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You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of wonder bread, and went right back to bed
And history books forgot about us and the Bible didn't mention us
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads
But they're just old light, they're just old light
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
Told me I was beautiful, and came into my bed
Oh, I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
And kissed me till the mornin' light, the mornin' light
And he kissed me till the mornin' light
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
Ate a slice of wonder bread, and went right back to bed
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
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of wonder bread, and went right back to bed
And history books forgot about us and the Bible didn't mention us
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin' on our heads
But they're just old light, they're just old light
Your hair was long when we first met
Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
Told me I was beautiful, and came into my bed
Oh, I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
And kissed me till the mornin' light, the mornin' light
And he kissed me till the mornin' light
Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
Ate a slice of wonder bread, and went right back to bed
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
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first
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In the actual story, Samson used to terrorize his enemies, the Philistines. Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman against God's council. When his enemies realize this, they blackmail Delilah into cutting Samson's hair while he was asleep by threatening to kill her family. Samson wakes up angry. But as he is powerless now, his enemies take him away from Delilah, blind him, and chain him to the two main pillars of their temple to mock him. But his hair grows back and he slowly regains his superhuman strength without his enemies realizing it. Long story short, he is finally able to get back at his enemies by breaking down the pillars temple during a celebration, bringing down the roof, effectively killing himself along with is enemies.
But the twist in this song is Delilah seems to have worked on her own when she cuts Samson's hair. When she does, Samson doesn't wake up angry. In fact he's pleased. Delilah says, "And he told me that I'd done alright". The tamed Samson eats his Wonder bread, like a normal civil man, and goes back to bed, like a normal civil man. No pillars were broken down, no temple came tumbling down. Only "old light" from the stars. No legend was created, no history changed, no stories told in the Bible or anywhere. He has given up his strength, his wildness, his independence, his dominance over his enemies for love.
But the catch that isn't said explicitly in the song (but strongly implied) is that by cutting his hair and taming him Delilah saves his life.
But I've always seen the Wonderbread as a sort of metaphor for a false hope that he will be cured. After all, it is "Wonder" bread, it causes magical, wonderful things to happen. He wants to cling to the last hope that a miracle will happen and the cancer will vanish, so he eats a slice of Wonderbread and waits for the magic to occur. A sort of child-like fantasy that everything will be okay if you eat the magic food and sleep it off. :(
The not being mentioned in the history books, because they didn't bring any columns down, could also mean: If you don't do anything radical then you won't be remembered.
History books tend to mention the bad guys but leave out the good guys. Everybody knows the names of aggressors like Hitler, Napoleon, Ceasar, but who knows their opponents' names? Who knows the names of the peaceful people who lived then? They are forgotten and that is wrong and that is why she sings it with a sour tone.
Although quite a bit of this song is literal, I think that this song is about a relationship of her own, which she is comparing to Samson and Delilah's. Of course, she is putting herself in Delilah's perspective, which is probably the perspective of herself in her unsuccessful relationship. I'm guessing that she blames herself for their falling out, henceforth making her the bad guy.
I think she is using this song to describe the situation of her relationship and not their love in itself. Maybe Delilah loved Samson and maybe she didn't, but it was the situation of their relationship that caused their downfall, not their feelings. Delilah was true to her people and that formed their relationship (Delilah seducing Samson) and also broke it (no need for explanation here). Maybe if their situation was different, their relationship would be also. I think this is what Regina went through, too.
"but they're just old light, they're just old light" delilah trying to console herself that it's just stars, they're not little spotlights judging her. the use of the word "old" could suggest that delilah was trying to justify what she was doing by claiming that the light from the stars was "old" and didn't understand her reasons, almost like a teenager talking about their parents. maybe delilah is still scared and young?
"samson came to my bed, told me that my hair was red" this red hair should not be overlooked, because in this biblical story it does not once make any slight allusion to what delilah looks like other than she was pretty. red hair is often associated with a fiery temper, raging sexuality and power, from mary magdelane to venus, you often see women portrayed with red hair more so than men.
"told me i was beautiful, and came into my bed" the "came into my beds" might not be taken so literally, more like, he crawled into my life/heart. she might associate her heart with her bed if she's a beautiful woman who often seduces men, those two different things might get confused and complicated for her. him telling her she was beautiful suggests he's gentle with her and worships her, and she's grateful because she's not as used to it as one might assume.
"oh i cut his hair myself one night, a pair of dull scissors in the yellow light" while in the story she didn't actually do the cutting, perhaps she feels guilty, because she was after all the direct cause of the cutting. note the oh, because it's the only one in this song, suggesting that she's woeful. a pair of dull scissors is some sharp imagery. people talk about how if you want to be really brutal when you kill someone, you take something dull so it's slow and painful, like stabbing someone to death with a dull knife. so by stating the scissors were dull, or maybe they weren't and she was just being dramatic after the thing because she felt bad, she's suggesting that it was slow and torturous (for her) but also it's like she was torturing him. the yellow light goes back to the stars and how they're judging her and shining light on her misdeeds.
"and he told me that i'd done alright, and kissed me till the morning light" so this goes back to our idea that he woke up in the middle of the night and saw what had happened and didn't get mad. regina is suggesting in this line that he actually forgave her and still seemed to love her.
"the morning light, and he kissed me till the morning light" the fact that samson still loved her stuck with her more than anything, more than even that he forgave her so immediately, so regina repeats it for emphasis (she does this quite frequently in her songs)
"oh we couldn't bring the columns down, yeah, we couldn't destroy a single one" in the story, as i mentioned, samson, as a blind slave, knocks down one of the columns, collapsing some big building and killing a lot of his enemies and himself. here regina is literally just stating the opposite of what happened and using it as a metaphor. it seems like she's talking about the big event is samson and delilah but really she's talking about the relationship between the two. how they were both disappointed that it didn't work and things didn't end up differently and they didn't get to be together
so, "you are my sweetest downfall" is obviously samson talking to delilah.
and i believe, "i loved you first" is actually samson as well. however i wouldn't interpret the word "first" as strictly as you normally would (before other things) but more like, purely, or originally. more like, "you were the first woman i ever really loved and i loved you so completely" and there seems to be a hint of desperation or maybe sadness in the way she sings this line, almost like there was a hint of "you betrayed me", you can tell by the way she repeats it for emphasis
and then i think "beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth" is delilah talking. the sheets of paper could be the money samson's enemies paid her to betray him. what her truth is - i'm not sure. that she really does love him, that she doesn't love him at all, that she's planning on betraying him, that she's a bad person, it's certainly up for interpretation.
and then, "i have to go, i have to go" could be either one of them, or maybe both, because they do say it twice. samson obviously has to go because he's captured, and delilah leaves so that when samson awakes he won't know she's betrayed him.
and, "your hair was long when we first met" is obviously delilah to samson, perhaps reflecting on their relationship and what she's done. it almost sounds like there's some remorse or guilt there.
"samson went back to bed, not much hair left on his head" is almost suggesting that maybe samson woke up in the night, saw delilah and saw his bald head, and went back to bed anyway. in the original story they saw he falls asleep in her lap.
"he ate a slice of wonder bread, and went right back to bed" is connected to the line before, obviously regina's not saying he literally ate a slice of bread, she's just trying to emphasize that he woke up, was conscious, saw what had happened, and still went right back to bed on delilah.
"and the history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us" could be a reference to how samson, let alone delilah, aren't really mentioned anywhere else. samson is supposed to be a great conqueror, but they don't talk about his achievements or failures anywhere else in the bible, and they definitely don't mention it in any sort of history books. maybe this is samson reflecting on how he feels like his life and his love was a waste.
"and the bible didn't mention us, not even once" the story of samson and delilah obviously affected regina enough for her to write a song about it so maybe she felt as though it deserved a bit more attention as well
samson was a prince or a king or something and he was pretty successful in terms of fighting with other countries, conquering land, etc. he wasn't really a devout christian and he didn't pray and he slept around with women, whatever. anyway, one day he meets a woman named delilah, and they say, "his love for delilah marked the beginning of his downfall". she's an extremely beautiful seductress and she's really even less of a "good christian" than he is. so one of samson's bigger enemies offers delilah a crapbucketload of money if she discovers what makes samson so powerful so they can take it away from him. so she uses sex and alcohol and his love for her and whatever else she could and he told her, i made a deal with god when i was young that i would be set apart and looked after by him as long as i didn't cut my hair. so then he fell asleep that night and delilah called in the enemies and they shaved his head. then, because he was weak and subdued, they took samson, gouged out his eyes and made him work as a slave. as he worked as a slave his hair started to grow back but they didn't pay any attention. so one day, with his hair pretty long again, he prays to god for basically the first time ever, and god actually listens, and samson pushes really hard on some wall and a building or something like that came tumbling down and killed himself but also more enemies than he had ever killed in all his life combined.
Instead of following God (except for not cutting his hair), he sinned, mainly sleeping with many women. One woman, especially, tried to find out how he obtained his strength. Samson told her after a few weeks. She then got him drunk and got a few men from her tribe to cut his hair. When he sobered up, he found he had no strength from God.