'In The Year 2525' (500 years from now?) by Zager and Evans (released 1969) is considered one of the most famous "one hit wonders" in U.S. recording history. Released before music videos were a thing, this video is posted on YouTube with the song playing over eerie footage from the classic apocalyptic sci-fi film 'Metropolis', a 1927 film which, in its time, was very controversial. The subtitle of the song is Exordium and Terminus, which means the Beginning and the End. The song is pretty straightforward -- with each verse, the years add up and the future looks bleaker and bleaker. It's a dystopian message, predicting a future of mankind's self-destruction through technology and environmental damage, leading to extinction by the year 9595. Do you think this song is predicting a future that seems to already be khappening?

'1950' by King Princess, pays tribute to LGBTQ+ people who faced barriers in expressing their queerness decades ago. When writing and recording this song, in 2017, King Princess (real name Mikaela Mullaney Straus) thought about all the barriers LGBTQ+ people have faced just wanting to be with their partners, like anyone with their partners, and felt the 1950s was before anyone could even hope to be able to do that. "Queer love was only able to exist privately for a long time, expressed in society through coded art forms. I wrote this song as a story of unrequited love in my own life, doing my best to acknowledge and pay homage to that part of history." She specifically cited the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith as an inspiration behind the song. Do you enjoy songs that are inspired by events, books or movies from earlier years?

'12/17/12' was written by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy after watching President Obama's speech, which took place at an interfaith prayer vigil on December 17, in the wake of the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings. Meloy said about his reasons for writing this song, "There is an incredible feeling of helplessness when you see things like this, but we feel an intimate desire to do something. It happened that day when Obama did a press conference and he read out the names of the kids. It was a powerful moment and the song was in some way my attempt to do something." Knowing what inspired this song makes the lyrics of "And, oh, my god, What a world you have made here, What a terrible world, what a beautiful world" that more poignant . Does knowing the backstory of a song add a different dimension to that song when you listen to it?

Sublime released their response to the Rodney King riots, the 1996 classic 'April 29,1992 (Miami)'. The song sparked controversy, but the biggest controversy was over the title, and the lyrics-- the L.A. Riots began on April 29th, 1992. Lead singer Bradley Nowell mistakenly sang "April 26th," but it was such a strong take of the recording they decided to keep it in. The fact that it was a mistake has been confirmed by the band on a few occasions. Also, why Miami, when the riots took place in L.A.? That is less clear. It appears that this may reference the first shout out on that recording to Miami, but it is not confirmed. Sadly Newell died from a drug overdose, just before the album this song appeared on, was released. Do you know any other songs where the title and lyrics don't really make sense?

Al Stewart is known for writing pretty songs, and songs that have a strong connection to historical events. His song 'The Last Day Of June 1934' follows along those lines. At first, the song paints relaxed scenes of summer love in the fields of France and philosophical curiosity in England's Cambridge, on the last day of June, 1934. Yet trouble was brewing that none could foresee. On that night of June 30th, Adolph Hitler began his purge of rivals and internal enemies, the so-called "Night of Long Knives" that ended two days later with the execution of Ernst Röhm, his longtime ally and chief rival. And so began Hitler's reign of terror. Can you name any other song that focuses on events that forever changed our world?