Uploaded September 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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A ragtime song about the early days of the internet, when it was something you had to access over a phone line while sitting at a desk. It may seem quaint and even a little ridiculous now but, as the song says, "at least we could turn it off."

From the album "Keep Your Jazz Hand Strong" by Rob Paravonian (http://robprocks.com, twitter.com/robprocks, fb.com/robprocks)

Here are the lyrics:

There was a time when going on line
Was something few people could do
You needed a computer and a telephone
A modem and an ISP too
You paid for your hours and there wasn't much power
And at home was where you had to stay
'Cause you could only make a call
when you were plugged in a wall
Back in the dial-up days

And not only that, to comment or chat
You had to find a Usenet feed
Special software was needed if you wanted to read it
And access was not guaranteed
There was always a lag 'cause servers would drag
So flame wars took so long to blaze
If you were an online jerk
You had to put in the work
Back in the dial-up days

Oh, it was aggravating to disable call waiting
So you wouldn't get kicked off line
And heaven forbid you traveled out of town
Where a local access number was impossible to find

Then they'd initiate a new software update
And the progress bar would make your eyes glaze
It took forever to download 'em
With your 56k modem
Back in the dial-up days
Sometimes you couldn't get through and video barely moved
Back in the dial-up days
You may giggle and scoff, at least we could turn it off
Back in the dial-up, where everything took a while, but
Those were the dial-up days.