Have you read any good telephone books lately? If you ain't then let me recommend one I've already read that Tulsa telephone book through 13 times If you don't know any last names it ain't much fun
I was in Tulsa and didn't have anything going She was in Tulsa and didn't have anything on She said my name is Shirley I said my name is T When I woke up the next morning she was gone
Reading that Tulsa telephone book will drive a man insane Especially when the girl you're looking for has no last name I got to find and tell her I don't want our love to end So I'm reading that Tulsa telephone book again
All of the Tulsa operators know my voice now They must know how long I've been alone If you meet a girl named Shirley with some ribbons in her hair Tell her that she's wanted on the phone
― m coleman, Tuesday, 19 August 2008 22:43 (fifteen years ago) link
I really can not get enough.
― retrovaporized nebulizer (╓abies), Saturday, 12 December 2009 01:47 (fourteen years ago) link
yes, tom t. hall is god:
Tossed and turned the night before in some old motelSubconsciously recalling some old sinful things I doneMy buddy drove the car and those big coal trucks shook us upAs we drove on into Hyden in the early morning sun.
Passed the hound dogs and some dominique chickensTemporary looking houses with their lean and bashful kidsEvery hundred yards a sign proclaimed the Christ was coming soonAnd I thought oh man he'd sure be disappointed if he did.
On the way we talked about the forty minersOf the thirty nine who died and one who lived to tell the taleWe stopped for beans and corn bread at the Ed 'n' Lois CafeThen we went to see the sheriff at the Leslie County jail.
They took us to the scene of that disasterI was so susrprised to not find any sign of death at allJust another country hillside with some mud holes and some junkThe mines were deadly silent like a rat home in the wall.
It was just like being right inside of a shotgunThe old man coughed and lit a cigarette that he had rolledBack in town I bought a heavy jacket from the storeIt was sunny down in Hyden but somehow the town was cold.
The old man introduced the undertakerWho seemed refreshed despite the kind of work I knew he didWe talked about the pretty lady from the Grand Ole OpryWe talked about the money she was raising for the kids.
Well, I guess the old man thought we were reportersHe kept reminding me of how his simple name was spelledSome lady said they worth more money now than when they's a livin'And I'll leave it there cause I suppose she told it pretty well...
― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, 12 December 2009 02:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Would rock:http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/RabitesAngelatin/tth-tshirt.jpg
― retrovaporized nebulizer (╓abies), Saturday, 12 December 2009 02:28 (fourteen years ago) link
Xpost I fucking love that song
Pay No Attention To Alice is one of the most creepy, disturbing songs I've ever heard.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 27 June 2010 02:40 (thirteen years ago) link
ha, i was just listening to that song/record like 30 minutes ago.
― tru oyster kvlt (arby's), Sunday, 27 June 2010 02:58 (thirteen years ago) link
i was actually making a big TTH mix of my favs and was gonna be really obnoxious and make ppl on facebook ysi it from me but now i am falling asleep
― tru oyster kvlt (arby's), Sunday, 27 June 2010 03:00 (thirteen years ago) link
LOVE 'pay no attention to alice'
imo the best part is -- alice put your ashes in that ashtray / i swear woman ... you'll burn down the house.
also, she made that apple pie from a memory iirc.
― ian, Sunday, 27 June 2010 03:09 (thirteen years ago) link
or the bit where she trashed tom's/narrator's car and was like 'nah man be cool i know this guy'
― tru oyster kvlt (arby's), Sunday, 27 June 2010 03:11 (thirteen years ago) link
You mean Ben down at the Shell station?
There's some real weird things going on in that song. The bit about the war, how he was a coward. And doesn't the husband seem about as bad as Alice?
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 27 June 2010 03:23 (thirteen years ago) link
^love things like that, these mysterious passing details i think could have been expanded into whole other songs and just leave you to your imagination. maybe someone not tangled by their own limited capacity to describe it knows what i'm trying to say and could do better to praise this one, but anywa that was the bit that sealed alice as a perfect song for me.
― tru oyster kvlt (arby's), Sunday, 27 June 2010 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Been on a big Tom T. kick lately and just marvel at the economy of his storytelling. Song after song, three minutes of America, time after time.
His last country #1 deserves a modern cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9TVutNFUd4
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 5 October 2010 18:14 (thirteen years ago) link
this dude writes the same melody over and over. and it's an awesome melody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imloYhfxzIc
― by another name (amateurist), Sunday, 22 May 2011 22:40 (twelve years ago) link
next band i piece together i'm getting everyone to the first practice locking all the doors and windows and demanding at knife point EVERY MUSICIAN PLAY SOMETHING PHENOMENAL ALL AT ONCE. every instrument ever built is recorded on this one jam did u know that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V14621hG57o
― arby's, Saturday, 16 June 2012 01:52 (eleven years ago) link
maybe this blongs in the drunk thread
Pay no attention to Alice..........
― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 16 June 2012 03:44 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zms7m3PhgGY
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 16 June 2012 03:58 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp6I5b1wO1I
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM T HALL
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Saturday, 25 May 2013 16:56 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHS9PgB2LSc
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Saturday, 25 May 2013 17:00 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW1KPWrQJeI
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Saturday, 25 May 2013 17:22 (ten years ago) link
homecoming is such a sad, heavy song, and so brilliant
― marcos, Monday, 8 December 2014 19:35 (nine years ago) link
very different approach on this version of Homecoming, by Joe Henry. I really like it, but I heard this version before the original. I can imagine that others might not dig it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RSrcoy_Pj4
― pauls00, Tuesday, 9 December 2014 00:04 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I also heard it before the original. I like it, too. But I do think the original hits harder -- it's such a personal song that it's hard to match what you can hear in Hall's voice.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 9 December 2014 01:41 (nine years ago) link
It's not on youtube, but the Sir Douglas Quintet version of "The Homecoming" (from their odds'n'sods set Rough Edges) is great--Sahm misses a couple lyrics but the performance really has that "arriving somewhere at 4 AM" feel fit for the song.
― Don A Henley And Get Over It (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 9 December 2014 03:41 (nine years ago) link
Really want to POLL various versions of “That’s How I Got to Memphis.”
― Barry "Fatha" Hines (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 June 2020 20:01 (three years ago) link
I don't know that much of his stuff, but i'm such a sap that "Pay No Attention to Alice" is instant waterworks for me. The way he draws out certain lines like "she maaaaaaade that apple piiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee from a memory", delaying the payoff, is just incredible.
The whole song is 3:15 and it paints such a distinctive portrait of a 70s view of "normalized" alcoholism. The realization in the third verse that perhaps Alice is not the only alcoholic is crushing. And it is all done so clear-eyed and closely observed.
― Night of the Living Crustheads (PBKR), Wednesday, 24 June 2020 20:47 (three years ago) link
Great comments all through this thread---xxpost Sir Doug's version of "The Homecoming" is a bonus track on Acacia's import remaster of Mendocino (beware of the live thing also with that title). And--hate to pimp-ho for Amazon---it's also on The Complete Mercury Masters, in their Digital Store for 35 bucks and change (OOP CD is $399).
― dow, Wednesday, 24 June 2020 23:41 (three years ago) link
The SDQ Mercury Masters set is also on Spotify, as is Hall's Storyteller, Poet, Philosopher box from '95.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 24 June 2020 23:54 (three years ago) link
He has left us.https://blog.siriusxm.com/siriusxm-remembers-tom-t-hall-dead-at-85/
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 21 August 2021 00:17 (two years ago) link
No byline, wonder if my neighbor wrote that.
― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 August 2021 02:18 (two years ago) link
The first time I ever really clicked with Tom T. Hall, who was nowhere near on my radar at that time, was in 2004, when I heard the Drive-By Truckers cover "Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)." What an incredible writer this guy was:
People staring at me as they wheel meDown the ramp towards my planeThe war is over for meI've forgotten everything except the painThank you sir, and yes sir, it was worth itFor the ol' red, white and blueAnd since I won't be walkingI suppose I'll save some money buying shoesThe bottle hidden underneath the blanketOver my two battered legsI can see the stewardess make over meAnd ask, "Were you afraid?"I'll say, "Why no? I'm Superman"And couldn't find the phone booth quite in timeA GI gets a lot of laughsHe remembers all the funny lines
[Chorus:]Mama bake a pieDaddy kill a chickenYour son is coming home11:35, Wednesday night
[Verse 2:]Mama will be crying and daddy's gonna say"Son, did they treat you good?"My uncle will be drunk and he'll say"Boy, they doing some real great things with wood"The letter that she wrote me said, "Goodbye"She couldn't wait and lots of luckThe bottle underneath the blanketFeels just like an old friend to my touchI know she'll come and see meBut I bet she never once looks at my legsNow, she'll talk about the weatherAnd the dress she wore the July 4th paradeLord, I love her and I don't believeThis bottle's gonna get her off my mindI see here in the paperWhere they say the war is just a waste of time
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 August 2021 03:00 (two years ago) link
never even occurred to me that he might still be alive. rip
― mookieproof, Saturday, 21 August 2021 03:04 (two years ago) link
No mention of “Harper Valley PTA” in this thread? R.I.P. The final verse of “I Like Beer”:
Last night I dreamed that I passed from the sceneAnd I went to a place so sublimeAw, the water was clear and tasted like beerThen they turned it all into wine
― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Saturday, 21 August 2021 15:51 (two years ago) link
Btw, on the subject of “political songs” – this one is dense and specific to a remarkable degree.
― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Saturday, 21 August 2021 15:56 (two years ago) link
Here you go. Bill Friskics-Warren on Tom T. https://t.co/OJbagk0WeA— David Cantwell (@dlcantwell) August 21, 2021
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 21 August 2021 16:31 (two years ago) link
Wow, he wrote “Hello Vietnam”?
― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Saturday, 21 August 2021 16:35 (two years ago) link
Well, I know there's a lotta big preachers that know a lot more than I do,But it could be that the good Lord likes a little pickin' too.
RIP Tom, one of my dad's favorites.
― earlnash, Sunday, 22 August 2021 01:33 (two years ago) link
― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 August 2021 02:06 (two years ago) link
Bobby Bare's is my favorite, but it's a hard song to mess up even if you try.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 24 August 2021 03:32 (two years ago) link
Agree 100%
― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 August 2021 03:33 (two years ago) link
FUCK
https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/01/05/tom-t-hall-died-suicide-medical-examiner-autopsy/9109362002/
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 6 January 2022 16:45 (two years ago) link