In the Year 2525
In the Year 2525 ( Exordium & Terminus ) is a authored by the duo Zager & Evans in 1969 futuristic folk-rock song about man's relationship to technology and to the earth, which developed into the worldwide million-seller.
Genesis
Denny Zager and Rick Evans had separated in 1965 from the band Eccentrics and decided to act as a folk-rock duo. The composed in half an hour by Rick Evans already in 1964 Song was formed in November 1968, the tiny label Truth Records, the Zager & Evans belonged. The title was taken in Odessa / Texas in November 1968 in the studio of Tommy Allsup Recordings (East County Road and 56th Street ), which had been founded in 1965. The background instrumentation for this apocalyptic ballad came from students of the Odessa Permian High School. It started with an initial pressing of only 1,000 copies that sold Zager & Evans from the trunk of their car and at local record stores. After some local radio stations played the board, another 10,000 copies were pressed. Regional for a total of 11,000 units were sold.
Success
In New York, the unusual recording caught the attention of RCA producer Ernie Altschuler. Published on June 21, 1969 In the Year 2525 ( Exordium & Terminus ) / Little Kids (RCA # 74-0174 ), the title reached on 12 July 1969 the first rank of the pop charts. The addition to the title was the Latin form of the beginning and end. He stayed six weeks at the first position longer than any other top hits of the year 1969 at this rank. Already on July 8, 1969 a gold record for a million copies was awarded. Overall, the song has sold two million copies worldwide in the U.S. and two million more times until 1985. It is assumed that he has been transposed ten million times.
An eponymous EP and LP was nachgeschoben On July 7, 1969 yet. The success song is still the only No. 1 of a science fiction text in the United States. As it turned out, In The Year 2525 was a one- hit wonder, because subsequent singles did not reach the charts. That a Multimillionenhit like this did not come from the famous recording studios, but from a local recording studio in West Texas, was quite an accomplishment.
Reception
Coverinfo.de has 26 cover versions of the song. As early as 1969 published the singer Dalida a French cover version under the title L'an 2005, the band Visage released on their album Fade to Grey -. The Singles Collection, a previously unreleased cover version.
1991 coverte the song EBM band Project Pitchfork on their album Dhyani and 1994, the band Laibach for their album NATO, under the title in 2525 with an altered text. The music for the TV series Cleopatra 2525 from 2000 was based on this song. In 2009 published Ian Brown, singer and co-founder of Stone Roses, also a cover version of the song on his album My Way. In the animated series Futurama the song, with slightly modified text (eg in the year 252525 ) The Incredible Journey in a crazy time machine came before in the episode. The band Fields of the Nephilim coverte the song for her 2005 released album Mourning Sun.
Content
The prophetic and visionary text is a journey through the future of humanity and begins in the year 2525th At intervals of usually 1010 years, the verses deal with predictions of human situations. So the thoughts, actions and language of the people are programmed by a daily pill in the year 3535. In each stanza changes this pattern, and musically the key increases by half a step. Beginning of As - minor to A minor, then to B minor for the verses of the years 7510, 8510 and 9595th Here is a basic ecological message in a character that a person of Mother Earth have taken everything without Giving back. Then the fade-out begins again with the year 2525th If everything has already lived through before a new cycle started? Creates humanity a positive change? The answer remains open. "The twinkling of starlight ( light at the end of the tunnel) " and "maybe it's only yesterday" is to give hope.
The topic describes the end of the world by passive acceptance and excessive dependence on others by their exaggerated technologies that dehumanize humanity ultimately. Due to the pessimistic and negative content of the song belongs to the dystopian. According to Time magazine, the futuristic song to hear, as if he " by a computer the Rand Corporation composed" was.