The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11867   Message #721973
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
03-Jun-02 - 01:04 AM
Thread Name: All My Friends are Gone
Subject: LYR ADD: DELIE ( a different Delia)
This from John Garst, Univ. Georgia. In 1900 in Savannah, two teenagers; Moses "Cooney" Houston shot and killed Delia Green. "Cooney" claimed Green was his girl while she objected. The incident inspired the popular song "Delia's Gone" (aka Delia), "All I have is gone," and "All I got Done Gone." John Garst contributes to Mudcat; he may enlarge on this story.
In the DT, Delia 1 and 2 depart rather far from this story. Is there another Delia?
Here is another version from "American Negro Folk Songs." It doesn't really fit the story either.

Lyr. Add: DELIE

Delie, Delie, was a-goin' her last round,
When ole coon came by
An' shot her to the groun'.
All I done had done gone.

Delie, Delie, why didn't yo' run,
When yo' seen dat coon a-comin'
Wid his forty-fo' caliber gun?
All I done had done gone.

Rubber-tired cayage, rubber-tired hack
Done took poor Delie to de bone yard,
Ain't never brought her back.
All I done had done gone.

Men in Atalanta tryin' to pass fo' white,
Delie's in de bone yard
Six foot out o' sight.
All I done had done gone.

Men in Atalanta drinkin' out a silver cup,
Delie's in de bone yard,
Ain't never goin' to get up.
All I done had done gone.

Reported from Durham, NC, 1924. "from memory of a song taught Frank Goodell of Spartenburg, SC,...by an old Negro to whom he paid $1.00 to teach him to play the guitar. Learned possibly between 1900 and 1904." Note the convergence with "Frankie and Albert." "Ole coon" in the song may be a mis-hearing of "Cooney." Atalanta commonly replaces Atlanta in rural Georgia. From Newman L. White, 1928, American Negro Folk Songs, 1965 reprint, p. 215.
@crime @Negro @ballad