My Gen X Playlist: 99 Red Balloons – Nena

My favorite movie genre as a child was World War II movies. I could give you a top ten list upon demand. I used to watch them over and over and never tire of them. Part of it was just being a boy, but I also felt they were movies about good versus evil.

“WWII films are so popular because they take us back to a war where America was acting nobly, and you haven’t had that in recent wars,” David D’Arcy, a film critic, said to BBC.

– insidehook

I still enjoy them if I happen to catch them on TV, but I no longer idealize the battles of war. There have been too many conflicts throughout the world in my lifetime. Even now, multiple conflicts are raging with a few others at a tipping point. I don’t understand the chaos in the world. War makes absolutely no sense. I haven’t lost hope for human kind yet, but we need to see some improvement soon. This is insanity. Too many people are dying.

I remember when KROQ started playing Nena’s 99 Red Balloons on the radio. The original was in German and the title was 99 Luftballoons. We didn’t know what they were singing about and could barely make out the word “balloons”. Even still, we turned up the volume when it came on the radio. Nena would later release an English version under the title 99 Red Balloons. Releasing balloons sounds like a happy thing to do, typically saved for celebrations. That’s what I thought the song was about until now.

This was one of the songs in the ’80s to make a point about the brinkmanship and paranoia/hysteria surrounding the issue of war. The song talks about Nena and the listener buying 99 Balloons in a shop and letting them go, for fun. These balloons show up on the radar as unidentified objects and both sides scramble planes and go to full alert to counteract a perceived nuclear attack, when in fact it is the most childlike of things, a bunch of balloons.

– y101fm

Learning about the origin of these songs never cease to surprise me. Balloons. Potential perceived nuclear attack. Not a connection I would have readily made. It was the 80’s and I guess a sign of the times. I’m a little glad that I didn’t realize the true meaning back then. It would have put a little damper on the song as I cranked up the volume. I much prefer thinking about the joy of releasing 99 balloons. Yeah, OK. If you are calling me out, then yes, I’d prefer putting my little kid head into the sand. At least for a little while.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

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
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine 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 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
This is what we've waited 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
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Super Hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine 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 souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go