Progress Has Made Some Song Lyrics Obsolete
By Randall Holcombe • Tuesday October 5, 2010 2:46 PM PDT • 14 Comments
Economic progress manifests itself in a continuous stream of new goods and services generated by, to use Joseph Schumpeter’s term, creative destruction. We tend to focus on the new stuff we have — the microwave ovens, the cellphones, the flat screen televisions — as a sign of progress, barely noticing the things they have replaced. Auto repair shops have replaced blacksmiths; telephones have replaced the telegraph (itself a great innovation in its day); digitally-downloaded recorded music is displacing CDs, which themselves displaced vinyl records.
I polled students in several of my classes, and every single one had a cell phone, while in most classes nobody had a land line. Twenty years ago, that poll would have gone the opposite way. No students had cell phones two decades ago.
To drive home the pace of economic progress to my students I used examples from a pair of popular songs from a few decades ago. Jimmy Buffet’s still-popular song, Margaritaville, from 1977, contains the lyric, “I blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop top.” I asked my students if they knew what a pop top was. Many did (and many did not), but only one claimed to have ever seen one. Here’s a song that is still popular, but some of the lyrics don’t make sense to today’s generation because progress has rendered them obsolete.
In Paul Simon’s 1973 hit song, “Kodachrome,” he sings, “Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away.” I asked my students what Kodachrome was, and none of them knew. Some had a guess that it had something to do with film, but none was actually sure. (Kodachrome, for you youngsters, was a type of film manufactured by Kodak from 1935 to 2009.) Here’s another song lyric rendered obsolete by progress.
If you’ve read this far, I have a broader agenda here than just relating these anecdotes. I’m hoping that readers will supply me with more lyrics from popular songs that progress has rendered obsolete. I’ve offered a few examples. Now it’s your turn!
Tags: Economics, Entertainment, Free Market, Media, Technology 
And what’s a pop top?
Jonah | Oct 5, 2010 | Reply
Do the lyrics “I’ve got a brand new pair of rollerskates, you’ve got a brand new key” make the cut?
polo | Oct 6, 2010 | Reply
C30, C60, C90, Go, by Bow Wow Wow. The song is about taping music at home and the title refers to 30, 60, and 90 minute cassette tapes.
Roland de Beque | Oct 6, 2010 | Reply
The “Typewriter Song” was used as a theme song on the radio when I was a child. (You can search You Tube for several versions). It’s not a song, it’s an instrumental piece, but I think it’s a great example. My kids had no idea what those sound effects were!
Kdaunt | Oct 6, 2010 | Reply
You can find an article on 25 songs about (or soon to be) obsolete technology here.
Carl Close | Oct 6, 2010 | Reply
Pay phones are still around, so the technology itself isn’t obsolete, but Jim Croce’s “Operator” includes the line “And you can keep the dime.”
Dunleavy | Oct 7, 2010 | Reply
@polo, hah, that’s the first thing I thought of too. But really, those lyrics will *never* be obsolete.
Kyle Bennett | Oct 7, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for all the suggestions, and Carl, very entertaining link! That’s exactly along the lines I was thinking. I notice Kodachrome made the list, but Maragitaville didn’t, perhaps because the song mentions pop tops, but it isn’t about pop tops. Thus far, margaritas show no signs of becoming obsolete.
Randall Holcombe | Oct 7, 2010 | Reply
My ten year old son was confused with the lyrics in the Johnny Cash song, ‘The Night Hank Williams Came to Town.’ While he knew who Hank Williams is, he had trouble with the reference to ‘I Love Lucy,’ as well as the line, “A coke an burger cost you thirty cents.”
Vangel | Oct 8, 2010 | Reply
@ kyle. wait a minute. is it the lyrics or the technology being rendered obsolete? think i’ll just go “pop a top, again”.
polo | Oct 10, 2010 | Reply
“I Feel So Good,” by Muddy Waters, contains a line with a nearly forgotten term:
Yes I feel so good / Now I feel so good / I feel like / ballin’ the jack
The phrase “ballin’ the jack” (a train engineer’s term for making the engine accelerate) became the name of a popular dance and the title of a song recorded by folks such as Danny Kaye, Dean Martin, and Brenda Lee.
Carl Close | Oct 11, 2010 | Reply
It’s fun to reminisce. This ain’t necessarily disappearance of a tecnhology, but back in the days when you could buy a 6-oz bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents, Pepsi-Cola came out with the radio jingle:
Pepsi-Cola hits the spot,
Twelve ounce bottle, that’s a lot.
Twice as much for a nickle, too.
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you!
Bob | Oct 12, 2010 | Reply
Does Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” with:
“Going down the old mine
With a transistor radio”
make the cut?
Jim Chaillet | Oct 12, 2010 | Reply
“...think i’ll just go “pop a top, again”.”
NOW I think I know what the pop top refers to – the tabs you would peel and pull off the top of a soda pop can top or beer can and throw away (many of whom did so on the ground). Those metal pieces would still have sharp edges and if you touched one incautiously or stepped on one, you could easily get cut (“cut my heel, had to cruise on back home...”) The “stay-put tab” where you just pull the tab to press in part of the top of the can to open it, and then pour the drink or drink straight from the can replaced those tear-off pop tops Jimmy Buffet must have been referring to.
Robert | Oct 20, 2010 | Reply