis
And I met Delia there
Found her in her parlor
And I tied her to her chair
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone 

She was low-down and trifling
And she was cold and mean
Kind of evil make me want to
Grab my sub-machine
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone 

First time I shot her
I shot her in the side
Hard to watch her suffer
But with the second shot she died
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone 

But jailer, oh, jailer
Jailer, I can’t sleep
’Cause all around my bedside
I hear the patter of Delia’s feet
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone 

So if your woman's devilish
You can let her run
Or you can bring her down and do her
Like Delia got done
Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone

Delia’s gone, one more round
Delia’s gone