The other day, an old rap song came on my playlist called “Just Buggin’” by Whistle. I was very familiar with the song back in the day, but I hadn’t heard it in a long time. I chuckled to myself when I heard the line, “When I speak, people diss E.F. Hutton.” I remember the E.F. Hutton commercials well and understood the reference. But it occurred to me that there are lots of people out there who are adults now who wouldn’t know what it meant.
Anyway, I’m just wondering what some other examples are of musical nods to businesses, slogans, people or pop culture that a younger person hearing it today might not get.
One that comes to mind is “Touch Me” by the Doors. The song ends with four notes and the band singing the words “Stronger than Dirt.” At the time the song came out, that was the Ajax Laundry Detergent jingle; I suppose you could call it an early example of sampling. Ajax is still around, and they still use the slogan, but the jingle has been long since discarded and I doubt many younger people get the reference.
Sampling is when you digitally record (sample) a sound. Sampling wasn’t invented in the sixties, it was invented around the start of the 80s, so the Doors never sampled anyone. What you’re talking about is called quoting.
(There were precursors to sampling done with analog tape, but true sampling is digital.)
Oh - Memphis Minnie’s Ice Man. Although you’re not going to run into Memphis Minnie by accident - you probably wouldn’t be tripped up by a reference to an ice man if you knew you were listening to blues from the 30’s.
OutKast’s Hey Ya!, dating from way back in 2003, includes the line “shake it like a Polaroid picture.” The OneStep cameras and film are apparently still available, but I don’t know why.
A Jim Stafford song, “A Real Good Time,” is about some guy, new in town, who enters a phone booth and uses a** dime** to make a phone call. At one point he lets his fingers do the walking.
I think this has been mentioned here, but how long did it take most of us to decipher “gee our old LaSalle ran great” from the theme song on All in the Family?
Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” presents the singer as a dummy for not knowing what a slide rule is for. But today, even brilliant students at CalTech probably don’t know what a slide rule is for (and even those that do wouldn’t know how to use one)!
