Lines That Make Songs Sound Dated.

The Kinks - Party Line

 

Its not always in the lyrics. In the Italo Disco track "Hey Hey Guy" (Ken Lazlo) there are telephone pulse dialing noises.

 

Yeah, this song is very dated to me; to 1983. When Sisters of Mercy released their cover.

 

"I wish I was back in 1981" - ELO, "The Way Life's Meant To Be"

 

To leave someone flat is an expression which means "to leave abruptly." It does not imply physical violence.

 

True. But what about "Run for Your Life?"

I'd rather see you dead little girl
Than to see you with another man....

 

20th century boy. T.rex.

 

The Dude of Life with Phish, "Self":

If you are unhappy and you have not won your race
Well there ain’t no mercy in this world and there ain’t none out in space
So welcome to the nineties, I hope that you make it through
But if you get in trouble honey, this is what I say to you

 

"I got tapes, got CDS, got my Public Enemy" Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Power Of Equality.

" Let's all meet up in the year 2000" Pulp- Disco 2000.

"All the rich got mobile phones, All the rich got mobile homes, bones " Happy Mondays - God's Cop.

of course; such lines date the song to the era of release, doesn't have any impact on the enjoyment of the music.

 

Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina

But when she got undressed, it was a big old mess, Sheena was a man
So I threw him out, I don't fool around with no Oscar Meyer wiener
You must be sure that the girl is pure for the Funky Cold Medina
You know, ain't no plans with a man
This is the 80's, and I'm down with the ladies

 

Your first example reminds me of Jackson Browne, "The Loud-Out"

...we got disco on 8-track and cassette in stereo
we got rural scenes and magazines
we got truckers on CB
we got Richard Pryor on the video

the cellphone has replaced them 'all....

 

The entire song "Hitchin' A Ride" by Vanity Fare. I don't thing anyone has hitched a ride in at least the last 20 years.

 

Actually, the lyric is "I'd rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man". Gives it a whole new meaning!

 

Really? I still see hitchhikers. Not nearly as many as in the '60s & '70s though.

 

There is the John Prine song "Picture Show" from 1991 as well.

 

Well, there's no argument about that song. I wasn't claiming Lennon never mentioned domestic violence in a song, just that no such thing is implied by the lyrics of "You Can't Do That."

 

... Obviously not an Eighties hardcore - " **** REAGAN! " "REAGAN SUCKS! " - type.
Mosh or slosh, dood.





"Siegmund, post: 14759170, member: 24416"]Nixon must be mentioned in more songs than any other President; I can only think of two that mention Ronald Reagan.[/QUOTE]

 

...The Raspberries, " I'm A Rocker ", " I get the message like it came by cable ".
Dean Friedman, "Ariel ", referring to old movies showing on late-night broadcast TV - Many songs referred to that, actually. - and, what I thought of first, referring to the TV signing off " to bombs bursting in ai-i-rr "!

 

...Isn't the age of consent in Britain more consistently 16 though?







JoeF., post: 19270278, member: 41763"]Only in the sense that it probably wouldn't fly today----or at least it would be the subject of a twitter meltdown by the usual suspects, that would cause Capitol to censor it, force the Beatles to change the lyric or out right pull the release entirely.
I'm not joking either.[/QUOTE]

 

"I saw the sky almost hidden by clotheslines and TV antennas… I saw the sky"

 

I've always loved this record and much prefer the single mix. The TV signing off bit is beautiful and genius. It's dated in the most charming way!

 

The first one i thought of.

 

If I could call you up, invest a dime

 

The lines of The Monkees’ ‘Steppin’ Stone’ seem vaguely archaic throughout, couched in a print media that doesn’t hold sway like it once did:

‘You're reading all them high-fashion magazines
The clothes you're wearing, girl, are causing public scenes

But now you're walking 'round like you're front-page news...

But you won't find my name in your book of who's whos’

 

...As far as referring to late movies on TV, for more "adult " pop music:
50s hit " The Late Late Show " (Dakota Staton had the hit) alludes to it.
And the song" Chop Suey "*, sung by Juanita Hall in the original production of Rogers & Hammerstein's " Flower Drum Song " has:
" Tonight. on the Late Late Show/ you can look at- Clara Bow "! This got me to asking, on a silent movies group, whether first-gen Late Late Shows would show silent movies - they said yes.
Oh, and the Shangri-Las' " The Dum Dum Ditty "; " Why do the papers write what he does? "!
I mentioned this one here before, The Honey Cone, " Want Ads " - well, of course, not Craigslist, and newspapers at all...but the concept of " gonna put it in the Evening News ", really, when did the concept of " evening newspapers " go bye-bye. By the 90s? In NYC, when did the NEW YORK POST give up being an official evening newspaper? When I was a kid it was, my father would bring it (pre-Murdoch) home when he had a 9-5 kind of shift. When I moved to San Francisco in 1997 the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER still was but they were bound to that by a Joint Operational Agreement with the CHRONICLE that kept the Ex an evening paper and the Chron a morning one which I think went back to the 60s (and ended in 2000) - A while ago I looked it up, daily newspapers have of course so dwindled away that there are only a couple of operating JOAs left.
*What exactly WAS chop suey, anyway? I don't think I ever had it.