Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union

Subject: Delilah 'Banned' by WRU
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 02:40 PM

It's the song that fans have belted out for many years at Wales rugby games.
But now the Welsh Rugby Union has announced that Delilah will no longer be sung by choirs at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
The 1968 Tom Jones hit has long been controversial because of its references to a woman's murder by her jealous partner, and it was removed from the choir's playlist in 2015.
But, with Welsh rugby at the centre of a storm about sexism and misogyny, the WRU officially banned it this week.
It continues to divide opinion.
The Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi performed it at his show in Cardiff on Wednesday night, hours after the news broke.

Quote above is from BBC News

With tomorrow being the opening day of the '6 Nations' rugby championships I would imagine the fans will belt it out louder, more often, and for longer. At the match (Wales v Ireland) and in the local pubs both before & after the match.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by WRU
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 03:15 PM

Come on you Welsh, show a bit of imagination! Do what the Liverpool kopites did, take the song by the scruff and change the words! Here's The Fields of Athenry, as sung on the Kop:

Outside the Shankly Gates
I heard a Kopite calling:
Shankly they have taken you away
But you left a great eleven
Before you went to heaven
Now it's glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.
All round the Fields of Anfield Road
Where once we watched the King Kenny play (and he could play)
Stevie Heighway on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing Of the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road
Outside the Paisley Gates
I heard a Kopite calling
Paisley they have taken you away.
You led the great 11
Back in Rome in 77
And the redmen they are still playing the same way
All round the Fields of Anfield Road
Where once we watched the King Kenny play (and he could play)
Stevie Heighway on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
Of the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.
Outside the Hillsborough flames
I heard Kopite mourning
What so many taken on that day
Justice has never been done
But theirs memory will carry on
And it's the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.
All round the Fields of Anfield Road
Where once we watched the King Kenny play (and he could play)
Stevie Heighway on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
Of the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.
Of the glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.

I think we call it the folk process...

You can even hear it, given a quick google! :-)

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by WRU
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 03:27 PM

Or Man City's version of 'Wonderwall' (by Oasis):

Today will be another day, I wish I'd never been a Blue
I'm sure we saw it all before when we went down to division 2
I don't believe that any team has played the way we do,
apart from Slough.

Last week we had a bad defeat that we really could have done without
Felt sure that we were gonna score, but again we left the field with nowt
I don't believe that Bill Shank-er-ley could stop us going down,
Nor could Don Howe

And all the roads to Wemb-er-ley are winding
We ain't got any silverware for shining
We haven't won a single thing for over 20 years
and we wont do now
Cos maybe, we should have got Liam Brady
But after all we got Alan Ball

Today was gonna be the day when I thought we'd sign someone new
But the deal crashed, not enough cash, and he'd only ever played for Crewe
I don't believe that anybody would sign in their right mind anyhow

And all the shots we have on goal go wider
No one ever seems to play a blinder
There are many teams that I would love to see us beat
But I can't see how
Cos maybe, we should have got Richard Madeley
But after all we got Alan Ball.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 03:39 PM

Didn't this happen years ago?

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 03:41 PM

As it says in the article quoted above, removed from the playlist in 2015, but Banned by WRU (Welsh Rugby Union) this week.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: cnd
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 04:05 PM

I love Tom Jones as much as the next guy, but as an outsider totally unfamiliar with Rugby/Soccer singing cultures -- why Delilah?

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 05:25 PM

Do you mean, why, why, why, Delilah? :-)

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 06:03 PM

How about substituting "Mack the Knife"?

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Raggytash
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 06:32 PM

Biblical I suspect CND

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 07:02 PM

Mack The Knife, great though it is, somehow lacks the anthemic quality of Delilah...

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 07:26 PM

I hope the ridiculous "ban" is ignored

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 07:40 PM

Whatever next? Banning the Bible from religious education? This is getting silly. Over-reaction and overkill. C'mon....

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 08:11 PM

Now let's not get carried away with this "ban" stuff. The WRU have simply said that the WRU choir won't be singing it. The crowd, as ever, will sing whatever they want. As for banning the Bible from RE, yep, I'll buy that!

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 08:17 PM

Gee, I never listened to the lyrics before. I thought it was just another syrupy Tom Jones song, and had no idea murder was involved.
I never liked Tom Jones. Sorry if that offends somebody. But here is a link to the thread with the lyrics:

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=91406

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 05:03 AM

When I was having trouble logging in to Mudcat my Facebook avatar, Thimble O'Hooligan, started a similar thread on the Mudcat FB page with similar results. I suspect more fans will sing it than before!
RtS

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Lang Johnnie More
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 05:50 AM

Nobody seems to remember the Alex Harvey Band [ except me ] :
https://youtu.be/yPTwQfyBoEE

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 06:39 AM

Suggested alternative: Tom Lehrer's "I Hold Your Hand In Mine" (though that also lacks the belting-it-out-at-gale-force-10 nature).

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 07:56 AM

It's pathetic, just how many folk songs have a murder? 1000s I'd wager!!

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 08:06 AM

Joe: Was it "The Green Green Grass Of Home" you were thinking of? that, I agree, is syrupy, but there's a reason it got (*ahem*) pushed up the charts. There used to be a requests programme on BBC Home Service called "N-way Family Favourites" (for varying values of N), which was basically people asking for requests for family members serving in Europe. Any song with the word "home" in it got a large number of re

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 08:16 AM

Rats: wrong click.

.... a massive number of requests. Thus "Green Green Grass of Home"'s popularity; the fact that it's syrupy added to its appeal to certain segments of the record-buying public.

"Delilah" OTOH is a force-ten belter. Hitting the top A in the verse (a jump of nearly an octave, done cold) is a guaranteed money note for any tenor: I remember the spontaneous cheers when this was done by one of the panel members in I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 09:05 AM

Final edit, I promise ....

The kicker about "Green Green Grass" is that those requesting it for their serviceman relatives didn't listen to the lyrics much either: the reveal in the last verse is that it's about a condemned man's last night in his cell, sung in the first person. But it had "Home" in the title, so it got requested, quite possibly sight unseen.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 10:18 AM

Whereas the alarming connotations in Little Richard's verse below do not worry anybody. I'm with Moorley man.

From the early, early mornin' till the early, early night
When you caught Miss Molly rockin'
At the House Of Blue Light

The prostitutes did three hourly shifts I believe, but she sure likes to ball!
I think Little Richard got away with it because the 1955 hit 'The House of Blue lights' was about a different establishment altogether.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 11:01 AM

Let's ban The Murder of Maria Martin then:
Come all you thoughtless young men,
A warning take by me
To think on my unhappy fate
To be hanged upon a tree.

My name is William Corder,
To you I do declare
I courted Maria Marten,
Most beautiful and fair.

I promised I would marry her
Upon a certain day;
Instead of that I was resolved
To take her life away.

I went unto her father's house
The eighteenth day of May
And said, “My dear Maria,
We will fix a wedding day.”

With her heart so light she thought no harm
To meet me she did go.
I murdered her all in the barn
And laid her body low.

After the horrid deed was done
She laid there in her gore
Her bleeding, mangled body lay
Beneath the Red Barn floor.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 11:03 AM

Well exactly Bonzo! How stupid can you get?

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Rossey
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 05:22 PM

Re- the misogyny of the lyrics. At least some of the lyric was actually written by Barry Mason's then wife Sylvan Whittingham.   She didn't get a credit due to marriage and song writing misogyny - also of course Les Reed and Barry Mason were considered one of those song writing duo teams, so a third party credit would have got in the way of their 'brand'. She did later get a settlement, but Sylvan's name still isn't down as a co-writer.

I see the song as being in the folk tradition of murder ballads with redemption, or a price to pay. Here it is obvious the protagonist has flipped in a crime of passion. As it says they are going to come to break down the door - the listener can make their own ending up. So he would either 'top himself', or get the force of the law falling upon him.

I am also reminded of Olivia Newton John, singing 'Banks of the Ohio'.. that one will have to go next!

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: meself
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 06:03 PM

A choir dropped some pop song from their repertoire. I don't think the world of song will ever recover. Let us run and tell the internet.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 07:20 PM

Well if it had not been a story in the news, it would probably not have a problem, but as it is, or was, there are going to be potential knock-on effects. Hence the interest here, and elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Rain Dog
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 03:56 AM

Some of you need to get your heads out of your song books and look at some recent news regarding the problems that the WRU appear to have with misogyny and sexism within their organisation. The eventual publication of a report into the matter might well make things clearer.

Plenty of people like and sing along with songs without looking closely at the lyrics. Perhaps the WRU should have considered having someone give a 10 minute introduction to the song, explaining why it was a good thing to sing a song about the murder of a woman in a stadium full of 70,000 people. They could organise a raffle too.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 05:10 AM

Very clever. We should of course blame it all on the song. That will solve everything. After all, nobody can sing a song about the murder of a female without being misogynistic or sexist, can they?

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 05:50 AM

Reminds me of the paranoid dyslexic who couldn't escape the nagging fear they were following someone.

I'd tell the WRU and the censors to get the priorities critically sorted.

You already have a lottery. It's called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It is, by the numbers –– morally, ethically and rationally, worse than all the WRU's overabundance of homophobia, misogyny, racism and sexism combined.

If you're good with that, your choirs can whistle Dixie for all I care.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 07:28 AM

Preferably Yankie Doodle Dixie!!!

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 07:33 AM

As others have pointed out, it's not been banned, it's just that choirs will no longer be singing it.
There's nothing stopping fans belting out the chorus of Delilah.

I don't see the relevance of pointing out that lots of traditional folk songs have murders in them, that's a totally different thing. They're not being sung as feelgood anthems by choirs at Welsh rugby fixtures.

I'd wonder what was going on their heads if football crowds started joyously belting out 'Child Owlet' or 'Pretty Polly'

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 08:46 AM

> There's nothing stopping fans belting out the chorus of Delilah.

If they did during the match, the broadcasters managed to filter it out from the broadcast. But the fans not being heard singing the song in question might have had more to do with Ireland getting an early lead.

Oh, and if you want something offensive which people still sing out loud without thinking, check where "Hear him whip the women just around midnight" comes from, and ponder the meaning of that song's title.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 09:49 AM

What I find truly incomprehensible is why any "man" would want to sing it.

Very few songs shout "I'm a whinging, snivelling, little creep of a man" the way that "Delilah" does.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 10:52 AM

Don't know who you are guest but I am bound to say you have nailed it for me. In that context, there is a lot of fuss about nothing. Equally accurately Filk points out that there are worse things to listen to. I never liked that song at all.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 01:39 PM

Bread and circus. It ain't new.

Was introduced to Texas legend Earl Campbell some time ago. He's in a wheelchair and needs two canes to walk two paces. It wasn't Luv Ya Blue! lyrics what did that to flesh and bone while tens of thousands cheered on Monday Night Football®©.

A few weeks ago, the Yanks stopped the heart of one of their footballers. CPR live on national camera whilst the talking heads pondered how and when to finish the game and sort out their coming playoff standings.

If you can label this 'sport' purely for your entertainment pleasure... it takes .001% the very, exact same tortured moral 'logic' to excuse Delilah's so-called 'violent' lyrics.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 02:07 PM

This thread has become fascinating. Thanks Phil.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 02:19 PM

My old mate Lurch, rest his soul, sang Country songs in a deep bass Lancashire accent. Delilah wax his classic

I saw the leet on the neet that I passed by 'er winnder...

:-D

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Rossey
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 04:47 PM

I think one of the oddities and discussion points is what do you do if some song has a killer sing a long chorus, but the lyrics are in this case at odds with the happy go lucky Mariachi pastiche music? It is relevant to folk music, in that a folk song is one taken up by the people, often these days spreading virally at sporting matches with very strange choices taking off. Ok it started off as a hyped up story, and much ado about nothing for clickbait. However, some of the principles involved are an interesting side line.. and Mudcat is a discussion group.   I also re-iterate that the lyrics in question were at least part written by a woman.. although the male in her life took credit for the lyrics.. which was music business and marital misogyny.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 07:35 PM

All forms of song-making genres have their own self-appointed red lines. Those red lines are protean. Folk Music and Blues are my specialities as most people know. What we are seeing now, is the introduction of a red line that like all red lines is debatable.
We see Chanty's minus their racist words, we hear Folk songs censured for verses that support marital violence. The singer makes his or her choice, and the Folklorist suggests that a zoologist would not ignore warthogs because they are not pretty, so the sterile world of the rugby song and the violence of the ballad Lambkin, should be treated with equal importance. The Blues singers disguised the sexuality of their songs or as in the case of Lucille Bogan remain unabashed.
We are now left with the unenviable task of making some sort of decision as to the validity of the censorship. Therefore we must decide if the roar of a rugby crowd, or the harmony of a choir in some way corrupts the listener, or encourages negative stereotypes. If you agree with this context, then some of the song titles already mentioned in this thread are probably a better target for censure than the tongue in check financially driven lyrics of Delilah. Then again it depends on which side of the line you stand. How big is the axe and how large the grindstone?

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Rossey
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 09:04 PM

Talking of red lines Nick Dow, though going off on a tangent - even back in the early 1980's I remember there was a local cabaret singer in Inverness where I live, who was singing Jim Maclean's 'Massacre of Glencoe' to hotel parties of tourists, and he wouldn't sing the words "Raped Glencoe" in the chorus.   I can't remember what he changed it to.. but those two words in the chorus give the song it's power, and he cut its metaphorical balls off. An early example there of 'folk woke', the word raped being taken out of context and being too rough and uncomfortable for the singer to take. Back to Delilah!

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 03:06 AM

Well-meaning but unintentionally silly. You've just summed it up excellently.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Banning bad songs
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 05:10 AM

Prohibition never works.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 06:25 AM

It's not censorship and it's not prohibition.

The Welsh Rugby Union has announced that Delilah will no longer be sung by choirs at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

It would be censorship if they were ordering fans not to sing it, and saying anyone singing it would be thrown out. There's nothing stopping the fans from belting out the chorus. I'm guessing the fans probably weren't singing the controversial lines in the second verse anyway.

It's the Welsh Rugby Union's prerogative to choose what material a choir will sing at matches and to ask them to sing something different. Just as it's my choice to pick what songs I want the DJ to play at my wedding. Just as it's a radio station's choice to decide what songs they want to play on their radio station. Just as it's my choice to decide whether or not I want to sing 'Child Owlet' or 'Pretty Polly' at a folk club: if I decide I don't want to sing those songs, it's not 'censorship' it's a choice.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: Rain Dog
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 07:32 AM

Consider this scenario.

A member of the folk community is brutally murdered. The family hold a funeral service and invite friends along to a pub/club for a get together afterwards in which songs will be sung.

Do you imagine they would want to hear a murder ballad or two?

Would you as a singer consider if it would be appropriate to sing a murder ballad?

Would any of you consider it censorship if the family said they did not want to hear such songs?

The WRU appear to have a long term problem with misogyny and sexism within their organisation. They have attracted a lot of bad press about it. I think most people can see why they have 'banned' this song, though tbey have banned it for a good while.

For the record I like murder ballads but I do see the problems with them.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Don Wick
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 08:33 AM

Great publicity for Tom Jones

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 08:39 AM

They could substitute it with Banks of the Ohio, I suppose.
Weelye weelye Wileya.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 09:04 AM

best version I ever heard was by the Boldon Banjo Band featuring Tommy Forde at one of their nightss at the Boldon Lad, Boldon Colliery, Co Durham in the 60s.

On the subject of Tom Jones songs, I always liked Ed Pickford's short version of the 'Green grass of home'

'The old town looked the same
so I got back on the train'

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 12:26 PM

It's not censorship and it's not prohibition, just don't sing it in this choir. Yes, that's explained everything.

Subject: RE: Delilah 'Banned' by Welsh Rugby Union
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 01:51 PM

RE: Verbs -- are for the general public. WRU executives likely said nothing at all internally and simply deleted it from the choir's playlist sans discussion. They went as far as they ethically could to [bad verb] the song internally. Saying the choir has not been [bad verbed] is not intellectually honest. WRU gets neither credit nor blame where fans are concerned... except...

RE: Violence -- There are no pronoun exemptions for CTE &c. It's equal opportunity... by the numbers. WRU, their choir and their fans are not blameless for the damage done to racist/sexist/homophobic footballers and victim footballers alike. Nobody wins. Prohibiting boxing in large venues where Sweet Caroline is sung makes better sense than WRU and the censors.