Album: TIME (1981)

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• A penny in your pocket
  Suitcase in your hand
  They won't get you very far
  Now you're a 21st century man
  
  Fly across the city
  Rise above the land
  You can do 'most anything
  Now you're a 21st century man
  
  Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow (tomorrow)
  You still wander the fields of your sorrow
  What will it bring?
  
  One day you're a hero
  Next day you're a clown
  There's nothing that is in between
  Now you're a 21st century man
  
  You should be so happy
  You should be so glad
  So why are you so lonely
  You 21st century man?
  
  You stepped out of a dream
  Believing everything was gone
  Return with what you've learned
  They'll kiss the ground you walk upon
  
  (21st-century man)
  
  Things ain't how you thought they were
  Nothing have you planned
  So pick up your penny and your suitcase
  You're not a 21st century man
  
  Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow (tomorrow)
  You still wander the fields of your sorrow (sorrow)
  Tomorrow, 21st-century man
  
  (21st-century man)
  
  (21st-century man) Writer/s: JEFF LYNNE
  Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 6

• Ed from Canton, OhThis is very cool to find out that this song was a tribute to Lennon. When I saw ELO in Cleveland in 1981 on the Time tour, they played A Day in the Life as a tribute to Lennon. when you think of it....who else but ELO could play A Day in the Life?
• Pepper from Athens, TnLast time I looked this was a tribute to Marc Bolan, whom Jeff Lynne was good friends with. Marc also played onstage with ELO a good number of times, and played on a few tracks on a 1977 album.
• Todd from Brentwood, CaI've theorized about this album, written as a rock opera many times. Listening to the words of all the songs, it makes sense to me. If it's true, I would love to have seen it produced!
• Mitch from Crown Point, InTime is actually a great album - just plain weird though - sent ELO to an early grave (that, and Xanadu).
• Logan from Troy, MtPenny in Your Pocket - Penny Lane, Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
  
  Suitcase in Your Hand - Lady Madonna, "Friday Night Arrives without a Suitcase/ Sunday morning's creeping like a nun."
  
  Fly Across the City - "Flying" - An Instrumental Beatles song from "Magical Mystery Tour", or it could refer to Heaven from John's Song, "Imagine".
  
  One day your a hero, next day your a clown - The infamous "Bigger Than Jesus" statement during the height of The Beatles career.
  
  You stepped out of the dream - Imagine - "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
  
  That's the best I can come up with.
• Randy from Suburban, MnThe entire "Time" album is a sort of rock opera about a man who is sent forward, to a time not his own. It's a fearful look at a possible future. This song, in context, is about the fact that the man of the 20th century -- when the song was written -- will not find the 21st century to be what he'd expected.

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