Talk:Dial-A-Song

Older discussions

has the podcast killed the dial-a-song? If so, then a song should be made relating to said theme. - MRH0RRIBLE

Podio Killed The Dial-A-Song Star> --Luke 03:37, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

 :Or how about, "Podcast killed the telephone star" fits better.>

So are they never bringing it back then? I never had the chance to call it... i wish i was a fan years ago, i feel like i've missed out on alot... user:jadeybeans (March 16th, 11:04 am)

Join the club. I'm depressed. Mr. 77

---

Say, half of these songs are "Song (Demo)" and the other half are "Song (Dial-A-Song)". Shouldn't we stick to one? -Ecks

I've wondered the same thing myself. ~Drew

---

Tons of discussion about DAS being down during 2005 removed...

I called and it's says the number you have dialed cannot be reached hang up and dial again. So i dialed 1 before the number and then the lady says that the long-distance company requires an access code. What do i do?

I have no idea. Ask your parents how to call long distance. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 12:52, 2 Apr 2006 (CDT)

I just called, and it works! I couldn't make out any lyrics to the song, but it definitely wasn't anything I recognized. (I'll let someone else confirm this before I change the status, just in case I'm going crazy) --Brian Q 15:55, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

Confirmed. The song sounds great, not the best quality, but I could make out most of the lyrics.--tehbagel 16:44, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

Hooray! Did you make a page with the lyrics you found? 66.67.125.224 18:06, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

That last post was me... forgot to log in (Turnip) 18:06, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

I would, except I wouldn't know what to call the song, and therefore, the page. --tehbagel 18:10, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

It is We Live In A Dump (bravo for Recent Changes!!!) (Turnip) 18:34, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

---

I can call Dial a song perfectly on my Cell. But when ever I go for any of my home phones I start off Dialing: "7" "1" and right then before I can finish my dialing that computer voice lady comes up and says "were sorry your call can not be completed as dialed, please hang up and try your call again..." it's really annoying because I would love to listen to them on my home phone.

But it just wont work.

Anybody know why? (pnihill2000)

Try dialing a "1" before the area code. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 20:04, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

Thanks, that did it. - pnihill2000

---

I've just been getting "Why be Realistic" anybody get somthing new?

The answering machine only has one song at a time. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:03, 29 Mar 2006 (CST)

I added the part that says what the current song is. I expect it to be updated for every new song found. -134.48.103.32 15:38, 30 Mar 2006 (GMT)

For those not at work

There's a program that allows you to call phone numbers from your computer for free. The service is supported by ads that are displayed in the center of the program. If it bothers you, you can always delete the "Ads" folder along with the "Adviewer.exe" in the Program Files directory. Get it here (Or this direct link). --Droffats 15:49, 30 Mar 2006 (CST)

The popular VOIP program, Skype has now made their SkypeOut service free until the end of the year for US and Canandian users. This means you can call any landline or mobile phone any where in American or Cananda for free. Read about this new deal here and download this program here. --Droffats 20:49, 15 May 2006 (CDT)

Most cell phones these days have free long distance, for those who live in a rapidly growing metro area that is just small enough to have only one area code. --Jnelson09 18:18, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Ringing?

I just phoned the number a bunch, and I finally connect, but instead of giving me the song, it rings instead. Why is it ringing? It's supposed to connect directly to it, isn't it? And now it just said my call could not go through after about 20-30 rings. -cyberspace95

DAS appears to be down. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 18:23, 30 Mar 2006 (CST)

Well, it was good while it lasted... ;) --Magbatz 18:35, 30 Mar 2006 (CST)

Already!? really johns! so sad. not even 24 hours. appleheart 21:41, 30 Mar 2006 (EST)

It's not their fault that antique answering machines can't handle thousands of calls within 24 hours. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 20:43, 30 Mar 2006 (CST)

Well, maybe They are only updating the songs... recording something new (Turnip) 21:00, 30 Mar 2006 (CST)

They don't take down the answering machine to record a song, they just replace the tape really quickly. It wouldn't be down for more than a few seconds. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 21:02, 30 Mar 2006 (CST)

Does a busy signal usually mean it's broken? TheBlunderbuss 03:48, 31 Mar 2006 (CST)

No, that means someone else is on with DAS. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 06:05, 31 Mar 2006 (CST)

It worked for me at about 6:00 a.m Eastern Time. It rang a bunch of times, but it picked up eventually. And it's working right now (7:20 a.m.)--and picked up right away this time. ~Drew

Calling Limit?

What does everybody think about this--since part of the problem with keeping Dial-A-Song running these last few days may have to do with the extremely heavy number of calls it's been getting, which is probably due in large part to this wiki, might it not be a good idea to strongly encourage our fellow wiki-goers to limit themselves to one successful Dial-A-Song call per day? At least for the time being, while it even being up in the first place is a new thing? I might be wrong, but it seems to me that this would be a good idea and would give the Johns some time to get everything all straightened out and running consistently. Let me know what you think. ~Drew

By the way, I'm not going to bother changing the Dial-A-Song status back to "Operational," even though it worked for me about twenty minutes ago. Just remember, everyone, a busy signal doesn't mean it's broken. Your getting tired of it ringing doesn't prove that it is down if you hang up yourself. The only thing that proves that it's broken is if you let it ring until it disconnects itself. ~Drew again

i'm listening to it now. The thing 14:11, 1 Apr 2006 (CST)

15+ rings?

I just got it to pick up in ten rings? Did I miscount, or should the page be changed? — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 19:16, 1 Apr 2006 (CST)

I got exactly 10 last night too. I'll just change it to say that you need to wait a few extra rings or something. ~ Magbatz

Song Rotation

Does anyone know how often they have cycled through songs over the years and how often they were right before they took it down?

Glitch?

I called Dial-A-Song and only got the last couple lines of the song. Is something wrong?

I'm not sure. The same thing's been happening for anyone who calls (I just did a few seconds ago). All you get is the last verse: "And that might be the hardest nut We live in a dump". Amelia The Weird 16:34, 3 May 2006 (CDT)

Answering Machine

Since Dial-A-Song is an answering machine, can you leave a message after the beep?

You used to. I don't know anything about those machines, but you obviously could. Ecks

happy birthday from France

Something new seems to be going on on DAS. Can anyone call to check? - Whirrrlwind (Woosh!) 16:03, 6 May 2006 (CDT)

Unless the last line of We Live In A Dump is newer than the rest of the song, then I don't think so. >_> -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 16:19, 6 May 2006 (CDT)

The Day Lemita Called Dial-A-Song...

I knew something was up with DAS today. I called it for the first time (My dad finally told me that long-distance is free on our cell-phones... sheesh) and was thrilled-- and I mean thrilled. I called, and alas, I got a weird whistley beep. =( I'm scared it was what Happened to Gloria... but that would be hilarious. I called like, 15 times trying to get it to work, then my brother called on my dad's cell and screamed, "OH MY GOD IT'S WORKING!" I only heard a bit... Alas... I shall call another day... --Lemita 18:59, 13 May 2006 (CDT)

You chose a bad time to call, the machine started going down a funky spiral to brokeness just a few weeks ago. Anyway, as for "I'm scared it was what happened to Gloria," TMBG hasn't had the answering machine taking messages since (I believe) the late 80s, but most people who called at that time were aware that it recorded messages. Gloria just forgot to hang up before conferencing in her friend. :) -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 19:04, 13 May 2006 (CDT)

Yeah, I doubted I'd be recorded. I heard some weird song... I thought I caught the word "robot" somewhere, but I get bad reception in really weird places... {laugh} And I thought it was broken too. 3 lines of a song and some weird beeps doesn't really mean that it's working... --Lemita 19:13, 13 May 2006 (CDT)

Whoops, it was We Live In A Dump (Demo). n_n; --Lemita 19:14, 13 May 2006 (CDT)

You should listen to We Live In A Dump, it's in Podcast 6A. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 19:19, 13 May 2006 (CDT)

I just did, I like it. =) --Lemita 20:08, 13 May 2006 (CDT)

Yeah, i just wasted money to hear some sort of beep with a lot of reverb and nothing more.. first time i called all year. couldn't i have done it a couple weeks ago? now i have to explain to my parents why i called NY and i didnt even get anything good out of it. Aw well, i guess the beep was kinda nice. -Fwahobadagadz 19:36, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

Skype.com lets you call from PC-to-phone for free this year, try DAS on there from now on. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 19:47, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

Maybe it's not messed up but rather is just an empty message on the answering machine. After the 10 or so rings, it pauses for half a second and then sounds like the end-of-message beep, so the actual machine I think is still functioning. They might have just taken off the tape. ~ magbatz

Keep calling and eventually you'll hear "And that might be the hardest nut..." -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 21:29, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

Phooey. ~ magbatz 22:27, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

I just called and I got most of the song, but the tape was running fast and then stopped a little before the end. I think the machine is dieing again since I can't think of any problem with the tape itself that would make it run fast. -- Thunderbird 23:08, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

---

Something's definitely funky with the machine. I called, and it just repeated something in JF's voice (possibly backwards) for a few minutes until I ended the call. ~ magbatz 22:55, 4 Jun 2006 (CDT)

Trippy. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 05:26, 5 Jun 2006 (CDT)

Do they -- 'they' meaning the band or anyone in a position to fix Dial-A-Song -- know it's broken? Is there someone we should inform? --Kassi

---

Rang and rang and rang. Nothing ever picked up.--tehbagel ( o ) 21:54, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

That's what happened to me. :( - (Firefly) 20:08, 18 July 2006 (EDT)

---

Man, TMBW's token Australian member travels all the way to NYC last week, and for just 25c got the chance to hear DAS for the first time in his life, alas the machines continuous sickness prevented this after a whole week of unsuccessful attempts. Unhappy --AnklePants 15:50, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

---

Does anyone know the last time dial-a-song was operating properly? --Josherz --- # --- 20:10, 28 January 2007 (EST)

Early May 2006. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 01:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Why Not Voicemail?

I realize that the answering machine can be old and tricky, and that computer models have failed due to crashing, but what's the problem with voicemail? I run my own dial-a-song off voicemail and it works fine (though I certainly don't get the kindof traffic they do).

The Postivies are:

1. Update remotely/easily.
2. Multiple people can hear a song at one time.
3. You can store 5 different messages at a time, and have them scheduled to change automatically.

The negatives are:

1. 2-minute limit.
2. Might not pick-up immediately.
3. You have to hold your headphones up to the phone to record the message.
4.  ???

Not sure if this is the proper channel to suggest it or not, but I've called unsuccessfully too many times over the past year...

Joel

TMBG's used digital situations in the past such as a computer rig set up for them by TechTV, and that didn't last too long. They've probably thought over some other alternatives, yet always go back to the answering machine. It's pretty likely that the only reason it hasn't been up in a long time is because the band has been busy recording two albums; I think some folks on the LiveJournal sent out physical Record-A-Call answering machines to them a few months back. -64.22.87.244 19:08, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm sure that not caring that deeply is a major reason for why DAS isn't still in service; A band as big as They are could definitely accomplish finding a good way to record a song and have it play when you called the number. Another negative with the voice mail is that it in a way compromises the integrity of the answering machine (well, that may be a little much to say, but I think they did mention that they preferred the nice feeling of being one-on-one with the answering machine after hours of not getting through as opposed to hearing a more robotic method in a less magical way). And though probably not important enough, it would be relatively easy if you really felt like it to figure out the 4-digit password number and hack into the voice mail. Maybe they think that era of dial-a-song is past, what with their loads of internet-released goodies and a large fanbase that would constantly call DAS. ~ magbatz

Record a Call!

After recently realizing there was a number on the front of the Dial A Song (album) info booklet, I found this palce and found out the system was down (Insert sad face here). However, randomly checking eBay led me to find a Record a Call TAD 30 for sale. Is this what could bring Dial A Song back. (As neat as the podcasts are, Dial-A-Song cant be beat). [1]

Hope Dial A Song comes back soon!

Record-A-Calls go up on eBay just about weekly nowadays, and I'm fairly certain Operator Dot is aware (and TMBG might even have a machine or two lying around). I'm pretty sure the reason for there currently being no Dial-A-Song is just that TMBG's busy with the two new albums. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 20:53, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Worth It?

Is this worth mentioning or not, [2] Would this be one of the machines used for the Dial A Song service? - Tedadore2

Looks about right, and I'm so painfully hopeful I would totally say yeah to telling tmbg and seeing if we can't bring back das. Come on people, you gotta BELIEVE! :O --Luke 22:26, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Disconnected

Using 411.com, I have found out that the DAS phone number (718-387-6962) now belongs to a Mr. Bennett Shapiro... does this mean DAS is officially no more? WholeLottaMilka 00:16, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if that's the name it's always been listed under. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 00:37, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I dunno... I think I remember checking the number before (for the same reason--to see if it was still registered) and it had Flans' name... I'm reluctant to try and call it, for fear of interruoting Mr. Shapiro's dinner. WholeLottaMilka 00:07, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

If it is Mr. Shapiro, then his answering machine doesn't work either. I tried. ~ magbatz 01:23, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

This is upsetting:( The Machine broke down the week before I found out about it. And now it's gone forever... I'm so sad and upset right now, I don't know what to do. Tedadore2

Dearly beloved, we gather here today to say our goodbyes to the answering machine known as Dial-A-Song. It was a good answering machine, and usually played a song at the fan's requests. It was also in a movie. *choked up sniffle* ...and...and...and... *sniffle* --Lemita 00:51, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

"Dial-A-Song will never die." - Linnell [3] How could he lie to us like that? I don't know if I can trust him ever again. *sob* :) --Valerie 00:57, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Also from that article:

Are you going to be doing "Fingertips" live?

I don't think so, no. It's really hard work adapting these arrangements to a live band. Just with the songs alone, it's been such a chore to get everything memorized, get everyone to figure out all the parts and memorize them. The fact that we haven't even starting working on "Fingertips" now would suggest to me that we'll never learn it. There's other stuff that we're kind of halfway there with, maybe we'll get together by the end of this tour.

lolirony. --Luke 01:14, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

He's probably just terrible at predicting. Or he changed his mind. Reading that article then looking at some stuff that contradicts today made me laugh. :)--Lemita 01:21, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

When did you actually start that (DAS)?

In '93, I believe.

Linnell! Wat's ur problem?!? --Valerie 01:41, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, that had to be either a typo or a joke seeing as the interview was done in 92. He must've meant '83.

I will miss Dial-A-Song, I just learned from the recent Linnell interview that they have apparently officially laid it to rest. I have many, many fond memories of calling that number on my parents' phone line, hoping they wouldn't notice it on the bill, hearing a crazy song for the first time, sometimes trying to tape it on my old tape recorder. I remember hearing Token Back To Brooklyn, The Summer Breeze, Bread Hair, Maine, So Long Mockingbird, Free Bird's Rebirth, Mainstream USA, and tons of other wacky stuff. It sucks that younger fans won't get to appreciate it, the podcast just seems so easy to obtain, you lose that immediacy of a song being played just for you on that very day, that 99.9% of TMBG fans won't ever hear. --Oddjob 13:53, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

eh, i don't really care that he was wrong about fingertips – we need to hold this to him! they are going to be done touring in a couple months, and he says there that "it's really easy." podcasts are nice, but they lack so much of what dial-a-song has. the ineffable joy of calling a phone number across the country to hear a crackly demo of an awesome song cannot be even vaguely replicated via the internet. --antgeth 16:52, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

No more.

For the last month or two when I called it, it rang but there was no answer. I called today, and... {sob} it was disconnected. :( —The thing ^Talk 17:07, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

I think it's been reconnected!

I called today and someone who sounded eerily like John Flansburgh said hello.

I hung up because I didn't know if it was real or not.

As of Jan 5, 2010 someone picks up.

No offense, but I find this hard to believe, as DESPERATELY as I want to. If it really were reconnected I doubt Flans would just be hanging around answering...--Self Called Nowhere 11:25, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Revive Dial-A-Song with Twilio!

I made a jukebox 'app' with a web service called Twilio and a friend of mine told me about TMBG's Dial-A-Song. The write up is here: http://weakorbit.com/pnotes/archives/1373 you can check out my phone-thing if you call (919) 695-9242.

So just wanted to mention that, if people were seriously interested, this Dial-A-Song could be easily reincarnated into a new digital being.

-Matt

"I'm sorry, an application error has occurred. Goodbye." If HAL was a woman, this is what it would sound like.

-Andy!

HATE MAIL TO THESE DIALASONG.NET FUCKERS

WHO IS WITH ME? --Self Called Nowhere 06:22, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Hah. Already did. ~ magbatz 06:56, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Anyone know what this is about? I just found it while scrolling through this page, and got very confused. In science fiction terms, "EXPLAIN!" -Bouncer15111

There was some band that wasn't TMBG using that URL for awhile. It made me really mad because they were trying to take advantage of TMBG's following to promote themselves, which I thought was really unfair. There was also another band using the old Dial-A-Song phone number at one point. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 18:33, 26 October 2016 (EDT)

Now that makes a lot more sense. -Bouncer15111

---

Newest I have from this is that the 387-6962 has a full answering machine. Dial-A-Wiki has had the same song for a while. Sad. -Andy!

Information on what was said before the song began?

I never got the chance to use the service while it was still connected, did the machine say anything before the song or did it just beep and play the song?

Sometimes it did, sometimes not. I suppose it depended on whatever mood the Johns were in when they recorded the next ditty. Usually any dialog before or after was spoken by Flansburgh; it would make silly claims about Dial-a-Song ("If it's far away, we're sorry. If it's close, we're happy") or just be a simple greeting ("Yo! Thank you for calling They Might Be Giants Dial-a-Song"). There's even stuff like this. The demos were sometimes drastically different from the final product, as all the different versions of I Palindrome I will show; occasionally the melody would be the same, but the lyrics were quite different, like in Birdhouse In Your Soul (Demo). It's sad you never got the opportunity to call in! --MisterMe (talk) 13:47, 19 November 2013 (EST)

FB fan page

Hey y'all, I just made a Facebook fan page for Dial-A-Song, which was long overdue. Nothing major, just gonna be status updates of quotes from songs, DAS-related pictures, etc. Check it out if you are so inclined. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 14:08, 21 January 2014 (EST)

Dial-A-Song

Does anyone have any of the tracks that were on Dial-A-Song? I've seen a few on Youtube, but I wanted to know if someone out there happened to have any of the songs that were restricted to Dial-A-Song.

I actually have always wanted to post everything I have on my site, but I was told by TMBG management folks long ago that it wasn't ok. BUT, now that Flans himself is going around posting stuff like those Youtube videos on Tumblr I'm like "FUCK IT," so I'm gonna go ahead and be uploading stuff the next time I do a site update (sometime soonish). In the meantime, I've posted a fair amount of stuff on my Tumblr. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 20:58, 31 January 2014 (EST)

Send me a link to your site so I can check every now and then

The one, the only. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 21:42, 31 January 2014 (EST)

I while back I actually sent you a message on Facebook about this exact thing, but since we aren't friends, it was sent to one of the other message boxes in Facebook for people you don't know.

Self Called Nowhere Do you know when you plan to do your site update? I'm not trying to rush you in any sense of the word, I'd just like to know

No, I don't have like an exact date, I have a few different things going on right now, but hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks. I post an update on my userpage when I do. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 18:24, 1 February 2014 (EST)

Flansy Daniel's Dial-A-Song Service (Garry's Mod DarkRP)

For those of you who play the PC game Garry's Mod, I have a bit of news for you. On a DarkRP server called "ThatDarkRPServer", there is a plugin called rPhone, which works much like a real smartphone (I.e. You can have voice-chat calls with people, text people, take pictures, access the internet, etc). Using my rPhone number, along with various TMBG music tracks with filters added in using Audacity and Mixcraft 6, I have re-created the Dial-A-Song phone service in-game. Basically, you call the number (981-6532) while playing on the server and wait for the phone to pick up. Once you do, you will hear a short message from me and a song by They Might Be Giants. Similar to the actual Dial-A-Song service, you will hear a different song every time you call, unlike the original, which had a new song everyday. If you play Garry's Mod, I strongly suggest joining the server and calling Dial-A-Song!

Does the new Dial-A-Song even work?

I've attempted to call the new-ish version of Dial-A-Song several times, but I've gotten nothing. It just plays a message that says the message inbox is full. Does it even function correctly? Or did The Aches and Pains just give up on Dial-A-Song?

Uh? What are you referring to? There hasn't been any manifestation of Dial-A-Song since it was shut down in 2008, unless you mean the other people who got the number, who are ASSHOLES and shouldn't be supported anyway. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 00:08, 4 May 2014 (EDT)

Well, I know that for about a month or so in 2010, "CapitalQ" (A user on this site) had his own version of Dial-A-Song using Google Voice. Why has no one else attempted to start that again? He said he was unable to continue with it due to his school schedule, so why not let someone else give it a go?

Hi, you're talking about Dial-A-Wiki. It was a little too ambitious for me to run and maintain it at that time, partly because of my school/work schedule and mainly because of the limitations of Google Voice: it only allows 60 seconds (requiring some audio editing each day), and has no mechanism for uploading voicemail recordings (leading to very inconsistent quality). At least one other wikian has the credentials to take it over, but no attempt to pick it back up has been made yet. I'll keep it in the back of my head, because it was really fun while it lasted. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 11:53, 4 May 2014 (EDT)

If I may ask, how did you record the songs to be voicemails? Did you record them with Google Talk or with your actual phone, while holding near the speakers?

Both methods. Recording with a phone was a more stable technique (in that the recordings failed less), but it would lead to gaps and extreme variances in volume during loud or quiet parts of a song. Recording through the computer's Stereo Out Mix to Google Voice (via Gmail) led to high quality recordings, but ended up failing more than half the time because of bizarre technical glitches on Google's end, which still have not been resolved. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 20:01, 5 May 2014 (EDT)

list of songs

can we take the list of songs off this page and move it to "List Of Songs Featured On Dial-A-Song" or something? (and point to that page from here, of course.) Apollo (colloquia!) 03:27, 10 December 2014 (EST)

New toll-free Dial-A-Song 844-387-6962, was up since 2015, now down?

As of 18 Nov 2016 “it doesn't fucking work” (to quote Linnell) but instead rings an undetermined number of times, then there's a recording of a lady with a British accent stating "You are not authorized to dial this number", or alternately just a busy signal. Hopefully temporary? Can anyone corroborate this?

“Don't bother to call this room
There's nobody here who can pick up” --Destination Moon

☹️

--User:MrDJ 12:25, 18 Nov 2016 (EDT)

My theory is: they obtained the number just long enough to use for the Dial-A-Song (2015) project last year, then let it lapse after the project was finished. Sad, I know... --MisterMe (talk) 13:37, 18 November 2016 (EST)

Original area code?

I've just stumbled upon an uncited claim on Wikipedia that the 718 area code didn't exist until September 1, 1984. So was Dial-a-Song originally a 212 number, or...? -- 104.231.187.26 20:39, 3 March 2017 (EST)

Dial-a-poem

It's possible that John Giorno's Dial-A-Poem was a more direct inspiration for DAS than was Dial-a-prayer. --Nehushtan (talk) 15:05, 7 August 2019 (EDT)

The Johns have always mentioned Dial-A-Prayer as the inspiration in interviews, for example here, here, and here. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 15:21, 7 August 2019 (EDT)

Last song?

What was the last song other than We Live In A Dump? --ColorOfInfinity (talk) 19:44, 30 September 2019 (EDT)

Not sure I understand the question. By definition, only one song can be the last song. Or are you asking what the penultimate song was? A chronological list of songs that appeared on the original DAS could be useful, but it seems that the information we have that way, especially from the early days, is so fuzzy and incomplete that such a project probably wouldn't get very far. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 20:41, 30 September 2019 (EDT)

Yeah, that's what I meant. The messages in the page history make it sound like We Live In a Dump was a while after the other songs, so I was curious. --ColorOfInfinity (talk) 22:48, 2 October 2019 (EDT)

Oldsplaining

"Free when you call from work". Gather 'round children... there was a time in the not too distant past when a phone call from your house in (say) Des Moines to Brooklyn would be long distance... and would be noted as such on your next phone bill, along with a shocking per-minute cost. So if you called from work (sneaky subversive rock-n-roll attitude), you wouldn't pay for the phone call... but your minimum wage overlords would. Ha, take that!

Another thing that prodded TMBG to repeat at every opportunity that Dial-A-Song was just a REGULAR CALL to Brooklyn, FREE with NO EXTRA CHARGES was the burning issue (in the late 80's through the mid 90's) of 900 numbers. Unscrupulous businesses, criminal organizations, celebrity psychics, and fake dating services would lure you into making phone calls to numbers that on the surface appeared to be normal and innocuous, but would result in exorbitant charges on your telephone bill - surprise! - a few weeks later. Aggressive regulation has tamped down this sort of telemarketing gimmick, so it requires a bit of elucidation today - the way our parents had to explain to us what a party line was. --Nehushtan (talk) 02:21, 19 October 2019 (EDT)

Original Dial-A-Song number?

The area code 718 was not put into service until September of 1984, did Dial-A-Song have a different number before? Does anyone know it perhaps? Thanks, T-boi

You're not the first to raise this question. In the course of a big personal project I just completed going through Flans's entire Instagram I found this post, which confirms the line existed before the 718. It doesn't explicitly say 212 but it must've been since that was the only NYC area code at the time. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 17:18, 8 April 2021 (EDT)

Similarly, in Swing Is A Word Flans omits the area code on the old assumption that "everyone knows" 212 is intended. --Nehushtan (talk) 00:06, 15 April 2021 (EDT)

There's proof of it being a 212 number in a write-up in a 1984 issue of Jersey Beat on archive.org. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 10:09, 15 April 2021 (EDT)

Out of Service?.... Again?

When I call Dial-A-Song some voice is like "That number is out of service, please dial blah blah blah NYC whatever" This is concerning... --jimmyZenShinsThreeHundred11 (talk)

Works fine for me. Are you sure you called the current (844) number? -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 10:20, 12 October 2021 (EDT)

Pretty Sure, I dialed (844) 387-6962 and I got: "Your call can not be completed as dialed, please check the number and dial again, or dial 611 for customer assistance, message NY202NY51" --jimmyZenShinsThreeHundred11 (talk)