# Most dated (and obscure) tech reference in song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 30, 2022, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774 "2022-11-30T04:18:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/101 "2022-12-08T14:51:39Z")
I was listening to Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair) by Sheena Easton. It has a reference that is obscure to me, but I don’t make phone calls out of the country. It has “Operator, get me Transatlantic”. Is that dated and obscure, or is it just me? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/102 "2022-12-08T16:09:54Z")
Not even in Russia do you have to go through an operator to phone overseas nowadays. That said, things didn’t change until 1991 or '92. In February 1990, I had to go downtown in the middle of the night (long after public transport ceased working) to book and place a call to the US from a booth at Moscow’s Central Telegraph. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/103 "2022-12-08T16:32:29Z")
Is any song that refers to a “jukebox” dated tech? _Put your sweet lips, a little closer to the phone…_ ---
**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:** [December 8, 2022, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/104 "2022-12-08T16:34:54Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Is any song that refers to a “jukebox” dated tech? Yes and no; I still see “digital jukeboxes” at restaurants and bars; the newest ones let you play songs on the jukebox at your local bar from your phone. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/105 "2022-12-08T16:36:45Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Put another nickel in > In the nickelodeon > All I want is having you > And music, music, music This is really a mistake by the song writers (or maybe they liked the meter and did it intentionally) and is not a tech reference. A nickelodeon was an early movie theater that showed shorts and charged…five cents admission. It wasn’t a juke box like thing as the song implies. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2022, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/106 "2022-12-08T18:36:01Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > > > It I’m surprised no one has mentioned trucker slang and CB radio. > > Is there some rule that whenever someone says “I’m surprised no one mentioned X”, X actually will have been mentioned in that thread? > > > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > > [Car Phone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF-iAV9YOqY&t=11s). It’s a parody of [Convoy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss), which itself refers to a dated tech reference (C.B. radios). CB radios are still a thing, and truckers still use them for local communication on the road. Any well-equipped truck stop will sell CB radios, antennas, and accessories. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774/107 "2022-12-10T00:15:37Z")
Any songs using “fired up”? That would not be a relevant expression prior to the invention of the steam engine. Depending on how one views it, the steam engine was invented by Savery in 1698 or Newcomen in 1712 or Watt in 1765. As a means of propulsion, it was fitted to boats/ships in 1807 (Fulton) and railroads between 1794 and 1829 (multiple inventors with varying success). In the OED, I found “fire up” in the sense of getting an engine started at 1890 and suspect that its use in igniting emotions or initiating an action in an engine, a machine, (or a computer program, etc.) followed that usage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-and-obscure-tech-reference-in-song/975774.md?page=5)