Subject: Lyr Add: TELEPHONE GIRL (from Red Clay Ramblers)
From:
Stewie
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 05:14 AM
Anders, here is how I hear the Ramblers' recording. They mistakenly sing 'moonlight' instead of 'woodland' in the first chorus. They sing 'woodland' in every subsequent chorus, but also maintain Arville's quaint 'say' instead of 'says'.
TELEPHONE GIRL
My heart is broke, it ain't no joke
I'm happy and I'm sad
I feel so queer, I sometimes fear
That thing will drive me mad
A little girl with frizzen curls
Came here a week ago
To work upon that telephone
And say hello, hello
Chorus:
Hello, hello, hello, hello
Her voice with music rings
It's sweeter than the whippoorwill
That in the moonlight sings [Should be 'woodland']
Across the floor, beside the door
As I march to and fro
She leans upon that telephone
And say(s) hello, hello
I have not spoken to her yet
I've been in such a daze
Although she sometimes looks at me
With sort of a distant gaze
I feel too weak, I cannot speak
My heart is beating so
Like when she reach(ed) that telephone
And said hello, hello
Chorus
I see her as she walks along
In sunshine and in rain
I hear her midst the jingle
Of the elevated train
Every sound that comes around
Above and down below
It seems to say the livelong day
Hello, hello, hello
Chorus
I tell you what, I'll buy a spot
Not very far from town
And if she'll 'gree to marry me
We both will settle down
Where the wild honeysuckles bloom
And the fragrant flowers grow
She'll meet me at the garden gate
And say hello, hello
Chorus
Source: transcription from Red Clay Ramblers 'Twisted Laurel' reissued on Flying Fish CD FF70055.
Note: Arville Reed's recording, the RCR's source, may be found on Blind Alfred Reed 'Complete Recorded Works 1927-1929' Document DOCD-8022. Arville was Blind Alfred's son and played guitar on many of his father's recordings. In his note to the Document CD, Tony Russell suggests that it was possibly not written by Arville because 'it sounds like a topical composition from earlier in the century when Alexander Graham Bell's invention was still a novelty'.
--Stewie.
|
sj
