♫ In The Year 2525 ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, music, Social commentary

This one came to me yesterday … out of the clear blue … well, actually out of my foggy, befuddled mind, but you know how that goes.  I did not recall playing it here already back in 2020, but turns out I did, so my work for tonight has already been done!  I think the reason this song came into my head today was thinking about the state of affairs … not only here in the U.S., but ’round the globe.  I have predicted that at the current rate of devastation, the human species, at least as we know it, cannot survive past the end of the current century.  The year 2525???  HAH!  Well, none of us would be around to see it anyway.  Okay, enough of my babbling … moving on …

The year was 1968, the musicians were Denny Zager and Rick Evans, and this was their one and only hit.  This song hit #1 in both the U.S. and UK, as well as Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.

This bleak futuristic tale is a very unusual song, but 1969 was a very unusual year, with hippie anthems like Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In going to #1 along with bubblegum songs like Sugar, Sugar. The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Temptations all had classic #1s, but In the Year 2525 stayed at #1 for six weeks, which was longer than any other song that year and earned it the distinction of #1 record of the year 1969. The song reflected the apprehension of the times and also the wonder of technology: it started its run at the top of the US chart the week before the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The overriding theme, of a world doomed by its passive acquiescence to and over-dependence on its own overdone technologies, struck a resonant chord in millions of people around the world in the late 1960s.

In the Year 2525
Zager and Evans

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

In the year 3535
Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyes
You won’t find a thing to chew
Nobody’s gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine is doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain’t gonna need no husband, won’t need no wife
You’ll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube, whoa

In the year 7510
If God’s a-comin’ he ought to make it by then
Maybe he’ll look around himself and say
Guess it’s time for the Judgement day

In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head then
He’ll either say I’m pleased where man has been
Or tear it down and start again, woah woah

In the year 9595
I’m kinda wondering if man is gonna be alive
He’s taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain’t put back nothing, woah woah

Now it’s been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man’s reign is through

But through eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it’s only yesterday

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may thrive

In the year 3535
Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies

19 thoughts on “♫ In The Year 2525 ♫”

      • Correction: In the year 2525 was in the top 20 from 22-Aug-1969 to 31-Oct-1969 (11 weeks, 2 weeks at No. 1). Mr Turnkey, also by Zager and Evans, was in the top 20 from 09-Jan-1970 to 13-Feb-1970 (6 weeks, reaching No. 6 on 23-Jan-1970).

        My source listed the artists but not the songs, and I made the mistake of assuming they were a one hit wonder. Not quite accurate.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Jill, it has always been an interesting song. With more women going to university percentage-wise and the average man not maturing until age 29, maybe we should flip the script and say if man can still survive? Keith

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      • Jill, it was a statement made by a mental health counselor. I do not recall if it was based on a scientific study. Her thesis is guys we’re spending less time interacting socially with other people due to gaming that it hindered emotional development. Keith

        Liked by 1 person

        • Y’know, Keith … I think that’s a problem with both genders, and especially younger people. It’s not only the gaming, but the constant checking of the cell phone, communicating only on social media. I’ve seen couples at a restaurant where both were playing with their phones, barely raising their heads to speak a few words to one another.

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  4. There’s a joke circulating on social media. The cashier says, “That’ll be 25.25.” The man replied, “If man is still alive
    if woman can survive, they may find.” He looks around. Everyone is blankly staring at him. LOL

    Liked by 3 people

  5. Pingback: IN THE YEAR 2525. |jilldennison.com | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

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