I have a collection of 78s and a record player you just wind.
I just bought it fir the heck of it once, kicking around an antique shop, and the collection started with my grandmother’s old records, and I’ve since added to it. I have a bunch of cool stuff.
Once when I lived in an apartment building in the 1990s, the power went out, so I lit a bunch of candles, and started playing 78s. People came by to ask where I was getting the music-- did I have a boom box with batteries, or something, and everyone thought the record player was cool. Then we found out we could set it on its slowest speed (it had variable speed for dancing) and play 45s on it. Turned out a lot of people had dusty collections of 45s.
While on vacation two years ago, I was standing next to a pier waiting for a boat when
a father and his two little boys walked by. There was a pay phone nearby and as they
walked past it the father pointed at it and said to them “That’s what people used
to make phone calls back before they had cell phones.”
True; I think the OP is saying the person in question has another word in mind for singles (e.g. “track” or “song”).
I was still surprised by this though – my recollection was that plenty of sites still use the term “single” but just googling around I see it has largely been phased out now.
The other day I was having a conversation with a 28 year old who really loved the movie Swordfish with “that Australian actor” and “the dude from Grease”.
So many things wrong with this. Not least of which that we live in Australia.
I did get to give her a brief history lesson, though. I told her about how, in the early days of rock & roll, singles were the most important thing. An artist would get signed and would record a single. If it was a hit, they’d get to record more singles, and after a few hit singles, the record company would collect them into an album.
It occurred to me that the internet and YouTube are sorta bringing that back to a certain degree.
Yeah. Referring to a song as a “single” is pretty much like my grandmother calling jeans “dungarees,” or the fridge an “ice box.” As far as anyone under 25 is concerned.
Y’know, that reminds me of an expression one of my aunts used to use. If you asked her what kind of day she had, and it wasn’t great, but nothing bad happened, she’d say it was a “B-side” day. Sometimes she’d call other things “B-side.” “How was the Finklestein bar mitzvah?” “B-side.”
I haven’t heard her say that in a while. It was a good expression in its day.
For Southern Californians, a standard expression back in the day to denote excitement was saying something “was an ‘E ticket’ ride.” Say it today and not only kids but their parents will look at you blankly.
My older brother had several 45s, from that weird post 60s era changing of the guard to 70s easy listening. I was about 6 or 7 and listened to the groovy stuff. “In the Year 2525” and “Hitchin’ A Ride” and “Knock Three Times” to “Age of Aquarius”. I played “Ballad of New Orleans” once too often apparently, my other brother broke it in half.
this is part of why so many of us love the Dope. Just spent 45 minutes laughing at kids reacting to old tech.
Anybody have a car with an under-the-dash 45 player? My (now) brother-in-law had this old 50s or 60s era International Travelall that the previous owner had tricked out with these big old gauge style thermometer and barometer and a 45 player under the dash.
This is happening to the OP remarkably late. My moment came in my 20s in the 1970s, when teenagers expressed surprise that Paul McCartney of Wings had been in a previous band.
