Samson and Delilah

DESCRIPTION: "Delilah was a woman, fine and fair, Very pleasant looks and coal black hair... If I had my way I'd tear the building down." Delilah tricks Samson out of the secret of his strength; he is captured, but manages to tear the building down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Rev. T. E. Weems)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious death hair trick lie
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 6-8, "Samson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 251, "Samson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 49-50, "(If I Had My Way)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 312-313, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6700
RECORDINGS:
Blind Gary Davis, "Samson and Delilah" (LP: on "Harlem Street Singer," Prestige Bluesville BV-1015, 1960; CD: on "Harlem Street Singer", Original Blues Classics OBCCD-547-2, 1992)
Blind Willie Johnson, "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down" (Columbia 14343-D, 1928; Vocalion 03021, 1935; rec. 1927)
Celina Lewis, "Session with Celina Lewis" (on NFMAla6)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down" (Columbia 14254-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God's A-Gwine Ter Move All de Troubles Away" (lyrics and theme of the Samson story)
NOTES [275 words]: Most of this story is Biblically accurate. The story of Samson occupies chapters 13-16 of Judges. We may categorize:
* Delilah's beauty (not mentioned; we are only told that Samson loved her; see 16:4)
* Samson's birth: A miraculous event described in chapter 13
* "Strongest man that ever lived on earth": not explicit, but not totally unreasonable; tales of Samson's superhuman strength (and almost subhuman intelligence) fill most of chapters 14-16
* "He killed three thousand Philistines": No such number is given in the Bible. Judges 14:19 says he killed 30 in Ascalon, in 15:8 he commits a "great slaughter," 15:15-16 says he killed a thousand (exactly?), and at the end of chapter 16 he supposedly killed more than in his entire career up to then, but obviously there is no way to add that up to a particular total except that it must be greater than 2062 (which is twice 1000+3+1), assuming you take all those round numbers seriously. But there was a well-known tradition that he killed three thousand at the end -- e.g. Chaucer in "The Monk's Tale" (line 2088, p. 243 in The Riverside Chaucer) says that "thre thousand bodyes were ther slayn"
* The dead lion and the bees: 14:6, 8f.
* "They bound him with a rope" (first occurrence): 15:13
* The old jawbone, etc.: 15:15f.
* Samson told her, "Shave off my hair": 16:17
* "His strength became like a natural man": 16:19
* The final incident, where the blinded Samson is displayed before the Philistines, but has his revenge by pulling the building down on them, is told in 16:23-30.
There was a 1914 pop song, "If I Had My Way," words by Lou Klein, music by James Kendis. This is not it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LoF251

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography