Sylvia's Mother lyrics by Dr. Hook, 12 meanings. Sylvia's Mother explained, official 2024 song lyrics | LyricsMode.com
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Dr. Hook – Sylvia's Mother lyrics

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Dr. Hook – Sylvia's Mother lyrics
(Shel Silverstein)

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's busy, too busy to come to the phone
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's tryin' to start a new life of her own
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's happy so why don't you leave her alone
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her,
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell her goodbye

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's packin' she's gonna be leavin' today
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's marryin' a fella down Galveston way
Sylvia's mother says please don't say nothin' to make her start cryin' and stay
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her,
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell her goodbye

Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's hurryin' she's catchin' the nine o'clock train
Sylvia's mother says take your umbrella cause Sylvie, it's startin' to rain
And Sylvia's mother says thank you for callin' and sir won't you call back again
And the operator says forty cents more for the next three minutes

Please Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her,
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell her goodbye

Tell her goodbye...
Please... Tell her goodbye..

(c)1972 Evil Eye Music Inc.
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Sylvia's Mother meanings Post my meaning

  • U
    + 12
    Unregistered 2022-03-26 05:51:32
    I wonder if the caller has just gotten out of jail and is trying to connect with the girl he left behind, whom he still loves. Even thought Mother gives him the info about the train , the caller is too far away (maybe still in jail?!) to stop her from leaving, since he’s making a long-distance call. Mother doesn’t say the new “fella”’s name because she doesn’t want the caller to be able to find Sylvia. Agree? Disagree? Just heard this song this past week and made me think!
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 12
    Unregistered 2012-06-16 09:59:04
    Mrs. Avery actually dissaproves, of the fellow down galveston way. She secretly wants the caller to end the relationship, but cannot let sylvia know she feels thatway, for fear that in will damage the relationship between mother and daughter.
    She let's the caller know that he has the ablity to make her stay instead of going to galveston, then tells him that she is leaving now, gives him all the information he needs to meet them at the station, method of transportaion (train), time of departure (9: 00) destination (galveston).
    Then acts like she is talking to someone else, when slyvia gets close enough to the phone to hear the conversation.
    The only reason you would tell someone she was going to the train station to catch the 9 o'clock to galveston, and if you talk to her, she will stay, is that she wants sylvia to stay.
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  • U
    + 10
    Unregistered 2021-12-05 22:39:24
    Sylvia was a groupie and one of the band members loves her but probably treated her like trash. Sylvia had had enough and split the scene for good and was trying to become a solid citizen with a family.
    The caller knows he lost her because he was miserable to her when he had her and now he knows he lost paradise. The call is his last attempt to get her back but her mother is protecting Sylvia from a life as a groupie. As a father I would be tougher on the caller causing Sylvia to have sympathy and go back to him. But Sylvia's mother played it well and got rid of the musician. He was probably the drummer . They're a dime a dozen.
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  • U
    + 10
    Unregistered 2012-06-13 19:31:37
    Clearly mrs avery is protecting her daughter from the caller, her daughter's ex-boyfriend who has hurt her. Near the end when she says 'thank you for calling and please sir won't you call back again' is because sylvia is in earshot, we know this cos mrs avery says to her daughter to take her umbrella because it is starting to rain. Incidentally, I always imagine the 'rain falling' is the caller beginning to cry cos he realises he is never going to see the girlhe loves again, and is never going to get the chance to say sorry and tell her how he really feels. Regret is a very sad thing :(
    1 reply
  • U
    + 7
    Unregistered 2016-02-25 00:12:42
    This song has always made me feel... nostalgic... sad... so many things. I have always wished my mother was involved enough in my life as a young girl to have made her feelings knows as I feel Sylvia's mother does. Sylvia's mother wants her to stay and be with caller but 4 whatever reasons can not talk to sylvia. How I wish we had been able to talk.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 4
    Unregistered 2012-04-03 05:24:34
    Not sure if sylvia's mother is being protective, controlling, just honoring sylvia's wishes or some of each. In the end does the mother encourage the guy to call back becsuse she realizes she's going to be lonely without sylvia? If this guy was bad enough for sylvia to leave behind without a goodbye, why would her mother encourage his calling? Or, was sylvis within hearing range and the mother just trying to throw sylvia off?
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  • U
    + 1
    Unregistered 2020-12-16 02:15:09
    It is wonderful lyric poetry in which Shel Silverstein uses words subtly and ironically . There are four characters, Silvia, "mom." the boyfriend, and a telephone operator, each has a part in the play. The mother could be seen as her protecting her daughter, but she says something that reveals her control over her daughter. Does the boyfriend really only want to say goodbye or is he aware of Mrs. Avery's control, not only of her daughter, but of the situation. Silvia is there as a pawn to the situation, only talked about, but never talks. Far from telling im about her leaving so he will stop her, I question why a mother would say, "marrying some fella . . .." I think she might have an idea of his name. It is clear that Silvia is nearby; instead of letting him talk to her she advises her to take her umbrella (hardly a farewell to a daughter about to take a train somewhere). When she says, in effect, thank you for calling and please call again, it is a gross misuse of control of her daughter and the caller. The fourth person? The operator, totally uninvolved with the drama, only seeking what is needed to continue the conversation, cold, mechanical . . . a counterpoint to the emotional story but in complete control of it all if he doesn't deposit forty-cents-more-for-the -next -three- minutes.
    Add your reply
  • j
    + 1
    jimusn 2019-03-11 21:29:11
    I knew Syvia when this song was rocking and she was a real slutbunny. I knew it, but loved her for her loving ways. Anyway, old bag mother was actually shipping Sylvia to a Dominican convent for retooling, if you get my meaning. Years later I found out Sylvia later went over the wall one night and swam the moat around the convent. While she was trying to dry off a platoon of Marines came by and she ran off with them. Thirteen months later she returned home to mom, bedragled, skinny as a rail, and with her 11-month old quintuplets of two-Mexicans, two-whites, and a cute black baby. They were all born on the 4th of July and knew how to count cadence before they could open those eyes. I read in the paper about Sylvia's mother going on trial when they found Sylvia hacked up and bagged in the freezer labled as trash fish.
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  • U
    0
    Unregistered 2023-05-13 17:28:53
    We have to go by what Mrs Avery says. Sylvia was hurt by the caller. So by the time she got over him, dated the Galveston guy, fell in love and now was going to marry him it has to be a minimum of two years since the caller left and now was calling her. We don’t have to assume the caller left Sylvia for another woman. The phone call comes from a pay phone and since he was dropping coins for the operator this is a long distant phone call. He could be in another state why a phone booth? Who ever he didn’t want to hear the conversation he didn’t want her to know he was calling another woman. So things were not good with her so he now wanted Sylvia back. He took at least two years to even think about her. Sylvia has now found happiness. Mrs Avery wasn’t about to let the caller ruin her happiness. Mrs Avery kept her cool so Sylvia wouldn’t suspect it was the guy who hurt. Her mother was not sure if Sylvia would actually take him back. The caller already said Goodbye years ago Now he wanted her back. The caller is a jerk. Sylvia has put her her life back together.
    Add your reply
  • U
    0
    Unregistered 2023-05-10 21:21:15
    First you have to consider the time period. The caller is calling Sylvia well after he hurt Sylvia. Sylvia was tremendously hurt by him and you can see it took time to recover to find another man to the point she wanted to marry him. The time period had to be at least two or three years for Sylvia to start a new life. Sylvia’s mother in that time watched the pain Sylvia went through to love another man. Sylvia’s mother in no way wanted Sylvia to go back to the caller. Yes she gave the caller a lot of information to let him know what he had done to Sylvia and that she had found happiness. But s Sylvia’s mother was sure the information she gave him he couldn’t get to her stop her from marrying him. She did not give him the fellows name. Her mother also felt that the caller night be able to stop her from going. Sylvia did love the caller and might just keep her home. Sylvia was happy now and no way the caller was going to hurt her again
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  • U
    0
    Unregistered 2023-05-10 20:17:54
    Sylvanias mother I have to agree is giving the caller too much information but maybe only because he can’t reach Sylvia from stopping her from marrying the Galveston guy. To me the caller really hurt Sylvia. Sylvia’s mother doesn’t want him to hurt her again. Yes Sylvia does care about the caller but she is trying to start a new life. The guy she is marrying she cares about. She is happy. Sylvia was really hurt by the caller. There has been a long period of time for Sylvia to find a guy she would marry. Sylvia’s mother has lived through the pain the caller gave her.
    Add your reply
  • U
    - 4
    Unregistered 2015-05-18 21:42:10
    The real back story with Sylvia and her mother. They tell their sides of the tale.

    To me it seems like Sylvia was not being controlled at all, perhaps even a bit more material world centered than emotional or spiritual. Her mother seems to have been trying to protect all involved.
    I agree no one would give all the info. If not,(even subconsciously) to have him go and get her, especially the part about "don't say anything to make her stay", clearly that info is not necessary to help him or her if they stay apart. If both women are both true in their recollection of the day. Sylvia says she was being thrown out. Mother says don't say anything to make her stay.

    Remember the time and the family upheaval. Sylvia had been with this boy on the phone who was decent and really loved her daughter, while she was trying out the '60s - now she was leaving to marry the wrong guy, she had to get out of the house (who knows what dad or community response was), but she didn't want Sylvia to be with the man she was to marry, so against Sylvia's wishes she tries to tell guy on the phone how to get her and that he can.

    Having said all that, remember poetic license, and the memory might have been screwy to begin with due to emotional condition of the recipient :)

    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/moGrcQAxmp0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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    • U
      + 12
      Unregistered
      I wonder if the caller has just gotten out of jail and is trying to connect with the girl he left... Read more →
    • U
      + 12
      Unregistered
      Mrs. Avery actually dissaproves, of the fellow down galveston way. She secretly wants the caller to... Read more →
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    [Intro][Verse][Pre-Chorus][Chorus][Hook][Bridge][Outro]