The idea of calling the operator used to be a cultural given. The whole sense of not having the information you needed, not being able to connect to the person you needed, of being a bit hapless, was immediately suggested by such a call, even with diverse musical styles. Who calls the operator now?
In Shiloh's new version, "operator" has a different meaning, though the old meaning is still vaguely alluded to.
4 comments:
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show had a song called "Sylvia's mother" which also involved an operator "And the operator said 40 cents more for the next three minutes" Do you think our children would get that reference?
I collected a batch of songs whose lyrics focus on various forms of communication...telephone, telegraph, mail, carrier pigeon...and posted links here:
Heartsignals
"I'd like to speak to your biological unit."
Kids are going to have to watch a lot of old movies to have any understanding of what happened and how people lived before them.
They probably won't.
Post a Comment