Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The End of the World, Part III

(Click here to go directly to this post)


Sometimes I wish I had a switch with which I could shut off my mind.

I suppose that might be why I drink, to become "Comfortably Numb," to turn a phrase from Pink Floyd's song of the same name.

I was just shoveling snow from my driveway, and for some reason, the 1983 song "99 Luftballoons" by Nena crept into my head.


Here is the original German version:



And if you don't speak German, here it is in English, so you can grasp what the song is really about. While not a word for word translation, it gets the point across... WW III is started in Europe from a false alert triggered by toy balloons:




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 lads, it's a 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
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
Riding super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk

With orders to identify, to clarify and classify
Scrambling in the summer sky
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine dreams I have had
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...


The End of the World, Part I

The End of the World, Part II


No comments:

Post a Comment