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A little something about Nena
While it may not have been obvious to the average English speaking listener, "99 Luftballons" was a pretty rare commodity in the early '80s: a song with a conscience. While lighthearted and playful in tone, the song is ultimately one of cold war tension; a war begins when trigger happy generals send planes to intercept a mass of unidentifed objects (balloons) just above the horizon. The conflict escalates as everyone wants a piece of the action, and by the end of the song there is nothing left... no fighters, no balloons, just a world in ruins.The formations of fighters mentioned to in "99 Luftballons" must have been a much more familiar site to West Germans than to your average American of the 1980s. While we Americans sat in front of their expensive, foreign-made TVs (bought on credit) and lapped up Reaganomics, countries like Germany sat on the front lines of Reagan's renewed cold war. Germans were living with buildings that still showed forty year old scars, armed border guards, walls and fences, and a constant US military presence that could not be ignored. It should come as no surprise that a subtle yet poignant protest songs such as this would come out Germany.Both the original German version and the English version, "99 Red Balloons," were popular on U.S. radio stations in the early '80s. The English version, however, was less a direct translation of the original than an attempt to appeal to the vast English speaking audience. The group (and Nena is a group, not just singer Nena Kerner) cleary sounds more at home in their native language, and the German original is far superior to its cheesy English cousin.
99 red balloons - Nena - 1984
You and I in 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, Something's out there.
Floating in the summer sky.
99 red balloons go by.
99 red balloons.
floating in the summer sky.
Panic bells, it's 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.
Where 99 red balloons go by.
99 Decision Street.
99 ministers meet.
To worry, worry, super-scurry.
Call the troops out in a hurry.
This is what we've waited for.
This is it boys, this is war.
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by.
99 Knights of the air
Ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a superhero.
Everyone's a Captain Kirk.
With orders to identify.
To clarify and classify.
Scramble in the summer sky.
As 99 red balloons go by.
99 dreams I have had.
In every one a red balloon.
It's all over and I'm standing pretty.
In this dust that was a city.
If I could find a souvenier.
Just to prove the world was here.
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go.
99 Luftballons- (Original Version in German)
Hast du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich
Singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und das sowas von sowas kommt
99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man für Ufos aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
'Ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben wenn's so wär
Dabei war'n dort am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons
99 Düsenflieger
Jeder war ein grosser Krieger
Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
Das gab ein grosses Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fühlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons
99 Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen: Krieg und wollten Macht
Man wer hätte das gedacht
Das es einmal so weit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons
Wegen 99 Luftballons
99 Luftballons
99 Jahre Krieg
Liessen keinen Platz für Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt's nicht mehr
Und auch keine Düsenflieger
Heute zieh ich meine Runden
Seh' die Welt in Trümmern liegen
Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen
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