# Obsolete Song List **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2001, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555 "2001-07-15T06:12:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2001, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/41 "2001-07-16T18:40:10Z")
Janis Joplin - “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV…” Despite the fact that I love the song, I cringe with embarassment at how outdated that sounds every time I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Kingpin53](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d26b3c/32.png) [@Kingpin53](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingpin53)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2001, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/42 "2001-07-16T18:42:17Z")
This thread got me thinking about a now obsolete song that I really wish would have a “sequel” made for it. The song is “Nikita” by Elton John. “…and if there comes a time guns and gates no longer hold you in and if you’re free to make a choice just look towards the west and find a friend…” Well the time that “guns and gates no longer hold you in” has come and passed. I would like to hear a follow-up song and it’s story. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2001, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/43 "2001-07-16T23:02:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BigStar303 \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by sewalk \* > > \*\*Actually _Pennsylvania 6-5000_ is a seven digit phone number: PE6-5000, which makes it still valid for much of the rest of the country (area-wise, anyway). \*\* > > But the idea of exchanges being named (or represented by two letters) is obsolete. When’s the last time phone numbers were listed in a directory this way? > > Ironic that though exchanges went by the wayside, we’re now spelling entire phone numbers with letters. \*\* According to [this](http://www.retroactive.com/may98/penn65000.html) site that number actually existed, and to this day belongs to the Pennsylvania Hotel in NYC. As for our main topic, I can think of quite a few songs from the 1960’s that use outmoded slang expressions. I don’t mean obvious words like _groovy_, but expressions that I think were already decades old and just then fading out. For instance there’s a late Love song called Abalony (not the real Love, but a later incarnation that ARthur Lee threw together), that uses the word _Baloney_, meaning basically _crap_. I remember people using that word in the '60s, but not after. Frank Zappa’s classic anti-broadcast-news polemic _Trouble Every Day_ has a couple of standout examples. In one passage, FZ says, _Well, you can cool it, you can heat it, cause, **baby** I don’t need it_ …using the word “baby” as an interjection like that seems to be classic 1960’s hipspeak, but is now pretty much passe. And in the same song he refers to a photojournalist as _some joker with a **Brownie** _. I actually had to think about that one for a while before I remembered that there used to be “Brownie” cameras in the 60’s. _Joker_ seems kind of outmoded as well, though not so much as _brownie_. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/44 "2001-07-17T02:17:06Z")
Yeah, but wouldn’t you have to punch in a bunch of area codes before you called the Hotel? Anyhoo, what about Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire?” Well, it still stands, but it’s kind of dated now. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/45 "2001-07-17T03:46:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Anyhoo, what about Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire?” Well, it still stands, but it’s kind of dated now. > \*\* The whole song is a timeline of baby boomer history, it sounded dated the day it was recorded save for maybe the last line or two. I think he wrote the song by indexing all the answers in a Trivial Pursuit deck by date. As for obsolete, maybe Simon & Garfunkle’s _Kodachrome_. It’s still the best transparency film you can get but not a lot of amateurs use it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![BigStar303](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@BigStar303](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigStar303)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/46 "2001-07-17T04:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fish42 \* > \*\*“Big Ten Inch (Record)” by Bull Moose Jackson > > You just can’t work up the same sort of innuendo over a 3-inch CD. \*\* Along the same lines, from “I’m Burnin’ for You” by Blue Oyster Cult: “A time to play B-sides” I imagine you’d get a puzzled look if you asked the average Brittney fan what a B-side is. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/47 "2001-07-17T09:02:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > As for our main topic, I can think of quite a few songs from the 1960’s that use outmoded slang expressions. I don’t mean obvious words like _groovy_, but expressions that I think were already decades old and just then fading out. Hey! _I_ still use “groovy”. And I was born in '67. > [@](#): > > For instance there’s a late Love song called Abalony (not the real Love, but a later incarnation that ARthur Lee threw together), that uses the word _Baloney_, meaning basically _crap_. I remember people using that word in the '60s, but not after. What a load of baloney. I heard it well through the '70’s. > [@](#): > > Frank Zappa’s classic anti-broadcast-news polemic _Trouble Every Day_ has a couple of standout examples. In one passage, FZ says, _Well, you can cool it, you can heat it, cause, **baby** I don’t need it_ …using the word “baby” as an interjection like that seems to be classic 1960’s hipspeak, but is now pretty much passe. You mean as in “Hit me, baby, one more time” or “Baby, please, don’t let me be the last to know”? “Baby” never went out of fashion as song filler; it’s just not used in conversation that much. > [@](#): > > And in the same song he refers to a photojournalist as _some joker with a **Brownie** _. I actually had to think about that one for a while before I remembered that there used to be “Brownie” cameras in the 60’s. _Joker_ seems kind of outmoded as well, though not so much as _brownie_. Okay, I’ll give you that one. 🙂 _BigStar303_: > [@](#): > > Along the same lines, from “I’m Burnin’ for You” by Blue Oyster Cult: > > “A time to play B-sides” > > I imagine you’d get a puzzled look if you asked the average Brittney fan what a B-side is. I heard a pop band use it the other day in an interview, and the term still appears on some CD singles. It just doesn’t **mean** anything. _pestie_: > [@](#): > > Janis Joplin - “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV…” > > Despite the fact that I love the song, I cringe with embarassment at how outdated that sounds every time I hear it. True – not many people buy black-and-white TVs anymore, although there are still a few out there. What I find more bemusing about the song is **Mercedes** using “Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?” to sell their cars without a trace of irony. ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/48 "2001-07-17T12:09:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Travis Tritt’s “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” Pay phones are still a quarter here. ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/49 "2001-07-17T12:59:01Z")
> [@](#): > > But the idea of exchanges being named (or represented by two letters) is obsolete. When’s the last time phone numbers were listed in a directory this way? My mom’s family owns a business in Manhasset on Long Island. You’ll still occasionally see business phone numbers that have the original MA7 (627) exchange (for “MAnhasset”) advertised that way. Obsolete songs: Pennies from Heaven - In these days of $80 million Powerball jackpots, wouldn’t a steady rain of pennies be more of an annoyance these days than an answer to somebody’s prayers? Juke Box Hero (Foreigner) - “Standing in the rain, with his head hung low/Couldn’t get a ticket, it was a sold out show.” Who the heck goes to a show anymore without first reserving tickets? Hasn’t this guy heard of a ticket broker? Is he too incompetent to find a scalper? ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/50 "2001-07-17T14:49:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tlmtlm59 \* > \*\*Dime for a call? They just raised it to 50 cents here. \*\* By the same token, we can write off one of my all-time sing-along favourites, “Jenny/867-5309” by Tommy Tutone: > [@](#): > > **Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to? > For the price of a dime > I can always turn to you!** Not any more, Tommy. * * * Pete Take off every .sig for great justice!! ---
**Author:** ![Fish42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@Fish42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish42)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/51 "2001-07-17T15:34:41Z")
Sam Cooke’s “(What A) Wonderful World” for the line “Don’t know what a slide rule is for.” In these days, that’s no longer an admission of ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/52 "2001-08-31T18:00:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jr8 \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > > > > > [@](#): > > > > > > Frank Zappa’s classic anti-broadcast-news polemic _Trouble Every Day_ has a couple of standout examples. In one passage, FZ says, _Well, you can cool it, you can heat it, cause, **baby** I don’t need it_ …using the word “baby” as an interjection like that seems to be classic 1960’s hipspeak, but is now pretty much passe. > > > > You mean as in “Hit me, baby, one more time” or “Baby, please, don’t let me be the last to know”? “Baby” never went out of fashion as song filler; it’s just not used in conversation that much. > > \*\* I agree that _baby_ frequently appears in songs that have a romantic focus, but I felt that in the context of Frank Zappa’s song, he was using it as a vague interjection, sort of like “What’s happening, baby”. ---
**Author:** ![jmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmonster)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/53 "2001-08-31T20:34:18Z")
Along the lines of previously posted songs: **Fourteen Days** by Steve Goodman **Two-song Set** by Loudon Wainwright III ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bitterdrunk\_Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@The\_Bitterdrunk\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bitterdrunk_Kid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2001, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/54 "2001-08-31T22:26:46Z")
1982 by Randy Travis. It’s a good song, but I always wondered why the song writer never thought about it being out of date. It’s now a classic song, which means it will be played for years. Happy Together by the Turtles. Same dime for a phone call thing. You know, “if I should call you up, invest a dime”? obscure-Speed Trap by Hoyt Axton. It’s a song about a crooked traffic cop. It’s on an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, and Boss Hogg and Roscoe think it’s about them. Anyway, one part goes, “for a high school dropout, I’m doin’ fine, I’m makin’ more than the president now, ('course he’s honest!)”. Obsolete from- well, always. ---
**Author:** ![sdarr2002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@sdarr2002](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdarr2002)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/55 "2001-09-01T03:12:13Z")
my son got a dr. demento cd set for his birthday.(he’s a different sort of kid-i don’t know where he could of got that from-his father , i guess) anyway, one of the songs (i remember it from when i was in school) is “the homecoming queen’s got a gun”. when that came out, it was so totally outlandish and unthinkable that it was funny. now, it is almost scary to hear. my 17 year old daughter refuses to listen to it. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/56 "2001-09-01T04:23:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hometownboy \* > \*\*Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” about smoking banana peels was obsolete about 30 seconds after it was released in what was it? - 1966? > > “eee-lec-trickle banana bound to be the very next phase.” > > Nope \*\* [nitpick] From [this website](http://www.sabotage.demon.co.uk/donovan/art/4.htm): "Some concern was expressed over the lyrics to “Mellow Yellow”: they were interpreted as being in praise of the smoking of banana skins. The state of California actually went so far as to ban the sale of this evil fruit. Doubtless these concerned parties would have been relieved to learn that the true subject of the song was a _vibrator_. [/quote] I went to a Donovan concert in about '84 or '85, and this was his rendition of the meaning, as well. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/57 "2001-09-01T04:24:16Z")
Buckner and Garcia’s _Pac-Man Fever_ is totally obsolete and more than a bit out dated. ---
**Author:** ![jmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmonster)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/58 "2001-09-17T15:45:43Z")
**Darlington County** by Bruce Springsteen, in light of recent events. ---
**Author:** ![Formerly\_Bandersnatch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e36b37/32.png) [@Formerly\_Bandersnatch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Formerly_Bandersnatch)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/59 "2001-09-17T16:11:18Z")
I think the more obsolete line in Janis’s song is: “Dialing for Dollars, is trying to reach me”… That had actually been out of date for some time. Unless some stations somewhere still has their version of it going. And in Elvis’ “Return to Sender” the line: “no such number, no such zone” was obsolete since zip codes were introduced in the 60’s. Zones being the predecessor to zip code’s in some cities. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555/60 "2001-09-17T16:33:01Z")
I heard “Things that make you go hmmm…” the other day, which was a reference to a television show that no one really remembers anymore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-song-list/72555.md?page=4)