Here's one that got me thinking...:

Can you think of songs you hear that have outdated references i.e. when they were popular, the reference was 'in' but thanks to time, it makes you ask HUH???

My Example: 'Happy Together' by THE TURTLES....it includes the verse...:'If I would call you up,... invest a DIME'...

Well....maybe THEN phone calls were a DIME ...guess they would've changed it for these days to 'invest 2 quarters!'

ANY MORE???  Hmmm...maybe 'Beat Goes On' by Sonny and Cher?  Line: 'Miniskirts the current thing uh-huh...,
Teeny-bopper is our newborn king'

Ahh those were the days...!


 

In the v old song "The Laughing Policeman" one verse mentions something about giving him "half a crown" as a tip.  They were discontinued here in the late 60s/early 70s.  My daughter has this song on a CD of 'children's favourites'

R-E-S-P-E-C-T  -- Great song but I can't help but wince at the outdated phrase: "Sock it to me." 

Well the Ramones say "it's the end, the end of the seventies"

And Prince says "Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999"  (wow so far in the future)

And Joan Jett says "Put another dime in the jukebox baby"

And the one I always kind of laughed at was Frankie Valli "I carried your books from school, playing make-believe you're married to me"    I was born in 1972 and I don't EVER remember anyone carrying anyone's books from school no matter how in love they were!

An Ice-T song (either "B*tches" or "O.G.") yelled "1991"!  That's almost 1 1/2 decades ago!

And Joan Jett says "Put another dime in the jukebox baby"



Outdated long before she sang it, too... unless there was some sort of juke-box price gouging going on where I was.

All this talk of coinage reminds me of another one:  King of the Road -- "...rooms to let, 50 cent"   

Outdated long before she sang it, too... unless there was some sort of juke-box price gouging going on where I was.


Didn't the Flirts have a song called The Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime in It"?  Did they have Joan Jett?

From "you be illin'" by run-dmc in 1986. Probably was outdated then too... i don't remember back then i was 4

(One) day when I was chillin' in Kentucky Fried Chicken
  Just mindin' my business, eatin' food and finger lickin'
  This dude walked in lookin' strange and kind of funny
  Went up to the front with a menu and his money
  He didn't walk straight, kind of side to side
  He asked this old lady, "Yo, yo, um...is this Kentucky Fried?"
  The lady said "Yeah", smiled and he smiled back
  He gave a quarter and his order, small fries, Big Mac!
  You be illin'

I think Pac-Man Fever falls into this category too... although it's not just a particular line in the song, it's the whole song!!

This one hasn't been outdated for long, but I thought I'd mention it


"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you..."

Of course, Joe DiMaggio was still alive when that was recorded.

Valley Girl by Moon Unit Zappa. There's still Vals today but they're nothing like the early 80s Valley Girl.

Aside from the outdated locations mentioned in songs thatwould fit this topic, my ears perked up to hear in Jim Croces' "OPERATOR" song he mentions how the operator can keep the DIME as well!

So now we reflect back to the original post of the TURTLES singing about investing a dime for a call.

If the Turtles song came out in the 60's and Croces' in the 70's Phone call prices were a dime for some time I guess??? ???

Well the Ramones say "it's the end, the end of the seventies"
And Prince says "Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999"  (wow so far in the future)

2 Live Crew, "We Want Some Pussy"

One of the cleaner (!) verses reads...

"I'm the Peter Piper of the 1980s,
Got a long hard *doing* for all of the ladies,
I don't care if you've got three babies,
You can work this *doing* in my Mercedes"

I spewed half a cup of coffee when I heard a version (House Mix, from a compilation CD) that, in addition to featuring some inexplicable samples from ZZ Top's "Legs" (WTF?), censored a few words at random with scratches.  One of 'em was, of course, "80s"

"I'm the Peter Piper of the 19*fweeeee*s" (!)

Obligatory filth:  If you remember the original as being filthy, you'll love "We Want Some Pussy II", from the 1993 album "Back At Your Ass For The Nine4" (heh, an outdated *album cover*!).  2 Live Crew was even more delightfully filthy live than they were recorded, and that's sayin' a lot :)