Almanac Music: ‘Telephone Line’ – Songs Involving Phones
The Ladies’ Home Journal Cover. February, 1912. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘Telephone Line’ – Songs Involving Phones
Hi, Almanackers! Happy 2026! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs that in some way involve phones.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘phone’ songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘Memphis, Tennessee’, written and performed by Chuck Berry (1959)
‘Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee’
‘He’ll Have to Go’, written by Joe and Audrey Allison, performed by Jim Reeves (1959)
‘Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone’
‘You Won’t See Me’, credited by Jon Lennon and Paul McCartney (but basically Paul), performed by the Beatles (1965)
‘When I call you up your line’s engaged’
‘Sylvia’s Mother’, written by Shel Silverstein, performed by Dr Hook and the Medicine Show (1972)
‘Balwyn Calling’, written by Greg Macainsh, performed by Skyhooks (1974)
‘Hurricane’, written by Jacques Levy and Bob Dylan’, performed by Bob Dylan (1975)
‘One of us had better call up the cops’
‘Telephone Line’, written by Jeff Lynne, performed by ELO (1977)
‘Call Me’, written by Debbie Harry and Giorgio Moroder, performed by Blondie (1980)
…………………………………………………………………
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) connected to phones, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a solid general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
A couple come immediately to mind:
‘Off the Hook’ – Rolling Stones
‘Royal Telephone’ – Jimmy Little
Thanks for these two songs, Col – good to see you opening the batting as usual.
What, no Abba?!’
Too ‘true pop’, perhaps?
Here it is..
https://youtu.be/TL0EoXdpOqg?si=e3yyE5Jm7FsgzCz0
Jenny, I got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny, don’t change your number
867-5309 (867-5309)
867-5309 (867-5309).
Guy sees girl’s phone number on a wall and thinks she could be his soul mate. Disturbing but a catchy song! Thanks KD. Should be fun.
Thanks, for ‘Ring, Ring’, Adam. As those who follow this long-running song theme series know, ABBA is often included in our songlists – and most welcome.
Thank you, Mickey, for Tommy Tutone’s ‘867-5309/Jenny’ – spot on theme-wise (yes, I agree, the song’s idea is a bit disturbing).
How about Wichita Lineman? Kinna fits, its a great song all the same.
Cheers Luke.
Thanks, Luke, I’ll pay ‘Wichita Lineman’ – and I do agree about the high quality of the song.
No worries re: Abba, KD.
And then there’s this – Personal Jesus.
Two killer versions, the original by Depeche Mode, and the Johnny Cash one.
I love both, for different reasons.
Depeche Mode: https://youtu.be/u1xrNaTO1bI?si=C4y5XzOiZ-QjL5RM
Johnny: https://youtu.be/K3QDDlWmR9Q?si=qfAk5Y8GHHiDUp6a
Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer
Reminds me of my dear Catholic Granny, who in my time never went to Mass except at Christmas, New Year and Easter. When I asked her why we had to go every week, but she didn’t, she responded with “I don’t need to, I have a personal line to God.” Of course I couldn’t argue with that logic.
Chinese eyes: Australian Crawl
Runaway girls: Australian Crawl
Two can play: Australian Crawl
Little black book: Belinda Carlisle
Love doesn’t live here: Belinda Carlisle
The ballad of Lucy Jordan: Belinda Carlisle
Time between: The Byrds
Rock ‘n’ Roll is King: Electric Light Orchestra
Calling America: Electric Light Orchestra
Time of our life: Jeff Lynne’s ELO
Don’t wanna: Electric Light Orchestra Part II
Power of a million lights: Electric Light Orchestra Part II
Letters in my head: Fleming and John
Anything goes with me: Kelly Groucutt
Live it up: Mental as Anything
Summer of ’81: Mondo Rock
Are ‘friends’ electric?: Gary Numan
Strange currencies: R.E.M.
The sidewinder sleeps tonite: R.E.M.
Motor’s too fast: James Reyne
One more river: James Reyne
Save the life of my child: Simon and Garfunkel
You can see me: Supergrass
Gone Hollywood: Supertramp
Just another nervous wreck: Supertramp
Life during wartime: Talking Heads
You better you bet: The Who
Thanks, Adam, for your additional song (both versions) and comments. Fine stuff!
Excellent songlist, Liam! To select just one for further comment: ‘You Better You Bet’ is one of my favourite songs by The Who – and that’s saying something, I suppose, given their body of work.
Here goes (and Happy Birthday KD)
Don’t Want To Know If you Are Lonely – Husker Du
“The phone is ringing and the clock says four A.M
If it’s your friends, well, I don’t want to hear from them
Please leave your number and a message at the tone
Or you can just go on and leave me alone”
By The Time I Get To Phoenix – Glen Campbell et al
“By the time I make Albuquerque
She’ll be workin’
She’ll prob’ly stop at lunch
And give me a call
But she’ll just hear that phone keep on ringin’
Off the wall
That’s all”
Stranded – The Saints
“Like a snake calling on the phone
I’ve got no time to be alone
There is someone coming at me all the time
Yeah babe I think I’ll lose my mind
‘Cause I’m stranded on my own
Stranded far from home, all right”
Hanging On The Telephone – The Nerves
“I’m in the phone booth, it’s the one across the hall
If you don’t answer, I’ll just ring it off the wall
I know he’s there, but I just had to call
Don’t leave me hanging on the telephone
Don’t leave me hanging on the telephone”
Switchboard Susan – Nick Lowe
“Switch board Susan, won’t you give me a line?
I need a doctor, give me nine ninety nine
First time I picked up the telephone
I fell in love with your ringing tone
I’m a long distance romancer
I’ll keep on trying till I get an answer
Gimme, gimme one more chance
She’s a greater little operator
Switch board Susan let me off the hook
I’ve been this way since you gave me a look
Switch board Susan, you’re all the rage
Come on, Susan, let’s get engaged
When I’m with you, girl, I get an extension
And I don’t mean Alexander Graham Bells’ invention!
Switch board Susan, can we be friends
After six, at weekends?
Hey, babe, you know where’s it great?
38-27-38
Oh, you bring a smile to my dial
Oh, you’re great, operator’s great!”
Don’t Hang Up – 10cc
“Hello there
How have you been
I’ve called a million times
But to me you’re never in
I know I never had the style
or dash of Errol Flynn
But I loved you
I’m doing really well
I’m as happy as a lark
I got a new apartment
It’s as safe as Central Park
And if they ever mug me
When I’m walking in the dark
Will you know
Don’t hang up
Don’t hang up”
Aloha Steve and Danno – Radio Birdman
“McGarrett’s on the line to Danno
We gotta pick up this guy
Put out an APB
Not much time to tell you why
Governor says it’s top priority
Washington says so too
Tell Chin to get here fast
5-0 is on the move”
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number – Steely Dan
“Rikki don’t lose that number
You don’t want to call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to yourself
Rikki don’t lose that number
It’s the only one you own
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home”
You’ve Got My Number – Undertones
“Why don’t you ring my number?
Why don’t you ring my number now?”
Love Gets Dangerous – Billy Bragg
“The love of a woman
The fear of the phone
A secret message to a happy home
I’ve never been so scared
I never knew you cared”
No Action – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
“I don’t want to kiss you, I don’t want to touch
I don’t want to see you ’cause I don’t miss you that much
I’m not a telephone junkie
I told you that we were just good friends
But when I hold you like I hold that Bakelite in my hands
There’s no action
There’s no action, there’s no action
Every time I phone you, I just want to put you down”
It’s A Long Way Back – Ramones
“You by the phone
You all alone
It’s a long way back to Germany
It’s a long way back to Germany”
Home On Monday – Little River Band
“Can you guess where I’m calling from?
The Las Vegas Hilton
I know it’s hard to hear
It’s just the echo on the line
Yes, that’s right, I’m calling from
The Las Vegas Hilton
I just want to say that I’m feeling fine”
This Is Really Something – Sports
“This is really something
This is fun
This is really something
I’m glad I’ve done
Voices on the telephone, giggling down the line
She says she loves me, it’s about time
This is really something
This is really something”
I’m Shakin’ – Sunnyboys
“Making up ways of getting to you
Everything in sight is turning blue
Death is coming to the phone
I found out you are not home this time”
Out That Door – Hoodoo Gurus
“By rights we should be friends.
My pride was hurt but is that so hard to mend?
Oh-oh, I’ve been trying not to ‘phone,
Oh-oh, I’ve gotta know if you’re alone
And I’m out that door (Out that door)
If you’ll just call (If you call)
And day or night (Night and day)
Anytime at all (If you call)
But should I wait? (Should I wait?)
We’re always breaking up, and making up
So much better than before”
The Way I Made You Feel – Ed Kuepper
“It started when I was cleaning dishes
And the phone rang in the hall
I was drawn to it against my wishes
Ugly memories of the war”
Good morning KD!!
I’ll begin with a timely contribution, me thiinks:
Calling Elvis – Dire Straits
‘Calling Elvis
Is anybody home?
Calling Elvis
I’m here all alone
But did he leave the building?
Or can he come to the phone?
Calling Elvis
I’m here all alone’
Thanks for your birthday wishes, Swish. (The Beatles’ ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ suddenly possesses considerably greater resonance!)
And wow – what a wonderful variety of highly apt ‘phone songs’ and lyric snippets! Impressive!
Here ya go Kev
Telephone Road Steve Earle
Telephone Road Rodney Crowell
The Telephone Is Ringing Pee Wee Crayton
6345789 Wilson Pickett
Long Distance Call Muddy Waters
Telephone Blues Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
Just Me and My Telephone John Lee Hooker
Call Operator Floyd Dixon
Texas Flood Stevie Ray Vaughan
Call The Plumber Big Joe Turner
Good morning, Karl!
Thanks for ‘Calling Elvis’ – timely, indeed!
Thanks so much, Peter C, for your highly interesting (generally bluesy) selection of ‘phone songs’. They definitely add a dimension to our developing overall songlist.
Little Rock and Roller, Steve Earle
Answering Machine, The Replacements
Australian Heat, Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs
Without the One You Love, Aretha
If You See My Baby, Merle
Thanks, Rick, for this fine quintet. Excellent to note your opening 2026 contribution to our long-running song theme series.
Before I post my own contributions…..I can’t believe that someone would reference Belinda Carlisle’s version of Shel Silverstein’s Ballad of Lucy Jordan, haven’t they heard Marianne Faithfull?
Re Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee, After former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser lost his trousers in a hotel in Memphis I tried to write a song to the tune. I only got a few lines in….
Long Distance Information give me Memphis Tennessee,
Help Me find the party who stole my strides from me,
She did not leave her number though I know she works by Call.
And Now for songs by real songwriters.
Ralph McTell-Song for Martin
“Don’t leave Martin alone tonight
Just because he looks all right
He’s only gotta pick up the phone
And one of them guys in the car will be around
And give him just enough on account
They know that he’ll be back for more”
(I think I posted the complete lyrics on the “drugs” thread”)
Cats in the Cradle – Harry Chapin
“I’ve long since retired and my sons moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind”
He said, “I’d love to, dad, if I could find the time”
“You see, my new job’s a hassle and the kids got the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you, dad
It’s been sure nice talking to you”
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me
And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
“When you coming home, son?” “I don’t know when
But we’ll get together then, dad, we’re gonna have a good time then”
One More Roll of the Dice – Spot the Dog (My favourite underrated 90s Australian Band) (verses 3 and 4)
“You never asked me to tell
and you never made me lie
But I guess that you knew
from the look that was in your eye
And the words they fell there
in the pouring rain
And they closed a door
that’ll never open again
Guess I should have called you,
what the hell was I gonna say?
Hearts beating down the wire,
time and money ticking away
Or stick it in a letter,
so you can read between the lines
Mighta worked out for the better
Buy a little space and time,
Buy a little time”
Telephone Booth by Ian Moss.
Happy birthday KD!
Thanks, Dave, for the songs and other material – as interesting and evocative as always. Very much enjoyed your ‘revised’ opening to ‘Memphis, Tennessee’, by the way – you should have continued your re-write!
Thanks for the Mossy number and the birthday greetings, Luke. Cheers!
Two gold stars to award so far:
Swish – Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (this is Swish’s umpteenth gold star)
Dave N – Cats In The Cradle
I’ll add:
James Taylor – Fire & Rain
‘Lord knows, when the cold wind blows
It’ll turn your head around
Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line
To talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground’
“She Called Up” by Crowded House from their 2007 album Time On Earth. A song about Neil Finn being informed of the passing of Paul Hester.
I agree with your two ‘gold stars’, Karl. I think ‘Fire & Rain’ deserves one, too – thanks for that inclusion.
How about Jim Croce’s ‘Operator’?
Than you for ‘She Called Up’, Luke – spot on in thematic terms.
A Couple of Paul Kelly songs
How to Make Gravy
“Hello Dan, it’s Joe here, I hope you’re keeping well
It’s the 21st of December, and now they’re ringing the last bells”
………and almost everybody in Australia knows the rest of the lyrics. However it is clearly intended to be a phone conversation between Joe and Dan.
The Oldest Story in the Book
“Tom and Harry were the best of friends
They called themselves The Dharma Bums
Lit out from their home and kin
With a mandolin and a pair of thumbs
Worked side by side all that summer
Picking those grapes from the vine
Read by one light, took turns to cook
The oldest story in the book
Enter Richard and his sister, June
Just before the season’s end
Richard’s guitar knows a whole lotta tunes
Harry starts a-picking on the mandolin
Down by the dam in the moonlight
When June kisses Tom, Harry doesn’t know where to look
The oldest story in the book
The band pull into town in the afternoon
They’ve got a hit song on the radio
Richard calls up his sister, June
And says ‘Do you want to come along to the show?’
June scrapes the money together for a babysitter
Tom’s working late, she’s glad she’s on her own
Especially when Harry sings that song about the girl
By the lake and how the moonlight looked
The oldest story in the book”
Kev , 54-46 That’s my Number by reggae royalty Toots and the Maytals
Sylvia’s Mother – Dr Hook and the Medicine Show
Thanks for the gold star KD ~ and seeing how it is your most distinguished Beatlesque birthday ever ~ Croce’s ‘Operator’ gets a gold star as well.
Actually, as soon as I read ‘Operator’, another ‘telephonic’ song entered my brain despite the songs being separated by more than a decade:
Stevie Wonder – I Just Called To Say I Love You
Beatles: “All I Gotta Do”
Monkees: “Last train To Clarksville”
The Big Bopper: “Chantilly Lace”
Steely Dan: “Ricky Don’t Lose that Number”
Carly Rae Jepson: “Call Me Maybe”
Happy Birthday Kevin. Enjoy the day.
I’ll defer to Eddie Cochran’s, Twenty Flight Rock..
Well, she calling me up on the telephone
Said, ” Come over hon’ i’m all alone”.
Glen!
HBKD enjoy the moment!
Another Chuck song, The Promised Land (Workin’ on a T-bone steak à la carte, flying over to the Golden State/Oh, when the pilot told me in thirteen minutes, we’d be headin’ in the terminal gate/Swing low chariot, come down easy, taxi to the terminal zone/Cut your engines, cool your wings, and let me make it to the telephone/Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia, tidewater four-ten-O-nine/Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin’ and the poor boy’s on the line)
There Won’t Be Anymore, Charlie Rich (Don’t wait for the postman/If you’re looking for a letter from me/There won’t be any anymore/There won’t be any anymore/And don’t sit by your telephone/If you’re waiting on the call for me/There won’t be any anymore/There won’t be any anymore (ah-ah-ah)
Keep Your Hands to Yourself, The Georgia Satellites (I got a little change in my pocket going jingle lingle ling/I want to call you on the telephone baby I give you a ring/But each time we talk I get the same old thing/Always no huggin no kissin until I get a wedding ring/My honey my baby don’t put my love upon no shelf/She said don’t give no lines and keep your hands to yourself)
Changed the Locks, Lucinda Williams (I changed the lock on my front door/So you can’t see me any more/And you can’t come inside my house/And you can’t lie down on my couch/I changed the lock on my front door/I changed the number on my phone/So you can’t call me up at home/And you can’t say those things to me/That make me fall down on my knees/I changed the number on my phone)
Thank you for the two Paul Kelly songs, Dave. I thought ‘How to Make Gravy’ was a particularly good pickup because, as you clearly indicate, while the words ‘phone’ and/or ‘call’ are not mentioned anywhere, the song lyrics are clearly intended to be the contents of one side of a phone call.
Thanks, Mark, for your two songs. It’s a fine thing to get some reggae into the mix. (Just noting that I’d already put ‘Sylvia’s Mother’ in my introductory list.)
There are deservedly gold stars going back and forth, Karl. Thanks for your latest choice, ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’, a phone song par excellence.
Some rippers in your five numbers, Smokie. Thank you for your quintet – and who doesn’t remember the classic black-and-white clip of The Big Bopper, phone in hand, performing ‘Chantilly Lace’?
(Note: Swish listed ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ early on.)
Thanks for the birthday greetings, Glen, and for the song which, in the late fifties, got Paul McCartney into a band with John Lennon. (The fact that McCartney could play and remember the lyrics to ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ was key in this context.)
Thanks for your birthday wishes, Rick (alas, yes, birthdays are all-too-fleeting) – and for your four well-chosen numbers. As I’ve indicated to your before, probably on multiple occasions, jeez Chuck B can write a song lyric, can’t he? (He’s just about posthumously Nobel Prize worthy, I feel, if they’re giving them to songwriters.)
Good evening KD ~ I do trust you have had an enjoyable day.
Now, re How To Make Gravy: is it a phone call or a letter?
This question was previously posed by our own Mickey Randall on 25 December 2023, with this opening paragraph:
“It’s the 21st of December and our protagonist Joe, freshly imprisoned and hotly anxious, reaches out to his brother. But is “How to Make Gravy” a letter or a phone call? Initially, the form seems spoken- “Hello Dan, it’s Joe here,” but then moves to a written mode- “I hope you’re keeping well.” Which is it? I don’t know.”
For a long time I thought it was a phone call home but in more recent times I have concluded it is a letter.
Nevertheless, it can be whatever makes people happy & I am always happy to see it listed in a song theme ~ a true Aussie treasure of a song.
BTW – while I am here, let me add:
Lou Reed ~ New York Telephine Conversation (off his immaculate 1972 Transformer album).
‘Just a New York conversation, gossip all of the time
Did you hear who did what to whom? Happens all the time
Who has touched and who has dabbled here in the city of shows?
Openings, closings, bad repartee, everybody knows ‘
Starman – Bowie
“ I had to phone someone, so I picked on you”
Suffragette City – Bowie
“ Hey man, oh, leave me alone you know
Hey man, oh Henry, get off the phone,”
I’m Straight – Modern Lovers
“ I called this number three
Times already today
But I, I got scared, I put it back in place—
I put my phone back in place”
Good evening, Karl. You’ve got me thinking now, in relation to ‘How to Make Gravy’. I don’t consider myself any kind of Paul Kelly expert, but, upon reflection, I’m inclined to believe you’re right that the lyrics are basically a letter. There you go. I wonder what PK himself has said about the song. There’s almost certainly something online in this context.
Thanks for the superbly on-theme Lou Reed song, too
Thanks, Swish, for your latest selections – two particularly good Bowie pick ups, and a very fitting Modern Lovers number.
KD and KD. I am sticking with my contention that “Gravy” is a phone call.
1. Nobody writes “it’s Joe here” in a letter. The name of the sender is declared at the bottom and probably on the back of the envelope as well.
2.”And you’ll dance with Rita, I know you really like her,
Just don’t hold her too close, oh brother please don’t stab me in the back
I didn’t mean to say that, it’s just my mind it plays up,
Multiplies each matter, turns imagination into fact ”
If your anxiety and paranoia leads you to write things that you didn’t mean to say, you tear the letter up and rewrite it so your brother never knows. It is only in conversation where you can’t unsay things.
Thanks, Dave – of course, we’re all entitled to our own opinions about the letter or phone call question in ‘How to Make Gravy’. One could reasonably say that at certain points the lyrics read like a phone conversation and at others like a letter. In addition, in general terms, it’s possible write a letter in a conversational way (e.g. a letter could begin ‘Hey Dave, how are you mate?’) so the question is certainly a debatable one – though I’ve indicated my current leaning.
Good morning Kevin & Dave
Re the How To Make Gravy conundrum of ‘is it a letter or a phone call’ I will make a few points:
1. what a magnificent songwriting technique Paul has adopted to create such ambiguity where the answer remains an enigma;
2. to quote Forrest Gump ~ ‘…maybe it’s both, Maybe both is happening at the same time’;
3. and finally, a solution that applies to most of life’s deepest arguments ~ courtesy of Bob ~ ‘you’re right from your side, I’m right from mine.’
Now, while I’m here let me return to an old favourite re the telephone theme – one to please all of us:
Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant
‘when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, “Kid,
we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of
garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it.” And
I said, “Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope
under that garbage.”
After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we
finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down
and pick up the garbage,’
Good morning, Karl.
Thanks for listing a sixties classic in ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ and also for your further thoughts in relation to ‘How to Make Gravy’.
In reference to the Gravy debate, phone vs letter, I revisited the MR essay from a couple of years back (that Karl referenced). The essay is a ripper, but I really like PBs comment, that it is Joe thinking through what he is going to say (by pen or phone), as in his stream of consciousness.
Now on with the show, and I reckon these are top shelf:
911 is a Joke, Public Enemy from their 1990 album Fear of a Black Planet and the album that opened the wonders of Rap/Hip-Hop for me. This is The Clash territory. I already like Rap but it was not a go to genre. Once PE and this album sunk in I was sold.
Tulsa Telephone Book, Tom T Hall, in which the protagonist is trying to locate a woman he had a dalliance with but doesn’t know her last name (Have you read any good telephone books lately?/If you ain’t then let me recommend one/I’ve already read that Tulsa telephone book through thirteen times/If you don’t know any last names it ain’t much fun)
Don’t Hang Up, The Orlons and Springsteen at his Melbourne show 2017. He started the concert with this great early 60s R&B number as an apology for then (and sadly, now) president humpty Trump who had the day before hung up during a phone call with our PM Turnbull. The Melbourne crowd appreciated the sentiment and song!
Thanks, Rick, for your contribution to the phone/letter discussion re Gravy – PB’s comment makes a helluva lot of sense, actually. Another highly interesting, varied and apt bunch of songs from you, too – yet another fine example of your musical eclecticism.
Regarding the Great Gravy Debate (GGD): Thanks to Karl for alerting me to this (I would’ve got there eventually). It’s an interesting notion to consider. Driving home this morning from parkrun I thought more about it. If Joe’s writing a letter I imagine December 21st might be about the last day he could post it and have it reach Dan. However, this has changed somewhat since PK released the song in 1996. If he were Danish, he’d be no chance.
If the monologue was conceived as a phone call, then it could be set anywhere between the 21st and the 25th although Joe’s anxieties demand attention well before Christmas Day itself.
I wonder if Dan and Joe enjoy a relationship in which they write each other or speak on the phone? I reckon Christmas time would be an occasion when you’d like to hear the voices of loved ones so maybe it’s a call.
As with every dramatic monologue, it requires us to suspend our disbelief and surrender to the conceit. It is a great song and as such it provokes thought and isn’t definitive in characterisation.
Thanks, Kevin. I love it when we go off tangentially.
Crying in My Sleep – Art Garfunkel Written by Jimmy Webb
“I took a walk around the yard
Dug the flowers til it got too hard
I smoked my first pack of cigarettes today
And I watched the children play
And then I went down, down to Lucy’s old Cafe
Put a half a case away
I took a sleeping pill and tried to watch TV
But you know baby the leading lady looked too much like you for the likes of me
And I woke up crying in my sleep
I was talking to your pillow
And I reached out to touch your hand
And knocked the phone off the nightstand
And the operator said, “May I help you please?”
No thanks baby there’s nothing you can really do for me
I just had a bad dream, that’s all that’s wrong with me
I just had a bad dream
Went out to loosen up the car
Some how I wound up at the rainbow bar
I had a scotch and soda on the run
But I didn’t get too far
And then I ran down, down some friends I used to know
Dragged them out to see the show
I drew myself a bath and I tried to read your book
But you know baby this time it just didn’t seem quite worth the time it took
And I woke up crying in my sleep
I was talking to your pillow
And I reached out to touch your hand
And knocked the phone off the nightstand
And the operator said, “May I help you please?”
No thanks baby there’s nothing you can really do for me
I just had a bad dream, that’s all that’s wrong with me
I just had a bad dream, that’s all that’s wrong with me”
Back to the Family – Jethro Tull
“My telephone wakes me in the morning —
have to get up to answer the call.
So I think I’ll go back to the family
where no one can ring me at all.
Living this life has its problems
so I think that I’ll give it a break.
Oh, I’m going back to the family
`cos I’ve had about all I can take.”
Sydney Town – Gary Shearston and Frank Hardy (with perhaps a little involuntary contribution from Bob Dylan)
“Late last night the phone wouldn’t stop
It was Mr Menzies calling me up
He said my friend Gary What do we need to make the country grow?
I said my friend Bob, The Mavis Bramston Show
Les Miller’s Banjo
Patterson’s Banjo
A Coca Cola Yoyo
Rinso – to keep Australia White
Marlboro.
(Chorus) The more they try to keep me down
The better I live in Sydney town
I shall Be Free – Bob Dylan
Well, my telephone rang it would not stop
It’s President Kennedy callin’ me up
He said, “My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?”
I said, “My friend, John, Brigitte Bardot
Anita Ekberg
Sophia Loren”
‘
Thanks for your thoughts on ‘Gravy’, Mickey. I agree that these themed songlists can also involve highly interesting ‘byways’.
Thank you for your latest bunch of songs, Dave, as well as the lyrics selected – as interesting as ever.
Good morning KD ~ very soggy over here (been rainy for well over a week, following the previous blistering heat!).
It was so interesting to see Dave N’s ‘Sydney Town’ lyric ~ a song I was not familiar with, but I am certainly familiar with the ‘involuntary contribution’ from Bob D. I actually was going to add Bob’s ‘I Shall Be Free’ lyric this morning, but delighted to see it via Dave.
From the same album as ‘I Shall Be Free’, you will also find ‘Talking World War III Blues’ and this ‘on theme’ verse:
‘I was feelin’ kinda lonesome and blue
I needed somebody to talk to
So I called up the operator of time
Just to hear a voice of some kind
When you hear the beep
It will be three o’clock
She said that for over an hour
And I hung up’
More Bob to come later.
oh, BTW, excellent pick up with ‘Hurricane’ in your intro ~ definite gold star material :)
Good morning, Karl. Typical summery morning down my way. Thanks for ‘Talking World War III Blues’, as well as accompanying comments.
Glad you felt I did some gold star work with ‘Hurricane’!
Hello Kevin, I’m late to the party as usual.
Any love for: Hello this is Joanie (Paul Evans)?
Hey has anyone put forward The Beatles song, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Didn’t anybody tell her?/Didn’t anybody see?/Sunday’s on the phone to Monday,/Tuesday’s on the phone to me.)
Another Warner ripper, Sidewalk Surfin (Well I’m a long long way and many thousand miles from home (Sidewalk Surfin, Sidewalk Surfin)/But when I heard the news I had to use the telephone/You see my best friend caught it and I hear that he’s not alone/It’s an epidemic and it’s prowling the streets back home/It’s sidewalk surfing no use pretending it doesn’t exist/There’s a growing army of millions waiting to enlist)
And this has probably been put forward as well – King of the Road by everyone but Roger Miller is best (I sing, trailers for sale or rent/Rooms to let, fifty cents/No phone, no pool, no pets/I ain’t got no cigarettes/Ah, but two hours of pushing broom/Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room)
Thanks, Jamie, for Paul Evans’ ‘Hello, this is Joanie’ – it’s right on the money, theme-wise.
You’re not really late to the party, either – responses to these song theme pieces can be made at any time. Cheers.
Hi Rick. Not one of your latest three songs have been put forward previously. Thanks for these – they’re all excellent pickups.
While we’re on the subject of The Beatles (i.e. with ‘Bathroom Window’) – the band have already got a number of songs on our phone theme list, but how about another five from them?
‘If I Needed Someone’ (‘Carve your number on my wall / and maybe you will get a call from me’)
‘Dr Robert’ (‘Ring my friend / I said you’d call / Doctor Robert’)
‘I’m So Tired’ (‘I wonder should I call you / but I know what you would do’)
‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ (Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine / calls her on the phone / “Can I take you out to the pictures, Joan?”/
‘You Know My Name’ (It relates to a phone thus ‘You know my name / Look up the number’, and was the B-side of the ‘Let It Be’ single)
Caroline – Kirsty MacColl
“She called me up the other day
And left a message on my machine
She called to say you broke her heart
And she wondered if I’d seen you
I didn’t know what to do
I never called her back
Oh how could I break the news like that?
No I don’t want to see Caroline
Don’t want to see her face when she finds out you’re mine
Can’t look in her eyes and tell her love is blind
No I don’t want to see Caroline
I don’t want to see Caroline”
Moratorium – Buffy Sainte-Marie
“Captain Collier came home, he’d been fighting the war
And I guess he thought he’d returned as a hero and more
And he walked down the streets of the old home town
And he saw how it is around here now
Now Captain Collier had to call
Far too many girls for a date that night
See all the girls had gone out
With their long haired boys. Captain Collier, he cried out
“What the hell have I been fighting for?”
P.F.C. Mannie Stein
Had been drafted and gone
He’d been told that only cowards would say no
He came home and called some old friends
They’d resisted the draft
And they both were in prison
And their wives and their kids
Were all skinny and having a bad time
And P.F.C Stein
He remembered the men
Called political prisoners you know where and when
And he learned that the lines are tapped all the time now
And he’s wondering if maybe his courage is needed at home now
Corp’ral Thomas McCann
As a three year marine
Someone told him he’d better join up
It would would make him a man
He came home and to the park he went
And he sat down on a bench
And a dungaree girl told him he’d been a man all along
And he looked at the sign that she carried in her hand
It said “Fuck the war and bring our brothers home”
And corp’ral McCann he looks into her eyes
And I believe that he’s begun to understand
Hey Bring our Brothers Home
Hey Bring Our Brothers Home
Hey Bring Our Brothers Home”
Thank you for ‘Caroline’ and ‘Moratorium’, Dave – fine lyrics, too, especially the latter, to my way of thinking.
I reckon this references a phone call but you is the judge:
Outfit, Drive By Truckers, and one of the first great Jason Isbell songs (Don’t call what you’re wearing an outfit/Don’t ever say your car is broke/Don’t worry about losing your accent/A southern man tells better jokes/Have fun, stay clear of the needle/Call home on your sister’s birthday/Don’t tell them you’re bigger than Jesus, don’t give it away/Don’t give it away)
It Must Be Him, Vicki Carr (I tell myself, “What’s done is done”/I tell myself, “Don’t be a fool”/Play the field, have a lot of fun/It’s easy when you play it cool/I tell myself, “Don’t be a chump/Who cares? Let him stay away”/That’s when the phone rings and I jump/And as I grab the phone I pray/Let it please be him, oh, dear God/It must be him, it must be him)
Homecoming, Tom T Hall (I guess I should’ve written, Dad/To let you know that I was coming home/I’ve been gone so many years/I didn’t realize you had a phone)
Thank you for these latest three, Rick.
‘Call home on your sister’s birthday’ definitely references a phone call.
Hi KD
Earlier, Swish added the excellent 10CC ‘Don’t Hang Up’. This led me to remember an equally fine ‘on theme’ 10CC song:
Life Line
‘Ten thousand miles away from someone
Ten thousand miles away from you
Who’s your friend on the end of a telephone line
A telephone line’s like a life line’
And while I’m here, why not a bit of Bob:
Subterranean Homesick Blues
‘Maggie comes fleet foot/Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the heat put/Plants in the bed but
The phone’s tapped anyway/Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May/Orders from the D.A.’.
Bit of a 10cc fan myself, Karl. Thanks for ‘Life Line’ – and for a classic selection from His Bobness.
Some Lucinda:
Wrong Number (Wrong number, nobody here by that name/Wrong number, nobody here by that name/I ain’t heard a word since I don’t know when/So don’t even bother to dial it again/Wrong number/Wrong number)
Hard Road (the sun’s so hot and my heart is thumpin’/let me buy you a beer or somethin’/you’ve been travelin’ a hard road/sit down, Bill, and lighten your load/if you need a friend give me a call/I’ve got your picture on my wall/from one compadre to another/I love you, Bill, as I would my brother)
I Just Wanted to See you So Bad (You were stayin’ in a big hotel/I just wanted to see you so bad/I didn’t know you very well/I just wanted to see you so bad/We’d always talked on the telephone/But I’d never been with you all alone/I just wanted to see you so bad/I just wanted to see it so bad)
Louisiana Man (Thoughts of you flicker past/Goin’ on down the road so fast/The trees and the bushes and the telephone poles fly by/I never seem to have the time/I’ll just have to keep you on my mind/How I wish I could keep you by my side)
And a Neil Young song by Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball (The restless line of cars/Go stretching down the road/But I won’t telephone/Cause you might say hello/What is it makes me feel this way?/What is it makes me want to say/Meet me at the wrecking ball/Wrecking ball/I’ll wear something pretty and white/And we’ll go dancing tonight/Meet me at the wrecking ball)
Thanks for multiple Lucinda and the one Emmylou (written by Neil Young), Rick. (Another note to self: buy some Lucinda music – though I do listen to some on YouTube.)
The Wild Side of Life – Hank Thompson (written by Arlie Carter and William Warren)
[Verse 1]
You wouldn’t read my letter if I wrote you
You asked me not to call you on the phone
But there’s something I’m wanting to tell you
So I wrote it in the words of this song
[Chorus]
I didn’t know God made honky tonk angels
I might have known you’d never make a wife
You gave up the only one that ever loved you
And went back to the wild side of life
There was an answer song to this – It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angels, sung by Kitty Wells. However it doesn’t mention phone calls.
The Road – Danny O’Keefe (also recorded by Jackson Browne)
“Highways and dance halls
A good song takes you far
You write about the moon
You dream about the stars
Blues in old motel rooms
Girls in Daddies’ cars
You sing about the nights
You laugh about the scars
Coffee in the morning
Cocaine afternoons
you talk about the weather
you grin about the room
Phone calls long distance
Tell you how you?ve been
You’ll forget about the losses
You’ll exaggerate the wins
And when you stop to let?em know you got it down
It?s just another town along the road
The ladies come to see you
If your name still rings a bell
They’ll give you damn near nothin?
And they’ll say they knew you well
You tell?em you’ll remember
But they know it?s just a game
And along the road their faces
All begin to look the same
It isn’t for the money
And it’s only for a while
You stalk about the rooms
You roll away the miles
Gamblers in the neon
Clinging to guitars
You?re right about the moon
But you?re wrong about the stars
And when you stop to let’em know you got it down
It?s just another town along the road’
One Particular Harbour – Jimmy Buffett
[Verse 2]
I used to rule my world from a payphone
And ships out on the sea
But now times are rough and I got too much stuff
Can’t explain the likes of me
Who’ll stop the rain? – This is not an entry to this theme, rather a comment on the weather.
Now, this is my entry….
Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
‘Well, Mack the Finger said to Louie the King
“I got forty red, white, and blue shoestrings
And a thousand telephones that don’t ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things?”
And Louie the King said, “Let me think for a minute, son”
And he said, “Yes, I think it can be easily done!
Just take everything down to Highway 61″‘
Speaking of 10cc – Donna
Oh Donna
You made me stand up
You made me sit down, Donna
Sit down, Donna
Sit down
You made me stand up
Donna waiting by the telephone
Donna waiting for the phone to ring
Thanks, Dave, for your latest song choices – Hank Thompson, Danny O’Keefe and Jimmy Buffett. I always thoroughly read the lyrics you quote, and they really do add a highly significant, illuminating dimension beyond the song title itself ( which, of course, is your intention).
Thank you, Karl, for another thematically apt Dylan classic in ‘Highway 61 Revisited’. Wonderful!
Thanks, Swish, for 10cc’s ‘Donna’ – what a brilliant, witty parody song this is – and one of my absolute favourite 10cc numbers.
‘Spirits of Ancient Egypt’ by Paul McCartney and Wings, from the mid-seventies Venus and Mars album: ‘Hung on the telephone’ occurs in the lyrics.
‘Personal Jesus’ by Depeche Mode (1990): ‘Flesh and bone /By the telephone/Lift up the receiver.’
Wheels, The Flying Burrito Brothers (We’ve all got wheels to take ourselves away/We’ve got telephones to say what we can’t say/We’ve all got higher and higher every day/Come on, wheels, take this boy away)
Cry One More Time, Gram Parsons (So sad to be alone at night/So sad it didn’t work out right/Cry one more time for you/I really got it bad/Cry one more time for you/Lost the best I had/Tried to call her last night, yes I did/I knew she wasn’t in/I don’t want to go uptown/I know she’ll be with him/So I, cry one more time for you/I really got it bad/Cry one more time for you/Lost the best I had)
Frisky, Sly and the Family Stone I’ll be down, when you’re gone/Call me back on the telephone/Lil ol’, lil ol’, lil ol’ name and a title/I gets all the way down/If I don’t keep smilin’ wit’ y’all/You gonna see me frown/That’s why I keep music/All around the bed/So I can call Frisky(
Ha Ha, Hee Hee, anotheree by Sly and the Family Stone
Telephone, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (Well I strangled the cord/Ripped it off of the phone/And I saw the bone/And I saw the twinkling lights/And it must have been rats/’Cause it sure was a drone/Sure was a drag)
Interesting artists and songs, as usual – thank you, Rick. You’re certainly keeping up your fine standards when it comes to responses to these themed songlists.
While I’m here, I’ll put forward another Beatles number. On this one Lennon and McCartney did all the singing and playing, ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’. The relevant line is buried deep in the song: ‘Peter Brown called to say…’
Further note to what is immediately above … Apparently, ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ (1969), was the last Beatles UK number 1 single for more than 50 years, until ‘Now and Then’ in 2023.
Hi KD – finally some sunshine casting shadows on my front yard.
This theme is starting to get hard to follow, so I hope these ‘surprisingly subtle’ on theme gems have not been added previously:
These Foolish Things (circa 1930’s but brought to my attention by Bryan Ferry in 1973 & Bob Dylan in 2017)
‘The winds of March that make my heart a dancer
A telephone that rings but who’s to answer?’
Metal Guru – T Rex
‘Metal guru, is it true?
Metal guru, is it true?
All alone without a telephone oh yeah’
Tonight’s The Night – Rod Stewart (not Neil Young)
‘Stay away from my window
Stay away from my back door, too
Disconnect the telephone line
Relax, baby, and draw that blind’
A lot of Harry Chapin’s songs were about disappointment and broken dreams (Taxi, WOLD, Mr Tanner). But this might be the saddest of all of them.
Country Dreams – Harry Chapin
“This phone’s growin’ in to my ear
I made three hundred calls today
Though yours is the only voice that I want to hear
I gotta make me a living some way
I know you hate me doing this
You say I’m selling out
But how in the hell is a man supposed to live
Selling what it’s all about
Hello sir. I’m the Pocono Land Development Company
And I’m calling you with an offer of some land that you’ll just have to see
A quarter acre plot, that’s what I’ve got for you
Nineteen ninety five, four hundred dollars down and just ten bucks a week
It’s two short hours from New York City
A Pocono land site green and pretty
There’s lakes there and trout streams
Mountain views, country dreams, country dreams
We dreamed our dreams in college girl
Back then we thought we should
And we promised that we would save the world
Way back then we thought we could
I know you love your teaching now
But I wish you’d understand
There aren’t that many jobs around
I’m doing the best I can
Hello sir. I’m the Pocono Land Development Company
And I’m calling you with an offer of some land that you’ll just have to see
A quarter acre plot, that’s what I’ve got for you
Nineteen ninety five, four hundred dollars down and just ten bucks a week
It’s two short hours from New York City
A Pocono land site green and pretty
There’s lakes there and trout streams
Mountain views, country dreams, country dreams
I’m here with forty other guys crowded in a room
Makin’ a living selling the moon, and rustic dreams in June
I used to hate the city now I’m dwelling in it
I used to love the country now I’m selling it
I’m doing well at it, that’s the hell of it
I said that we would find a farm
And live out on the land
It strange how dreams come back at us
In ways that we had never planned
Here I’m selling real estate
And laughin’ at myself
If I can’t have my country dream
I’m gonna sell it out to somebody else
Hello sir. I’m the Pocono Land Development Company
And I’m calling you with an offer of some land that you’ll just have to see
A quarter acre plot, that’s what I’ve got for you
Nineteen ninety five, four hundred dollars down and just ten bucks a week
It’s two short hours from New York City
A Pocono land site green and pretty
There’s lakes there and trout streams
Mountain views, country dreams, country dreamsDarlin’ don’t get mad at me
I’m doing this for you
It’s really not so sad to see
We had growin’ up to do, country dreams
Aw please don’t push me any more
It’s gonna work out fine
I know I said I’d quit before
But just give me a little more time, country dreams
Country Dreams.
Suddenly remembered one of my favourite songs
Second Cup of Copy – Gordon Lightfoot
I’m on my second cup of coffee and I still can’t face the day
I’m thinking of a lady who got lost along the way
And if I don’t stop this trembling hand from reaching for the phone
I’ll be reachin’ for the bottle, Lord, before this day is done
Thanks, Karl, for your latest three songs (Ferry/Dylan, T Rex, Stewart), which, at a quick look through, have not been previously posted.
I do note that ‘Personal Jesus’ by Depeche Mode, which I put forward very recently, had been listed much earlier by Adam M.
Thank you, Dave, for the Chapin and Lightfoot songs. Coincidentally, Karl writing about sunlight casting shadows in his most recent comments (which I originally read yesterday), made Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ repeatedly go through my head since then.
Went off to see Jesse Welles at the Corner last night. If yer not familiar with his stuff, he has been around 10+ years but has shot up the ladder in the last 18 months through a series of protest songs in the manner of early Dylan and Woody. His wit shines through the songs and at his best, about a 6 to 10 songs, he is as good as it gets. His last song features a reference to this week’s theme. Oh, and it rivals Dylan’s With God on our Side.
War Isn’t Murder, and the lyrics that follow are only a third of the song (War isn’t murder, good men don’t die/Children don’t starve and all the women survive/”War isn’t murder,” that’s what they say/When you’re fighting the Devil, murder’s okay/War isn’t murder, they’re called casualties/There ain’t a veteran with a good night’s sleep/Let’s talk about dead people/I mean a-dead people/The dead don’t feel honor/They don’t feel that brave/They don’t feel avenged/They’re lucky if they got graves/Call your dead mother, ask her when she died/It’s a deathly silence on the other line/The dead don’t talk, but the children don’t forget/So in 20 short years, you could live to regret that)
Phone Calls and Emails, Tyler Childers (Are you preferring, I left you alone?/Just answer with what I should do/I’m sorry, I’ll quit now/With bombardin’ your phone/With these phone calls and emails/I’m sendin’ to you)
High Road, Zach Bryan, which coincidentally is a song to his dead mother (She’s bound to come back and haunt you forever/There’s ghosts in the windows and walls/I’v? waited by the tel?phone all fuckin’ night/For someone that ain’t ever gonna call)
Rose, 1956 Watchahatchee, I think it is about her dying grandmother (I hide out from telephone wires at Waxahatchee Creek/Your body, weak from smoke and tar and subsequent disease/You got married when you were 15, 15)
Bathtub, also by Waxahatchee and if this great singer-songwriter isn’t on your radar, get on it (I contemplate my ruined fate/Someone will hurt me so bad one day/You’ll resonate or I’ll apologize/Maybe I’ll make the same mistake twice/And I hide from phone calls/Under the warm water/And malice desists/No, it woefully recurs/And it plays like daytime TV shows/I confuse you/And I tell you not to love me/But I still kiss you when I want to)
Here’s another Dylan minorpiece from his Basement escape era:
Long Distance Operator
‘Long-distance operator/Place this call, it’s not for fun
I gotta get a message to my baby/You know, she’s not just anyone
There are thousands in the phone booth/Thousands at the gate
Ev’rybody wants to make a long-distance call/But you know they’re just gonna have to wait
If a call comes from Louisiana/Please, let it ride
This phone booth’s on fire/It’s getting hot inside
Ev’rybody wants to be my friend/But nobody wants to get higher
Long-distance operator/I believe I’m stranglin’ on this telephone wire’
Thanks, Rick, for your latest songs, full of the usual – but always greatly appreciated – mixture of musical knowledge, considerable interest and thematic aptness. And I do really like the fact that quite often your song choices come from seeing an artist perform live, as in the case with Jesse Welles.
Thank you, Karl, for Bob’s ‘Long Distance Operator’ – great to see His Bobness striding purposefully around on ‘phone theme territory’.
Now into the nervous nineties!
Earlier I forgot another Belinda Carlisle song: Since you’ve gone.
I also note Belinda is making her final Australian tour next year.
Well KD ~ the ‘purposeful stride’ of his Bobness must eventually come to an end ~ and this seems to be the end (at least as far as my interrogation of the Dylan songbook goes).
Everything Is Broken (1989 – from the Oh Mercy album)
‘Broken cutters, broken saws
Broken buckles, broken laws
Broken bodies, broken bones
Broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath, feel like you’re choking
Everything is broken’
Thanks, Karl, for “Everything Is Broken’.
Note, also, that ANY involvement of a phone in a song (such as a mention of a ‘call’, as in phone call) makes the song relevant to this theme.
Thanks for ‘Since You’ve Gone’, Liam. I’m interested in seeing Belinda live if circumstances permit.
Texas Flood, Willie, but some may remember the Stevie Ray Vaughan version (Well it’s flooding down in Texas/All the telephone lines are down/I said it’s flooding down in Texas/All the telephone lines are down/I been trying to call my baby/Can’t get a single sound)
I Always Get Lucky with You, Merle (I keep two strikes against me most all of the time/And when it’s down to a phone call, I’m minus a dime/There’s been good days and bad days/But when the day is all through/Hey, I’ll always get lucky with you)
Karl may have already put this one through but just in case: Poor Boy Blues, Bob (Long-distance operator/I hear this phone call is on the house/Cain’t ya hear me cryin’/Hm, hm, hm)
Likewise, Dave may have put this in: If the Phone Doesn’t Ring it’s Me, Jimmy Buffett
More 10cc – Rubber Bullets
“Sergeant Baker got a call from the governor of the county jail”
Thanks for your latest four choices, Rick; as far as I can see, none appeared before under the umbrella of this ‘phone’ theme. I do check through each theme songlist as it develops to watch out for songs doubling and occasionally tripling up, in this context, though, everyone who lists songs can help me out by having a check through themselves before listing. Cheers.
Thanks for ‘Rubber Bullets’, Swish. Particularly good pickup, as the phone reference isn’t readily apparent.
Thanks KD, yes, I usually check before posting but was in a rush this morning. And suggestions coming through thick and fast and of such a high standard. This theme like many others would make a great playlist. Agree, Swish’s RB was a ripper inclusion. Cheers
No worries, Rick. All good! (And I certainly agree that this phone theme songlist – as well as so many others we’ve put together over an extended period – would make a great playlist.) Cheers.
Happy 100!
Now I’ve been thru the list and checked it twice and as far as I can tell, this is a new (& I think you will be amazed) addition to the list;
Back In The USSR – The Beatles
‘Been away so long I early knew the place
Gee, it’s good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I’m back in the USSR’
Excellent pickup, Karl! And I can’t help but think there might be some more Lennon-McCartney songs still to be unearthed (maybe including early-ish ones they wrote for other artists such as Cilla Black, Peter and Gordon, Billy J Kramer and the like).
And, as I always say at this point in proceedings, congrats to all concerned regarding our century!
After posting songs by great songwriters on this thread….Here is a piece of crap from the early 60’s written by Gary Klein and Henry Hoffman (whoever they were.)
Bobby’s Girl – Marcie Blane
You’re not a kid anymore
You’re not a kid anymore
When people ask of me
“What would you like to be
Now that you’re not a kid anymore?”
(You’re not a kid anymore)
I know just what to say
I answer right away
There’s just one thing I’ve been wishing for
I wanna be Bobby’s girl
I wanna be Bobby’s girl
That’s the most important thing to me
And if I was Bobby’s girl
If I was Bobby’s girl
What a faithful, thankful girl I’d be
Each night I sit at home
Hoping that he will phone
But I know Bobby has someone else
(You’re not a kid anymore)
Still in my heart I pray
That soon will come the day
When I will have him all to myself
I wanna be Bobby’s girl
I wanna be Bobby’s girl
That’s the most important thing to me
And if I was Bobby’s girl
If I was Bobby’s girl
What a faithful, thankful girl I’d be
What a faithful, thankful girl I’d be.
(No wonder the second wave feminist movement kicked off in the 60s)
A New England – Kirsty MacColl. Written by Billy Bragg.
However the verse I am transcribing here is not in Billy’s original version, I don’t know whether Billy wrote it for Kirsty or Kirsty wrote it herself. Either would be credible.
[Verse 3]
My dreams were full of strange ideas
My mind was set despite the fears
But other things got in the way
I never asked that boy to stay
Once upon a time at home
I sat beside the telephone
Waiting for someone to pull me through
When at last it didn’t ring, I knew it wasn’t you
[Chorus]
I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
Are you looking for another girl?
I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
Are you looking for another?
I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
Are you looking for another girl
I reckon I first heard this when I was about ten, on one of those Music For Pleasure soundalike albums, just went deep into my dense bonce to drag it out
My Baby Loves Loving’ – White Plains
“Your baby loves loving, my baby loves loving
She’s got what it takes for me
No more lonely nights just waiting for the telephone to ring
No more lonely days, my baby’s taking care of everything
I’m telling you people
My baby loves loving, my baby loves loving
She’s got what it takes, and she knows how to use it
My baby loves loving, my baby loves loving
She’s got what it takes, and she knows how to use it”
London’s Burning – The Clash
“London’s burning
London’s burning
All across the town, all across the night
Everybody’s drivin’ with full headlights
Black or white you turn it on, you face the new religion
Everybody’s sittin’ ’round watching television
London’s burning (With boredom now)
London’s burning (Dial 99999)
London’s burning (With boredom now)
London’s burning (Dial 99999)”
Miss You – Rolling Stones
“I’ve been holding out so long
I’ve been sleeping all alone
Lord, I miss you
I’ve been hanging on the phone
I’ve been sleeping all alone
I want to kiss you sometime
Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Well, I’ve been haunted in my sleep
You’ve been starring in my dreams
Lord, I miss you, child
I’ve been waiting in the hall
Been waiting on your call
When the phone rings
It’s just some friends of mine that say
“Hey, what’s the matter, man?
We’re goingna come around at twelve
With some Puerto Rican girls thats just dying to meet you
We’re goinna bring a case of wine
Hey, let’s go mess and fool around
You know, like we used to”
Earlier we had ‘Wichita Lineman’ and ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’.
How about a Glen Campbell trifecta:
Rhinestone Cowboy
‘Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers coming over the phone’
Thanks for ‘Bobby’s Girl’ and the remarkably different ‘A New England’, Dave -;a very telling juxtaposition in terms of quality!
Thanks for your latest trio, Swish – all fine pickups. ‘My Baby Loves Loving’ is a minorpiece ( to borrow Karl’s word) corny memory for me, as it probably is for you, too.
Thank you for ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’, Karl. Good song and highly fitting phone theme number, too.
Well how freakin good was the david Byrne concert at the Myer Music Bowl last night. I swear, if I could I’d be on the plane to see another show in Adelaide or Perth. Stunning!
And here is a David Byrne song from Nov 2025 that he played last night.
T Shirt
My beliefs are on this t-shirt
My religion’s in my pants
My condition’s on this iPhone
Everyone does what they want
I believe in helping others
I will sing my freedom song
I donate to worthy causes
I go along to get along
[Chorus]
Sing my t-shirt, take it off
Dance these shoes until we drop
[Verse 2]
In this land of milk and honey
In this future, bright and gay
Though the shirt is old and saggy
And its words will fade away
Simple things, a line or two
Succinct and clear, a kind of truth
No pretension, no deep intent
There’s no mistaking what I meant
[Chorus]
Sing my t-shirt, take it off
Dance these shoes until we drop
Thanks, Rick, for the David Byrne report and good to get an ‘iPhone song’, too.
Regarding Byrne, I recall saying on perhaps more than one Almanac song theme thread that Talking Heads were just about the best live band I’ve ever seen/heard – and he was, of course, front and centre in that respect. I saw Talking Heads in Melbourne circa 1983 on a bill with The Pretenders, who were pretty darn good, too.
‘Still in Love with You ‘, written by Paul Hewson, recorded by Dragon (1978): ‘You say you’d call me up / When you get out of school’.
Ray Parker Jr song we all knew back in the 80s:
Ghostbusters!
If there’s something strange in your neighborhood
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
If it’s something weird, and it don’t look good
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
If you’re seein’ things runnin’ through your head
Who can you call? (Ghostbusters!)
An invisible man sleepin’ in your bed
Oh, who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
I ain’t afraid of no ghost (uh)
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
If you’re all alone, pick up the phone
And call (Ghostbusters!)
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
I hear it likes the girls
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
Mm, if you’ve had a dose of a freaky ghost, baby
You better call (Ghostbusters!)
Ow!
Let me tell ya somethin’
Bustin’ makes me feel good
I ain’t afraid of no ghost (uh)
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
Don’t get caught alone, oh, no
(Ghostbusters!)
When it comes through your door
Unless you just want some more
I think you better call (Ghostbusters!)
Ow!
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
Ah, think you better call (Ghostbusters!)
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
I can’t hear you
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
Louder (Ghostbusters!)
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
Who can you call? (Ghostbusters!)
Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!)
Thanks for ‘Ghostbusters’, Rick – very much a notable song of its era. ‘Who you gon’ call’ was/is such a hooky line, too.
Pretty sure ‘No Reply’ by the Beatles (‘I tried to telephone / They said you were not home’) hasn’t got a guernsey until now.
While this week’s theme is only mentioned once in this 10 minute masterpiece of a song (And you call me up again just to break me like a promise/So casually cruel in the name of bein’ honest) it is one of the best lines/lyrics/verse and this is a song that is worth every second. All Too Well, Taylor Swift
I walked through the door with you, the air was cold
But somethin’ ’bout it felt like home somehow
And I left my scarf there at your sister’s house
And you’ve still got it in your drawer, even now
[Verse 2]
Oh, your sweet disposition and my wide-eyed gaze
We’re singin’ in the car, getting lost upstate
Autumn leaves fallin’ down like pieces into place
And I can picture it after all these days
[Pre-Chorus]
And I know it’s long gone and
That magic’s not here no more
And I might be okay, but I’m not fine at all
Oh, oh, oh
[Chorus]
‘Caus? there we ar? again on that little town street
You almost ran the red ’cause you were lookin’ over at me
Wind in my hair, I was there
I remember it all too well
[Verse 3]
Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turnin’ red
You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed
And your mother’s tellin’ stories ’bout you on the tee-ball team
You taught me ’bout your past, thinkin’ your future was me
And you were tossing me the car keys, “Fuck the patriarchy”
Keychain on the ground, we were always skippin’ town
And I was thinkin’ on the drive down, “Any time now
He’s gonna say it’s love,” you never called it what it was
‘Til we were dead and gone and buried
Check the pulse and come back swearin’ it’s the same
After three months in the grave
And then you wondered where it went to as I reached for you
But all I felt was shame and you held my lifeless frame
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Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]
Taylor Swift
Actually Romantic
Taylor Swift
NADIE SABE
Bad Bunny
[Pre-Chorus]
And I know it’s long gone and
There was nothing else I could do
And I forget about you long enough
To forget why I needed to
[Chorus]
‘Cause there we are again in the middle of the night
We’re dancin’ ’round the kitchen in the refrigerator light
Down the stairs, I was there
I remember it all too well
And there we are again when nobody had to know
You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath
Sacred prayer and we’d swear
To remember it all too well, yeah
[Bridge]
Well, maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece ’til you tore it all up
Runnin’ scared, I was there
I remember it all too well
And you call me up again just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of bein’ honest
I’m a crumpled-up piece of paper lyin’ here
‘Cause I remember it all, all, all
[Verse 4]
They say all’s well that ends well, but I’m in a new hell
Every time you double-cross my mind
You said if we had been closer in age, maybe it would’ve been fine
And that made me want to die
The idea you had of me, who was she?
A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel whose shine reflects on you
Not weepin’ in a party bathroom
Some actress askin’ me what happened, you
That’s what happened, you
You who charmed my dad with self-effacing jokes
Sippin’ coffee like you’re on a late-night show
But then he watched me watch the front door all night, willin’ you to come
And he said, “It’s supposed to be fun turning twenty-one”
[Verse 5]
Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it
I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still tryin’ to find it
After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own
Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone
But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
‘Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me
You can’t get rid of it
‘Cause you remember it all too well, yeah
[Chorus]
‘Cause there we are again when I loved you so
Back before you lost the one real thing you’ve ever known
It was rare, I was there
I remember it all too well
Wind in my hair, you were there
You remember it all
Down the stairs, you were there
You remember it all
It was rare, I was there
I remember it all too well
[Verse 6]
And I was never good at tellin’ jokes, but the punch line goes
“I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age”
From when your Brooklyn broke my skin and bones
I’m a soldier who’s returning half her weight
And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue?
Just between us, did the love affair maim you too?
‘Cause in this city’s barren cold
I still remember the first fall of snow
And how it glistened as it fell
I remember it all too well
[Outro]
Just between us, did the love affair maim you all too well?
Just between us, do you remember it all too well?
Just between us, I remember it (Just between us) all too well
Wind in my hair, I was there, I was there (I was there)
Down the stairs, I was there, I was there
Sacred prayer, I was there, I was there
It was rare, you remember it all too well
Wind in my hair, I was there, I was there (Oh)
Down the stairs, I was there, I was there (I was there)
Sacred prayer, I was there, I was there
It was rare, you remember it (All too well)
Wind in my hair, I was there, I was there
Down the stairs, I was there, I was there
Sacred prayer, I was there, I was there
It was rare, you remember it
Wind in my hair, I was there, I was there
Down the stairs, I was there, I was there
Sacred prayer, I was there, I was there
It was rare, you remember it
Swifty’s ‘All Too Well’ is epic stuff and a fine pick up, thematically speaking – many thanks, Rick.
And another wonderful, thematically spot-on song, Lauper’s eighties classic ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ (1983) deserves to have its own comments box:
‘The phone rings in the middle of the night / My father yells…’
Great pick up KD, and yes, ripper song.
Thanks, Rick. Yep, great to see back-to-back thematically apt songs of such outstanding quality.
Rock Steady, by Violinski.
The opening two lines (repeated later on) are:
You’re never home when I call you
You’re never home when I call you late at night
Thanks, Liam, for ‘Rock Steady’. Good pickup!
Stumbled on this chat by accident (checking out the GFC prospects for this year) got me thinking all the best songs are about good old copper wire technology. Nothing great written since the Nokia 8110 landed – I fear phone songs may go the way of Gregorian chants. Here are my picks.
1. An ode to public phone boxes: REM – “The Sidewinder sleeps tonite”
This here is the place where I will be staying
There isn’t a number, you can call the pay phone
Let it ring a long, long, long, long time
If I don’t pick up, hang up, call back, let it ring some more
Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooh-oh
If I don’t pick up, pick up
The sidewinder sleeps, sleeps, sleeps in a coil
Call me when you try to wake her up
(Call me when you try to wake her)
Call me when you try to wake her up
(Call me when you try to wake her)
Call me when you try to wake her up
(Call me when you try to wake her)
Oh
There are scratches all around the coin slot
Like a heartbeat, baby, trying to wake up
But this machine can only swallow money
You can’t lay a patch by computer design
It’s just a lot of stupid, stupid signs
2. An ode to push button landline phones: Kirstin Hersh (with M. Stipe harmonising) – Your Ghost
If I walk down this hallway
Tonight it’s too quiet
So I pad through the dark
And call you on the phone
Push your old numbers
And let your house ring
‘Til I wake your ghost
Let him walk down your hallway
It’s not this quiet
Slide down your receiver
Sprint across the wire
Follow my number
Slide into my hand
It’s the blaze across my nightgown
It’s the phone’s ring
I think last night
You were driving circles around me
I think last night
You were driving circles around me
I think last night
You were driving circles around me
3. And for all those Paul Kelly fans wanting to get him on the list, not an ode, but a mention of a relic from the past when a single phone line ran down old corrugated bush roads – the party line, where only one farm family on the line could use it at the time (although everyone could listen in)
Paul Kelly -“ I can’t believe we were married”
Now maybe if I’m with someone you come into my mind
The one I knew with your certain little cries
You’re not the only one to come rushing in
It’s like a party line
Better hang up now,
Go Cats
Hi Stephen. I enjoyed your contribution to our phone theme. ‘Sidewinder’ has already got a guernsey, but the other songs you put forward, as far as I recall, are new to the songlist.
Perhaps you’re right, too, that the phone song is on the way out since the mobile era; if so, this current theme is playing a
role in preserving valuable relics of the pre- mobile past. Cheers.
Better late than never …
New Order T-Shirt – The National
“You in a bath on the phone, tellin’ somebody
That maybe they’re better off leavin’
Than stayin’ in it alone”
Day I Die – The National
“Young mothers love me even ghosts of
Girlfriends call from Cleveland
They will meet me anytime and anywhere”
I Need My Girl – The National
“There’s some things that I should never
Laugh about in front of family
I tried to call you from the party
It’s full of punks and cannonballers”
One Big Holiday – My Morning Jacket
“Wakin’ up feelin’ good and limber
When the telephone it ring
Was a bad man from California
Tellin’ of a stone he’d bring”
The Door – Cold Chisel
“Baby, baby
The telephone’s ringin’ again
What do I say? Are you home this time?
There’s somebody askin’ on the telephone line”
Letter to Alan – Cold Chisel
“And I’m sitting in my hotel room, along Rue St. Louis
Dialling old phone numbers down the line”
Cheers.
Well, here is a most timely song. Billy Bragg recorded this yesterday and put it up on FB:
CITY OF HEROES
The ghost of Martin Niemöller
Haunts the halls of history
When they came for the communists
He said “It’s nothing to do with me”
When they came for the democrats
He had nothing to say
And when they came for the Jews
He just looked the other way
His silence didn’t save him
When they came for him as well
There was no one to speak out for him
Resistance had been quelled
What excuses would you tell yourself
If this ever happened to you?
Well I live in a city of heroes
I know what I would do
When they came for the immigrants
I got in their face
When they came for the refugees
I got in their face
When they came for the five-year-olds
I got in their face
When they came to my neighbourhood
I just got in their face
They use tear gas and pepper spray
Against our whistles and our phones
But in this city of heroes
We will protect our home
When they dragged people from their cars
I got in their face
When they took families from their homes
I got in their face
When they murdered our sister
I got in their face
When they murdered our brother
I still got in their face
In Dachau Martin Niemöller
Suffered for his complicity
But in this city of heroes
We learn the lessons of history
I will bear witness to terror
I will bear witness to tyranny
I will bear witness to murder
I will bear witness to fascism
Words and Music by Billy Bragg
Engineered, recorded and mixed by Jamie Parker at Echo Town Studio, Dorset 26th January 2026
Another one:
Imagine if what you did on your weekend was your life – Dave Graney ‘n’ The Coral Snakes
“Bottle store, call your mother, call your brother, call … an old friend”
Thanks, Greg, for a particularly interesting bunch of thematically apt songs – these certainly add a valuable dimension to our overall ‘phone’ songlist. I thought Dave Graney’s typically quirky number was a good one to round off your input.
Talk about ‘hot off the presses’, figuratively speaking! Thanks, Rick, for Bragg’s ‘City of Heroes’.
‘I Drove All Night’, released by Cyndi Lauper in 1989, references a phone call early on: ‘Maybe I should have called you first / But I was dying to get to you…’
Still plenty of telephone references:
Flip, Flop, Fly, Big Joe Turner (Now when I get lonesome/I jump on the telephone/When I get lonesome/I jump on the telephone/I call my baby/Tell her I’m on my way back home/Now flip, flop and fly/I don’t care if I die/Now flip, flop and fly/I don’t care if I die/Don’t ever leave me/Don’t ever say goodbye)
Swinging Doors, Merle (This old smoke-filled bar is something I’m not used to/But I gave up my home to see you satisfied/And I just called to let you know where I’ll be living/It’s not much, but I feel welcome here inside/And I’ve got swinging doors, a jukebox, and a barstool/And my new home has a flashing neon sign/Stop by and see me anytime you want to/’Cause I’m always here at home till closing time)
Open All Night, Bruce (Early, North Jersey industrial skyline/I’m a all-set Cobra Jet, creepin’ through the/nighttime/Gotta find a gas station, gotta find a payphone/This turnpike sure is spooky at night when you’re all alone/Gotta hit the gas, baby, I’m runnin’ late/This New Jersey in the mornin’ like a lunar landscape … and again later in the song … Well, 5 a.m., oil pressure’s sinkin’ fast/I make a pit stop – wipe the windshield, check the gas/Gotta call my baby on the telephone/Let her know that her daddy’s comin’ on home/”Sit tight, little mama, I’m-a comin’ ’round/I got-a three more hours, but I’m coverin’ ground”)
God in Chicago, Craig Finn, I’ve cited this song before, it is well worth the listen (I knew this kid from my dorm when I went to school in Wisconsin/My two semesters were a total disaster and he was part of the problem/Hadn’t talked in forever/But Wayne from Winnetka picked up on the first ring/I explained the situation/He said he’d be interested, but we’d have to come to him/We said lunch time on Wednesday/A Mexican restaurant a mile north of Midway/He worked for his father’s shipping company out west of the city)
Yep, I agree, Rick – still plenty of telephone references. Thanks for your latest four song choices – fine variety, as usual.
Keep the phone songs comin’. – I plan to.
I’ll post a new theme piece on Friday week, February 6.
‘Oliver’s Army’ by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1979):
‘Call careers information / Get yourself an occupation’
‘Promise Me You’ll Call’ by Jimmy Barnes, off the Bodyswerve album.
Then there is ‘Plaza’ by Cold Chisel.
“I get some money
When they page me to the phone
You know man cannot live on
Empty principles alone”
Thanks for the Barnes and Cold Chisel songs, Greg – both very good pickups.
Yet another Beatles ‘phone’ song: ‘Anytime at All’, from the A Hard Day’s Night album (1964):’ Anytime at all/all you gotta do is call/and I’ll be there’.
…and one recorded by ‘Ol’ Black Eyes’ himself, Jon English, ‘Hollywood Seven’ (released 1976). The lyrics are, in part:
‘Well, I was livin’ in a hotel just off Sunset
She moved in across the hall
And she said she’d be a movie star
And waited every mornin’ for a call
So I asked her in to share a drink, but she hardly had the time
A call might come tomorrow, she had to learn her lines’
Now Bruce has released an incredibly powerful protest song, called Streets of Minneapolis, and it references phones:
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
In the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringin’ through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow dead
Their claim was self-defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown, my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In our chants of “ICE out now”
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis
[Chorus]
Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out
A powerful and, of course, highly topical song from Bruce – thanks, Rick, for including it in this songlist.
‘FourFive Seconds’ (2015), recorded by Kanye West, Rihanna and Paul McCartney: ‘But you called ’bout a thousand times / Wondering where I’ve been’.
This would be among my favourite songs of the 2010s.
Not sure if Dave or someone else has put forward the Phil Ochs song, One Way Ticket Home:
I’d like a one-way ticket home, ticket home
Where I can watch television, talk on the telephone
But every town I wander there’s a billboard on a throne
Ticket home
I want a ticket home
The Cell, The Mekons, from their 2017 album, Existentialism, and another protesty song (There was something in the air that night/I stood frozen with fear/My hair stood on end/My voice stuck in my throat/I stared at the telephone/I could not pick it up/To hear the sound of my sinking heart/All confidence washed away/I went back, rebuilt my cell/Brick by brick by brick/I made sure there was no window/And there was no door)
Wild & Blue, The Mekons (Way across town a phone rings off the wall/If you know he ain’t home, why do you keep calling?/You’re gonna drive yourself crazy and you know that it’s true/It’s just making you wild and blue/Wild and blue, it’s no wonder/Look at the things that you do/Well won’t you just take a look yonder, honey/You’re already wild and blue)
And has anyone submitted the Tom Waits song, Telephone Call from Istanbul?
45 seconds is a ripper. Stayed on my playlist a long time.
Thanks for your latest choices, Rick. Our songlist has become so lengthy that it’s difficult to go through in detail, but I think none of the toons mentioned in your most recent comments have appeared before.
Glad you agree with me regarding ‘FourFive Seconds’, too!
The Phone Call – The Pretenders
“This is a mercy mission
From a faceless messenger who dont want to see you hit
Here’s the word
Listen to it
Somebody you used to know is back in town
You better go
This is a mercy mission
A voice you’ll never hear again
From a southside callbox
Winged demons are the hardest to outfox
The same one you lost on the run
Is gonna show you how to have some fun
You better get out of town cause you’re gonna get hit
This is mercy mission
You’ll find your schedule underneath the door
All the arrangements have been made
Major expenses have been paid as you know
Don’t forget the last details
Accept no parcels in the mail”
The Power Of They Might Be Giants’ Dial-A-Song – They Might Be Giants
“My friends don’t understand why
I spend my days by the phone
But my friends they don’t understand
The power of They Might Be Giants Dial-a-Song
And your call is next!”
Fine choices as usual, Swish. Thanks for these – as we approach an excellent 150!
Sometimes it’s immensely surprising when a superbly-apt on-theme song has not made an appearance after so many numbers have already been included in a long songlist! I’ve already written about the following ‘phone song’ in a past Footy Almanac piece (‘Richard Clapton and I’). How could I have forgotten about it now? The theme is even alluded to in the song’s title! – the song is ‘Hearts on the Nightline’, written by Richard Clapton and released by him in 1979.
‘Hearts on the Nightline’
Here on the razor’s edge, stranded here from my friends
Stumbling along through the canyons
Wasting away in shady cafés
I don’t have a smile I can turn on
And I don’t know if I can survive
Keep getting caught up in this arcade of lies
How can you have any sense of direction
Walking this street of mirrors?
Hearts on the nightline
Words coming down the wire
I just can’t get things right
I put my heart on the nightline
I guess this city must be gettin’ to me
I can’t seem to make a connection
Got to be someone around here to talk to
Someone I can really depend on
But I’m smack dab stuck in the middle
Here in this big sociological swindle
So many words from so many people
All claiming the truth and the light
Hearts on the nightline
Words coming down the wire
I just can’t get things right
I put my heart on the nightline
Oh, I’m smack dab stuck in the middle
Here in this big sociological swindle
So many words from so many people
All claiming the truth and the light
Hearts on the nightline
Words coming down the wire
I just can’t get things right
I put my heart on the nightline…(x3)
Rereading the NQB reprised essay on FA got me thinking about a few singer-songwriters, including Rodney Crowell, and the telephone theme, so here’s a few more:
Don’t Get Me Started, Rodney Crowell (I was born in America and I’m proud of that fact/I wish the rest of the world would get off our back/But these slick politicians, Man you’ve got to admit/Seem as crazy as bedbugs and they don’t give one whit/About a man on the street with his back to the wall/Who can’t find a quarter for to make a phone call/Meanwhile back in Washington champagne will flow/Tell that to the homeless man with nowhere to go)
Close to You, Margo Price, highly recommended country artist (I left my phone in a truck stop diner/I had to be close to you/I honked my horn at the Tennessee border/I had to be close to you/Knocked on your door and kissed your mouth/I squeezed you tight and I said it out loud/If one thing’s for certain/I had to be close to you)
Oh Take Me Back, M. Ward, a pretty good and at times excellent singer-songwriter, this is an old Carter Family song based on a traditional tune, I think (Oh hand me that long distance phone/Oh hand me that long distance phone/Gonna talk to my honey/All night long)
Long Distance Call, Muddy Waters, but check out the version with Muddy, Howlin Wolf and Bo Diddley (Hear my phone ringing/Sound like a long distance call/Hear my phone keep ringin’/Sound like a long distance call/When I picked up my receiver/The party said another mule kicking in your stall)
Hundred Dollar Valentine, Chris Smither, saw CS at Port Fairy the year he released and toured this album, what a gem, and still going, released his twentieth or so album in 2024, aged 80 and this New Orleans raised bluesman is currently touring with Loudon Wainwright III (No mail today, yeah, my phone never rings/Nothing works when you’re gone/My mind is humming, but my heart won’t sing/Baby, can’t you please come home?/I got time on my hands and now you on my mind/I got a heart that’s beating like a hundred dollar valentine/I/know you told me you’d be home by four/But I just can’t take it no more/Yeah, I know you told me you’d be home by four/But I just can’t take it no more)
Thanks so much for these latest songs, Rick. (Also, it’s just about inevitably a fine thing when one Almanac post connects to another, as in the singer-songwriter link in this instance.)
Some big guns to bring up the 150:
Busy Signal, Dolly, RS puts this song 18 in her 50 best songs, it is an early country pop song by her, written by Ray (Everything is Beautiful, The Streak) Stevens (Busy signal/How can I tell him I’m sorry/When I said I didn’t care/I didn’t mean a word I said/Talking outta my head/I’ve got to reach him now and tell him that I love him/And from now on I’ll stay right by his side and love him/All the time/So please somebody quit tying up the line)
Telephone, Arlo Guthrie (I got a phone in my bedroom and one in the barn/A phone in my car and one in the yard/A phone on my saddle for when I’m out on the range/A phone in my pocket for when I’m down at the grange/Hang up, hold on/You got a dime so you come on so strong/Save your money and let me be/Hang up the phone and quit bothering me)
Box #10, Jim Croce (Well, I was gonna be a great success/Things sure ended up a mess/But in the process, I got messed up too/But hello mama and dad, I had to call collect/’Cause I ain’t got a cent to my name/Well, I’m a sleepin’ in the hotel doorway/And tonight they say it’s gonna rain/And if you’d only send me some money/Oh, I’ll be back on my feet again/Send it in care of the Sunday Mission/Box number ten)
Wrong Number, George, early 60s George, and one of his saddest, well, sadder songs (My fingers tremble as I slowly touch the phone/I dial your number not knowing if your own/It rings you answer with sweet hello/My heart beats loudly as the teardrops start to flow/I bite my lip until the blood runs free/And keep the words I love you hidden deep deep inside of me/I hang up wrong number I hear you tell your friend/But I just had to hear you talkin’ once again)
Always good to bring out some big guns, Rick! You’ve certainly played a major role in us getting to this 150 – thanks so much.
New theme will commence tomorrow, Friday 6 February.
I couldn’t resist including this later-than-usual entry – David Bowie’s ‘Suffragette City’ (1972):
‘Hey man, ah leave me alone, you know
Hey man, well Henry, get off the phone…’
Another beauty – ‘Sweet Transvestite’ by Tim Curry (1973), from The Rocky Horror Show. Here’s a spoken bit by the Brad character near the beginning of the song:
Brad:
I’m glad we caught you at home,
Could we use your phone?
We’re both in a bit of a hurry.
I’m keepin’ ’em coming!
‘Laura’ by Billy Joel, from The Nylon Curtain album (1982). The song begins: ‘Laura / calls me / in the middle of the night …’