Good evening, and welcome to your selection of songs about telephones and telephone numbers. There are three playlists this week including one from tincanman, and I have included a YouTube link if you want to add to the YouTube list. Confused? You will be.
If you have an Earworm you’d like to share, please send an.mp3, .m4a or a link to: adempster73@gmail.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Next week’s theme will be hats and headgear.
Worms should reach me by close of play on Sunday 10 December. Many thanks to all contributors – keep calm, and carry on!
Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Telephone and Rubber Band – Suzi: Based around the repetitive sound of a telephone ringing.
Soprano – Mon Précieux – DebbyM: French pop singer with Gollumesque feelings for his phone.
Souzy Kasseya – Le téléphone sonne – Uncleben: Fabulous soukous song that was a hit in France in the early 1980s. Kasseya was originally from Kinshasa but settled in Paris and, just as he was starting to make it big, promptly stopped releasing records, though I think he carried on for a while as a session musician.
Grateful Dead – Operator – Chris7572: A sweet little ditty from Ron McKernan, aka Pigpen, who is trying to get help contacting his absent lady in a time long before everyone became attached to a mobile from birth. The only track on American Beauty not written by Hunter with a guitarist or two.
Jim Croce – Operator – Fintan28: A time that has faded from our lives, Not only did you have to interact with another human to place a call sometimes they interact with you. Wonderful small story.
Kara Jackson – Dickhead Blues – tincanman: From the former US Poet Laureate’s wonderful debut album this year, Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?
Aretha Franklin – Call Me – severin: Call me the minute you get there. From the times before mobile or smart phones, of course.
Blondie – Hanging on the Telephone – Suzi: Debbie’s desperate to talk to him in person, but a phone call will have to do for now ….classic Blondie and a favourite.
Post Modern Jukebox feat. Tess Mohr – Call Me – DebbyM: Love the Blondie version, but this jazzy cover is really worth a listen.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Can’t Keep Checking my Phone – glassarfemptee: Originally a kiwi band, Unknown Mortal Orchestra are now based in Portland, Oregon and had a double album out this year.
The Fall – Telephone Thing – Shoegazer: One of their best singles.
The Tuts – I Call You Up – severin: An unsuccessful phone call. “You’d rather do things with him instead.”
Hot Little Mama – Telephone Call From IstanbuI – glassarfemptee: I believe this band is/was Norwegian, with a Tom Waits song.
Téléphone – Hygiaphone – DebbyM: Rock’n’roll français!
Wilson Pickett – 634-5789 – Fintan28: Wilson is a confident man. He can stay to his house and just have her call when she needs him? Who knows? It may have played in 1965.
Macy Gray – Why Didn’t You Call Me? – severin: I thought I’d see you again, the first date went so well. Back in the early seventies I actually received a “no, I don’t think this is going to work” letter via the Royal Mail after a first date. Fortunately I didn’t think so either but it was still a weird experience.
The Beatles – You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) – glassarfemptee: The Beatles released quite a few weird songs, and this is sure one of them. The lyrics are confined to ‘you know my name, look up the number’. In the 1964 song ‘Any time at all’ they sing ‘just call me’. They later said they used the idea from American songs – hardly anyone in Liverpool had a phone indoors!
Lal Waterson – Telephone Raider – Suzi: The phone’s ringing – who’s calling? Before you answer it, there’s always some slight anxiety as to who it might be, though more so in the past, before names and numbers were displayed. From the album Teach Me To Be A Summer’s Morning.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Pythagoras on the Line – Suzi: A gentle tune weaves its way around the sound of an old-fashioned telephone.
Main playlist, blurbs above:
Drakeo the Ruler and JoogSzn – Tank You For Using GTL – tincanman: Drakeo rapped out and directed this 2020 album in short phone calls from jail to Joog. He was falsely charged, held for awhile longer because he probably did something else anyway, and within a year of being released was fatally shot by accident backstage at a concert. America innit. (GTL holds the contract to charge prisoners exorbitant rates to use their payphones.) (Click on the link in the title for the playlist).
YouTube Playlist, blurbs below – here’s the link if you want to add your own tracks: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqxz-zGCy09q6jCA6eS_775viYcfxtUU3&si=jlP7QGjdARJ2CNtg
UK Subs – Telephone Numbers – wyngatecarpenter: Short, but undeniably on topic.
Peter and the Test Tube Babies – 1471 – wyngatecarpenter: A sorry tale of drunken misadventure.
Toots and the Maytals – 54-46 Was My Number – MaggieB: Dancing to this will help to keep you all warm 😎
AC/DC – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – LongTallSilly: Pick up the phone, I’m always home / Call me anytime / Just ring, 3-6-2-4-3-6, hey / I lead a life of crime… The inspiration for telephone numbers, as I was trying to head-bang with no hair! BTW AliM picking two female singers last week is amazing enough, but one of them being God is gobsmacking! (See Dogma 😂).
Carley Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe – AliM: Another female singer. My son’s tutor had this as her ringtone, which amused me greatly.
Kirsty MacColl – A New England – AliM: And another – Kirsty puts her slant on Billy Bragg’s song: 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…
The 'Spill 