Song #8: Zager and Evans - "In the Year 2525"

Song #8: Zager and Evans - "In the Year 2525" (1969)

2525: Exordium & Terminus

"In the year 9595, I'm kinda wonderin' if man is gonna be alive. He's taken everything this old Earth can give and he ain't put back nothin', whoa, whoa."

By now, in "The One-Hundred Songs of Steve Pulaski," as we near the end, I have revealed numerous ways I've been acquainted to music of the years, be it watching Country Music Television (CMT) religiously, burning CD's with my uncle, listening to music blare through my headphones as I rock on a rocking chair, or just find the songs on my own through some weird force, like work or school. The one way I haven't revealed is that frequently, always on Mondays, I sit outside with my father and we talk informally and aimlessly about life, things to do, and other such obligations and joys of life. These talks aren't as deep or as intimate as you think, but they're more than meets the eye a lot of times. The last half hour of our talks, which usually last anywhere from one hour to three hours, are usually devoted to my father wanting to hear specific songs played off my phone.

One day, we sat out back and my dad hit me with something. "Punch up on your phone a song called 'In the Year 2525' by Zager and Evans. God, what a weird fucking song. I remember when that came out. It's one of the strangest fucking things I have ever heard. You'll love it." He was correct; I still remember sitting in the darkness outside, which only intensified the creepy lyricism of the ballad. The song has no conventional structure - no chorus and no specific verses. The only consistency the song bears is beginning each line with "In the year...," starting with 2525 and continuing in intervals of 1010 (3535, 4545, 5555, etc). Following each introductory line is a statement about what state the human race will be in at that time, what technological advances have been made, and what element of scientific progress has made to further rob the world of its humanity.

The song goes on, telling of how one day we won't need our teeth or our eyes anymore, for machines are assisting us through our daily activities. We won't need husbands or wives, and we pick our sons and daughters "from the bottom of a long glass tube." The song then descends into the probable reactions of an Almighty God on a nation that has worked to rob every miracle from life and made it into a scientific project of convenience and unnatural selection. It is a scary thought, especially in a day and age where scientific progress is moving quicker and quicker.

"In the Year 2525" is a special case in music history, being about the condemnation of scientific advancement and being released in 1969, the same year as Neil Armstrong walked on the moon (the song was number one on the charts during that event). Furthermore, this is also the rare case where a song by a new artist made number one on the charts but subsequent releases by the artist never did so much as chart again. That's right, Zager and Evans are the very definition of a one-hit wonder, soon fading into complete obscurity and pursuing other ventures that weren't in the mainstream music industry following the monstrous success of their sole song. 

I love the song because not only is it a number one hit song few would remember today, but because Zager and Evans seem to predate Gary Numan, who faithful readers of this blog series know has already made three appearances. Zager and Evans, like Numan, speak of the darkside of technology in the midst of all the greatness that stems from it, and just like Numan, they provide the song with their own style and sound, Right now, however, "In the Year 2525" is a curious piece of history, but I'd like to think that if technology continues to advance at unforeseen rates, this song will come out of the woodwork and make it back into the mainstream again.

Give "In the Year 2525" a listen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lWzTvdtEx0