Name some songs that talk about the future.
I’ll start.
“Future Games” - Fleetwood Mac
“IGY” - Donald Fagan
“In the Year 2525” - Zager and Evans
“Space Oddity” - David Bowie
“In a Future Age” - Wilco
“The Humans Are Dead” - Flight of the Conchords
“In the Future” - Sparks (“We’ll need some vintage vino/So wash your feet and stamp away”)
“2000 Man” - Rolling Stones (well, it was the future then)
Is Queen’s “39” about the future? It’s definitely a science fiction story, and it seems to be set in a distant future, when Earth is running out of land and a new home planet must be found.
Billy Joel’s “Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway”) is still set in the future… but not for much longer. It was written in the mid_Seventies, and was based on the idea that New York City was abandoned and destroyed.
Paul Simon’s Cool, Cool River
And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
Well, I guess that a lot of science-fictiony prog-rock is set in the future… such as:
“Future Legend/Diamond Dogs” (Bowie)
All of 2112 (Rush)
All of Blows Against the Empire (Paul Kantner)
“21st Century Schizoid Man” (King Crimson) – it was about the future when they wrote it.
One of the more accurate predictions.
“Though my wife still respects me, I really abuse her,
I’m having an affair with a random computer.”
How many guys are basically doing that these days.
For my contribution, “The Songs of Distant Earth,” by Mike Oldfield, based on Clarke’s novel.
“Tomorrow”.
Rocket Man by Elton John
Wooden Ships by Crosby, Stills and Nash
Children of the Sun by Billy Thorpe
After the Goldrush by Neil Young
“1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” by Jimi Hendrix.
“Drive-In Saturday” by David Bowie. (He has plenty of science-fictiony songs, of course, but this one seems specifically set in the future – “And try to get it on like once before/When people stared in Jagger’s eyes and scored/Like the video films we saw”.)
Lots of songs seem to predict the collapse of civilization; arguably these are all about, or set in, the future. Examples are Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, Steely Dan’s “Razor Boy” and “King of the World”, Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew”, Jefferson Airplane’s “House at Pooneil Corners”, etc etc.
Thanks for making this distinction. I wasn’t thinking of space songs or science-fiction songs, even though those probably are set in the future. I was looking for songs that say something specific about the future, even an ironic past future like “IGY.” Those are harder to think of than sf songs in general.
I’ve always taken that song as the upcoming demise of capitalism, not an end of the world song. For those, we have “A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall” (sublime) and “Talkin’ WW III Blues” ridiculous - but the best nuclear war song/story every, getting in almost every cliche at a verse each.
How is it that nobody’s mentioned Jonathan Coulton’s “The Future Soon”?
But I know that I’ll forget
The look of pity on her face
When I’m living in my solar dome
On a platform in space…
I’d say that Red Barchetta is another one of theirs that is about the (dystopian) future.
The “Kilroy Was Here” album by Styx, with notable songs such as “Mr. Roboto” and “Heavy Metal Poisoning,” was set in a dystopian vision of the future in which rock and roll music was outlawed.
Space Station #5 and Space Age Sacrifice by Montrose
Honeymoon on Mars and Life in the Air Age by Be Bop Deluxe
Ehh, my favorite Nuclear holocaust song is Simon & Garfunkel’s the Sun is Burning. A beautiful lilting song about horrific destruction.