Subject: Lyr Add: THE TELEPHONE SONG (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST,bigJ - PM
Date: 08 Nov 00 - 02:45 PM

Well, everything comes.......... Here are the words courtesy of the group Three City Four on their 1965 LP (Decca LK 4705) where it's sung by group member Martin Carthy. Other members are Leon Rosselson, Marian Mackenzie and Ralph Trainer. Many thanks to Geoff for copying the LP and putting the minidisc in the post to me.

THE TELEPHONE SONG by Sydney Carter

Standing alone in the damp and the dark
Of a filthy old phone box in Finsbury Park
I dialed Fremantle they give me a FRO,
I asked for a Primrose, they give me a PRO.

CHORUS
So, Say who you are, love, and not 'Hello'
Give me your name and give me your number.
Say who you are, love, and not 'Hello'
If I press button 'A' all my pennies will go.

My mother is waiting at Lancaster Gate,
I promised to phone at a quarter to eight.
I've done all the things that they tell me to do
But instead of my mother I keep getting you.

There's many the girl that I've got to know
Through a fault on the line of the GPO,
I'd do it again but it wouldn't be right.
I promised to telephone mother tonight.