MetaChat - Telephone Man

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25 March 2011

Telephone Man From back in the 1970s, when you could still have a "regional" hit song.→[More:] I remember this song being played on the radio, a LOT, and the singer was from an Atlanta suburb called Marietta (later home to the much-cooler band Guadalcanal Diary). It was considered scandalous at the time, but OMG the video is almost worse than the song, and I'd never seen it until tonight.

I'm pretty sure the song was (cruelly) longer than this, and this video is just an excerpt.

post by: BoringPostcards at: 02:33 | 31 comments

That video is horrendous.

posted by Ardiril 25 March | 02:45

But is it worse than the song itself? I'm having trouble deciding that because it's all so mind-blastingly awful.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 02:48

AND IT WAS ON THE RADIO. I remember hearing it in the car and my dad did whatever was the 70s version of OMGWTF.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 02:55

This was a hit in the UK. It was awful. I put it in the same category of Do-Not-Ever-Want-To-Hear-Again as "Mickey" by Toni Basil and "You're Moving Out Today" by Carol Bayer Sager.

posted by Senyar 25 March | 03:23

I love the song. It has just that right kitsch to it. I had it on a 45.

posted by Ardiril 25 March | 03:56

That is AWFUL! Hahahaha.

posted by Miko 25 March | 09:53

I hvae the MP3 of this, likely thanks to one of you. I rather like it when it comes up on shuffle.

posted by danf 25 March | 10:54

She later did one called Peter the Meter reader, which I remember being played on the radio late 70's-early 80's.

Peter used to be my Telephone Man!

posted by brujita 25 March | 11:53

I remember that song quite well. I didn't really get the jokes back in the day, but could tell it was dirty so I knew better than to ask anybody.

posted by JanetLand 25 March | 12:22

I like the quirky background track, but the fake male vocals. Oh, those vocals!

posted by filthy light thief 25 March | 13:00

I liked this song when I was a kid. We had it on a 45, and I too had no grasp of the double entendres, but knew there was something naughty about it.

Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling", on the other hand, was pretty obvious even to me.

posted by Atom Eyes 25 March | 13:13

That is a piece of work there BP.

But wow, I do remember Guadalcanal Diary. I used to see them all the time. They were an amazing live show. I think I still have some vinyl. I'm reminded of Pylon, the 688 club, Jason and the Scorchers, I have to turn my brain off now...

posted by -t 25 March | 15:29

That was wonderfully horrible. And I don't think I'd heard it before.

posted by deborah 25 March | 15:51

Here is where I admit, to my own surprise, to the internet, that I remember that song from my young childhood.

Here is the song that made my father do the OMGWTF change the station, and before I looked for it tonight, I thought it was a female singer. He was right, I wanted to be, Hot Child In The City.

posted by rainbaby 25 March | 19:51

Haterz.

posted by jason's_planet 25 March | 20:33

You think you had it bad? I was working in radio when that came out and one Program Director put it on the playlist! And yes, it was that short, which was its saving grace, but also guaranteed play at stations which had to backtime music to a 'hard break' for news-on-the-hour. So it got played a lot at n:58.

But what Meri Wilson did was attempt to revive the double-entendre genre of novelty records, and she got play with that song and "Peter the Meter Reader" on Dr. Demento.

Did you notice on the 'other videos' at the YouTube page was a "new" song by Meri Wilson titled "Internet Man"? I'm NOT gonna click the link...

posted by oneswellfoop 25 March | 20:47

I'm NOT gonna click the link..

Oh, I will! It's even better than the original! Money lines include:

Tell me how you want it and I'll load it in your RAM
...you'll never need a floppy with a hard drive on.

posted by Miko 25 March | 21:02

rainbaby, that was one of my favorite ever songs EVER when I was in my early teens. Came out about the same time as the Cars first album or two and those & Roxy Music are all inextricably linked in my head as COOL MUSIC. I used to sing Hot Child in the City in my head every time I walked around downtown, oh lord, running wild and lookin' pretty.

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 22:53

Every time we talk about music around here I love you people even more.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 23:09

Also, senyar made me do it. Another song I actually quite like. Hee.

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 23:13

I love "Mickey", too. And the music's played by DEVO, so that makes it even cooler.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 23:19

Oh god help me, that led me here. Curse you, metachat!

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 23:26

On non preview, damn, really? I had no idea the music was by Devo! I have always liked that song though and the video took me back - back, back, to the days when MTV had like four videos and that was one of them. Which, by a terrible trick of memory, takes me to something that will redeem me, one of the other early MTV videos. Well, for certain values of redeem.

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 23:31

In my mind and in my car. . .

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 23:37

I may be the world's biggest Buggles fan. Because, A: I LOVE Trevor Horn and pretty much anything he touches. B: They did a song based on one my favorite books by my favorite author.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 23:50

OK I'm going to bed now - my god, what a weird trip down memory alley (not lane, much grottier) - but before I do, BP, this is for you.

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 23:53

But wow, I do remember Guadalcanal Diary. I used to see them all the time. They were an amazing live show. I think I still have some vinyl. I'm reminded of Pylon, the 688 club

-t, I've meant to reply to this all day. The 688 Club was my college hangout of choice in Atlanta, back when the Metroplex was still too scary for my naive self. (Though I eventually saw Sonic Youth at the Metroplex and loved it until it burned down shortly thereafter.)

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 23:55

You're killing me, MGL! This is awesome. :D I love the song but had never seen this video. LOVE IT.

posted by BoringPostcards 25 March | 23:59

That WAS a highly awesome confluence of comments there, especially with the VJ's comment about the 688 club at the end. Hee. I loved Guadalcanal Diary too; think I finally got rid of my beloved cassette of their album with that song on it - yes, cassette - just a few years ago.

posted by mygothlaundry 26 March | 00:02

Thanks, mgl!

Initapplette had a worst of the 80s poll a few months ago on FB, my pick was Kajoojoo's Too Shy.

posted by brujita 26 March | 00:42

Oh, man. I remember this one playing on the radio back in high school. Just try getting a corporate station to play something like that now. Our local rock stations also played the crap out of Chuck Berry's live version of Reelin' and Rockin' around the same time. That had some pretty risque lyrics, too.

posted by Thorzdad 27 March | 19:21

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