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 lie Everything you think, do and say Is in the pill you took today
In the year 4545 You 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 hangin' limp at your sides Your legs got nothin' to do Some machine's doin' that for you
In the year 6565 You won't 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
In the year 7510 If God's a-coming, He oughta 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 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 wonderin' 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 ten thousand 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
The overriding theme, of a world doomed by its passive acquiescence to and overdependence on its own overdone technologies, struck a resonant chord in millions of people around the world in the 1960s. The song is based on a nightmarish vision of the future as man's technological inventions gradually dehumanize him. The song includes a sly colloquial reference to the Rapture (In the year 7510, if God's a' coming, He ought to make it by then.) which echoed the zeitgeist of the Jesus Movement. The song also references examples of technologies that were not fully developed but were known to the public in 1969, such as robots, as well as future technology that would come into existence long after being prophesied in the song, the science of test tube babies and genetic selection by parents of their future children. Such a concept had been explored in a few science fiction novels but had not yet been mentioned in the mainstream media until "In The Year 2525" was released in 1969. (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_The_Year_2525 )
