Is it all in the music? Hope not!

Take it from a guy who can't carry a tune, these one hit wonders had this take on where we are headed as a people way back in 1969. In the Year 2525 topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for six weeks, maybe because it had that perfect melody and mood for the time but more because it was a haunting look at a future that can't be fully imagined until we are half-way there, almost 500 years early according to the song.

"Its overriding theme of a world doomed by its passive acquiescence and overdependence on its own overdone technologies struck a resonant chord in millions of people in the world in the late 1960s, " says Wikipedia.

Imagine... in the 1960s there was evidence, even years before personal computers were sold, let alone the cell phone which now puts 1,000 time more computer power in your hand than the units first used to send man into space. Of course we did have Popular Science Magazine, (founded in 1872) and the like, which became outlets for ideas and writings of Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Henry Huxley, Henry Ward Beecher and other brilliant minds. We were dreamers than and now.

And look at how far we have come: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the name of the game. Robots doing everything imaginable, Cars, trucks and plane driving and flying themselves, The capability to print body parts ... and guns too, Social media and the capability to know everything about everybody, Global warming... and we are still a long way away from a full roll-out of what might, could, or will be done for good... and the not so good alike. I think that is called unintended consequences.

Wanna see? Here are the lyrics:

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' Whoooa

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

Judgement Day by Willirm de Kooning in the National Gallery

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

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

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
Everything you think, do or say
Is in the pill you took today....(fading...)

And the song as sung by Zager and Evans.

Yep, sometimes songs tell a story that rings too true to enjoy. 

Blog note: I'm hardly ever this dark but when reminded of this song, I couldn't help myself but to draw an eerie parallel. However, as a glass half-full person, this is only an observation in time. But it does feel we are moving ever faster down that path.