PhonoLyrics
Phonograph
and Record References in Recorded Music
Phonograph Blues
by Robert Johnson
Album: "Robert Johnson - The
Complete Recordings"
Recording 1 of 5 sessions, November
23, 1936, San Antonio, Texas
Lyrics: "Beatrice,
she got a phonograph and it won't say a lonesome word..."
"Beatrice, I love
my phonograph, but you have broke my windin' chain"
LISTEN
Phonograph
by Steven Clotzman
Album: "My American Song"
© 2007 Steven Clotzman
Lyrics: "Let's dust
off the old man's Phonograph We'll listen to a Berlin song..."
Phonograph
by Stateside
Album: Phonograph
Original Release Date: April 20,
2004
Lyrics: "Phonograph,
Can you help me get it back,
Can you can you Phonograph,
when the needle hits the black
Will you help me through....
Come on little record,
play
Show me somethin' new
Words"
Phonograph by
The Magpies
Album: The Magpies - Eastern Standard
Time
Original Release Date: May 7, 2008
Copyright: 2008 Whiskeyhounds Records
Lyrics: "My love
lives in a Phonograph, she's got a voice that'll make any man go mad..."
LISTEN
Song:
Into the Groove
Artist:
Madonna
Album: You
can dance
Original
Release Date: November 17, 1987
Label: Sire/Warner
Bros.
Lyrics:
"And you can dance
For
inspiration
Come
on I'm waiting
Chorus:
Get into the groove
Boy
you've got to prove
Your
love to me, yeah
Get
up on your feet, yeah
Step
to the beat
Boy
what will it be"
LISTEN
- MUSIC VIDEO
Song: Phonograph by
Jesca Hoop
Album: Not released - Recorded
at KCRW Session 12-02-2004
Lyrics: "i fell
in love
with a brilliant boy
i gave him my heart
while he captured
my voice
he carried across the
sea
how did he tangibly
turn a needle crank
the cylinder
round
until we meet again...
all i have to keep
me sane is my phonograph"
I am the Edison
Phonograph!
Edison Advertising Record, recorded
by Len Spencer in 1906
Lyrics:
"I am the Edison Phonograph!
Created by the
Great Wizard of the New World to delight
those who would have melody or be amused..."
The Phonograph 1905
LISTEN
Just Dance by Lady
GaGa
Album: The Fame
Original Release Date: October
28, 2008
Label: Streamline/Interscoope/KonLive/Cherrytree
This 2008
ode to disco includes declarations of the love for the record and
its spinning on the turntable:
Lyrics: "Just dance,
spin that record baby... I love this record baby, but I can't
see straight anymore...... Just dance,
spin that record babe, da da doo-doo-mmm"
LISTEN
Au Claire de la Lune
by The Highwaymen
Album: The Highwaymen
Released November 30, 1991
Although this song doesn't specifically
reference the phonograph, it is included here to celebrate the first
audio recording of any voice or any song,
when the first line of Au clair de la lune was recorded by
Édouard-Léon Scott on his Phonautograph on April 9, 1860.
LISTEN
"No News,"
or "What Killed the Dog"
Victor 78 RPM - 17222-A
Victor 5612 recorded on October
14, 1908
LISTEN
(Courtesy of Tim Gracyk)
Phonographia connection is James
Thurber using this record in connection with a "broken record"
in his book "My Life and Hard Times."
Father was usually in bed by nine-thirty
and up again by ten-thirty to protest bitterly against a Victrola
record we three boys were in the habit of playing over and over, namely,
“No News, or What Killed the Dog,” a recitation by Nat Wills. The
record had been played so many times that its grooves were deeply
cut and the needle often kept revolving in the same groove, repeating
over and over the same words. Thus: “ate some burnt hoss flesh, ate
some burnt hoss flesh, ate some burnt hoss flesh.” It was this reiteration
that generally got father out of bed.
My Life and Hard Times, James
Thurber, 1933
"The Broken Record
- Novelty Fox Trot"
Columbia 78 RPM - FE 1288
Recorded January 7, 1936
LISTEN
(Courtesy of Eighth Floor of Jan's
78 RPM Record Warehouse)
My Sweetheart,
you’re gorgeous, you’re gorgeous,
your gorgeous, your gorgeous, your gorgeous,
your gorgeous tonight
That’s the song I heard on the
phonograph The needle caught on the broken half And kept playing And
saying
My Sweetheart, I kiss you, I kiss
you, I kiss you, I kiss you, I kiss you, I kiss you tonight…
The broken record played on and
then, The broken record started again,
My Sweetheart, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you I do…
Get Out Those Old
Records sung by Carmen Lombardo
Album: Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians
Original Release Date: Nov 7, 1950
Label: Jasmine
This song is a true tribute to
the memories of playing phonograph records, written by one of the
Lombardo brothers.
"Get out those old
records
Those old phonograph
records
The ones we used to play
so long ago
What if they sound scratchy
The tunes they really
were catchy
Remember when you used
to love them
so I had to play them
over and over..."
LISTEN
"The
Phonograph Song" (Our Melody)
Played
by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, 1956
Capitol Records
LISTEN
to Guy Lombarbo and His Royal Canadians play "The Phonograph
Song"
"Play that
Tune Phonograph Phonograph
Play that Tune
Phonograph Phonograph
Play that Tune
Phonograph Phonograph
Play Our Melody"
...We were dancing to this happy
melody
When we fell in love...
They All Laughed
Artist: Ginger Rogers
Album: Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers at RKO
Original Release Date: 1937 with
the release of the movie "Shall we Dance?"
Lyrics: "They all laughed
when Edison recorded sound"
They All Laughed
Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
Album: Ella Fitgerald sings the
George and Ira Gershwin Song Book
Original Release Date: May 19,
1998
Label: Verve Records
Lyrics: "They all
laughed when Edison recorded sound"
Listen
to how "the worm had turned"
(The) Rock and Roll
Star by Kay Starr
Released as Single December 1955
Format: 45 RPM, 78 RPM
Label: RCA Victor
Lyrics: "There
in the night what a wonderful scene
Mom was dancing with
Dad to my record machine"
LISTEN
Eric Hutchinson
- "Watching You Watch Him"
In his music video Hutchinson's
Phonographia connections are the record player images and the lyrics
related to his love that plays like a "broken record."
LISTEN
The Phonograph
by Istituto Barlumen
Album: The Phonograph was based
on Edison advertising record " I am the Edison Phonograph", by Len
Spencer, 1906
Original Release Date: January
21, 2008
Label: Barlumen Records
Lyrics: "And the Phonograph
spoke from beside the fireplace..."
Spin the Black Circle
by Pearl Jam
Released as Single November 8,
1994
Format: 45 RPM
Label: Epic
Songwriter(s) Eddie Vedder, Stone
Gossard
"According to Eddie Vedder,
"Spin the Black Circle" is about his and the band's love for vinyl
records. At the band's July 1, 2003 show in Bristow, Virginia at the
Nissan Pavilion, Vedder proclaimed "This song is about old records,
old records, anyone remember old records?" (6) - Wikipedia
Footnote (6) from Wikipedia: "Vedder,
Eddie. (Speaker). (2003). 7/1/03, Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, Virginia.
[Audio Recording]. Epic."
Jon Pareles of The New York Times
referred to "Spin the Black Circle" as "one of the few songs from
Seattle in which a needle has nothing to do with heroin."[7]
Footnote (7) from Wikipedia: Pareles,
Jon. "RECORDINGS VIEW; Pearl Jam Gives Voice To Sisyphus". The New
York Times. December 4, 1994. Retrieved on December 13, 2007.
LISTEN
(Provided to YouTube by Sony Music Entertainment)
Lyrics:
"See this needle
Oh see my hand
Drop, drop, dropping it
down
oh so gently
here it comes
touch the flame
Turn me up
won't turn you away
Spin, spin
spin the black circle
Spin, spin
spin the black, spin the
black
Spin, spin
spin the black circle
Spin, spin
whoa
Pull it out
a paper sleeve
Oh my joy
only you deserve conceit
Oh I'm so big
and my whole world
I'd rather you
rather you, than her
Turntable
Artist: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Album: The Lion The Beast The Beat
The hook line is "I
will be your record, you will be my turntable"
LISTEN
Just Can't Get
Enough
Artist: The Saturdays
Album: Single
Original Physical Release Date:
March 2, 2009
Label: Polydor
Music
Video "Just Can't Get Enough"
Phonography by Britney
Spears
Album: Circus - Deluxe Edition
included bonus track "Phonography"
Release Date: December 2, 2008
Leave it to Britney to redefine the
Isaac Pitman Shorthand system of Phonography
(first introduced in 1837) to phone-(porn)-ography (i.e., phone
sex) in 2008.
LISTEN
Phonograph Blues by
Vassar Clements
Album: Livin' with the Blues
Recording based on Robert Johnson's
"Phonograph Blues"
"Beatrice, she
got a phonograph and it won't say a lonesome word..."
The Record Player
Song, 2014
Daisy the Great, Produced by Paper
Moon Records
Album: I’ve Got a Few Friends
and I Wish They Were Mine
[Chorus]
I’ve got a record
player that was made in 2014
Dyed my hair blue it came out a
seasick sort of green
I like vintage dresses when they
fall just below my knees
I pretend I scraped them climbing
in the trees
Sometimes I think all I’m ever
doing is, (trees)
Trying to convince myself I’m alive
(trees)
Sometimes I think all I’m ever
doing is, (trees)
Trying to convince myself I’m alive
(trees)
LISTEN
LISTEN
LET’S
HAVE A SONG UPON THE GRAMOPHONE
They
were having a merry party in the dear old Hall
Everybody
sang with all their might
Songs
that were new when the old were too
It
was a very merry Christmas night
Dear
old Grandad seated in the corner
Shouted
in a manner rather strange
I
say Hannah, stop the old piana
I'll
tell you what to do now for a change.
Chorus:
Let's have a song upon the gramophone
That
Billy Williams sings so grand
With
his 'Save a little one for me' and 'Tommy get your gun'
And
'Let's all go down the Strand and have a tomater'
John
put your trousers on, we're waiting for a girl
And
it jolly well serves you right
'Oh
tickle me, Timothy,' said Jean from Aberdeen
''Cos
I must go home tonight.'
They
went out of the room for supper, left a nice girl there
Her
head reclining on a fellow's chest
He
squeezed her glove, she was full of love
Counting
all the pretty buttons on his vest
He
said 'Darling, won't you call me baby?'
And
went and turned the gas down rather low
He
said 'Maudy, don't you love your Claudy?
So
let us have a cuddle' She said 'No.'
Chorus:
Performed
by Billy Williams (1877-1915)
For additional details see "Let’s
Have A Song Upon The Gramophone [Homophone, Graphophone, Pathéphone,
Phonograph]" (depending on what label the recording was being
made for). Courtesy of the website Bless
’Em All: The Songs of Fred Godfrey
Uncle Josh Buys a
Victrola
By Cal Stewart, Victor Talking
Machine Co., 18793-A, 1919
In 1919 Cal Stewart as Uncle Josh
Weathersby was confused about how a talking machine worked when his
Victor record "Uncle Josh Buys a Victrola" recounted his
first experience with his new talking machine.
.
Courtesy of Tim Gracyk
Victor matrix B-23118 August 11,
1919 (DAHR)
LISTEN
Archeophone Records has this CD
available for purchase where you can also
listen to excerpts.
A humorist who spent 22 years
waxing his Uncle Josh stories, Cal Stewart was the first performer
whose stage appearances were celebrated by reference to his records
rather than the other way around. In his famous role as "rube" Uncle
Josh Weathersby, he entertained millions of listeners with tales of
his antics both in New York City and at home in Punkin Center. The
Indestructible Uncle Josh provides a snapshot of Stewart's repertoire
at the height of his career, featuring all 25 of his 2-minute cylinders
for the Indestructible company and a choice sampling of his work on
U-S Everlasting cylinders. The package includes a 28-page booklet
with notes by Stewart expert and scholar Patrick Feaster. List price:
$16.49
The UCSB
Cylinder Archive also has many Uncle Josh cylinder recordings
available for listening, e.g, Uncle
Josh invites the city folks to visit him down on the farm.
Supporting UCSB's Adopt
a Cylinder Program would be an excellent way to be a Friend
of the Phonograph. Do it today!
OTHER PHONOGRAPH RELATED RECORDINGS
"What is the Gramophone?"
by Geo. Graham - Gramophone Record advertised in The Phonoscope,
March 1897
"Murphy's Phonograph" by
Russell Hunting, June 1897 p.14 The Phonoscope
"Put that Gramophone Record
On Again" (Sam May, H. Darewski Music, cf. Wonder of the Age
Kevin Daly, Argo ZPR 122-3)
"When the Gramophone Shop Caught
Fire" Stanley Kirby (M. Scott)
"Our Lizzie Gets a Gramophone"
Helena Millais
"Casey Listening to the Phonograph"
by Russell Hunting
"What is the Gramophone?"
Geo. Graham March 1897 Phonoscope
"Uncle Zed Buys a Graphophone"
by Charles Ross Taggert
"Say It to the Ediphone"
by Jones and Hare
"Santa Claus Hides in your Phonograph"
by Harry Humphrey on Edison
"Santa Claus Hides in your Phonograph"
by Billy Jones for Columbia
"Edison Advertising Record"
by Len Spencer (un-numbered for Edison Dealers only)
"Special Talking Cylinder"
Columbia brown wax by Len Spencer (demonstrates the Edison, battery
runs down and he says "I'll have to get one of those Columbia
Graphophones with the spring motor."
"The Phonograph Faker"
by Len Spencer (apparently before 1900) - demonstrates the Edison
Phonograph to a crowd, praises Edison, answers questions and says
it will bring all the great voices, such as President McKinley and
Adelina Patti, to your home. (Columbia cylinder owned by Alan Redford
of Norwalk, Conn. cf. John Petty, as described in November 1979 Hobbies,
Walsh part III.
Phonographia