“Delta Dawn” was a big hit for a lot of singers in the early 70s, including Bette Midler, Tanya Tucker and Helen Reddy. Always on the lookout for a hot trend, many other singers (including Reddy) cranked out similar songs about damaged, delusional women; notable among these were “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” and “Angie Baby” (Helen Reddy), “Jackie Blue” by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and arguably “Witchy Woman” (Eagles) and “Gold Dust Woman” (Fleetwood Mac). Seems to me there were a couple more, but these are the ones I remember. Is there a name for this particular sub-genre? Can anybody think of more examples?
They’re later, but “Last Dance with Mary Jane” (Tom Petty) and “Sunny Came Home” (Shawn Colvin) are certainly lineal descendants. I think some of the Colvin-Crow-Jewel era singers have whole catalogues of that kind of material.
Oh, good ones!
Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl . . . .
I think Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” might fit, too. Not as much a crazy-woman song but about a class of women who were probably (driven) nuts.
That’s what I was going to post. Instead, here’s a story about Minnie the Moocher. She was a lowdown hoochie coocher.
You made me think of Cher’s “Dark Lady.”
Two more possibles:
The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C. Riley
After “I Am Woman,” Reddy was held up as a feminist, but she followed it with woman gone crazy because a man dumped her glurge like that crap. Her actual vocal feminism lasted only until her next song, but she was still seen as a model feminist, not a sell-out. Never could understand it.
It’s more understated, and not from the same era, but the Kinks song “Little Miss Queen of Darkness” might qualify.
So sorry! I won’t do it again.
Really, the tour through all this 70s fem-glurge is… icky.
“Bitter Green” by Gordon Lightfoot and maybe “Long Black Veil”.
I’d say “Lyin’ Eyes” is a better example.
“Here’s your one chance, Fancy, don’t let me down.”
She grew out of it, but her momma didn’t fare too well.
Harry Chapin’s “Taxi”, although “Sue” is better in “Sequel”.
Just looked back at the OP, and Sue isn’t delusional, though she may be damaged.
“I’ve Never Been to Me”.
“Better Dig Two”, although the woman in that song hasn’t been done wrong, she’s not really well, mentally. “If you go before I do/You can tell the gravedigger that he’d better dig two.”
They never found Hattie
Never found the shack
And they never made a trip back in
Was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump, said:
“Don’t come lookin again”
So YOU’RE the other guy who bought that album. Good album.
Yeah, he wasn’t just another pretty foot.
Is Long Black Veil by Lefty Frizzell (1959) the seminal example?
And then you have Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry, sung from the perspective of the damaged woman.