I’m back from my two-day weekend.
And I’m featuring this beautiful song “Samson” by Regina Spektor.
I didn’t know about this song up until last week when my friend Gerard asked me if I knew about it. I said I didn’t and since I didn’t like being the last to know about what was in, then I immediately checked it out in youtube.
I tried to analyze the song. The song to me has to do with Samson. So during my lunchbreak, I tried to read up on the story of Samson in the Bible.
I’m sure many of you know the story of Samson. His physical strength. His marriage to a Phillistine, who also betrayed him. And his eventual affair with Delilah who cuts off his hair, which was the source of his strength. But actually not, because Samson has already broken two laws of the Nazarite, enough for God to to take away his power from him.
I have two theories on the song. First theory is that the song is about Delilah, well not about her exactly, but an alternate ending to their story. The song is about how she imagined a different ending for their tragic romance. In this different version, after she cuts his hair, he just eats a piece of bread, tells her its okay and nothing has changed. the line ” loved you first” implies that she not only did she love him back, but she loved Samson even before he even loved her. And in her version, the Bible doesn’t mention them because they did not change history.
And my other theory is that the song is about Samson, but not Delilah. In my theory, the song is about another woman who was in Samson’s life even before Timnah – the Phillistine woman Samson married, and even before Delilah. This woman who Samson truly loved let her cut his hair so that he could be vulnerable with her. And Samson is reflecting on how the world would never know about it because it is not mentioned in the Bible. When it is sung “Your hair was long when we first met, may mean that he had his guard up when and didn’t want to let her in at first.
Anywhow, the song is great. Its like Regina Spektor is making a fictional story with her songs.
Do you have anything more to add? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.”What do you think the song is about?
8 comments
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July 21, 2007 at 6:41 am
Kiks
I don’t think Regina Spektor speculated much about that. Maybe she has, though I have no idea about what interested her back in college years. We were never classmates (we haven’t even met.)
I guess it was more about Regina tackling the forgotten, the trivial and the floccinaucinihilipipificated. She makes you look into the coin’s possible third side.
Listen to her “Fidelity”, “Apres Moi” or “Twenty Years of Snow”. Her Soivet Kitsch album is just as biting!
Enjoy!
July 21, 2007 at 7:55 am
-=mink_blink=-
Hmmm sounds good…
July 21, 2007 at 8:46 am
bobot
honestly, i have never heard about the song and the singer not until today.
i may not be that biblical a person, but i have read stories about samson and delilah years ago.
i have nothing much more to say about the post anyway.
i might try checkin’ out the video at youtube myself.
Tnx X!
July 21, 2007 at 10:38 am
Anna
This is the first time I’ve heard any of Regina Spektor’s songs so I don’t really know what influences her work ….
Based purely on this one song, I’m more inclined to agree with your second theory, that it’s about a woman in Sampson’s life not mentioned in the Bible. However she might also be singing about herself…either about a wish for someone to show their vulnerability, or about someone in her past and she’s using the story as a metaphor for her experience.
July 21, 2007 at 6:07 pm
daniel palma tayona
ever felt that one love you had, that one you have met before, shared sweet moments together? only to be kept hidden? only to be forgotten? that no one, not even you nor your lover ever spoke of?
it’s our first “downfall”. our first failure. it was our first love. it was a trivial love to be kept under the sheets – forgotten.
i felt a tinge of sadness when i first heard that song and read its lines.
i think regina’s song is about these forgotten “sweetest moments”, these forgotten loves.
“Oh, we couldn’t bring the columns down
Yeah we couldn’t destroy a single one
And history books forgot about us
And the bible didn’t mention us, not even once”
… and i cried.
it’s a beautiful song.
and thank you for letting me know of it.
July 22, 2007 at 3:16 am
Quincy John
hey chris, m back.
With that song? well, i haven’t dug up something about that and actually, its the first time a saw the video, its the first time i knew regina spektor and perhaps its the first time i’ve heard the song.
ha3 all first time. Just like the “first time” experiences i had during our training and travel.
but your theories sounds plausible. and i think you know the Bible better than I do..he3
July 22, 2007 at 7:04 am
blast from the past
Its a song about an affair,I think..
The girl is saying she loved the guy first but I think the guy has a family already and they have this affair.. thats why due moral issues “history books forgot about us and the bible didn’t mention us not even once” society can be judgemental and will not tolerate illicit relationships.
As for the slice of wonderbread I think it represent the guys family or wife.. coz guys with mistress usually go home and then jump again to bed with “delilah” as regina mentioned in lines like “Ate a slice of wonderbread and went right back to bed”
But in the end they chose to hide in the dark coz “couldn’t bring the columns down Yeah we couldn’t destroy a single one”
I think what Regina meant about the “columns” here was Samsons family (wife & kids perhaps)…
I think the Samson was faithful to his wife before he met his mistress… She was his sweetest downfall…his weakness…
So his hair was cut short… but he didnt mind at all and told her that she’d done alright!
well this is what I think about this song I love the piano as well as the lyrics….
I could be wrong… songs are always subjective…
July 22, 2007 at 10:47 pm
jase
the song definitely appeals to feelings. and although we may not really understand the meaning of the song – it is a beautiful piece altogether. Captivating dieva!