Chuck Berry

I'm not talking about songs that have a dated sound (there's more than I could ever list). I'm referring to songs with a specific date or year in the lyrics, that are mentioned as the present or future. Like Prince's "1999" (which will not be played as much now that it's date has come and gone). These are songs for which the present or future they refer to, has come and gone. 1999 was the future in 1982, 1999 has now passed.

What I am NOT looking for, are songs like Bowling for Soup's "1985" which are written after the date they are talking about. This song is looking back, or written from the point of view of after the date mentioned.

We also accept lyrics that mention prices that are now dated, such as 10 cent pay phone calls. Lyrics that mention a persons age at the time and that person is now past said age, and lyrics that mentioned events that were current at the time of the song but have now passed are also accepted.

Basically anything that definitively dates a song by any means other than the way it "sounds". Words/phrases/singing styles or instruments that were used commonly in a time period but are no longer used that much today are not accepted.

Dated References, Chuck Berry

Check out the index or search for other performers.

20th Century Masters: The Best Of Chuck Berry (Millennium Collection) album at Amazon.com

Chuck Berry's, "Memphis, Tennessee"

The dated Lyrics:

Her home is on the south side, high upon a ridge,
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge.

Why They're dated:

When this song came out in 1963, "the Mississippi bridge" was an adequate reference to a bridge whose official name is the "Memphis And Arkansas Bridge". It opened in 1949 and from then until 1973 was the only bridge carrying road traffic across the mighty Mississippi anywhere near Memphis, railroad bridges being then the only other bridges to parallel it nearby. The next closer road bridges across the Mississippi were at least 50 miles to the north or south. The Mississippi And Arkansas Bridge still exists today and carries Interstate 55 and a few US highways across the Mississippi River. In 1973, the Hernando de Soto Bridge opened to carry Interstate 40 across the Mississippi, only about a mile and a half north of the Mississippi And Arkansas Bridge. Now with these two bridges carrying road traffic across the river from Memphis to Arkansas, they are referred to in the Memphis area as the "Old Bridge" and the "New Bridge" to distinguish them. So there would not tend to be a now ambiguous reference to "the Mississippi bridge".

Submitted by: Karen Smith

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