Lines That Make Songs Sound Dated.

The best example I can think of is Phil Lynott's use of the word "chick". It sounds very dated.

 

From Hey Matthew, by Karel Fialka:

I see Dallas, Dynasty, Terrahawks,
He-Man, Tom and Jerry, Dukes of Hazzard,
Airwolf, Blue Thunder, Rambo, Roadrunner,
Daffy Duck, The A-Team, The A-Team. I see The A-Team.

 

First one to come to my mind: "Summer" by War:

Ridin' 'round town with all the windows down
Eight track playin' all your fav'rite sounds
The rhythm of the bongos fill the park
The street musicians tryin' to get a start

'Cause it's summer
Summer time is here
Yes, it's summer
My time of year
Yes, it's summer
My time of year

Stretched out on a blanket in the sand
Kids of all ages diggin' Disneyland
Rappin' on the C B radio in your van
We'll give a big "ten four" to the truckin' man

Man, I feel old!

 

The lyrics are actually ' I tape them all 'cos I'm top of the pops', though the misheard version is so much better.

 

Frank Sinatra has him beat, however.

 

That Beatles song Eleanor Rigby.....
Look at him working, darning his socks
In the night when there's nobody there
What does he care

I cant imagine that anyone under 40 has ever darned a sock.

 

But the person making the call can't let the other end of the line ring forever. Something happens. Voicemail picks up, the local landline company cuts it off (at least in my parts)...but in any case, "let it just ring a little longer longer longer...let it ring forever more" is no longer an option, at least in most of the US.

And like most Americans, that's my only point of reference.

Maybe it's an age thing, but I swear, it really was different then. Many's the time I let the phone ring for hours, and more than a few times, I fell asleep while the phone rang nonstop all through the night.

(That's not even telling the half of how humiliating my young love life was. )

And in karmic fair play, I had neighbors who let their phone ring for hours too, so I got to experience the other end of it. Maddening. It sometimes drove me out of the house.

Unless you've been on one end of the other of this for so long that a neighbor calls the cops thinking that someone must be dead for the phone to keep ringing like that, or at least leans out the window to yell "PICK UP THE PHONE ALREADY" you haven't entered Jeff's world or mine.

Ain't no ring tone anything like that....is there? And again, even if there is, the experience for today's caller is nowhere close to what that song describes.

 

I think it's the entrance price of the Tree Museum myself.

 

My favorite use of which is in "59th St. Bridge Song", which isn't nearly as dated as "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)".

I been Norman Mailered, Maxwell Taylored.
I been John O'Hara'd, McNamara'd....

I been Phil Spectored, resurrected.
I been Lou Adlered, Barry Sadlered...
And I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce....
​

I can imagine that most folks here know something about all those people, but I can imagine most folks anywhere else knowing next to nothing about next to all of them, much less about their context in this song.

 

There you are standing at the bar
And you're giving me grief about the DDR

 

What's "the DDR"?

 

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.

"Take a look at the 5 and 10" are in reference to 5 cent and 10 cent stores.

 

Was on the other side of the Berlin Wall.

 

Okay, but what is it? That still doesn't tell me.

 

That would be the same as East Germany.

 

East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR)... Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR)

 

Ah, okay. Never heard it called that before.

 

'I'll wait till the 1990s if I must.'

From 'Chairman of the National Trust' by Fat and Frantic (Album: Aggressive Sunbathing, 1987).

 

The Tubes "What Do You Want From Life?" comes to mind. With lines like, "A personally autographed picture of Randy Mantooth."

 

"I'm the operator with my pocket calculator".

Today you have free apps that simulate scientific calculators even for the worst phones.

 

Not only dated but it took a new century to people finally realize how offensive it is.

 

I listened to a Lou Rawls live album the other day, and between the lyrics and his chit chat, he must've used "groovy" at least a dozen times. Seriously dated, but he was one of the few people who could use the word without sounding like an ass.

 

XTC - Everyday Story Of A Small Town
"Next you'll be teling me it's 1990"

 

The "neon god" from Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" should be a "cyber god" today. Simon's own "The Boy in the Bubble" still rings fairly accurate today, even though you would rather not say "lasers in the jungle somehwere" but "glassfiber cables" which are of course fed with signals by lasers so that may just be a technical detail.

 

Unfortunately, Stevie Wonder's otherwise superb 'Master Blaster' is dated by this line (which couldn't be more incorrect):

'Peace has come to Zimbabwe'.