What Delilah by Tom Jones is about?

Answer 1

Written by Les Reed and Barry Mason, "Delilah" is about a man who visits his female paramour (unclear of they are dating or married) but spies her in the arms of another man through a window outside ("I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blinds" as the lyric goes).

Jealous, the male character (Jones) waits for the other man to leave to confront Delilah, only to be taunted and ridiculed by her, causing him to fly into a jealous rage and stab her to death on her doorstep ("She stood there laughing, I felt the knife in my hand, and she laughed no more").

In the end, Jones' character pleads for forgiveness while waits for the police to arrest him and the sond ends ("So before they come to break down the door, forgive me Delilah I just couldn't any more").

Over the years, Jones has told the story of when he debuted the song in the US, performing it on one of his last Ed Sullivan Show appearances in March 1968. Censors asked him to change the lyric "At break of day as that man drove away I was waiting" to something along the lines of "At break of day as dark went away I was waiting" - they felt the original lyric implied that this other man had spent the night at Delilah's home, which it did, and that was too improper for network TV, even in 1968, at least on Ed Sullivan. Jones agreed, although he argued the point that the entire song is about a man who stalks and kills his unfaithful girlfriend, all of which apparently is OK as long as the unfaithful girlfriend doesn't have have anyone stay overnight.