If you’re a fan of old school folk, country, and jazz, chances are you’ve heard a song or two about Delia. But what you may not know is that these songs are inspired by real people. Songwriters through the years have taken varying degrees of creative license when telling the tale of Delia’s fate, and the actual events surrounding her life and death are largely forgotten.
New article now on the site, detailing the murder of 14-year-old Delia Green. Click here to read.
Bob Dylan on the back cover of Dimestore Medicine, a compilation album of Dylan’s rehearsal tapes and unreleased tracks from 1656-1966, released in 2002.
Willie Nelson, Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Kim Carnes, Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen during the recording of “We Are The World’‘1985
Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you The vagabond who’s rapping at your door Is standing in the clothes that you once wore Strike another match, go start a new And it’s all over now, Baby Blue.
George Harrison and Bob Dylan onstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards ceremony in January 1988; photo by David McGough.
“In music, it breaks down into the people who have more sort of a worldly consciousness, and that’s why I’ve always been with Ravi Shankar because he’s bringing, particular in the West, he’s bringing something obscure and creating an audience, and through his audience then he’s giving them something extra which, you know, that something which people who appreciate can get into, you know, it’s a whole other train of thought that comes from the music. You know, in simpler terms, those people are like people who just convey in their music some sort of sincerity. Like I’m a big fan of Smokey Robinson just because musically he’s so sweet, you know, he’s so sweet he makes you feel nice, he makes me feel good. Whereas a lot of music I listen to which is popular music which just makes me uptight, you know, even if I’m not listening too closely, just the sound of it and the whole thing, and the repetition, you know, the boring sort of repetition of how it’s playing. I always have been a fan of Dylan’s, and I think I always will be, because somehow, I don’t know, Dylan has always managed to upstage everybody, you know, when it comes down to being aware of being able to put into words… You know, I mean, we can feel and see a lot of things but when it comes down to writing a tune and being able to communicate this through words, I mean he’s very good at being able to put words down.” - George Harrison (on musicians he admired, 1975), KMET, 1975 (x)
