Song lyric: "No deposit, no return"

April 1, 2008 9:00 PM

Remembered song lyric: "No deposit, no return." What song?

So back in the 70s I was hanging out in a hip swinging bachelor pad - sunken living room, shag carpet, Steely Dan on the hi-fi - and I dimly recall hearing a song on the radio that had the refrain, "No deposit, no return." It was a male voice, and the style of music would have fit right in on a radio station that played the Bee Gees, Abba, E.L.O., or Earth, Wind, and Fire. I remember liking the song because I recognized the phrase from my Coke bottle - I was 7 years old, maybe younger, at the time - and because it was sort of a wistful song.

Surprisingly, Google hasn't helped me figure out what it was. It definitely wasn't Skyclad, Black Flag, or Sheena Easton, and I don't think it was PWEI or the Justin Heyward track that Google popped up.

Anyone know what song/artist this was?

posted by ikkyu2 to media & arts (16 comments total)

Could it be "Country Girl" by the Moody Blues?
posted by bunglin jones at 9:10 PM on April 1

Are you sure it wasn't Skyclad?
posted by sherlockt at 9:11 PM on April 1

Oops. . .sorry I didn't see the first three hits on google were Skyclad, Black Flag and Sheena Easton. . .I guess you looked at all those lyrics then, huh?
posted by sherlockt at 9:12 PM on April 1

Here's a list of songs that contain the lyric "No deposit, no return"... If you heard it in the 70s, my bet is on Joe Walsh or Eddie Money.
posted by amyms at 9:17 PM on April 1

None of the above. It occurred multiple times in the song, it was the refrain; and it was a very final and wistful sounding refrain, not all poppy like the Justin Hayward/Moody Blues track. Either that or it was the Justin Hayward track and my brain has irretrievably mangled the memory of it.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:20 PM on April 1

Did it have a reggae or r&b/gospel feel to it? i can vaguely remember the song you're talking about...
posted by chara at 9:26 PM on April 1

Pop Will Eat Itself?
posted by lalochezia at 10:26 PM on April 1

Oops. 70's not 90's. Forget my sugg.
posted by lalochezia at 10:26 PM on April 1

Maybe a long shot, but it wouldn't be" There Won’t Be No Country Music" by CW Mccall? It does include the words No deposit, no sad songs, and no returns" in the lyrics, but maybe you misremembered the line? And the frequency of the line?
posted by dg at 10:34 PM on April 1

Doesn't sound like it's Tuli Kupferberg's a capella "No Deposit, No Return" from the 1960s, but you can listen here and see.

There's also a Sandy Bull track, but I don't know if has lyrics at all (I can only preview some instrumentals). It also dates from the sixties and could conceivably have been on that radio station.
posted by dhartung at 11:28 PM on April 1

No definite answers, but there is a song by that name by Roy Ayers / Wayne Henderson.

Where were you located at the time? A Maine band had a single by that name, in the 1960s but it seems unlikely that's it unless you were in the Bangor area.
posted by mikepop at 6:06 AM on April 2

This is killing me. I think that it might be a lyric from a Steve Miller Band song, but I can't get more than the lyric section to play through in my head.
posted by iknowizbirfmark at 6:45 AM on April 2

I was in Southern California. The song had some radio airplay - I didn't hear it just once, but enough times to get to know it. I'm thinking mid-to-late 70's.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:36 AM on April 2

I was working in Top 40 radio in CA in the late '70s and I can't remember anything like this. Maybe some kind of novelty song, or again a misheard lyric?
posted by DandyRandy at 9:38 AM on April 2

I'll be tickled if it's C.W. McCall, though it doesn't really sound likely. Here's There Won't Be No Country Music. (1 week expiration)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:20 AM on April 2

Does this sound familiar?

http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/band/STEVE-WAYLON/No-Deposit-No-Return/
posted by qvtqht at 6:37 PM on April 3