independent and unofficial
Prince fan community
Welcome! Sign up or enter username and password to remember me
Forum jump
Forums > Prince: Music and More > outdated references in prince lyrics
« Previous topic  Next topic »
Page 2 of 3 <123>
  New topic   Printable     (Log in to 'subscribe' to this topic)
Reply #30 posted 12/03/20 3:00pm

SexyMuthaF

My name is Prince and I am funky.
My name is Prince the one and only.
Funky fresh for the 90's (do that, do that, somebody)
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #31 posted 12/03/20 4:30pm

OperatingTheta
n

SPYZFAN1 said:

"Bring the player, I'll bring the CD's".



It was 1996. CDs were still very common and the predominant way of listening to music.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #32 posted 12/03/20 5:31pm

LovePaisley

Genesia said:



funkbabyandthebabysitters said:


sulls said:

"It's just one lousy dime, baby" - How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore



"Danny dropped a dime on his girlfriend" - In A Large Room With No Light



One thing ahead of it's time: "If U change ur mind, U can reach me on ur video phone" - Now


[Edited 12/3/20 5:57am]



I'm not American. What's wrong with dime? My computer was 1996. Prob ok to have AOL at that time.


"Dime" is a reference to making a call on a pay telephone. Pay phones don't exist anymore. Though, frankly, a call cost at least a quarter by the 80s - so the reference was already obsolete when the song was written. I'm guessing he used "dime" because it was only one syllable and fit the rhythm better - and because calls were a dime when he was growing up.



Or maybe he was calling from Connecticut. Our payphones were a dime well into the 90s
lol
And the MUSIC continues...forever...
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #33 posted 12/03/20 6:01pm

purplepolitici
an

avatar

I thought dropped the dime meant he ratted her out for something, ie "he didn't wanna go to jail alone" smile
For all time I am with you, you are with me.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #34 posted 12/03/20 6:08pm

TrivialPursuit

avatar

SPYZFAN1 said:

"Bring the player, I'll bring the CD's".


I mean... considering the iPod wasn't around for another 6 or 7 years-ish...

"eye don’t really care so much what people say about me because it is a reflection of who they r."
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #35 posted 12/03/20 6:09pm

TrivialPursuit

avatar

Genesia said:

TrivialPursuit said:


Not too much. I remember in 1989, my friend Karen got a box from her older brother who lived outside of the state. He sent her a video phone. It sent still images on a little 3" black and white screen, but it worked and it was amazing to see, in 1989.


There've been video phones since the 1960s.


True enough. Gene Roddenberry and Stanley Kubrick both foresaw things like that, in large detail.

"eye don’t really care so much what people say about me because it is a reflection of who they r."
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #36 posted 12/03/20 6:10pm

TrivialPursuit

avatar

purplepolitician said:

I thought dropped the dime meant he ratted her out for something, ie "he didn't wanna go to jail alone" smile


I still don't get the dime reference or what it's about.

"eye don’t really care so much what people say about me because it is a reflection of who they r."
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #37 posted 12/03/20 6:25pm

EnDoRpHn

TrivialPursuit said:

purplepolitician said:

I thought dropped the dime meant he ratted her out for something, ie "he didn't wanna go to jail alone" smile


I still don't get the dime reference or what it's about.


He's saying that Danny accused his girlfriend of supplying him with or also being the owner of a dime bag. Presumably Danny was being arrested for being in possesion of drugs and didn't want to go to jail alone, so he said they belonged to his girlfriend.

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #38 posted 12/03/20 6:32pm

purplepolitici
an

avatar

^
Maybe not that deep but shrug https://www.google.com/am...p;amp=true smile
[Edited 12/3/20 18:34pm]
For all time I am with you, you are with me.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #39 posted 12/03/20 6:36pm

TrivialPursuit

avatar

EnDoRpHn said:

TrivialPursuit said:


I still don't get the dime reference or what it's about.


He's saying that Danny accused his girlfriend of supplying him with or also being the owner of a dime bag. Presumably Danny was being arrested for being in possesion of drugs and didn't want to go to jail alone, so he said they belonged to his girlfriend.


AH, ok. I honestly don't get most drug references, although some I do. I obviously get "dime bag," but "drop a dime" or whatever could mean anything.

"eye don’t really care so much what people say about me because it is a reflection of who they r."
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #40 posted 12/03/20 7:03pm

sulls

avatar

Genesia said:

TrivialPursuit said:


Not too much. I remember in 1989, my friend Karen got a box from her older brother who lived outside of the state. He sent her a video phone. It sent still images on a little 3" black and white screen, but it worked and it was amazing to see, in 1989.


There've been video phones since the 1960s.

I'm comparing with, say, facetime. Video phones were more of an expensive novelty back in the day. Now, literally EVERYONE has one.

"I like to watch."
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #41 posted 12/03/20 7:04pm

sulls

avatar

EnDoRpHn said:

TrivialPursuit said:


I still don't get the dime reference or what it's about.


He's saying that Danny accused his girlfriend of supplying him with or also being the owner of a dime bag. Presumably Danny was being arrested for being in possesion of drugs and didn't want to go to jail alone, so he said they belonged to his girlfriend.

I never looked at it that way, but it makes sense.

"I like to watch."
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #42 posted 12/03/20 7:48pm

lurker316

avatar

TrivialPursuit said:

EnDoRpHn said:


He's saying that Danny accused his girlfriend of supplying him with or also being the owner of a dime bag. Presumably Danny was being arrested for being in possesion of drugs and didn't want to go to jail alone, so he said they belonged to his girlfriend.


AH, ok. I honestly don't get most drug references, although some I do. I obviously get "dime bag," but "drop a dime" or whatever could mean anything.


Droppin' the dime isn't a drug reference. It generically means ratting someone out to the police ... which could be about drugs, but doesn't have to be ... you could rat someone out for writing bad checks, murder, keeping an endangered species in their apartment, etc.

It comes from the idea that if you want to snitch on someone, you're going to it anonymously at a pay phone ... that way if the cops try to trace the call it won't lead back to you. And, as discussed earlier in this thread, pay phones used to cost a dime.

So "dropping the dime" meant you were using a payphone to anonymously call the police and rat someone out.

That's why the line in In a Large Room goes:

Dan dropped the dime on his girlfriend

He didn't want to go to jail alone

Dan figured if he's going to jail his woman should too, so he called the police and snitched on her.



[Edited 12/3/20 19:52pm]

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #43 posted 12/03/20 7:51pm

lurker316

avatar

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Wolfie87 said:

Dynasty reference in Kiss.

why is that outdted? it was still on tv in 1986 right?


When Prince re-recorded Kiss for the V2006 Versace Experience he changed the line to "Desperate Housewives".


  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #44 posted 12/03/20 9:20pm

Phase3

lurker316 said:



funkbabyandthebabysitters said:




Wolfie87 said:


Dynasty reference in Kiss.

why is that outdted? it was still on tv in 1986 right?




When Prince re-recorded Kiss for the V2006 Versace Experience he changed the line to "Desperate Housewives".



He would change the line to "sex and the city" as well
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #45 posted 12/04/20 2:37am

phunkymunky

avatar

Tax dollars build a plane drop a bomb
Supposedly to keep us all safe from Saddam

Act of God - released 2010

Saddam Hussein - died 2006

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #46 posted 12/04/20 2:42am

funkbabyandthe
babysitters

phunkymunky said:

Tax dollars build a plane drop a bomb
Supposedly to keep us all safe from Saddam

Act of God - released 2010

Saddam Hussein - died 2006

1987 was a golden age of prince keeping up to date with reading the news.

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #47 posted 12/04/20 11:55am

laytonian

TrivialPursuit said:

sulls said:

Maybe AOL sound samples in My Computer


Remember that was 1996, and AOL was already out and being used. Everyone was on that or Compuserve in 1996/7 as the internet became more and more prevelant in homes.


....or on Prodigy, where I worked as a (paid) moderator for several years. We pretty much began the onlin non-Usenet experience but were soon taken over by AOL and their free diskettes passed out like candy.
Prince's first online fan convo was on Prodigy, with Moderator Margaret doing the t yping.

Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #48 posted 12/04/20 11:55am

laytonian

So many of those sounds are dated BUT "drop a dime" is still in the vernacular.

Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #49 posted 12/04/20 3:50pm

1nonly

avatar

From Push:

"Maybe the cartridge you was playin' don't fit in your video game (push)"

The lyric always sounded funny, it's a console, not a video game. That's something my dad would refer to with our Genesis or Super Nintendo. But let's forget all that...CARTRIDGES? Not since the Nintendo 64 was this relevant.

Walking alone in the dark, I see nothing u see
I can be in a park, or flying in the…in the deep sea
I wish u’d hold my hand; then everything could b
There’s nothing strange, we’re not deranged
We only want everyday 2 b a Cosmic Day
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #50 posted 12/05/20 2:44pm

fms

avatar

“Get her done, all that’s in my head.”
From Peach. Here Prince is way ahead of the trend. “Git er done” became kind of catchphrase eventually but who was saying it in 1992?
Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths...(Jeremiah 6:16) www.ancientfaithradio.com

dezinonac eb lliw noitulove ehT
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #51 posted 12/08/20 3:15pm

Pellwormer

What about this....and maybe now..he knows...what time it is wink :

"Donald Trump (black version), maybe that's what you need.
A man that fulfills your every wish, your every dream."

[Edited 12/8/20 15:17pm]

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #52 posted 12/08/20 8:41pm

Margot

"Sex and the City" or is that someone else??

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #53 posted 12/08/20 10:59pm

SexyMuthaF

If prince were alive he'd have been performing trump black version it's a song that was before it's time not outdated.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #54 posted 12/10/20 10:33am

Dangelus

avatar

"Maybe the cartridge you was playing don't fit in your video game"

From Push on D&P if I recall correctly.

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #55 posted 12/14/20 7:47pm

billymeade

avatar

Brontosaurus hasn't existed in 150 million years.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #56 posted 12/15/20 11:00am

SOMEBODYSSOMEB
ODY

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Was prince really using a pager in 2007? (Somewhere here on earth) Was it really going down like the wall in Berlin in 2006? (3121) eek [Edited 12/3/20 5:20am]

Page also means to summons somoneone.

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #57 posted 12/15/20 11:07am

jasopig

Pagers in 2007? yes. (In fact, many hospitals still use pagers in 2020.)

Comparing something to the fall of the Berlin wall? yes.

next.

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #58 posted 12/15/20 11:13am

StrangeButTrue

avatar

"Throw the records out my window
CDs out the door
Might as well give it to the milkman
But we don't want it no more"

Ouch! My head! Where'd that record come from? Also milkman lol I used to think it was "got a beef give it to the milkman" I remember being like damn he's clever beef and milk come from cows.

Also in Batdance the whole put the 7'' in the computer thing is hilariously outdated.

if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #59 posted 12/15/20 10:05pm

Pellwormer

But sometimes I like that nostalgia...like the Dynasty quote in Kiss.....those were the days smile

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Page 2 of 3 <123>
  New topic   Printable     (Log in to 'subscribe' to this topic)
« Previous topic  Next topic »
Forums > Prince: Music and More > outdated references in prince lyrics