Hoyt Axton - Della and the Dealer Meaning

Della and the Dealer Lyrics

It was Della and a dealer and a dog named Jake,
And a cat named Kalamazoo,
Left the city in a pick-up truck.
Gonna make some dreams come true.
Yeah, they rolled out west where the wild sun sets,
And the coyote bays at the moon.
Della and a...

1. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 14th 2017 !⃝

   The dealer definitely deals drugs, else why mention snorting coke through a century note. As for the dog and cat, could go either way. I've heard a person referred to as either one;but then, where would you put four people in an old school pickup, with no back seat? Truck bed, I suppose...
   Personally I do lean toward Jake and Kalamazoo being people,with Kalamazoo being his nickname (maybe a carnie?)
   Then there's the dealer/Boone situation. Della and her lover to me implies Boone-why Hoyt refers to him as "her lover" (fire in her eyes/thighs).
   Nothing says this all occurred in one night,either, so Della could have done the deed with Boone. Therefore he would have been her lover. Also,nothing in the song says there was anything actually going on between Della and the dealer-just his deadly jealousy. Lots of guys are jealous of other men over a woman they can't have.
   So there's what I have to say about my favorite Hoyt Axton song.
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 26th 2017 !⃝

   I just want to know what kind of dealer he was. As a kid, I assumed it was a blackjack dealer. But then I learned that the line that I thought was, "He started his quote with a censuring note" was actually, "He snorted his coke through a century note." Thoughts?
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 21st 2014 !⃝

   The song is deliberately vague. It doesn't explicitly say who died in the fight, just that the winner took off with Della afterward. The last chorus is phrased "Della and her lover" rather than "Della and the Dealer", so you could, if you wanted, interpret it as being Randy ... but the phrase could fit the Dealer too (or even someone else not otherwise mentioned in the song).
   
   I'm pretty sure that Jake and Kalamazoo are an actual dog and a cat respectively, and not any kind of metaphorical "dog" or "cat" (even though "the dog had a gun" and "the cat had a shot of rye").