I think if you look at the lyrics to that song more closely, you’ll find it’s actually about the present or maybe even the past – it’s cleverly worded to sound like it’s about the future, but it’s really written from the point of view of an old guy lamenting this new age of airplanes.
Also, Nothing But Flowers by Talking Heads.
Electric Light Orchestra’s Yours Truly, 2095.
Actually, that’s a cool find. “IGY” itself is about the future that never was. I’d love to know if there are more like these.
Pioneers over c by Van der Graaf Generator…
Since we can’t currently travel to the moons of Jupiter, I’m gonna say:
Moons of Jupiter - Scruffy the Cat
Great answer. Will always be true for this question.
Kudos.
The entire album Time is about a guy who gets transported forward into 2095.
Great example!
This is from Ticket to the Moon
Remember the good old 1980s?
When things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same.
I’ve got a ticket to the moon
I’ll be leaving here any day soon
Yeah, I’ve got a ticket to the moon
But I’d rather see the sunrise in your eyes.
Children of the Future by Steve Miller
David Bowie, A Better Future
The Bravery, I Have Seen The Future
The B-52s, Song For A Future Generation
“1999” by Prince was a song about the future when he released it back in 1982.
“Iron Man”.
(I think. I never really understood what that song was about).
Here’s an early song with a future theme, though I don’t know if it counts for this thread, since it’s not about life in the future, but then, it’s called “Future Blues”:
Gary Numan wrote lots of stuff set in a dystopian future, like Down in the Park.
Leonard Cohen - The Future
Blue Oyster Cult - Dancin’ In The Ruins
That’s all I got off of the top of my head. Back to work.
The Buggles “Living In The Plastic Age”
Tom Paxton’s Whose Garden Was This?
Trans-X’s Through The Eyes of the Nineties (released in 1986).
Manfred Mann’s Lies (Through the Eighties) (released in 1980).
How about “Ticket to the Moon” by ELO?
I remember the good old 1980’s/
when things were so uncomplicated.
Wish I could go back there again/
and everything would be the same.
Also on that same album (Time) is the first song I thought of for this thread, “Here is the News”, but it’s exactly the kind of space-y science-fiction song that you specifically mentioned not thinking of.
Here is the news
a cure’s been found for good old “rocket lag”.
Here is the news
someone left their life behind in a plastic bag.
The sung verses are interspersed with spoken-word “news broadcasts” containing such tantalizing futuristic tidbits as aero-technicians being sentenced by the “Justice Computer” to prison satellite Penal-111.
Here is the news
somebody has broken out of Satellite 2.
Here is the news
look very carefully, it may be you!
Haven’t listened to that song in a long time…
In the same vein, “Tomorrow’s Girls” also by Donald Fagan. Actually that whole album (Kamakiriad) is about the future.