Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)

28 Oct 00 - 07:35 PM (#329392)
Subject: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: NH Dave

This one's for our Brit friends who remember songs of the early seventies. I'm looking for lyrics to The Phonebox Song that was sung in the late 60's - early 70's. This poor unfortunate tried to phone up his mother, in the old L/S/D days, but gets a dolly bird with an interesting sounding voice, who doesn't give her phone number, as was the custom in those days. Problem, he only has the few coins that he placed into the phone slot, so if he punches "Button 'B'" to chat up the lady who answered he will lose all his money, and can't call Mum later on. The song starts out:

Standing alone in the damp and the dark In a lonely old phonebox in Finsbury(?) Park I promised to call Mum at quarter past two [or somesuch] But instead of my mother, I keep getting you.

Cho So say who you are and not just, "Hello" Give me your name or give me your number. Say who you are and not just, "Hello" If I push button "B" all my pennies will go.

Thanks

Dave

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28 Oct 00 - 08:38 PM (#329413)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: GUEST,bigJ

It was written by Sidney Carter (Lord of the Dance) at the time that new 'phone boxes were being introduced. I have the words somewhere, but since I'm on my way to bed at the moment - it's 1.37 a.m. here,....if someone doesn't post them first, I'll look for them tomorrow night.

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29 Oct 00 - 07:20 PM (#329971)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: Quincy

refresh

Looks like it's up to you bigJ!!

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30 Oct 00 - 04:38 PM (#330581)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: GUEST,bigJ

Aaaaaargh! Still looking.

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06 Nov 00 - 09:09 PM (#335633)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: GUEST,bigJ

Dave, your entry 'you have everything nicely sorted out and then' brought a wry smile to my face since I'm in the middle of moving the accumulation of the past 25 years from the ground floor to the first floor, and it was while doing so that I came across the words of the song in a magazine. Now, of course, I can't find the magazine!!!!! However, do not despair, because I was on the 'phone to my friend Geoff last night and mentioned the song to him. Oh yes, he said, it's on a Three City Four LP, I'll copy it to minidisc and send it to you. Watch this space.

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08 Nov 00 - 02:45 PM (#336786)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE TELEPHONE SONG (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST,bigJ

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.

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08 Nov 00 - 06:27 PM (#336874)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: Lanfranc

AAhhh, Memories!

FREmantle, FRObisher, PRImrose, PROspect, FLAxman, WHItehall ...

SO much more fun than 7373, 7370 and the boring modern numeric equivalents.

I used to sing this song in the late 60's and had almost forgotten it. It'll get a revival now, though, even if I do have to spend five minutes explaining the historical(?) context each time I sing it!

Thanks for the reminder.

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10 Nov 00 - 10:47 PM (#338436)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: NH Dave

In those halcyon days before urban blight struck the phone systems, the US had literal exchanges like PEnnsylvania(65000)from the Glen Miller song, OLive, etc.. Now, unfortunately, they are all numeric combinations, which make for more exchanges without needing to find prefixes that make any sense, but loses some of the romanticism.

Dave

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11 Nov 00 - 04:43 AM (#338510)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The Phonebox Song'
From: GUEST,Felipa

Is tgere any mobile phone song?

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18 Feb 12 - 04:42 PM (#3310679)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST

Does anyone know if "The Three City Four" has been re-issued on CD? I have the original album but would like to get it on CD...

Cheers!!
Jim Johnson
Ffilharmonious Jug Band
England's Anglo-American Jug Band of the 60s.

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18 Feb 12 - 04:57 PM (#3310684)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: John MacKenzie

Hi Jim, I'm still in touch with Pete Ballan.

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18 Feb 12 - 06:23 PM (#3310720)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: Leadfingers

Amazon have one copy in stock - Blickifier doesnt want to work for me tonight !!

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18 Feb 12 - 09:30 PM (#3310774)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: Reinhard

The CD "Smoke & Dust" has 8 of 14 tracks from the LP "The Three City Four" and 11 of 12 tracks from the original LP "Smoke & Dust". It was released in March 2010 and is distributed by Proper so it should be available in all the usual places in the UK.

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07 Sep 12 - 08:40 PM (#3401530)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST,Mike

If memory serves, Jake Thakeray used to sing it as follows:

THE TELEPHONE SONG by Sydney Carter

Standing alone in the damp and the dark
Of a filthy old phone box in Finsbury Park
I dialled Freemantle and got Waterloo,
But instead of the missus, I'm talking to you.

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.

The missus is waiting in Lancaster Gate,
I promised to phone at a quarter to eight.
I've done everything that it says I should do
But instead of the missus 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 phone up the missus tonight

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08 Sep 12 - 03:54 PM (#3401742)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: McGrath of Harlow

That'd be typical for Jake Thakray, making it the missus instead of Mum to give it a naughty spin...

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08 Sep 12 - 05:30 PM (#3401792)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: John MacKenzie

I still sing this song occasionally, using the original words of course. Nowadays I need to explain buttons A & B on old payphones, to my audience.

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09 Sep 12 - 07:50 AM (#3401955)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST

Twelve years later, in answer to Felipa (hope you're not hanging on the phone waiting for an answer), yes there is, have a listen to Leon Rosselsons "Conversation on a Mobile" it's on his "Bringing the News from Nowhere" CDs of 2011.

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21 Sep 16 - 08:44 AM (#3810681)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST

I remember this song so well in Ulverston 1970 ! Sung by a brilliant guy who was ex Squadie deafened by rocket launcher in Cyprus.
Eeee if only I could remember his name ! Old age is a B******r !

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21 Sep 16 - 09:45 AM (#3810695)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: leeneia

And what exactly did buttons A and B do?

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21 Sep 16 - 07:48 PM (#3810768)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST,Jack O'Lantern

leeneia:

So naive!

In a phone box, in most semiurbanised parts of the UK before about 1964, to make a phonecall, you went into one of those iconic red phone boxes, and put your pennies into a slot in the black box in front of you. You then picked up the phone, and dialled the number, say SWI3067. After a bit of clicking, you heard the phone ring tone- brrrr...brrrr, brrr...brrr... Then she answered (you hoped). "Hello?" It was her mother (of course). You then had two choices. Press Button A. That connected the call, and you could talk to her mother, who would probably put the phone down and your pennies would have been wasted. Or press button B and get your pennies back, and try again later. I don't know if it worked the same way reciprocally, not being female and trying to call a male (if any ever did).

When I joked about "button A, button B" with my mother years ago (she died in 2000), she didn't understand what I was talking about. She never used a phone box, because she didn't know anyone who had a phone.

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21 Sep 16 - 08:17 PM (#3810773)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: leeneia

"If a woman answers, press Button B," I suppose.

Thanks.

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22 Sep 16 - 07:36 AM (#3810827)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: Mr Red

Or in modern parlance, offer to sell life insurance.
(other scams are available)

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22 Sep 16 - 02:21 PM (#3810883)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: keberoxu

Flanders and Swann, the At the Drop of a Hat song-writing duo, were close to Sydney Carter and their live shows often included a Carter song. Thus it is that "Hat-Trick," the package with four compact discs, has a live performance of Donald Swann singing the song on this thread, changing the phone-box location to his own neighborhood, spitting out "a filthy old phone box in Battersea Park."

Leon Berger, the keeper of the flame of all things F & S (and reportedly writing a biography of Michael Flanders) gives detailed notes on the "Hat Trick" compilation. The following quote is Leon Berger's, from the booklet of notes.

"A brief lesson in the low-tech phoneboxes then owned by the General Post Office (GPO). To make a call, you inserted your coins, dialled, and on hearing a reply, you had a few seconds in which to press Button A to be connected and your money was swallowed. If the recipient failed to identify themselves speedily, you risked losing your cash. Hence, printed in the front of every Telephone Directory was the instruction:
'Say who you are. Do not just say "Hullo" .'

--page xv, Hat-Tracks (guide to the songs)
© 2007 EMI Records Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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27 Apr 19 - 06:01 AM (#3989495)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST

For those who knew the trick one could make calls without inserting any coins.

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27 Apr 19 - 08:09 AM (#3989518)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade

I still sing this song occasionally, the 3city4 version, and most of my audience still remember buttons A & B.

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28 Apr 19 - 03:57 AM (#3989653)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: Jim McLean

The trick was to tap the holder switch just under the cradle, corresponding to the number to be dialled. "0" was ten times. You had to get the timing right, not too slow.

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28 Apr 19 - 06:25 PM (#3989770)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: Herga Kitty

Warwick Slade - I look forward to hearing you sing this next Thursday at the Horns in Colehill!

I was lucky enough to grow up in a house with a telephone in the hall, but I remember that one evening when I was a Girl Guide in the early 1960s we were sent out to learn how to use a public phone box. I also seem to remember that we pressed button B and got someone else's 2d back (not sure how we managed that though!).

Kitty

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29 Apr 19 - 02:37 AM (#3989796)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: BobL

That was something you learned to do - start by pressing Button B, just in case the previous user had forgotten to do so after failing to connect.

BTW in my day it was fourpence for a local call. Long distance calls had to be connected by the operator, who asked you to put the required money in the slot (calling the operator was free): each type of coin generated a distinct tone, from which the op could work out how much had been paid.

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02 May 19 - 07:37 PM (#3990448)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Telephone Song (Sydney Carter)
From: Herga Kitty

Thank you Warwick Slade for performing the song this evening at the Wimborne Folk Club singaround!

Kitty

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