99 Red Balloons - Innocence and Violence

The 1983 album German group, Nena, had a war protest song that was sung in German, “99 Luftballons“.  Luftballons means Air Balloons.  It was very popular, and was re-written in English (not just translated).

In the story of the song, 2 children released 99 red balloons, and the governments interpreted that as an act of war.  Confusion and violence rising from innocence.

The song has been on my mind since the school shootings in Newtown, CT.  I grew up in Newtown, and was married in nearby Danbury in 1984.

The sound of Nena’s voice is innocent and wise at the same time.  Teaching us about peace and war in a child-like way.

I love the dancing on the video, and the styles.  Makes me feel like home.

Excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons

“While at a June 1982 concert by the Rolling Stones in West Berlin, Nena’s guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked like strange spacecraft (referred to in the German lyrics as a “UFO“). He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector.^[3]“

See more background info here-

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2511

 

English Version video

German Version video

English Lyrics

Songwriters: Mcalea, Kevin (Eng Lyr); Karges, Carlo; Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Joer;

You and I, and a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got
Set them free at the break of dawn
‘Til one by one, they were gone

Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, “Some thing’s out there”
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic lads, it’s a red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else

The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net ]

This is what we’ve waiting for
This is it boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine knights of the air
Riding super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone’s a super hero
Everyone’s a Captain Kirk

With orders to identify, to clarify and classify
Scrambling in the summer sky
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine dreams I have had
Every one a red balloon
Now it’s all over and I’m standin’ pretty
In this dust that was a city

If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go

© EMI SONGS MUSIKVERLAG GMBH;

 

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