# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/101 "2011-04-06T06:51:56Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > How did you keep from also writing “No such person. No such Zone?” For that matter, does anyone even know what a “zone number” is? Back then, before the Zip Code, letters (particularly to larger cities) would have a two-digit number between city and state, e.g., “Chicago 29 Illinois.” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/102 "2011-04-06T07:18:27Z")
Talking Heads “Life During wartime” mentions then cool clubs like Mudd Club and CBGB which have since closed. Black Flag “TV Party” mentions shows like That’s Incredible, Quincy, Fridays and Hill Street Blues which are off the air although you could have re runs. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/103 "2011-04-06T07:30:19Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > AltaVista was _the_ search engine during the late 1990s but was already pretty much totally eclipsed by Google by that point. Does anyone still use it? Everyone in Pawnee does, if Parks and Recreation can be believed. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/104 "2011-04-06T08:28:04Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Johnny Paycheck-_Take This Job And Shove It._ > > Not in this current job market. Heh. Not in _that_ job market, either. I don’t remember who sang it, but somebody released a “response song” that went: Johnny, I’m in need of a paycheck I wish I _had_ a job to shove! I think Paycheck’s song came out during the Carter administration. ([Yup, 1977](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_this_job_and_shove_it).) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/105 "2011-04-06T09:47:46Z")
_The Beat Goes On_ by **Sonny and Cher**. Damn near every verse line is a dated reference, or at least the attitude is dated. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/106 "2011-04-06T11:07:56Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > When’s the last time someone wrote “Return to Sender” on a letter? _raises hand_ I did a few months back, on several letters. For the first couple of months of being in my current rental, I gave the letters for the previous occupants to the owner and he gave them to the guys’ brother, who works for him. Letters adressed to occupants before those got a “return to sender, unknown in this address”, as eventually did those few letters which still arrived for the occupants just prior to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412/107 "2011-04-06T11:40:26Z")
> [@NetTrekker](#): > > Stepping on pop-tops in Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. I was trying to explain to my young nephews recently how soda cans used to be opened. Oh, so it’s _not_ “Stepped on a Pop-Tart”, then? And while were on it, It’s always seemed to me that “livin’ on sponge cake” sounded like an awfully comfortable way to live. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rock-pop-songs-with-now-dated-references/535412.md?page=5)