The Man with the Microphone.       Words and music by Sidney Carter.



As I went out one morning, I was singing a country song,
I met a man with a microphone, and oh, he did me wrong.
He sat me on a grassy bank, and whipping out a tape,
he took my country ditty down before I could escape.

CH.
With a whack-fol-leadbelly, lomax and seegar,
burlie old iv-ey and all.

To Tin Pan Alley he took my song, and there he chanced to meet,
a publisher, who cleaned it up and gave the tune a beat.
And now they rock, and now they roll, and now they pay a fee,
to that false young man with the microphone. And no-one thinks of me!
ch.
I'll sell my rack, I'll sell my reel, and buy a steel guitar,
I'll take a ticket to London Town and sing in a coffee bar.
I'll sing until I'm famous, and when I'm on TV,
I'll tell the world of the false young man, and what he did to me.
ch.
Never trust a collecter, girls, whoever he may be
when his hand's upon his microphone, and not above your knee.
He's thinking about your melody, and not about your shape,
and he'll rob you of your copyright with a reel of recording tape.

from '62 Outrageous Songs' compiled by Jerry Silverman.