# Older songs with outdated references **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959 "2015-10-28T13:07:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/81 "2015-10-29T12:59:23Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Fountains of Wayne’s “Little Red Light” is a great rock song, but the refrain is starting to sound dated… > > _And the little red light’s not blinking > No, no the little red light’s not blinking > No, no the little red light’s not blinking > On my big black Radio Shack digital portable phone > Oh no_ On the topic of Fountains of Wayne lyrics that are now dated, Stacy’s Mom _has_ to be like 60 years old by now. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/82 "2015-10-29T19:57:27Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > Not out here in Fly-Over Land 😃 (Ok, so I don’t get out much… I don’t like crowds.) I live in Indiana…I know flyover country. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/83 "2015-10-29T22:08:08Z")
Pennsylvania Six-Five Thousand. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/84 "2015-10-29T23:16:12Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > This is more… beyond its time vs obsolete but from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band: > > “Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman > But she was another man > All the girls around her say she’s got it coming > But she gets it while she can” > > _Mind Blown after almost 30 years_ “Get Back”. Never liked that song, and here’s why. Our junior high music teacher used that song to test our vocal ranges. One time, he sang “Jojo was a man who thought he was a woman…” and never lived that one down. :p:smack: ---
**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, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/85 "2015-10-29T23:20:33Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > This is more… beyond its time vs obsolete but from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band: > > “Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman > But she was another man > All the girls around her say she’s got it coming > But she gets it while she can” > > _Mind Blown after almost 30 years_ Prepare to have your mind blown some more. “Get Back” is from the album _Let It Be_. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/86 "2015-10-30T00:34:52Z")
Since Billy Joel has come up a lot… how many modern kids who hear “Leningrad” know what Billy’s talking about when he alludes to Cold War kids cowering under their desks during nuclear war drills? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/87 "2015-10-30T01:40:48Z")
**Was (Not Was)** in Walk the Dinosaur has a pretty dated lyric: > [@](#): > > I met you in a cave, you were painting buffalo mmm ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/88 "2015-10-31T03:47:03Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Prepare to have your mind blown some more. “Get Back” is from the album _Let It Be_. OMG, my mind is blown again! Except it’s not. Yeah, I know most… if not all of the songs from SPLHCB were originally wrote and sang by the Beatles. But the BeeGees and Peter Frampton _owned_ the songs once they did them for the Beatles. And I was 9 the first time I heard the “Get Back” song… off the album my teenaged neighbor best friend had. So hearing them (the BeeGees, Frampton, Aerosmith and anyone else) is the perfect sound to me. Seeing the musical 2 years later cemented my preference even when MTV had Beatles videos playing the same music (ancient to me concert compilations). Plus, in this thread, I just talked about watching the musical. Some trivia for this thread: George Burns had the only actual speaking parts in the song. Everyone else (Steve Martin, Peter Frampton, Robin Gibb ((swwwoon)) just sang. How many of today’s kids have any idea who George Burns is? 10 years ago they might have had a clue. But when was the last time you saw “Oh, God” on tv? ---
**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 31, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/89 "2015-10-31T04:09:22Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > Plus, in this thread, I just talked about watching the musical. You didn’t talk about it in the post of yours I quoted, so it’s only natural I thought you were talking about the album. But, point taken. If I had realized you were talking about the movie, I would have realized you were indeed correct. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/90 "2015-10-31T04:18:19Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > How many of today’s kids have any idea who George Burns is? Yeah, right, like any kid hasn’t watched The Big Broadcast of 1932. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/91 "2015-10-31T07:58:38Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > Yeah, I know most… if not all of the songs from SPLHCB were originally wrote and sang by the Beatles. But the BeeGees and Peter Frampton _owned_ the songs once they did them for the Beatles. I’m not about to say you’re wrong, but have you visited [this recent thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=773601)? ---
**Author:** ![lew\_cody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@lew\_cody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lew_cody)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/92 "2015-10-31T09:32:36Z")
“PEnnsylvania 6-5000” has already been mentioned, but I’ll throw in “BEechwood 4-5789” by the Marvelettes from 1962, just as exchange names were being phased out in parts of the country. How many people under 55 would even know how to dial a phone number written like that? (Outside of NYC, which kept the letters a bit longer.) And speaking of “dial”, many younger people wouldn’t know how to use a rotary phone at all! “Percolator” by Billy Joe & the Checkmates, also 1962. An instrumental, but based on a riff from a Maxwell House commercial. Neither the commercial nor percolators themselves likely have much cultural currency nowadays, although some people do like them as an alternative to drip machines. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/93 "2015-10-31T10:42:27Z")
I mentioned this song in the thread about tribal drumming in popular songs. British post punk band Bow Wow Wow started their career with C30, C60, C90 - Go! (For the young uns) it references cassette tapes and in the context of the song they are being used to record music from the radio rather than buying actual, you know, plastic records. Home taping (will kill music) was the new and very controversial topic at the time - 1980. In general Bow Wow Wow, who were managed by former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, were always trying to be very controversial. For example the band leaked stories of how the 14 year old girl lead singer was ‘allowed’ into the band after being ‘made’ to have sex with her older and more established male band mates. Underage rape? In the 1980s that was just 'controversial, but nothing to get too worried by. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/94 "2015-10-31T13:05:01Z")
> [@txtumbleweed](#): > > **@Just Asking Questions** My mother must have seen that episode of _Emergency_. I think everyone in the US over a certain age saw that episode of Emergency. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/95 "2015-10-31T14:02:53Z")
There used to be cigarette commercials on television: > [@](#): > > When I’m watchin’ my TV > And that man comes on to tell me > How white my shirts can be > But he can’t be a man 'cause he doesn’t smoke > The same cigarettes as me - (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/96 "2015-10-31T14:05:58Z")
For a song that’s only two verses long, “Dolly Parton’s Tits” by Maclean & Maclean manages to pack in a lot of dated references: Knievel Rex Humbard Maude Aimee “Pierre french kissing Rene” Ed Allen And maybe Ms. Parton will be forgotten some day soon, too. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/97 "2015-10-31T15:49:15Z")
_Rikki don’t lose that number You don’t want to call nobody else Send it off in a letter to yourself_ What about if I save it in my contacts list and them I-M it myself? ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/98 "2015-10-31T16:12:13Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > “I Do the Rock” by Tim Curry. Sample line: “Carter, Begin and Sadat/Brezhnev, Deng and Castro/Every day negotiate us/Closer to disastro…” From a very highly underrated album. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/99 "2015-10-31T16:29:59Z")
Tom Lehrer’s comment about mixing politics and Hollywood (written prior to Reagan’s presidency) is one of my favorites. Momma don’t take my kodachrome away “Brand new key” by Melanie. What sort of roller skates have keys these days? ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959/100 "2015-10-31T17:38:02Z")
There is any number of British songs referencing pre-decimal currency (guineas, crowns, florins, shillings, sixpences, threepenny bits and farthings) however I will cite the the **Adam Ant** single **Goody Two Shoes** which has the lines: _**Send a treasure token, token Write it on a pound note, pound note**_ Pound notes ceased to be issued in 1988 when they were replaced by one pound coins. TCMF-2L [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/older-songs-with-outdated-references/735959.md?page=6)