R&P: What are a few of your favourite songs about outdated or obsolete things?

Question

Be it the gramophone, typewriter, fax machine, or some other antiquated artifact of another time, what are your favourite songs looking for songs that mention things we don’t need or use much any more.

I'll start with three of mine...

T.Rex - "Telegram Sam"
Robert Cray - "Phone Booth
Grateful Dead - "Stella Blue" (now a defunct brand of guitar used notably by Leadbelly, Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley and Kurt Cobain)

Sorry, I can post links for the songs, as Yahoo isn't posting my Q with links.

Answer 1

Grow Up and Blow Away by Metric (typewriter)

Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand by Primitive Radio Gods

VCR by The xx

A Heavy Abacus by The Joy Formidable

I Love Rock N Roll by The Arrows and the Joan Jett version (jukebox)

Answer 2

Cannonball Girl by Justin Welch

Dead Confederate by Jerry Joseph 

Smash The Magnavox by Blue Meanies

Your Phone's Off The Hook, But You're Not by X

Answer 3

Video killed the radio star - Buggles 

VCR Ironic because it refers to radio being killed off.

Back in the USSR - The Beatles

Fun, Fun, Fun - The beach boys ( T-Bird, Roman Chariot, library (almost)).

Sailing- Rod Stewart ( pretty obvious the lyric imply a sail powered passenger boat not a pleasure craft)



I’ll be seeing you - Billy Holiday

 (Abyssinia ?)  please yourself!

Answer 4

Phone-related....'Operator' by Jim Croce.  When was the last time anyone here made an operator-assisted call?  And 'Telephone Line' by ELO.  I am one of the rare holdouts who doesn't have a cell phone and uses a landline, but very few people do.  The phrase 'get off the line', from the days when there were 'party lines' that had to be shared by multiple households - in the early 1960s, we shared one with at least two other families in the neighborhood - is a part of history.

Answer 5

The letter....By the Boxtops,

Answer 6

Chuck Berry's "School Days" mentions "drop the coin right into the slot" - of a jukebox.  Many restaurants & bars used to have a large one standing by a wall - often between the washrooms.  Many other restaurants used to have smaller ones on the wall over the table in most of the booths or on the dining counter.  

One is also mentioned in his "Roll Over Beethoven".

I could name dozens of other songs that mention one as well, but the point should be made with just these two. 

Answer 7

...put another dime in the jukebox baby... from the song, I Love Rock 'n' Roll.

Answer 8

About a Telephone Operator



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IVENZ6OFSQ

About Radiohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KWXVLKSF9Y

Answer 9

I always liked Paul Simon's song   "Kodachrome".........



I miss taking real actual pictures , with film. 

Answer 10

Thetes a lot of sings that mention old cars. Thunderbird, El Dorados, woody station wagons, ...  there must be hundreds  

Answer 11

I don't know if this counts, but Primus has a song called "Over the Falls" and the video is set in early 19th century-style. The whole premus seems to be about a guy going over a waterfall in a barrel, which hasn't been done for YEARS.

Answer 12

I had YouTube links to each song, but Y!A won't allow me to post links. Seems not much has changed since frequenting this forum 10 years ago.



"Typewriter Torment" - Procol Harum





"Locomotive Breath" - Jethro Tull





"All Along The Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix (my favourite version)





"The Hangman And The Papist" - Strawbs





"Throw Down The Sword" - Wishbone Ash





"Holy Man" - Deep Purple





"Talisman" - The Guess Who





"The Weavers Answer" - Family





"Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" - Rainbow





"Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)" - Procol Harum





"Tales Of The Spanish Warrior" - Mahogany Rush





"Knights In Rusty Armor" - Peter & Gordon





"Witchdoctor Woman" - Nazareth





"Raconteur Troubadour" - Gentle Giant





"Chariots Of The Gods" - The Stampeders

Answer 13

"Bell Bottom Blues" - Derek and The Dominos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKAYGVIkbok

"Old Songs" - Eli Young Band (On an 8 track, a 45 or an old cassette tape...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR6GwigID0o