99 Red Balloons

99 Red Balloons is my one of my favourite songs. I have had it as my phone’s ring tone since the day that technology became available (originally just a little jingle, and not the actual song).

I know what the song means, I know what Nena intended and that the band was unhappy with the translation. Personally I don’t think it would have been correctly understood even if the translation had been better. When a song is this personal to a country, it would be hard for anyone outside those borders to understand exactly.

I know all of this now. The first time I listened to it (pre-internet and in a boycotted South Africa), it spoke to me of something that I have tried to explain ever since. It’s more feeling than lyrics so it’s hard, but just look at the first lines:

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

There is something there about being in the moment, doing something that speaks to you, instead of something responsible. And then the last lines:

Ninety-nine dreams I have had

In every one, a red balloon

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...

Somewhere in there is the idea, the feeling, of dreams that get shattered, rising from the ashes, surviving, and things that were once everything we ever wanted, and then not. For whatever reason, something that was precious but which needs to be let go of. I wouldn’t know the original intent or lyrics of the song for over a decade, but Nena’s song becomes even richer once I knew that it was about how one thing leads to another, about hysteria and how devastating fear based reactions (war) can be:

The lyrics of the original German version tell a story: 99 balloons are mistaken for UFOs, causing a general to send pilots to investigate. Finding nothing but balloons, the pilots put on a large show of fire power. The display of force worries the nations along the borders and the war ministers on each side encourage conflict to grab power for themselves. In the end, a cataclysmic war results from the otherwise harmless flight of balloons and causes devastation on all sides without a victor, as indicated in the denouement of the song: "99 Jahre Krieg ließen keinen Platz für Sieger," which means "99 years of war have left no place for winners." The anti-war song finishes with the singer walking through the devastated ruins of the world and finding a single balloon. The description of what happens in the final line of the piece is the same in German and English: "Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen," or "I think of you and let it go." - from Wikipedia

In many ways I have stayed stuck on the music I use to listen to as a young adult (although I have had to let go of many, and some I keep purely because I can still connect to that part of me that connected to it). I find new songs/artists only because I make a point of at least listening to some of the things my favourite people inform me of, but I like to let a song tell me what it is about for me first, sometimes only. Songs have to speak to my heart, not just in the tune, but also in the lyrics. Some just evoke an understanding that I can’t quite explain.

My other favourite song (I only have two), Run to the Water by Live, is the same thing. The lyrics are poetry that I can sit with for hours, the tune pulls at my heart, but ultimately there is an understanding that can only be heard through my soul. I cry when I listen to it. Every. Single. Time.

Anyway.

It’s my birthday, and I wanted to share something that I love.