(Pop) Cultural references in songs which now sound quaint or anachronistic.

Trying to chill and sell more records than Creed

Saint Etienne are masters of this

2. Mario's Cafe - ''...and Eubank wins the fight, and did you see the KLF last night?'

Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis
When I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - "I'm Bored"

"This is boredom you can afford from Cyril Bored" - reference to Cyril Lord carpets, up to the 1967 minute but long since defunct.

"Reagan is the prez, but I voted for Shirley Chisholm."

Ernie Wise "Let's Have A Tiddly At The Milk Bar"

"You ask me did I like Arsenio,
about as much as the bicentennial."

Ice Cube - The Nigga You Love to Hate

I wonder how many folks under 25 even know who Arsenio was?

Parliament - P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)

Then I was down south and I heard some funk with some main ingredients
Like Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, David Bowie.
It was cool,
But can you imagine Doobiein' your funk? Ho!

Who are Blue Magic?

ALBERT TATLOCK!

"like hillary clinton, I'm the boss"

trina - single again (rmx)

(this song is only a few months old :o )

Blue Magic - early seventies Stylistics-style Philly-ish soul group; major US hits "Sideshow" and "Three Ring Circus" subsequently reggaefied to become major UK hits for Barry Biggs.

They must have been white else George wouldn't have been zinging them?

um, and what (pop) cultural references did they use?

Oh right, sack last comment.

No, they were definitely black.

Just checked, they weren't white, George just zingin' for zingin's sake!

St Et again - "Get your kicks watching Bruce on the old Generation Game."

Mark E Smith to thread

The Fall - "C'n'C - S. Mithering"

Kwik Save is there
The scene started here

And, same song:

Make joke records, hang out with Garry Bushell,
Join Roundtable. "I like your single, yeah great!"

Two in two lines

Isn't Roundtable still going on 6Music?

Saint Etienne's ones were harkening back to previous times, not 'current' ones at the time of recording.

The KLF one possibly had more currency, however..

And did you see the KLF last night?
When we meet for a while, / Tuesday morning ten a.m.

um, Top of the pops has never been on a monday evening.

They didn't say see the KLF on TOTP though.

Actually, I picked up Mark E Smith's book briefly in HMV last night.

One randomn page I saw, he bemoans that current TV has nothing as good as "The Prisoner", and also that he'd rather have Marc Riley back in the band than move to Brighton.

xpost yeah, but where else? They never did gigs.

The Fall - "Marquis Cha Cha"

Although your radio has been jammed
I heard Talkabout by chance
Educated kids know what they're on about
You've been oppressed for years

I saw them at two "gigs" but neither was on a Monday.

"Why did you resign-uh?"

The Fall - "Kicker Conspiracy"

Under the marble Millichip, the FA broods

almost all of "good technology" by the red guitars, although that doesn't stop it being brilliant.

the line about "get james burke on the case" from "the black hit of space" by the human league, although that doesn't stop it being brilliant either. (actually: the entirety of "the black hit of space", for all sorts of technological and sociocultural reasons, but THAT JUST MAKES IT EVEN BETTER, goddammit.)

The Fall - "Cary Grant's Wedding"

Add on thirty years
And you've got Jake Burns

One of the very best ever:

The Fall - "Fit and Working Again"

And I feel like Alan Minter
I just ate eight sheets of blotting paper

"Pinball" by Brian Protheroe - "And I've run out of Pale Ale."

We all have.

xpost yeah, but where else? They never did gigs.

Maybe it's about The KLF at the Brit Awards? Or maybe they saw them on the street...

The Fall - "Garden"

That person is films on TV, 5 years back at least
He's the Young Generation trying to perform country and western

The Fall - "Joker Hysterical Face"

Ted Rogers' brains burn in hell

The Fall - "Mere Pseud Mag Ed"

A fancied wit that's imitation of Rumpole of Bailey

The Fall - "Mere Pseud Mag Ed"

Saw 'Not the Nine O'Clock News'
'History of the World Part One'
Twice each at least

The Fall - "Solicitor In Studio"

Could be a celebrity
Like M. Pyke

The Fall - "Tempo House"

I'd sing 'Solitaire' for the BEF
But who wants to be with them, anyway?

The Fall - "The NWRA"

'Junior Choice' played one morning. The song was 'English
Scheme.'

The Fall - "Winter"

The lawn was littered with cans of Barbican
There was a feminist Austin Maxi parked outside

"Perm in your hair, or even a curly weave
With your New Edition/Bobby Brown button on your sleeve."

LL Cool J, "Around the Way Girl"

.. and above them hangs the legend: "I love the beatles"

Aries, by Fairfield Parlour - From Home to Home (1970)

"Don't you know that crew cuts and trainers are out again?"

Saint Etienne - You're In A Bad Way.

http://www.lapelazzuli.com/lou_reed-new_york-ffront.jpg

^^^^ Yes

The complete works of Telex.

Killing Joke's "Eighties" (I await the wrath of Alex in NYC)

Lou Reed - "Love Is Here to Stay"

He likes Edgar Allan Poe, she's into Mean Joe Greene

... had no idea who Mean Joe Greene was until I saw a Family Guy episode recently

Ray Davies to thread, tho he does it deliberately most of the time

"had no idea who Mean Joe Greene was until I saw a Family Guy episode recently"

They spelled Greene's name wrong it that episode. It says "Green" on the jersey

At least Lou spelled it right!

Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady"

"My bum is on your lips, my bum is on your lips"
And if I'm lucky, you might just give it a little kiss

And the LFO interpolation from the same album

The entire half man half biscuit back catalogue to thread.

Actually was thinking specifically about the references to the old Flake adverts in "Dickie Davies Eyes", but there are millions of them all over the place.

Why? The rollright stones are still there.

xpost

Actually was thinking specifically about the references to the old Flake adverts in "Dickie Davies Eyes", but there are millions of them all over the place.

You mean like having a song called "Dickie Davies Eyes"?

yeah, that too :-)

"Gone Fishin'" by Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong

'I heard you said hoeing ain't no fun.'

I think it was Andy "Restrain Yourself" Kershaw who said that the only way he kept up with who was popular on the telly through listening to HMHB. He was talking about Amanda Remond, I think, but there's loads of modern ones without ever needing to go near Len Ganley, Lev Yashin, Arthur Lee, Arthur Low:

"When they came for Dani Behr, I said "she's over there, behind the wardrobe"."
"Natasha Kaplinsky, it was you all along."
"Lisa Riley." (as part of Operation Less Twats)

and of course

"I want to be like Lou Barlow, but I'm more like Ken Barlow."

tom petty "jammin me"

refs joe Piscop, vanessa redgrave, etc

piscopo

You're the top!
You're Mahatma Gandhi.
You're the top!
You're Napoleon Brandy.
You're the purple light
Of a summer night
In Spain,
You're the National Gallery
You're Garbo's salary,
You're cellophane!

haha! Waldorf salad/Berlin ballad!

"That's Incredible! Hill Street Blues! Dallas! Fridays!
Saturday Night Live! Monday night football! Jeffersons! Vegas!"

Might be wrong about HMHB, btw, perhaps Flake ads are still about blowjobs.

Trying to chill and sell more records than Creed

-- The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Thursday, July 24, 2008 6:06 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

how could you post "nothin" and not mention the smashmouth ref

Speaking of HMHB:

"Rod Hull Is Alive - Why?"

Bit out of date perchance?

how could you post "nothin" and not mention the smashmouth ref

-- and what, Thursday, 24 July 2008 16:15 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

As long as shitty kiddy commedy movies still have trailers, "All Star" will still be relevant.

every line in every Eminem single ever

but especially "My Name Is" (Spice Girls? Sonny Bono?) and the one where he talks about Tom Green fucking a dead moose

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson"

This might not be quite the right direction, since he is sort of reminiscing here:
It was all a dream
I used to read Word Up magazine
Salt'n'Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine
Hangin' pictures on my wall
Every Saturday Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl

Then of course there is always
My man is smooth like Barry, and his voice got bass
A body like Arnold with a Denzel face
He's smart like a doctor with a real good rep
And when he comes home he's relaxed with Pep

Wow.. see what I inadvertently did there?

"That's Incredible! Hill Street Blues! Dallas! Fridays!
Saturday Night Live! Monday night football! Jeffersons! Vegas!"

-- Philip Nunez, Thursday, July 24, 2008 11:13 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Really, "Fridays" is the only part of this that sounds quaint.

handle the roc like van exel

smiles every time my name is up in the source

playstation 2 up in the ride, is that lorenzo kitted

game cube, nintendo

fab's livin la vida loca/ only nigga in the hood you can come see for either weed or coca

anything referencing a 2 way or a sidekick i.e.

call me whatcha like bitch
call me on my sidekick

"didn't have to witness the wickedness of world gone cold / fallin off on stages like bob dole" - chino xl

same ol song, got more hits than napster

like a nigga with perfect dark, i got good game

"such labels as EMI, CBS, A&M, RCA ...
APPLE, DECCA ... PHONOGRAM ... ATLANTIC, CAROUSEL, TRANSATLANTIC, CHRYSALIS POLYDOR, WARNER BROTHERS, MANTICORE"

P.W. Botha gets the gas face!!!

take her to the crib, turn on the Beta
watch a good flick by Arnold Schwartzenegger

"didn't have to witness the wickedness of world gone cold / fallin off on stages like bob dole" - chino xl

And LL Cool J: "I'm 28 light years old / If the refs get political, dribble like Bob Dole."

"Two worlds collide, rival nations
It's a primitive clash, venting years of frustrations
Bravely we hope against all hope, there is so much at stake
Seems our freedom's up against the ropes
Does the crowd understand?
Is it a East vs. West, or man against man
Can any nation stand alone?"

though if we are lucky McCain will bring this shit back

that Brian McKnight song about slap bracelets...

The G's with the forties and the chicks with beepers

Get a map to the stars, find Heidi Fleiss

Before I had status and before I had a pager
...
The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin like Michael

You make me wanna throw my pager out the window
tell MCI to cut the phone calls
break my lease so i can move
cause you a bug a boo, a bug a boo
i wanna put your number on the call block
have AOL make my emails stop
cause you a bug a boo
you buggin what? you buggin who? you buggin me!
and dont you see it aint cool

funnily enough, AOL email makes the song seem even more dated than the pager reference.

"Free Nelson Mandela"