Songs With Years in Them - C/D?

"1959" - Sisters of Mercy
"1963" - New Order
"1969" - Stooges
"1977" - the Clash
"1979" - Smashing Pumpkins
"1981" - Public Image Ltd.
"1984" - David Bowie
"1999" - Prince

All of the songs listed by Alex are great, so I must say CLASSIC.

alex just robbed two of my classics (1963/1999 if yer interested). also classic is '1969' by boards of canada.

dud is '1984' by tina turner.

I think it's problematic to mention the current year in a song. For one thing, due to the lag between recording and release of a record, by the time a song comes out, it may already be the next year, and in any case it won't take long for your lyrics to sound outdated.

The songs Alex listed are great, true, but if you look closely, most of them were not named after the year in which they came out. So that's kind of a different phenomenon.

'39 - Queen

'93 'til infinity' souls of mischief.

UTTER, UTTER CLASSIC.

Classic.

It's 1989 stand up and take a look around
Weather's bitter tension it seems is sinking down.
Drunk with power and fighting one another every hour
Shows the winter getting harder.
There's a freeze up coming.
One nation stands the tallest radiating blinding light,
Plastic and flourescent energy robbing us of sight-
Set in our way, content with our decay.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/o/orange-9mm/11093.htm

1982 - Miss Kittin & The Hacker

Isn't there a Billy Joel sci-fi track called "Miami 2010" or something?

NYC's squatter's rights-obsessed noisy nogoodniks Missing Foundation have a track called "1933," but it's quite literally unlistenable trash....but, ya know, it still has a year in it's title.

also, it's actually kinda amusing sometimes. i LOVE to sing along with California Uber Alles at that part where Jello sings "Now it's 1984, knock knock at yer front door"

heh.

"Spirit of `76" by the Alarm

Possibly the WORST song ever written with a date in its title, and a strong candidate for WORST song EVAH full stop, is "Queen of 1964" by Neil Sedaka. Read these lyrics; their artistry and compassion will astound you.

"Anyone who's played on a record date
Will remember Stage-Door-Jenny
Well, I saw her last night and man,
She looks like she wasn't gettin' any
(Ah-h-h-h-h-h-h)
Rock and roll kinda took it's toll
When she shed her inhibitians
Too many scenes in limousines
And dressing room intermissions

She was the queen of 1964
But the truth of the matter is
Nobody wants her anymore
There was a time she could've shown you how
But nobody wants an overage groupie now

When it came to a superstar
Jenny was a braggart
Spread it all around to everyone in town
That she once had Mick Jagger
(Oh-h-h-h-h-h-h)
There's no doubt when the truth comes out
True love will overconquer
She didn't get Mick but she got a kick
And a black eye from Bianca

She was the queen of 1964
What a pity she became a shadow of
The girl she was before
She passed her prime it seems a shame, somehow
But nobody wants an overage groupie now

De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da

I'm afraid that the Morning Trade
Had a sad obituary
There'll be no more Jenny at the door
They took her to the cemetery
(Ah-h-h-h-h-h-h)
Just an autograph book and a stereo
There was no one she was close ta
She was found with her arms around
An Elvis Presley poster

She was the queen of 1964
Tonight there'll be a moment of silence
At the Troubadour
There was a time she could've shown you how
But nobody wants an overage groupie now
But nobody wants an overage groupie now

De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
Ba-ba-oom-a-moow-moow
Ba-ba-oom-moow-moow
Ba-ba-oom-a-moow-moow-moow-moow
Ba-ba-oom-a-moow-moow
Ba-ba-oom-moow-moow

De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
De-da-da-da-da-de-da-da
De-da-da-da-da
Ba-ba-oom-a-moow-moow
Ba-ba-oom-moow-moow
Ba-ba-oom-a-moow-moow-moow-moow"

Need I add that musically this was set to a jolly calypso?

"2112" by Rush

Classic.

1970 The Stooges even better then 1969.

'In the year 2525'?

Another goodie.

I always confuse "1970" with it's re-titled "I Feel Alright" (as mistaken by the Damned"). But...yeah, it's a farkin classic as well.

I suppose we should also mention the affront that was "Summer of `69" by Brian Adams

Re: mentioning the "current" year on a record, I think nearly every hip hop LP I own does that at some point. Sometimes they even remember that they'd better pretend it's NEXT year, so that the record doesn't become obsolete a few weeks after it's released - e.g. Flavor Flav's "2002 - representing the Wu" on Iron Flag, which was actually recorded and released in 2001.

Rob 'n' Raz, featuring Leila K's "Got to Get", has "fresh for 89" in its lyrics. I'm pretty sure it reached its highest chart position in 1990.

"1998" by Binary Finary...one of the few tracks with a year as its title to not mention the year in the lyrics...well, there are no lyrics at all - top choon tho

agreed that's a top choon, but my beef with that track is how each year they rerelease remixes of it and relabel it as whatever the current year it is. So far in my collection I have 1998, 1999, 2000 on vinyl and after that I stopped being such a sucker :-p

(i do know there's at least been a 2001, not sure about this year though)

cheers,
rents

hey joni by the sonic youth has some good random-sounding year enumeration in it.

Rob Zombie kicks ass.

"Demon warp is, comin' alive
In nineteen sixty... five, five, five!"

The first time I heard it I had no idea what he was saying, I just thought it was cool he was screaming "five five five" instead of "six six six."

"NYC 1999" by Pussy Galore (recorded sometime in the late 80's)

I think it was Kevin Greening on Radio 1 who made a running joke about "California Love" having "now it's '95" in the lyrics when it wasn't released as a single until 1996.

"The Queen of 1964" - good god Marcello I actually REMEMBER what that sounded like, though naturally I can't call the lyrics to mind. Sedaka is one of my mum's most admired songwriters, you will not be surprised to learn.

Obvious example not mentioned so far: Belle and Sebastian, "The State That I Am In".

Summer of '69! (Is that about a year?)

Not sure if it counts but, "EIGHTIES" by my beloved KILLING JOKE!

Paris 1919

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

U.S. 80's-90's

My favorite is Robyn Hitchcock's "1974" (the Storefront Hitchcock version).

I can do w/o Billy Joel and I don't think there's A Steeley Dan Tune that fits the threads criteria so..classic.

Pulp, "Disco 2000"
Rancid, "1998"
Beck, "Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997" (no mention whatsoever of titular year)
Plastilina Mosh, "Baretta 1989" (actually mentions a lot of years in this one)
The Coup, "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night" (note: this could be cheating)

Dr. Octagon - "3000" ("rap moves on to the year 3000")
Grandaddy - "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot" ("adrift again 2000 man")

"1976" by Redd Kross

Classic - more evidence:Barry Adamson - 2001
Add N to X - Live 1940
Atari Teenage Riot - Riot 1995
EPMD - Symphony 2000
Fall - Acid Priest 2088
Gunshot or DJ Hazard - Year 2000
Ian Hunter - Apathy 83
Elmore James - 1839 Blues
Mekons - 1967 (Revisited) or Abernant 1984/5
Mott The Hoople - Ballad of Mott (March 26th 1972 Zurich)
Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927
Public Enemy - Dark Side Of The Wall: 2000
Rezillos - 2000 A.D.
Charlie Rich - July 12, 1939
Patti Smith - 1959
Swamp Dogg - 1958
Television - 1880 Or So
Loudon Wainwright III - 1994
Who - 1921
Wu-Tang Killa Bees - '97 Mentality

Wings - 1985
101 Strings - 'Where Were You in 1982?', 'A Bad Trip Back to '69' (from 'Astro Sounds from Beyond the Year 2000')
Hugh Mundell - 'Africa Must Be Free By 1983'

April 19, 1992 (Miami) - Sublime

Clash — 1977
Guided By Voices — Airshow '88
Mekons — 2000 A.D. Cannibal
Ennio Morricone — 1900 (ala Cinema Paradisio)
Cornelius — 2010
Patti Smith/Sister of Mercy> — 1959
Kid Ory — 1919 Rag
Glenn Yarbrough — 1927 Kansas City
Ramblin Jack Elliot — 1913 Massacre
Linda Ronstadt/Emmylou Harris — 1917
Richard Thompson — 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
Elton John — Ballad Of Danny Bailey (1909-34)
Harry Nilsson — Dayton, Ohio-1903
Elmore James — 1839 Blues
Paul Davis — '65 Love Affair
Iron Butterfly — 1975 Overture
Tchaikovsky — 1812 Overture
The Doors — Twentieth Century Fox
Marc Bolan — 20th Century Boy
King Crimson — 21st Century Schizoid Man
Styx — A.D. 1928
Al Di Meola — Café 1930
Gene Clark — 1975
Roy Harper — 1948ish

¥

there was this rap/hiphop song (you can tell i'm a connaisseur...) that started with the -legendary- words: "yess, 1996 marks the beginning of a new era..."

(a line that my girlfriend used to bring up whenever '96 was mentioned. still funny.)

Mentioning the year in hip-hop songs usually only serves to drive the point home that most hip-hop records have a self life about as long as the milk in your fridge. The Roots complain about this in the intro to Things Fall Apart (or is it a sample of Nelson George?) which buy the way is one of the exceptions to this rule.

Your guys are missing the best one:
David Bowie's "'87 and Cry"

La Monte Young
"90 XII 9C. 9:35-10:52 PM NYC"

Jimi Hendrix -- 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) -- a very cool song in my book.

le tigre - dyke march 2001

I was surprised, I was happy for a day in 1975
I was puzzled by a dream, stayed with me all day in 1995...

Classic!

Randy Newman -- "Dayton, Ohio 1903"

It was strange, Sebastian had just decided to become a one-man band. It is always when you least expect it that something happens. Sebastian had befriended a fox because he didn't expect to have any new friends for a while. He still loved the fox, although he had a new distraction. Suddenly he was writing many songs. Sebastian wrote all of his best songs in 1995. In fact, most of his best songs have the words 'Nineteen Ninety-five' in them. It bothered him a little. What will happen in 1996?

"I suppose we should also mention the affront that was "Summer of `69" by Brian Adams"

No we shouldn't - please, never mention either that song or that man in my hearing again.

As a 'Joke fan I'm sure Alex won't mind me bending the rules to mention the band 1919 'though.

Also not mentioned thus far, so far as I can see:
Paris 1919 - John Cale
PC 1984 - Crisis
Carnival 2000 - Prefab Sprout
Riding To Work In The Year 2025 - Flaming Lips

All very definitely (c) of course.... apart from Mr Adams, obv.

The Auteurs - 1967: "In 1967, no pop in our record collection..."

Oooh and Simple Minds - New Gold Dream ("81, 82, 83, 84!!!")

yes, 2525, hey joni, 1969, great songs -- paris 1919 is a cool album but i don't know about the title song or the concept -- it's so un- paris 1919, too welsh or c of e or trite ghost story, maybe the point -- maybe if we'd all been in paris/ 1919 things would have been different

second time referred to the same song in one day -- "brothers gotta workit out" (from '90 ?) has that great [in 1995 you'll raise your fist as you twist to this] type line which still seems to be true in 2002, as are the sentiments of the song sadly

but since we're on the verge of apocalypse right now, it could happen 6 o'clock thursday on the dot ("midnight was the barrier"), may as well be the middle of the cuban missile crisis or nixon [or whatever this song's really about], how about BOC's "dominance and submission" ? well the classic, first, properly abbreviated "BOC" if nothing else

oh, and does death valley '69 count ? (another from when that band didn't suck)

putting these in order would make a rather clever little history of music. In order they were released or in order of the date in the title...?

1972 by Giant Sand. Not sure if it is a song. The lyrics go "1971, 1972, 1973". It is a little more than a minute long with a garage sound. Punk as hell. It starts like a soundcheck with some guitar noise. The track implodes at the end. Classic.

I cannot BELIEVE nobody has mentioned the breathtaking instrumental title track of Van Halen's 1984! No one has done a synth wash like that before or since. All the power and poignancy of that pivotal year, expressed in 1:07 of ROCK. All four of them got the writing credit for that track, too.

'1995' - The Radio Dept

Fight the Power by Public Enemy - starts with "1989!"

Or Rage - Know Your Enemy - "Move into '92, still in a room without a view"