Sally to Samson

"Sally," Gogol Bordello
"Salty Man (Sir Psycho Salty)," WNOC
"Sam Stone," Laura Cantrell
"Same Direction," INXS
"The Same Fire," Bishop Allen
"Same Girl," Randy Newman
"Same in Any Language," I-Nine
"Same Kooks," The Hold Steady
"Same Story," After Eleven
"Samson," Regina Spektor

Let me recommend Regina Spektor's wistful reimagining of the story of Samson, as told from Delilah's perspective — or from the perspective of Delilah had she truly loved the guy. Maybe she did. The story says he loved her and we believe it, since she's just about the only living thing he touches without killing.

Many people retain a hazy, half-remembered Sunday-school impression of this story. It's so strange that Samson — a whoremongering, indiscriminate terrorist and, ultimately, suicide bomber — has become the stuff of children's stories. Children shouldn't be allowed to read anything from the book of Judges. It's a horrifying, R-rated, sordid collection of deeply flawed heroes and anti-heroes. Judges "flits between comedy and violence, revenge and tragedy, sometimes easily, sometimes less comfortably." That quote actually comes from a review of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds — which title itself is an apt description of Samson, Ehud, Abimelech, Jepthah and the rest.