# Ever Been Shocked By A Song's Year of Release? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671 "2015-08-24T00:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/41 "2015-08-27T16:41:32Z")
Shocked? No, but only because I’ve come to grips with being old. For a long time, I’ve caught myself saying things like “I went to Hawaii a few years ago,” then reflecting and realizing it wasn’t “a few years ago,” it was 15 years ago! Or I may say, “I saw \*\*\*Miss Saigon \*\*\*on Broadway a few years ago,” then realizing it was almost 20 years ago. Time has flown. And this kind of thing happens with music, too. I sometimes think of a CD I bought in the Nineties music as recent, when it would strike any current teenager as ancient. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/42 "2015-08-27T16:46:20Z")
Another “different part of the 60s” surprise for me is Simon and Garfunkel, which I had assumed had _started_ in the late 60s (1967 _at the earliest_), since the sound is so similar to 70s light folk-esque rock. Those extra two years were a lifetime in music in the 60s. It also puts them way ahead of their time in influencing 70s music, since there were some inklings of 70s-style light rock in the late 60s but not so much in 1965. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/43 "2015-08-27T17:59:50Z")
I was never confused about the release date, but I think the Beatles’ [Tomorrow Never Knows](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tisjsgsgtZU) still sounds ahead of this time. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/44 "2015-08-27T18:11:57Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Time has flown. And this kind of thing happens with music, too. I sometimes think of a CD I bought in the Nineties music as recent, when it would strike any current teenager as ancient. Time is completely out of whack for me these days. I’m just looking through my iTunes collection now. More time has passed, in terms of calendar years, between Belle & Sebastian’s “Tigermilk” and now, than passed between Dylan’s “Blood On The Tracks” and “Tigermilk”. That makes zero sense to me. I think a big part of it is, as I mentioned, that the nineties are really still going, in terms of what sounds contemporary. But I also have the other problem that you mentioned. More time has passed between this or that trip that I took just recently and now, than the time making up the vast eternity of growth and adventures between my teens and that trip. Apparently, time is out of joint. I wish someone would fix it. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/45 "2015-08-27T18:44:46Z")
Another weird thing, BTW, is realizing how old some of the performers I’ve had crushes on are now. Hope Sandoval is almost fifty?! How the hell is that even physically possible? What do you mean that [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J1LV5R2ryY) was more than twenty years ago? Or, sometimes I come across an album that I like, and even the release date doesn’t clue me in, because my brain is so stupid that it parses everything beginning in “20–” as “just recently”. A little while back, I picked up Cat Powers’ _The Covers Record_. I know that she has been around for ages, but she hadn’t registered with me before. So, anyway, I look at some photos of her from around when it was released, and I think “wow, she’s quite the young hottie.” Then I see a more recent photo, and it turns out that she’s actually some middle aged lady. Because that album was made _fifteen freaking years_ ago. It’s making me dizzy, and not in a good way. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/46 "2015-08-28T10:07:57Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Time is completely out of whack for me these days. I’m just looking through my iTunes collection now. More time has passed, in terms of calendar years, between Belle & Sebastian’s “Tigermilk” and now, than passed between Dylan’s “Blood On The Tracks” and “Tigermilk”. > > That makes zero sense to me. > > I think a big part of it is, as I mentioned, that the nineties are really still going, in terms of what sounds contemporary. But I also have the other problem that you mentioned. More time has passed between this or that trip that I took just recently and now, than the time making up the vast eternity of growth and adventures between my teens and that trip. > > Apparently, time is out of joint. I wish someone would fix it. It’s not just in comparison to 90s-2000s music. If you go back to 1975, when modern rock really started to solidify, and then go back again the same time period, it’s 1935. So modern rock has been around two decades longer than rock and roll was when modern rock started to emerge out of protopunk and garage. And look at when rock started to emerge from rock and roll – 1963. Then go back again and it’s 1911. People weren’t listening to very early jazz and tin pan alley in 1963 like they are 60s rock today. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/47 "2015-08-28T14:01:03Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Pretty much anything by Can, but [Vitamin C](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a1NhRbNJ_Y) works. I don’t remember how many songs I listened to before I asked “when was this released”, but I was very surprised to find out that it was from the early 70’s at the latest. It sounded so angular and groovy, I thought it had to come after new wave. > > Nope, that’s what influenced them. You’re not kidding. Another example is their song [“I’m So Green”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Icg03hIlI) from 1972. It sounds just like something out of Manchester in the early 1990s. I remember first hearing Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, and Can all at about the same time circa 1990 and finding the similarity quite eerie. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/48 "2015-08-28T17:27:28Z")
Oh man, what a depressing thread this is. So many posters being utterly astonished that a song really came out _5 whole years_ earlier than they thought! :smack: I swear I’ve taken naps longer than that. I am so fucking old. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/49 "2015-08-28T17:35:20Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Oh man, what a depressing thread this is. So many posters being utterly astonished that a song really came out _5 whole years_ earlier than they thought! :smack: > > I swear I’ve taken naps longer than that. I am so fucking old. No, I’m old too, and I have that same time-distortion thing of thinking something happened a couple of years ago and finding out it was actually a couple of decades ago. It’s noteworthy that the examples I gave were from my youth, at a time when a couple of years was still a significant fraction of my life, and it was also a time of rapid changes in music (and I was also much more clued into those changes). ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/50 "2015-08-28T17:45:14Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQMCfqFr4XA&feature=youtu.be&t=28), and don’t look at who wrote it or when. Yup, that sounds like boogie-woogie. So I bet that your first guess wasn’t Beethoven, 1822. I’m no expert on classical music, but I’ve gotten the impression that classical and Romantic composers tended to let their crazy-ass experimental side run loose in their solo piano works, which as a result, often sound more modern or ahead of their time than their symphonic stuff. I’ve noticed that for Beethoven and Liszt. Would anyone more knowledgeable of classical music care to weigh in on this? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/51 "2015-08-28T18:29:41Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > It’s not just in comparison to 90s-2000s music. If you go back to 1975, when modern rock really started to solidify, and then go back again the same time period, it’s 1935. So modern rock has been around two decades longer than rock and roll was when modern rock started to emerge out of protopunk and garage. > > And look at when rock started to emerge from rock and roll – 1963. Then go back again and it’s 1911. People weren’t listening to very early jazz and tin pan alley in 1963 like they are 60s rock today. Indeed. A couple of years ago, while having lunch at Culver’s, I saw a teenaged couple sitting at another table. He was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt; she was wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt. The first thing I thought was, “hey, they’re representing old-school music; that’s cool.” And, it’s not uncommon to see current teenagers listening to music that was popular when _I_ was a teenager. Then, I thought about it a bit. They were wearing shirts for acts that had stopped creating new music (due to deaths) 30-35 years earlier. And, I thought about the fact that, 30-35 years earlier, I was their age. If the age 15 “me”, in 1980, had been wearing a t-shirt for a music act that was 30-35 years past their “prime”, I would have been wearing a shirt for, say, Benny Goodman or Les Paul. Which, at that time, just wouldn’t have happened. Those acts, and those styles of music, were something that I think very, very few teens in my generation would have ever even heard, much less listened to regularly or enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/52 "2015-08-28T19:10:26Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Indeed. > > A couple of years ago, while having lunch at Culver’s, I saw a teenaged couple sitting at another table. He was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt; she was wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt. The first thing I thought was, “hey, they’re representing old-school music; that’s cool.” And, it’s not uncommon to see current teenagers listening to music that was popular when _I_ was a teenager. > > Then, I thought about it a bit. > > They were wearing shirts for acts that had stopped creating new music (due to deaths) 30-35 years earlier. And, I thought about the fact that, 30-35 years earlier, I was their age. If the age 15 “me”, in 1980, had been wearing a t-shirt for a music act that was 30-35 years past their “prime”, I would have been wearing a shirt for, say, Benny Goodman or Les Paul. Which, at that time, just wouldn’t have happened. Those acts, and those styles of music, were something that I think very, very few teens in my generation would have ever even heard, much less listened to regularly or enjoyed. I can think of a couple reasons why teens are more likely to listen to and wear shirts from old school bands. First, the generation gap in terms of musical tastes has narrowed considerably over the last 20 years. Second, the internet now puts 120 years of recorded music at your fingertips. You can easily access and listen to whatever type of music you want in the privacy of your own home. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/53 "2015-08-28T19:53:21Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > You’re not kidding. Another example is their song [“I’m So Green”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Icg03hIlI) from 1972. It sounds just like something out of Manchester in the early 1990s. From the same album–even the same side–as the track \*\*scabpicker \*\*mentioned. I’ve always interpreted side two of \*Ege Bamyasi \*- “Vitamin C,” “Soup,” “I’m So Green,” “Spoon”–as a conceptual suite on the subject of vegetable soup. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/54 "2015-08-28T20:02:12Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Second, the internet now puts 120 years of recorded music at your fingertips. You can easily access and listen to whatever type of music you want in the privacy of your own home. Absolutely. When I was discovering popular music in northeastern Wisconsin in the late 1970s and early 1980s, my options for learning about artists and songs consisted of: - Four radio stations (two Top 40, one Top 40 Country, one AOR / metal) - Whatever the Musicland store at the mall stocked - Columbia House Slim pickings, that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/55 "2015-08-29T07:07:49Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I can think of a couple reasons why teens are more likely to listen to and wear shirts from old school bands. First, the generation gap in terms of musical tastes has narrowed considerably over the last 20 years. Second, the internet now puts 120 years of recorded music at your fingertips. You can easily access and listen to whatever type of music you want in the privacy of your own home. I also think kids today are far more open-minded about music than they were in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/56 "2015-08-29T16:51:01Z")
> [@Nema98](#): > > “I Want You To Want Me” by Cheap Trick has aged mighty well for **[1977](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_You_to_Want_Me)**. FTFA, although the better known live recording is from '79, they had been playing it since 1975. I always forget that a lot of The Cars “quintessential eighties” songs were actually recorded in the late '70’s, like “Good Times Roll”, “By Best Friend’s Girl”, “Just What I Needed”, “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”, “Bye Bye Love”, “Moving In Stereo”, “Let’s Go”, “Candy-O”, and “Dangerous Type”. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/57 "2015-08-29T17:37:11Z")
I can’t get over the fact that [The Spirit of Radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Radio) by **Rush** was released 35 years ago. Sounds like it was recorded yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/58 "2015-08-29T18:19:25Z")
I haven’t read the thread yet, so begging pardon if I got it wrong. I was fooled completely by Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”. I first heard it playing on a jukebox in a bar. I thought I was listening to a catchy 60s girl group/ Phil Spector thing. Then I noticed that the singer was saying “rehab” and I realized I was mistaken. I had heard of the song, so then put 2 and 2 together. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/59 "2015-08-29T18:25:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Actually, the first time I heard Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” I thought it was some deep Motown track from the 60s I had never heard before. The main thing that clued me in that it might be a modern song was the subject matter. Hey, me too! I’ll continue reading the thread now… ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671/60 "2015-08-30T08:26:42Z")
I find this pretty surprising , too: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-n6GWFAvI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-n6GWFAvI) It dates from 1958 but these kind of sounds would not become mainstream until the late 70s-early 80s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-by-a-songs-year-of-release/728671.md?page=4)