Songs that make less sense in the cell phone era

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Listening to Galaxie 500 Peel Sessions, and the excellen version of "When Will You Come Home," and thinking how the era of sitting at home and waiting for a call is gone. "Staring at the wall and waiting for your call," Dean sings, but now he would be out in the city going about his business and waiting for his pocket to vibrate.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

I feel this way about movies and television quite a bit. Throw in a couple cellphones and most episodes of Three's Company would be wrapped up before the first commercial.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

"Staring at the LCD, and waiting for the AIM"

― iDonut B4 x86 (donut), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

"Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares" -- even if you can find a working payphone, a quarter's not going to do it for you. I'm guessing most younger people wouldn't get it (or would see it as archaic).

― JC-L (JC-L), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

"MySpace is lonely without your bulletins wtf"

― iDonut B4 x86 (donut), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

"Hey, Jack? It's Janet. Hey so I just wanted to warn you that Mr. Roper overheard you on the phone, and he thinks you were buying Mexican pot, like weed, and not, you know, a pot from Mexico, to cook in. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Okay, Jack, see you at dinner."

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

I feel this way about movies and television quite a bit. Throw in a couple cellphones and most episodes of Three's Company would be wrapped up before the first commercial.

yep, yesterday I watched in frustration as the Bradys got stuck in an old ghost town with no contact with the outside world

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

"Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares"

also, the everly brothers' "it only costs a dime"

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

rufus wainwright's "vibrate" is an example of a song that would have made less sense before the cellphone era and therefore would have been a better song.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

"Mr. Roper, you can't discriminate against different sex people living in the same apartment based on my sexual preference. I live here, or you're talking to my lawyers tomorrow"

The 10-second pilot to Three's Company. The show that could have been.

― iDonut B4 x86 (donut), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

"Answering Machine," obviously. "Tryin' to breathe some life into a letter..." Aww, don't worry Paul, you can always call her back in a half hour when she's done eating.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

"tryin' to breathe some life into a text message" somehow doesn't sound as good.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

The movie After Hours still dates VERY well, except for the one scene where our protagonist is watching cable TV, using one of those plastic wood panel cable boxes that have the chocolate milk colored plastic buttons you have to press on top. This was a painful "OH, that was soooo 1985" moment.

― iDonut B4 x86 (donut), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

"I JUZ MSGED 2 SAY U MY BOO LOL"
"I JUZ MSGED 2 SAY HOW MUCH I CARE OMG"

― iDonut B4 x86 (donut), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

yesterday I watched in frustration as the Bradys got stuck in an old ghost town with no contact with the outside world

as if greg's cingular phone would have worked in a ghost town!

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

you know they would have figured out a way to use the bobby pins in Alice's hair to rig up a transmitter

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

All kinds of dime references...

Car Phone - ~~Jim~~Roger McGuinn .. just seems silly now.

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Monday, 24 October 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

"I got your number written on the back of my hand"

Nowadays we tend to just put it directly into the phone, eh?

― DZ, Monday, 24 October 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

"Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares"

also, the everly brothers' "it only costs a dime"

They're also done plugging nickels into nickelodeons.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

"Gino, My Dial Tone Goes on While You're Over There in Rome" by Steely Dan

― Confounded (Confounded), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

I also recall seeing reviews of that Hitchcock remake starring Michael Douglas and Gwyenth Paltro pointing out that the plot device of one of the characters getting out of a bathtub to answer a ringing telephone was modernly beyond implausible.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

I'm in the phone booth, it's the one across the hall
If you don't answer, I'll just ring it off the wall
I know he's there, but I just had to call
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone

― monkeybutler, Monday, 24 October 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'm still not sure how After Hours works -- it feels totally, timelessly plausible, despite the fact that a cell phone and an ATM card could solve the bulk of his problems. (Also the fact that getting stuck in Soho these days would be more expensive than scary.) But so much effort goes into cutting off his choices that it seems to work -- the cash out the cab window is kind of the equivalent of the modern-day loss of wallet and phone, and the fear of getting stuck is still alive and well in terms of subway shutdowns, blackouts, terror fear, etc. (I got stuck in Queens one night after a whole subway line got frozen -- same feeling!)

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

Party Line by the Kinks. This one hasn't made much sense for awhile, actually.

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

This isn't necessarily the case, is it? If he's asking "when will you come home?" he probably doesn't want to go out in the first place, he probably just wants to be safe at home with his girl (he's also probably too depressed about her being away to much care to go out). He's not staying at home so he'll be able to receive her call, he's staying at home so when she calls and says that she's coming home, he'll already be there for her when she arrives.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

ELO's "Telephone Line" obv

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

"Here's my number and a dime, call me anytime!"

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

now if someone can just explain how the movie "phone booth" was actually RELEASED IN 2002.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Um, because it takes place in the last phone booth in NYC.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

why on earth do the hookers need to use it?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

xpost

They tore out the last enclosed NYC phone booth around the time of that movie, actually -- I seem to remember some weird kind of double-publicity going on? Plus maybe the concept came from English people or Europeans? Also I never saw that movie but I can't imagine any reason the same plot couldn't revolve around a normal payphone non-enclosed cubby-type thing.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

ELO's "Telephone Line" obv

actually that one still works quite well.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

We should go back to using prefixes like "TRansylvania 6-5000".

We saw an episode of "Seinfeld" last night where George gave out a number as KL5-8383. I get having to use "555" on a television program, but using a lettered prefix would've been verrrry anachronistic, even in 1991.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Memphis, Tennessee

― M. V. (M.V.), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

yeah, but it keeps ringing and that's sad for poor Jeff Lynne 'cause his girlfriend doesn't even have the decency to let it go over to voicemail. Or something.

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Also I never saw that movie but I can't imagine any reason the same plot couldn't revolve around a normal payphone non-enclosed cubby-type thing.

Because standing around outside on the street is not as scary as being trapped in a booth.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

There are some songs from the 1920s that have husbands warning their wives about telling people they own a phone for fear of jealousy.

oh yeah, and...

"I love you girl, cant you see
I tried to talk to you/ but you ~~hung up the phone on me~~blocked my EYYYEEE ESSSSS PEEEEEE OOHHH YEEEEAAH" *enter power ballad guitar solo*

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

If you're a Luddite with no cell or pager like me, those songs will always make sense.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

I guess Tom T. Hall would spend his afternoons on Google instead of reading that Tusla Telephone Book.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

Pink Floyd-Young Lust (that little dialogue w/the operator at the end)

― General Doinel (Charles McCain), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

Telephone operator, why can't I see you later?

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Two words: "Switchboard Susan"

― General Doinel (Charles McCain), Monday, 24 October 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

"Skypager" by A Tribe Called Quest
pagers - how quaint.

― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

"Operator" Jim Croce
"Telephone Line" ELO
"634-5789" Wilson Pickett

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

How has "634-5789" become outdated?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

Except if you mean voice-dialing.

WILSON.
Are you trying to call WILLIAM?
NO.
Are you trying to call MILTON?
NO.
Thank you. Calling MILTON.
NO WAIT! DAMMIT!
*hangs up quickly*

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

the last enclosed NYC phone booth

There's one in the Blue Mill tavern.

"If I should call you up, invest a dime ..."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

xx post

cell phone #s have more digits

also where i live local calls require area code

"all you got to do is just pick up your telephone and DIAL..."

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 24 October 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

This is dumb. I still run to catch my phone when it rings, and when a girl writes her number down on a cocktail napkin, I take care of that fucking napkin. I'm not any kind of Luddite or anti-future intellectual elitist (well, maybe a little), but wait for the so-called "cell phone era" to actually START before you start declaring half of pop culture obsolete...

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 03:38 (twenty years ago)

My area only requires the seven digits to be dialed. When I was growing up, I only had to dial 1 + the seven digits if the long distance number was in my area code (my state only had one), and with local calls, I only had to dial the last four numbers! My best friend's phone number was 7315.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

"Answering Machine," obviously. "Tryin' to breathe some life into a letter..." Aww, don't worry Paul, you can always call her back in a half hour when she's done eating.

Same title, song by Green Velvet ... somebody would have called GV's cell and told him about the the naked girls in the hallway before the landlord had a chance to evict him for it.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 04:26 (twenty years ago)

Four Tops - "Just Seven Numbers Can Straighten Out My Life" - it'll take 10 now.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 04:37 (twenty years ago)

Martha by Tom Waits or anything with an operator

Operator, number, please
City and State
it's been so many years
sir?
Will she remember my old voice?
click

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 04:43 (twenty years ago)

I'm still amazed when I hear an ad on the radio where the announcer is going on about something, a needle quickly scratching across a record is heard, and the "interrupted" spot continues with a new offer or special. What fucking radio station would still play their commercials on vinyl?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

After 6 by the Mekons...
Hangin' on the Telephone...

― js (honestengine), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

but wait for the so-called "cell phone era" to actually START before you start declaring half of pop culture obsolete...

-- Doctor Casino

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

Party Line by the Kinks. This one hasn't made much sense for awhile, actually.
A party line is also mentioned on a Hank Williams chestnut which references a nosy neighbor who picks up the phone when it's "not even her ring," but I can't remember what it is- "Move It On Over"?

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

this thread makes me sad, somehow, since I love "It Only Costs a Dime" and "Party Line" and "Hanging on the Telephone" and all those songs.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

Party Line could now be about those crazy phone lines where all those hot chicks in lingerie are just waiting to talk to me!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

all these replies and no mention of "sylvia's mother" by dr hook. sigh.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

All kinds of dime references...
Any song that mentions "dropping dime," such as "Rock Box."

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

http://www.digitech.com/images/artists/pantera.jpg

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

"Wichita Lineman"

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

-- JC-L (jmc7g...), October 24th, 2005.

actually, in canada, you can still confidently use this line.

― ken taylrr never her (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

A party line is also mentioned on a Hank Williams chestnut

and then there's the andrea true connection's "party line," which is most definitely andrea's second best song.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

fortunately elvis costello's "no action" still makes perfect sense.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, once you look up "Bakelite" in the dictionary.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

well on that score it makes exactly as much sense today as it did in 1978.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

when a girl writes her number down on a cocktail napkin, I take care of that fucking napkin

just have her tell it to you while you enter it in your cellphone!

although the last time i did that, i managed to hit cancel instead of save. brilliant!

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

Scott Walker, Time Operator

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

867-5309 is now in the address book under "Jenny"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 02:48 (twenty years ago)

Btw. I guess the entergalactic telephone operator of Rah Band's "Clouds Across The Moon" is still a piece of sci-fi, and as such the song doesn't make any less sense because of the technological development. So far, anyway :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 02:49 (twenty years ago)

Why? Is this because of cell phones? People with mobiles don't get phone calls at home/don't bother to have a landline? I still get out of the shower to answer a phone call if I think it might be urgent (don't have a mobile, but do have message bank).

― kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 03:26 (twenty years ago)

"just have her tell it to you while you enter it in your cellphone!"

I thought I made it kinda clear that I don't have one, but I guess not. So: I don't have a cellphone and thus need the napkin. Although with my luck it won't matter, the last girl whose eye I tried to catch at a bar ended up going home (? leaving the bar, anyway) with a semi-prominent popular rock bassist, leaving me once again criminally inadequate and cocktail-napkinless.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 26 October 2005 05:57 (twenty years ago)

I still get out of the shower to answer a phone call if I think it might be urgent (don't have a mobile, but do have message bank).

I let the answering machine pick up the landline. Or I look at the Caller I.D. One thing that I gave up long ago is running around the house wet and naked so that some telemarketer could tell me that I have been selected to participate in a national survey...

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)

Milli Vanilli's "Don't Forget My Number"

HAHAHA. These days I don't know anyone's number, it's already in my phone.

― lukeeluke, Tuesday, 1 November 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

Phil Collins - Don't Lose My Number

Same reason as above.

― Leelee82, Monday, 7 November 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

I dunno, you still get those MySpace bulletins of, you know, "my phone died! guys everybody send me your numbers plz!" "Billy Don't Drop Your Phone In A Night Club Toilet" doesn't really have the same ring though.

Also, it kind of sounds like Billy's in a bit of trouble. Maybe the striking anachronism of "don't lose my number" is a furtive way for Phil to tell Billy not to think in terms of easily-traced cell phone calls.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 4 January 2008 00:15 (eighteen years ago)

"Baby, Don't Lose My Number", since the bitch could just pre-program it....

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 4 January 2008 00:22 (eighteen years ago)

yeah the quaintness of sending a letter to yourself with a phone number in it is kind of hilarious at this point

it almost seems impossible that somebody could possibly write something "classic" right now dealing with the details of personal communication, at the rate obsolescence is taking over everything

― El Tomboto, Friday, 4 January 2008 00:40 (eighteen years ago)

Mr. Telephone Man - New Edition
It doesn't make sense because because I never even heard of a telephone man. But besides that, black people don't act cute nowadays.

― CaptainLorax, Friday, 4 January 2008 00:54 (eighteen years ago)

WWMSD? What would Maxwell Smart do? Or Doctor Who? Man, it's just plain harder to build in a secret transport mode in public withh out a phone booth.

― Soren Kierkegaard Existential Light Orchestra, Friday, 4 January 2008 01:25 (eighteen years ago)

four years pass...

Blows my mind that I did not have a cell phone in 2005 (one of my first posts on here), but suddenly those days come rushing back. I bet I would have had a better social life.... but then maybe I never would have discovered ILX!

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 02:04 (fourteen years ago)

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