Back in 2013 there was a thread called, “Name a song that mentions a specific year in its lyrics.” I would like a list of something a bit narrower: songs where the entire subject matter is about a specific year. (I would guess most songs that fall into this category have the year somewhere in the title of the song, but I don’t think that’s a necessity.)
I’ll go first: Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams.
The Sisters of Mercy have both 1969 and 1959. As to whether the subject matter is “about” the year, that’s a judgement call.
McCartney & Wings - Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-five.
December '63 (Foru Season)
In the Year 2525 (Zagar and Evans)
1999 (Prince)
1984 (Oingo Boingo)
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
“Louisiana, 1927” - Randy Newman.
Depends a bit on how finicky you are about what “about a year” means.
Redd Kross’s 1976 has enough cultural references, that it is at least about the 70s.
Grand Funk Railroad also had a song titled 1976, which begins “Happy Birthday America,” so clearly the exact year is important to the lyrics.
And rounding up our 1976-themed songs, there’s 1976 by Alan Jackson. Good amount of cultural references there that you can pin down the song to being about a small range of years if you remove all references to 1976 from the song.
(1979 by the Pumpkins was my first thought upon reading the thread title, but that’s taken. But, like many of these songs, is that really about the year, or is it just a year in the past used to represent a nostalgic feeling/era?)
“1941” - Harry Nilsson
Does Queen’s “In the Year of '39” count? It’s a specific year, but we don’t know what century that specific year is in.
Well, OK, I guess it’s two specific years, a century apart.
How about “1985”? It was written and originally recorded by SR-71, but the Bowling for Soup version is probably better known. It actually describes what’s happening in a different (later) year, but references 1985 continuously.
1985-Bowling For Soup.
(Which sounds remarkably like Weird Al)
Does the specific year have to be mentioned in the lyrics?
Dream Theater’s concept album Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory deals with a man in the present day who realizes he is the reincarnation of a young woman who was murdered in 1928. The year where he is reliving the past comes from one of the track titles, “Overture 1928.” There is no mention anywhere at all, in the track titles or the lyrics, that the “present day” is 1999 (the year the album was released).
BUT… in the closing moments of the album, the main character turns on a TV and sees a news report about the death of JFK Junior. The band has said they put that in there to tie the story to the “present day,” meaning as we listen we are supposed to surmise that the “present” is 1999.
Both at 11:21…let’s call it a tie. “Great minds,” and all that.
How about 1921 from Tommy?
'39 by Queen
1984 by Spirit
The Stooges had both 1969 and 1970.
Jimi Hendrix had 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)
According to Bryan Adams, the “69” in “Summer of '69” does not refer to the year 1969, although since the “'69” has an apostrophe that would suggest that it is actually an abbreviation.
“Summer '68” - Pink Floyd
David Bowie - 1984
Nope! And your example (Metropolis Part II) is good.
I thought of another: 1967 by The Dayglo Abortions.
Wings: Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five