# Rock/pop songs with now-dated references **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412 "2010-04-08T15:20:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/41 "2010-04-08T21:14:45Z")
Tim Curry’s “I Do The Rock” name-checks everyone from “John and Yoko”, through “Carter, Begin, and Sadat”, to “Idi Amin and the Shah” to place it squarely in the late 1970s. Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime has plenty of solidly 1987 lyrics: “They keep selling me on T.V., about the communist plan And all the shady preachers Begging for my cash Swiss bank accounts while giving their secretaries the slam” Black Flag’s “TV Party” references all sorts of 1981-1982 TV shows, although Monday Night Football is still around. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/42 "2010-04-08T21:20:48Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Doper **aha** was one of the members of [The Five Americans]. I haven’t seen him around in ages, though. True, but he [ain’t hard to find](http://www.normane.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/43 "2010-04-08T21:22:03Z")
Don Henley’s Boys of Summer: “On the road today I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac.” At the time, the Caddy was the premier auto for the upper middle class and lower upper class. However, Cadillac lost their way (for awhile - I LIKE the new ones) and their wheels became more representative of the inner city, while BMW and Mercedes became the car the former hippies might drive. That and Jerry is dead, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/44 "2010-04-08T21:33:41Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Don Henley’s Boys of Summer: > > “On the road today I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac.” And when the Ataris covered that song in 2003, they sang “I saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac”. Hmm, they kept the Cadillac, but dumped the Dead ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/45 "2010-04-08T21:57:44Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > And when the Ataris covered that song in 2003, they sang “I saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac”. > Hmm, they kept the Cadillac, but dumped the Dead Yep - they only fixed half of it. Funny to me, having been to both Dead and Black Flag shows in my youth! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/46 "2010-04-08T22:55:40Z")
I was thinking about this just the other day when Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” came on the radio. The singer compares his psychic link with his girlfriend to a “cable coming in from above” and says “we don’t need no phone at all”. The former is dated in and of itself, because hardly anyone ever sends cables anymore. Although people do still use phones, the latter seems dated because in the context of the song a phone apparently _cannot_ be used to contact someone anywhere, even when they’re on the road, via a “a line in the sky”. A modern cellphone works at least as well as this mystical “radar love”. A more recent example is in Pearl Jam’s 1998 song “Do the Evolution”, which contains the line “2010 [twenty ten], watch it go to fire.” That’s not quite dated yet, but it’s got just a few more months. Although just listening to the song it’s not totally clear that the singer is referring to the year, it could be understood as “20, 10, watch it go to fire” with the numbers either being some kind of countdown or meaningless numbers like in a cheer. Had to year been 2009 [two thousand and nine] or 2011 [twenty eleven] it would have been pretty clearly just a year. > [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > Jim Croce’s \*Operator \* has a lyric “you can keep the dime” talking about the dime he put into the pay phone. I don’t remember when pay phones were a dime, and it’s hard to even find a pay phone now. Hell even having the operator help you with the call isn’t done any more is it? He’s asking the operator for help because he’s not sure of the number (the writing is “worn and faded”), not because he can’t call people directly. Or do you mean most people would just look the number up online now? > [@Krokodil](#): > > Are there parts of the country where you can still call _867-5309_ without adding the area code? Yes. I’ve never lived anyplace where it was necessary to dial the area code for local calls. I live in a small town these days, but 2-3 years ago I was in a city of about 300,000 and never needed to add the area code. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/47 "2010-04-08T22:59:06Z")
“And now you find yourself in '82” Asia - Heat of the Moment ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/48 "2010-04-08T23:19:43Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > He’s asking the operator for help because he’s not sure of the number (the writing is “worn and faded”), not because he can’t call people directly. Or do you mean most people would just look the number up online now? Well I’ve never called the operator for a phone number, I used to call 411. I didn’t know you would call the operator to get a number. And yes now most people would look the number up online and not bother to call anyone for help. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/49 "2010-04-08T23:28:08Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Placebo did a passable cover of The Smiths’ [Bigmouth Strikes Again](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigmouth_Strikes_Again). The funny thing is they “updated” the lyrics replacing “Walkman” with “Discman” and “Hearing Aid” with “Megadrive”, so that the updated cover version is actually more dated than the original. That reminds me of “I Knew The Bride” by Nick Lowe. In the original version, written in about 1977, it goes: “I can see her now with her headphones on/hopping up and down to her favorite song”. In a later recording he updated it by substituting “Walkman” for “headphones”. Nowadays people still use headphones, but what is a Walkman? ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/50 "2010-04-08T23:31:08Z")
Elton John- Nikita ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/51 "2010-04-08T23:51:00Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > When’s the last time someone wrote “Return to Sender” on a letter? In my case about an hour and an half ago, actually. I bought an house that’s had revolving-door tenants for over a decade, and a year later I’m still getting mail for people who haven’t lived there in the present century. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/52 "2010-04-09T00:23:48Z")
> [@Simmerdown](#): > > The Boomtown Rats’ _She’s So Modern_: > > _She’s so 20th century > She’s so 1970’s > She knows the right things to say > She’s got the right clothes to wear > Cos she’s a modern girl, oh yeah…_ You beat me to it with that one, but I also wanted to point out that, as it was a hit in about 1978, it became badly dated within just a couple of years. > [@Oakminster](#): > > As my nominee for the thread, I submit _American Pie_ by Don McLean. But that is a song _about_ the past. That is not the same as being out of date. A history book is not out-of-date simply because it is about history. So far as I can recall, it does not include any references to early '70s culture (i.e., the period when it came out) at all, let alone dated ones. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/53 "2010-04-09T00:35:05Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > You beat me to it with that one, but I also wanted to point out that, as it was a hit in about 1978, it became badly dated within just a couple of years. > > But that is a song _about_ the past. That is not the same as being out of date. A history book is not out-of-date simply because it is about history. So far as I can recall, it does not include any references to early '70s culture (i.e., the period when it came out) at all, let alone dated ones. On the other hand, he’s singing about his own generation and how it looks back on Buddy Holly’s death as the “Day the Music Died,” along with all the stuff that came after. It sounds a little dated to me in that it’s going over shared experiences that post-baby-boomers don’t share. I suppose “we didn’t start the fire” would be sort of the same, by that definition, though. ---
**Author:** ![Petey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f1d935/32.png) [@Petey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petey)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/54 "2010-04-09T00:39:49Z")
“I Can’t Drive 55” ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/55 "2010-04-09T00:51:24Z")
Dean Friedman’s _Ariel_ is the first thing that came to mind, for me: ‘I took her home with me, we watched some TV Annette Funicello and some guy going steady I started fooling around with the vertical hold We got the munchies so I made some spaghetti We sat and we talked into the night While channel 2 was signing off the air I found the softness of her mouth We made love, the bombs bursting in air’ These days, the ideas of ‘vertical hold’, as well as a TV station _signing off the air_ (as opposed to just switching over to infomercials 😛 ) is alien. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/56 "2010-04-09T01:34:19Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome.” Kodak phased out production of Kodachrome film in 2009, although it hadn’t seen much pop culture attention for quite awhile before that…TRM Wow, thanks. I just gained some insight into the line, ‘‘how long does it have to last like this A Kodachrome kiss’’ in Pat Benetar’s song ‘‘Outta Touch.’’ I had no idea what she was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/57 "2010-04-09T01:48:16Z")
Holiday in the Sun by the Sex Pistols. Recently we found a piece of the Berlin Wall in a museum and when we tried to explain the wall to my nephew he thought it was one of the most bizarre things he’d ever heard of. ---
**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:** [April 9, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/58 "2010-04-09T02:09:30Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > “And now you find yourself in '82” > Asia - Heat of the Moment I’ll see your “And now you find yourself in '82” and raise you an “After 1986, what else could be new?” - Billy Joel, _Modern Woman_ ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/59 "2010-04-09T22:40:26Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’ll see your “And now you find yourself in '82” and raise you an “After 1986, what else could be new?” - Billy Joel, _Modern Woman_ You wanna play though? I’ll see your “After 1986, what else could be new?” and re-raise “Anclado en 1990 [Anchored in 1990]” - Soda Stereo - _1990_ ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/60 "2010-04-10T01:58:10Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > **My Baby Wrote Me a Letter** “The Letter,” by the recently-departed Alex Chilton, RIP. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412.md?page=4)