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naturalplastic
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20 Jan 2024, 12:39 am

cyberdad wrote:
As it turned out, "99 Red Balloons," as it was now called, was, of all things, an anti-nuclear protest song. In the lyrics, a boy and girl innocently release a batch of balloons into the air; confused by these flying objects, international governments panic, triggering a nuclear holocaust.

That point has already been made on this thread about twenty times.

You might try reading a thread before posting in it. :lol:



nick007
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21 Jan 2024, 4:55 pm

There was going to be 100 luftballoons but one of them popped :arrow:


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nick007
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21 Jan 2024, 5:42 pm

I've heard both the American & English version of the song & like both of them.
I think based on history it's more likely for balloons to be mistaken as alien UFOs than nuclear threats. The Roswell incident comes to mind here.


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naturalplastic
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21 Jan 2024, 7:24 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
As it turned out, "99 Red Balloons," as it was now called, was, of all things, an anti-nuclear protest song. In the lyrics, a boy and girl innocently release a batch of balloons into the air; confused by these flying objects, international governments panic, triggering a nuclear holocaust.

That point has already been made on this thread about twenty times.

You might try reading a thread before posting in it. :lol:

On the other hand...its true that many songs are not about they seem to be about. Like the song in question seems to be a happy party tune but is about nuclear armegeddon.

"Who Let the Dogs Out?" believe it or not...is a feminist anthem. Its about how at parties certain men will come out of the woodwork and aggressively hit on the ladies and be "dogs" hence the question "who let the dogs out?". Male singers deploring the behavior of other men.



naturalplastic
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21 Jan 2024, 7:29 pm

nick007 wrote:
I've heard both the American & English version of the song & like both of them.
I think based on history it's more likely for balloons to be mistaken as alien UFOs than nuclear threats. The Roswell incident comes to mind here.


First off...there was a German language version, and there was an English language version. Thats it. AFAIK they never made separate English language versions for the US and the UK. So IDK what you're talking about.

Second you would have to have lived during the long decades of the cold war to "get" the song. NATO had huge armies in west Germany facing The Soviets and Warsaw pact to the east with their equally huge armies facing west in East Germany- in constant confrontation. Only a hair trigger stopped them from going at each other. Thats the situation the song is commenting upon.



cyberdad
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21 Jan 2024, 7:38 pm

Yeah I like Nena's German version.



nick007
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21 Jan 2024, 7:49 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
nick007 wrote:
I've heard both the American & English version of the song & like both of them.
I think based on history it's more likely for balloons to be mistaken as alien UFOs than nuclear threats. The Roswell incident comes to mind here.


First off...there was a German language version, and there was an English language version. Thats it. AFAIK they never made separate English language versions for the US and the UK. So IDK what you're talking about.

Second you would have to have lived during the long decades of the cold war to "get" the song. NATO had huge armies in west Germany facing The Soviets and Warsaw pact to the east with their equally huge armies facing west in East Germany- in constant confrontation. Only a hair trigger stopped them from going at each other. Thats the situation the song is commenting upon.
I figured out why I got confused. The band Goldfinger covered the American version & since I haven't heard their cover in a while I forgot which artist had done it & thought it was some English punk band instead of American punk. Nena's version is a lot more popish than Goldfinger but has the same lyrics.


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