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Five Thousand Years

By Raymond Arnold

Looking to the far future

We traditionally end with this one.

This song is available for sale via bandcamp in all three albums.

NYC2016 performance is on Youtube

A recording of this from the 2020 North American Distributed Chorus is available.

A Bayesian Choir Performance of this song was on Youtube.

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Lyrics

A possible child,
Dreaming through the longest night,
A possible smile,
Waking to a distant light,

A whole world of possibilities
Tell me what you see,
Where's that child going, tell me
Who's that child gonna be...

In (Five thousand years)
(Whatcha want to do, whatcha wanna see, in another)
(Five thousand years)
(Where we want to go, who we want to be, in another)

(Five thousand years)
(If we boldly set our sights, )
(And journey through the coldest night)
(In five thousand years...)

...
(Five thousand years...)

Build ourselves a brand new home,
Raise the glass domes high.
And in a century or three
Our children might look at the sky

And then at last they'd see
That distant yellow sun.
The cradle of humanity,
And all the things we might become...

In (Five thousand years)
(Whatcha want to do, whatcha wanna see, in another)
(Five thousand years)
(Where we want to go, who we want to be, in another)

(Five thousand years)
(If we sailed across the stars.)
(Unimaginably far)
(In five thousand years...)

And maybe good folk still might die,
But maybe not, we gotta try
I don't quite know what shape we'd take
I don't quite know what world we'd make

I don't quite know how things might change
I don't quite know what rules we'd break
Our present selves might think it strange
But there's so many lives at stake...

Entropy is bearin' down
But we got tricks to stick around.
And if we live to see the day
That yellow fades to red then grey,

We'll take a moment, one by one
Turn to face the dying su-un
Bittersweetly wave goodbye--
The journey's only just begun...

In (Five thousand years)
(Whatcha want to do, whatcha wanna see, in another)
(Five million years)
(Where we want to go, who we want to be, in another)

(Five billion years)
(When all that we once knew is gone)
(We'll find a way to carry on)
(In five billion years...)

(Five billion years)
(Whatcha want to do, whatcha want to see-ee)
(Five billion years)
(Where we wanna go...)

(Who we wanna be?)
Where we wanna go...
Who we wanna be?

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