# Older songs with outdated references **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959 "2015-10-28T13:07:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/41 "2015-10-28T19:57:59Z")
“Put another nickel in, In the nickelodeon.” -[Music, Music, Music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYwP6PNYRA), Teresa Brewer [Little Nash Rambler (Beep Beep)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4W7oZBhAJg), The Playmates ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/42 "2015-10-28T20:02:09Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Louder, the chair can’t hear you! 😃 _ **I AM!** _ You hear that, chair? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![txtumbleweed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@txtumbleweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txtumbleweed)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/43 "2015-10-28T21:37:07Z")
Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” has a line: > [@](#): > > I blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop top, cut my heel had to cruise on back home. Kids, the line is not “pop tart”. Pop Tarts are little pastries and not particularly dangerous. They are highly unlikely to cut your heel open. They will catch on fire in the microwave if you try to heat them while still in their metal lined wrapper. A pop top, also known as a pull tab, was a little metal ring attached to a sharp piece of metal that sealed canned drinks up until, oh, 1980 or so. Once you pulled the tab to open the can, you had to dispose of the pop top. Polite people didn’t leave them on the beach where they could be stepped on, but would follow dad’s lead and drop the pop top back in the can. Then mom would yell about how you were learning a bad habit, were going to to swallow the pop top and choke to death on it. If you were a romantic, you could make a necklace out of them for your girlfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/44 "2015-10-28T23:01:55Z")
> [@txtumbleweed](#): > > If you were a romantic, you could make a necklace out of them for your girlfriend. Or a hat band for your cowboy hat. Or a “beaded doorway”\*. (my friends drank a LOT of beer.) There was an episode of _Emergency!_ where a guy swallowed the pull tab. Always liked that one. \*another dated reference from an even older time ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/45 "2015-10-28T23:38:42Z")
From Jackson Browne’s **The Load-Out** , you’ve got chock full of outdatedness: > [@](#): > > \*Now we got country and western on the bus > R and B > We got disco > In 8-tracks and cassettes in stereo. > > We’ve got rural scenes and magazines > We’ve got truckers on CB. > We got Richard Pryor on the video.\* ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/46 "2015-10-28T23:43:00Z")
The theme of “Russians” by Sting seems entirely outdated these days. Before 2006, people probably wondered why Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” suite doesn’t include Pluto (which hadn’t been discovered when Holst wrote it.) Of course, it’s less of a problem now that Pluto’s been demoted to non-planet status. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/47 "2015-10-28T23:45:18Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > Back in the USSR. The first line of that song is “Oh, flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C.” BOAC was British Overseas Airways Corporation and is now British Airways. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/48 "2015-10-29T00:11:10Z")
Roger Waters, “What God Wants, Part II” _God wants guilders God wants kroner God wants Swiss francs God wants French francs (Oui il veut des francs francais) God wants escudos God wants pesetas Don’t send lira God don’t want small potatoes_ I imagine that now as “God wants euros and God wants euros; God wants euros and God wants euros…” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/49 "2015-10-29T00:15:13Z")
> [@txtumbleweed](#): > > Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” has a line: > Kids, the line is not “pop tart”. Pop Tarts are little pastries and not particularly dangerous. They are highly unlikely to cut your heel open. They will catch on fire in the microwave if you try to heat them while still in their metal lined wrapper. Sounds like a story there. Did you find that out from experience? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/50 "2015-10-29T00:19:56Z")
“Dizz Knee Land” by Dada, written in 1992 has the line “I just flipped off President George, I’m going to Dizz Knee Land!” I always liked that it came around again on the old Jukebox of Life that flipping off President George was a thing once more, but now not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/51 "2015-10-29T00:34:17Z")
Prices will date things. Harry Chapin’s “Taxi,” for example, features Harry telling about the time he was a cab driver. He picked up a woman in his taxi, recognized her as an old flame, they chatted a while about old times while he drove to her destination, and he droppped her off there. “Then she hands me twenty dollars for a two-fifty fare, and says, ‘Harry, keep the change’.” I don’t think you can get into a taxi for less than $3.50 nowadays, never mind ride to your destination. ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/52 "2015-10-29T00:37:06Z")
Travis Tritt’s song “Here’s a Quarter, Call Someone who Cares”. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/53 "2015-10-29T00:41:45Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > _ **I AM!** _ > > You hear that, chair? 😉 I was thinking Clint Eastwood more than Neil Diamond… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/54 "2015-10-29T01:04:01Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > 1934— Mae West in Anything Goes: That song is _made of_ dated references. I think Mae West is the one of the most likely to still be recognized. And some of the contexts other people who might be remembered were mentioned in are certainly confusing…If not for the internet, I’d not know Anna Sten, so although I knew who Sam Goldwyn was, that line would have baffled, and I had no idea Eleanore Roosevelt advertised for Simmons until looking it up due to the song. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/55 "2015-10-29T01:34:52Z")
Bruce Springsteen, “57 Channels and There’s Nothing on.” 57 channels? You’re adorable. Still nothing on, though. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/56 "2015-10-29T01:43:04Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Don’t put another dime in the jukebox > I don’t wanna hear that goddam song no more. Please Mr. Please, don’t play B17? (Olivia Newton-John) Kids would be thinking the song was called B17. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/57 "2015-10-29T01:49:36Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Bruce Springsteen, “57 Channels and There’s Nothing on.” 57 channels? You’re adorable. Still nothing on, though. Pink Floyd had that beat with (Nobody Home), “Got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from” ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/58 "2015-10-29T01:51:50Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > The original Polaroid film required that the user coat the picture with a fixing agent after pulling the picture from the camera. The fixing agent then had to dry. People shook the picture to hasten that process. Now I feel really old. Type 55, one of their black and white films, required that step right up until they killed their film products in 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/59 "2015-10-29T01:57:22Z")
Chuck Berry - Memphis, Tennessee. “Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me.” That must be a strange concept to some. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/60 "2015-10-29T02:12:38Z")
Simon and Garfunkel, “America.” The song’s narrator, and Kathy, his girlfriend, are riding a Greyhound bus. “Toss me a cigarette; I think there’s one in my raincoat.” They would allow him to smoke a cigarette on a Greyhound bus? In those days, yes; though it would be unthinkable now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959.md?page=4)