# Future Games - Songs About the Future **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817 "2012-01-17T19:38:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/1 "2012-01-17T19:38:16Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/2 "2012-01-17T20:27:13Z")
“Space Oddity” - David Bowie “In a Future Age” - Wilco ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/3 "2012-01-17T20:29:13Z")
“The Humans Are Dead” - Flight of the Conchords ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/4 "2012-01-17T20:37:20Z")
“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_) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/5 "2012-01-17T20:42:04Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/6 "2012-01-17T20:43:16Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/7 "2012-01-17T21:15:57Z")
Paul Simon’s [Cool, Cool River](http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Cool-Cool-River-lyrics-Paul-Simon/33E4F3D6114172A44825698A000D6742) 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 ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/8 "2012-01-17T21:42:36Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/9 "2012-01-17T22:09:23Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > “2000 Man” - Rolling Stones (well, it was the future _then_) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/10 "2012-01-17T22:17:18Z")
“Tomorrow”. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/11 "2012-01-17T22:23:17Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/12 "2012-01-18T16:31:29Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/13 "2012-01-18T16:57:54Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > “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”.) 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. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/14 "2012-01-18T17:51:16Z")
[“The Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrriKcwvlY) - Timbuk3 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/15 "2012-01-18T18:03:14Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > 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” 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. ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/16 "2012-01-18T18:20:27Z")
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…_ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Righteous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/17 "2012-01-18T18:38:44Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > All of _2112_ (Rush) I’d say that Red Barchetta is another one of theirs that is about the (dystopian) future. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/18 "2012-01-18T19:58:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/19 "2012-01-18T20:05:12Z")
_Space Station #5_ and _Space Age Sacrifice_ by Montrose _Honeymoon on Mars_ and _Life in the Air Age_ by Be Bop Deluxe ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817/20 "2012-01-18T20:30:03Z")
Ehh, my favorite Nuclear holocaust song is Simon & Garfunkel’s [the Sun is Burning](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BNL9aKf5XE). A beautiful lilting song about horrific destruction. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-games-songs-about-the-future/609817.md?page=2)