Deriding Delilah.

The song Delilah, made famous by Tom Jones, is the subject of some dispute at the moment. For some reason unknown to me (but probably to do with Tom Jones being a Welshman) it’s become the anthem of Welsh rugby union, being frequently rendered by the crowd and visiting entertainers alike. But now those who run matters pertaining to Welsh rugby matches have told the entertainers that they must no longer include the song in their repertoire because it’s about violence by a man against a woman. And so I asked myself whether that is a justifiable reason to ban a song.

It is, indeed, a song about a man murdering his partner on discovering her infidelity, but that’s only the surface of the story. Go a little deeper and it becomes obvious that the song is really about a man driven to a state of insanity by infidelity and subsequent mockery. In a French court such an act would undoubtedly be deemed a crime of passion and treated differently than an act of violence not so engendered. And even in an English court the reason behind the act would be offered in mitigation on the grounds of temporary insanity. The song does, after all, include the line: ‘forgive me Delilah, I just couldn’t take any more.’ In short, it would be reasonable to assert that the song is about a temporary, though extreme, burst of mental ill health.

So what’s my verdict on the matter? My own personal jury is still out because I find violence committed by men against women utterly deplorable. It’s why I couldn’t watch the much-vaunted drama Game of Thrones beyond the first episode, however good it might be as a dramatic work.

But that’s a matter personal to me. The history of highly-regarded drama, fiction, and folk tales contains many examples of men committing violent acts against women. So should we bowdlerise Shakespeare and the Greek myths? Even the hard line members of the liberal alter-establishment are not suggesting we should, so what makes this song suitable for different treatment?

I don’t think anything does unless you count that brand of snobbery which ring-fences all aspects of high cultural tradition while deriding popular genres, and I don’t think such is the case here. I think it’s another example of needing to keep a careful eye on pendulums which swing too far.