Zager And Evans - In The Year 2525

Uploaded by olgamarie888 on Jul 19, 2008

Denny Zager of
http://www.zagerguitar.com
Early performance of Zager and Evans.

"In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" is a #1 hit song from 1969 by the Lincoln, Nebraska duo Zager and Evans which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the six weeks commencing July 12, 1969 and also reached number one in the UK the following month,reaching #1 on 26 August 1969 for 3 weeks.
Zager and Evans were a Lincoln, Nebraska rock-pop duo of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its two members, Denny Zager and Rick Evans, who met at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Artists Dave Trupp and Mark Dalton backed up the duo.

The song describes a nightmarish vision of the future as man's technological inventions gradually dehumanize him. The overriding theme is of a world doomed by its passive acquiescence to and overdependence on its own overdone technologies. 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.

It opens with the words "In the year 2525, If man is still alive, If woman can survive, They may find...". Subsequent verses pick up the story at 1010-year intervals from 2525 to 6565. Disturbing predictions are given for each selected year. In the year 3535, for example, all of a person's actions, words and thoughts will be preprogrammed into a daily pill.
The final dated chronological verse is, "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, whoa-whoa...," making specific the underlying environmental message of the song.
Denny Zager nowadays has his own Guitar Instruction website on :
http://www.zagerguitar.com
He and his son Dennis Jr. also designed & set up his own brand of beautiful and easy to play guitars until he somewhat retired in 2008 from doing that but he says that new beginner guitars will now be awailable in music stores as of June '09. Also he has inexpensive guitar lessons for about $8/mos (if a person signs for a year) on his website.
Their excellent fingerstyle lessons and I am currently doing those.

LYRICS:
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 lies
Everything you think, do and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
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 hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine's doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna 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, whoa-oh

In the year 7510
If God's a-comin' He oughta make it by then
Maybe He'll look around Himself and say
Guess it's time for the judgment 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, whoa-oh

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 nothin', whoa-oh

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

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive, they may find

In the year 3535 {fade}