Artist: Reese Dupree
Author: traditional
Label: Okeh
Year: 1924
B-side of Norfolk Blues. Re-issued on Document cd Male Blues Of The Twenties. Howard Odum collected his first version around 1906-1908 in Newton Co., GA and first published the song in 1911.
Covers:
Nassau String Band [as Delia's Gone; Lomax recording]
Jimmie Gordon [jazz version as Delhia]
Blind Willie McTell [as Delia; John & Ruby Lomax recording for the Library of Congress in Atlanta, GA; in '49 as Little Delia]
Blind Blake Riggs [just like the Nassau String Band from the Bahamas and as Delia's Gone]
Harry Belafonte [idem with lighter lyrics]
Josh White [idem]
Pete Seeger [idem]
Bob Gibson [idem]
Paul Clayton [idem]
Bud & Travis [idem]
Acker Bilk [idem]
Burl Ives [idem]
Johnny Cash [idem and in '94 A1 on American Recordings and with Kate Moss in the clip; lines like: "First time I shot her, I shot her in the side, Hard to watch her suffer but with the second shot she died" are well in league with "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"]
Pat Boone [idem]
Will Holt [as Delia]
Kingston Trio [as One More Round]
John Koerner [idem]
Elizabeth Cotten [idem]
Bobby Bare [as Delia's Gone]
Stefan Grossman [idem and in '73 as All My Friends Are Gone]
Waylon Jennings [idem, using the tune of The House Of The Rising Sun]
David Bromberg [idem]
Roy Book Binder [idem]
Happy Traum [idem]
Ron Wood [as Delia on Gimme Some Neck]
Bob Dylan [as Delia; very personal version on World Gone Wrong]
Martin Simpson [idem]
Koerner, Ray & Glover [as Delia's Gone]
David Johansen & The Harry Smiths [as Delia]
Dave Alvin [idem]
Eric Bibb [as Delia's Gone]
Spider John Koerner & Dave Ray [on A Nod To Bob]
Roger McGuinn [as Delia]
Dylan has some fine words for Delia in the sleeve notes to his World Gone Wrong cd: "Toleration of the unacceptable leads to the last round-up". Dave Alvin on his cd Public Domain has an equal point with: "A lot of what is good, and bad, about us is in these songs". Alan Lomax about this same song in The Land Where The Blues Began: "In Delia an individual comes up for what he or she feels or believes and then faces the tragic consequences of this act". In other words, it's a mighty old murder ballad we're dealing with, based on real facts: Christmas eve 1900 in the Yamacraw District of Savannah, GA: 14 year old Delia Green calls her loverboy Moses 'Cooney' Houston a 'son of a bitch' and he shoots her dead. There was no juvenile justice system in Georgia and Houston was sentenced a lifelong imprisonment, of which he served 12 years (paroled by Governor John Slaton in 1913). Al Stewart's Delia's Gone ('86) is his own song.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)