Poll

[lapsedmodernist]

[Poll #548769]

Comments

[somegal.livejournal.com]

It's so funny you posted this-- just as I read my friend page it was playing on my iTunes at work (but the German version, so I have to remember purely from drunken karaoke nights since it's one of my two "regulars" when I go) :)

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

whoops, forgot to log into my own journal.

so, what's your other regular?

[somegal.livejournal.com]

#17099 @ Sing Sing
(how geeky is that? haha)

otherwise known as "Our House" by Madness

do you have any regulars?

[buttler.livejournal.com]

i only ever listened to it in german, which, um, i don't speak. not so helpful.

[schrodingersgnu.livejournal.com]

Question - what does the entire song mean to you? The english version does not seem to make sense to me, while the german one is quite clear... Once I understood the german lyrics, though, the english made sense. Sort of.

[amadea.livejournal.com]

I don't speak German, but I've heard the two songs are pretty different in terms of what the lyrics mean... To me, the English song is about a nuclear war provoked by a false alarm - a pair of lovers or friends let go a bunch of balloons that are thought by the automated army complex to be an invading missle. A response is launched, and nothing is left but rubble - the protagonist is left with nothing but memories of a better time.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

oh wow, for some reason I never thought of it that way, but that, of course, is the linear narrative. I just always thought of it as evocative/symbolic but never put together that the balloons actually started the war. Although now it is TOTALLY OBVIOUS *smacks head*

[schrodingersgnu.livejournal.com]

That would make sense.

The german lyrics follow the same lines, but with human folly and stupidity as the trigger, not machine error.

99 Deusenjaegers - jetfighters - were sent up to investigate, and shot the hell out of the balloons. The neighbours were provoked, and shot back.

The 99 Kriegsminister - Ministers of War - smelled the loot and banged the war-drum.

99 Jahre Krieg - years of war - don't leave room for winners. There are no more ministers or jetfighters. As I walk around, I see the world in ruins. i find a ballon, I think of you and let it fly.

I guess the german version is more explicit, and quite a bit more cynical...

[mashuta.livejournal.com]

ditto :D

[mashuta.livejournal.com]

i just freaked myself out with this flash of brilliance - when she lets that one balloon go at the end, does it maybe set of the last and final round of war, this time leaving nothing alive?! whooooow, doooood... take a toke of this..... lol

[ok ok so technically there shouldnt be any more weapons or military left in this "dust that once was city"... it's a symbolic suicide, anyway]

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I just always thought of it as an anti-war song, with everything playful and alive obliterated by the war machine, but I think amadea's comment has more to do with the actual content of the song.

[schrodingersgnu.livejournal.com]

oh, it's definetly an anti-war song. Written a few years before the wall came down, and Germany was just waiting for WWIII to start...

[claudelemonde.livejournal.com]

http://www.eightyeightynine.com/music/nena-99luftballoons.html

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

merci...I still think "and" is more poetic than "in"...

[amadea.livejournal.com]

I dunno - I never thought it could be "in", I always just assumed it was "and". In a reversal of the usual tendency to distrust the new and unfamiliar, I kind of like the image of 99 dreams, every one containing a red balloon. It has this sort of obsessive, repetitive mourning quality that the protagonist otherwise lacks...

didn't take the poll because...

[pirat-ponton.livejournal.com]

...actually, I've always heard: "99 dreams I have had, 'n every one, a red balloon"

in other words, just the "n" sound

subtle, right? I think it's both "in" & "an[d]"

[spawnsong.livejournal.com]

YES! yet another example how i don't have a fucking clue about the world 'out there'. money.

[stillwell.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I was just recently tortured by this song. (Not for the last time!)