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Post by matt on Jun 2, 2013 10:53:03 GMT -5
Speaking of sound effects, how about the typewriter sound effect from Dolly Parton's "9 to 5"? I was going to suggest any song referencing payphones since we're in the age of cellphones, but that would also include the recent Maroon 5 hit "Payphone" (and payphones probably haven't completely gone away, unlike things like milkmen and CB radios). How about references to vinyl record singles? Billy Joel's "Keeping the Faith" has "going to listen to my 45s". Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' For You" has "time to play B-sides". I would include references to vinyl records in general but those seem to be making a comeback. This thread reminds me of an old book I found recently, referring to things that were once very popular but have since gone away. It included things like the Automat, earth shoes, the Brown Derby restaurant, etc. Same with Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry", which contains typewriter sounds and the classic bell-type telephone ringers in the background. Within 10 years, both would be well on their way to technological obsolescence.
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Post by mga707 on Jun 2, 2013 11:30:54 GMT -5
,,,save for the retro telephone ring ringtone one can get for a cellphone. I don't have that, but I do have the retro telephone earpiece attachment for my (admittedly dumb)phone!
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Post by mkarns on Jun 10, 2013 20:35:27 GMT -5
Harry Chapin's "Taxi" talks of a $2.50 cab fare. At least where I live, that usually doesn't even get the cab going, and keeping all the change from a $20 isn't much or any of a tip if the ride is more than 5 miles or so.
In 1988, Will Smith/the Fresh Prince said "I picked up the car phone to perpretrate like I was talkin'" in his parent's Porsche in the hit "Parents Just Don't Understand". I don't know if similar car phones still exist, but talking on the phone while driving a car is no longer a status symbol to be bragged about, and can get you in trouble in some circumstances.
As for payphones, they still exist, though you have to look more for them (and rarely if ever are they in an enclosed phone booth.) Maybe Maroon 5's Adam Levine's cell phone ran out and he had to use the pay phone?
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Post by mkarns on Jun 10, 2013 20:51:20 GMT -5
From "Funky Worm" by the Ohio Players... "...like 9 cans of shaving powder, that's funky..." Does *anybody* remember shaving powder in a can? I do, but I'm old. I see it regularly in stores; today it's mostly marketed toward African American men (like the Ohio Players.)
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Post by mkarns on Jun 10, 2013 21:05:24 GMT -5
What is this "writing a letter" that the Chi-Lites are singing about ? On the March 31, 1973 program (one week after this week's Premiere show), Casey answered a question submitted by a listener who sent it in ... using a telegram! While it wasn't a US hit, T.Rex hit #1 in Britain in 1972 with "Telegram Sam", referring to something that is probably lost on most listeners on both sides of the Atlantic. (Same goes for late 1960s hits like "Western Union" by the Five Americans and "Hey Western Union Man" by Jerry Butler.) Similar to the Chi-Lites, Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" tells her to "send it off in a letter to yourself." Today Rikki would probably more likely punch it into her phone contacts list, and instead of losing it she'd probably delete it on purpose if she didn't feel better when she got home.
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Post by vto66 on Jun 10, 2013 23:51:29 GMT -5
Reunion's "Life Is A Rock" with that line toward the end mentioning various record labels "CBS and Warner Bros, RCA and all the others." While Warner Bros. and RCA still exist as record labels, what was once CBS' record division is now with Sony (as is RCA, incidentally). As far as "all the others," there probably aren't many of those around anymore either.
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Post by pgfromwp on Jun 11, 2013 5:04:00 GMT -5
Recall that in his top 10 hit "Brown Eyed Girl", Van Morrison mentions a transistor radio. Not commonplace anymore.
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Post by lasvegaskid on Feb 15, 2014 14:55:49 GMT -5
Donny & Marie sing "I'm like a watch nobody wants to wind" in On The Shelf.
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Post by mkarns on Feb 18, 2014 23:09:35 GMT -5
Rockin' Rod sang "give me a dime so I can phone my mother" in Do You Think I'm Sexy. While we're talking telephone call inflation, I thought I'd give an honorable mention to Travis Tritt's 1991 country hit "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)". If any payphones are still 25 cents a call, they aren't located anyplace I've been in years.
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Post by blackbowl68 on Feb 20, 2014 17:19:39 GMT -5
While we're talking telephone call inflation, I thought I'd give an honorable mention to Travis Tritt's 1991 country hit "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)". If any payphones are still 25 cents a call, they aren't located anyplace I've been in years. I think it was the 1993 Grammy awards, Billy Ray Cyrus made a diss to Tritt by referencing this title. Most people watching did not what he meant, but as a avid Billboard reader, this hip hop fan got the message immediately.
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Post by jlthorpe on Feb 23, 2014 15:10:50 GMT -5
While we're talking telephone call inflation, I thought I'd give an honorable mention to Travis Tritt's 1991 country hit "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)". If any payphones are still 25 cents a call, they aren't located anyplace I've been in years. I think it was the 1993 Grammy awards, Billy Ray Cyrus made a diss to Tritt by referencing this title. Most people watching did not what he meant, but as a avid Billboard reader, this hip hop fan got the message immediately. I think it was the American Music Awards. VH-1 showed that clip on one of their shows several years ago and none of the comedians/has-beens making snarky remarks about the clip had any idea what it meant, either (I think I figured it out when I found out about the Tritt song you mentioned).
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Post by lasvegaskid on Mar 1, 2014 11:12:44 GMT -5
From Rupert Holmes Escape:
I read the paper in bed And in the personal columns
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Post by jlthorpe on Mar 1, 2014 11:44:15 GMT -5
From Rupert Holmes Escape: I read the paper in bed And in the personal columns A modern-day version of this lyric could be "I was on my iPad checking out eHarmony". And in a few years, those references would probably be obsolete.
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Post by lasvegaskid on Mar 6, 2014 13:46:39 GMT -5
All Night Long had Joe Walsh singing "just a pinch between your cheek and gums..." which was taken from a popular chewing tobacco commercial at the time.
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Post by lasvegaskid on Mar 6, 2014 13:51:40 GMT -5
From Elt's Nikita:
Oh I saw you by the wall Ten of your tin soldiers in a row With eyes that looked like ice on fire The human heart a captive in the snow
Oh Nikita you will never know anything about my home I'll never know how good it feels to hold you Nikita I need you so Oh Nikita is the other side of any given line in time Counting ten tin soldiers in a row Oh no, Nikita you'll never know
Do you ever dream of me? Do you ever see the letters that I write? When you look up through the wire Nikita do you count the stars at night?
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