Sitting here waiting for your call
Is it coming now, is it coming at all
At all baby, at all baby
Yes is it coming now
Chorus:
Call me on your telephone girl
Call me on your telephone girl
Call me on your telephone now
I’ve been waiting, waiting so long
Is it coming now, is it coming along
Coming along, are you coming along, along with me darling
Repeat chorus
(guitar solo)
Repeat chorus
Repeat first verse
Repeat chorus
Jim Pembroke 1967
Artist: Blues Section
Line-up:
Jim Pembroke, lead, harmony vocal, cow bell (probably)
Hasse Walli, guitar
Måns Groundstroem, bass
Ronnie Österberg, drums
Saxophone, Eero Koivistoinen
Release: B-side of 7” single Love Records LRS 1005, May 1967 (There is some
confusion as to which is the A and B-side on this single. On the back of the
sleeve ‘Call Me On Your Telephone’ is listed first, but according to the label
‘Only Dreaming’ is the A-side.)
Studio: Finnvox
Producer: Otto Donner
Engineer: Erkki Hyvönen
General comment: See ‘Only Dreaming’.
The Music: It seems likely that Pembroke wrote this as a pretty straight-forward Beatles-inspired pop song. But the Beatles had no saxophonist, and though they would sometimes use distortion on their guitars they never sounded as aggressive as Hasse Walli (for more on Walli’s guitar sound read my comments to the group’s next single, ‘Hey Hey Hey’).
As with most Blues Section material the structure is simple. A very short verse is followed by a not particularly exciting chorus. In fact, the whole song is almost over before it begins. The thing that mainly holds it up is Pembroke’s effortless yet immaculate singing; and the two things that mainly let it down are a) that the rhythm section simply doesn’t swing together, and b) Hasse Walli’s delegating himself more space than his skills at this point could justify. He later became a very fine guitarist indeed, as is well known, who even co-invented a whole musical style that would subsequently sweep the planet. In the meantime, however, things would have to get worse before they got better.
Funnily enough, I quite like this record but there is a painful feeling about it that it could have been done better with a bit more focus and a bit less ego.
The lyric: This one really isn’t a lyric, just a few words that can be used to go along with the music. Again, a little more effort could have gone a long way.
-- Claes Johansen, 2007