“Floating in the summer sky, 99 red balloons go by...”
February 8, 2023 12:41 PM Subscribe
99 Luftballons (1983) and 99 Red Balloons (1984) was a song by the German band and singer Nena. The lyrics of the 1983 version were written by band member Carlo Karges, while the 1984 version were written by Kevin McAlea, one of Kate Bush's backing musicians. Both versions depict a release of balloons leading to unfortunate situations. Ahead of Nena's 2023 tour, the song is currently floating up various online charts. Covers by The Renegades and Flat Out, and a laid-back jazz lounge version featuring Aly Ryan and a xylophone. [Previously]
I was today years old when I learned that the lyrics of the German-language version implied that the imagined threat was a UFO attack, as opposed to some kind of terrestrial war threat. I always assumed this to be an anti-nukes thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:57 PM on February 8, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:57 PM on February 8, 2023 [12 favorites]
Certainly catchy and I never had any idea what it meant.
posted by sammyo at 12:58 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 12:58 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Ahead of Nena's 2023 tour, the song is currently floating up various online charts.
Relieved to see that there are no tour dates for off the coast of South Carolina
posted by nubs at 12:58 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Relieved to see that there are no tour dates for off the coast of South Carolina
posted by nubs at 12:58 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
The antiwar message of 99 Luftballons.
posted by eye of newt at 1:00 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by eye of newt at 1:00 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
huh I always assumed it was anti-war/anti-human terror too. I mean considering the time...
also I have heard that song 9 or 10 million times more than I ever need to hear it again but cool post!
posted by supermedusa at 1:12 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
also I have heard that song 9 or 10 million times more than I ever need to hear it again but cool post!
posted by supermedusa at 1:12 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's still an anti-nukes thing, I think; it's just the initial scramble was prompted by fear of UFOs, which then set off some good old-fashioned mutually assured destruction. Otherwise it's hard to understand why the city got nuked.
posted by praemunire at 1:17 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 1:17 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
The rare and majestic happy hardcore remix.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
Referenced in Okkervil River's "Plus Ones", a song that takes a number of songs where a numeric element is significant and muses about the extras that didn't quite make the cut..
And no one wants a tune about the 100th luftballoonposted by Nerd of the North at 2:10 PM on February 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
That was seen shooting from the window of your room
To be a spot against the sky's colossal gloom
And land deflated in some neighbor's state that's strewn
With ninety-nine others
Metafilter: Jeder war ein großer Krieger Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
posted by Naberius at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 2:20 PM on February 8, 2023 [10 favorites]
Thanks to world news this past week, I have been absent-mindedly humming this as "99 spy balloons go by~"
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 3:11 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 3:11 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
I liked that song when it first came out. And it played on every radio station about 16 times a day for months on end, I swear. But I hummed along every time. Oh look, I’m humming it now!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 3:45 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 3:45 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yes, it's definitely an anti-nuclear war song. The English version is much darker, though--the narrator releases the balloons, whereas in the German version the whole thing is framed as a story and the balloons just appear.
posted by hoyland at 4:12 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hoyland at 4:12 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm still weirded out there's a German version, as I have a friend who speaks German and used to sing the German version at karaoke just for the hell of it.... I miss those days.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:26 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:26 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Alas, Nena is now a Querdenker (anti-vax conspiracy theorist).
posted by rednikki at 4:39 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by rednikki at 4:39 PM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm still weirded out there's a German version,
Well, she is German. I’m more bemused by albums in German from Bowie and Peter Gabriel.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:11 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well, she is German. I’m more bemused by albums in German from Bowie and Peter Gabriel.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:11 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Otherwise it's hard to understand why the city got nuked.
Aliens can nuke places too, you know.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:16 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Aliens can nuke places too, you know.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:16 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
From orbit; it’s the only way to be sure.
The apartment I lived in in Ottawa for five years had a glacial palette when I arrived: white walls, deep blue wall-to-wall carpet. After a year or two, I thought I needed something to relive the frosty vibe, so I found a place in the US that sold vinyl wall stickers. There are a lot of things great for decorating kids’ rooms, and some self-consciously arty things like interlocking clockwork gears the height of a typical room’s ceiling.
One of the things on offer was a package of the silhouettes of 99 balloons of various sizes, so when affixed to the wall, they resembled a big cloud of them being released. They were available in about nine different colours.
Three guesses as to (a) what colour I chose, and (b) what song I had on repeat on my MP3 player during the hour or two I placed them on the wall.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:18 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
The apartment I lived in in Ottawa for five years had a glacial palette when I arrived: white walls, deep blue wall-to-wall carpet. After a year or two, I thought I needed something to relive the frosty vibe, so I found a place in the US that sold vinyl wall stickers. There are a lot of things great for decorating kids’ rooms, and some self-consciously arty things like interlocking clockwork gears the height of a typical room’s ceiling.
One of the things on offer was a package of the silhouettes of 99 balloons of various sizes, so when affixed to the wall, they resembled a big cloud of them being released. They were available in about nine different colours.
Three guesses as to (a) what colour I chose, and (b) what song I had on repeat on my MP3 player during the hour or two I placed them on the wall.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:18 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
Obligatory: 99 Dead Baboons very surprised to be the first with this
It's in the previously though
posted by stevil at 6:23 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's in the previously though
posted by stevil at 6:23 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
I’m more bemused by albums in German from Bowie and Peter Gabriel.
And the Beatles. Also, since we're on the subject of 80s German music and David Bowie, I now have an excuse to link to the Peter Schilling Major Tom
posted by hoyland at 6:25 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
And the Beatles. Also, since we're on the subject of 80s German music and David Bowie, I now have an excuse to link to the Peter Schilling Major Tom
posted by hoyland at 6:25 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
A million years ago my band used to close out our shows by covering this song. It will never not be one of my favorites.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:29 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 6:29 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
I will never not have time to watch this when I think of it: Tracey Ullman as Angela Merkel singing 99 Red Balloons.
posted by mollweide at 6:51 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mollweide at 6:51 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
"Hello Bobby my old friend.
It's good to see you once again.
How's your mother, how's your aunt?
How's your father's skin diving suit?
(That's one of the lines I'm not real sure about, but it goes something like this.)
I've got something you should see
Back at my place; come with me.
I've got some brand new furnishings,
Plus 99 dead baboons
... "
posted by etherist at 7:06 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's good to see you once again.
How's your mother, how's your aunt?
How's your father's skin diving suit?
(That's one of the lines I'm not real sure about, but it goes something like this.)
I've got something you should see
Back at my place; come with me.
I've got some brand new furnishings,
Plus 99 dead baboons
... "
posted by etherist at 7:06 PM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
MTG Roasted For Completely Missing Meaning Of '99 Red Balloons' In Tweet About Chinese Balloon
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:06 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:06 PM on February 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
As a German student in the cold war, 99 Red Balloons (and der Kommissar) were class lessons. So, class was pretty good. I know all the English and German words rote almost 40 years later. The German version even has a nice little subjunctive phrase for those grammatically inclined – typically a more advanced German grammar topic.
"Man, wer hätte das gedacht!" (man, who would've thought that!")
The earliest cover I know of the song is the version by Seven Seconds, also in the 80s. Sounds a lot like how music sounded in W. Germany shortly before the wall fell.
posted by readyfreddy at 10:59 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
"Man, wer hätte das gedacht!" (man, who would've thought that!")
The earliest cover I know of the song is the version by Seven Seconds, also in the 80s. Sounds a lot like how music sounded in W. Germany shortly before the wall fell.
posted by readyfreddy at 10:59 PM on February 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
True story, I totally loved the 99 balloon song, both the German (which I don't understand) and the English. Many years later I got 'Nena' confused with 'Nina Hagen'. It was a decent mistake, NINA HAGEN - Naturträne "Live" 1978 - YouTube, Nina Hagen - New York New York - 1983 - YouTube.
I still laugh inside whenever either one of them come up in my random playlist.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:37 AM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
I still laugh inside whenever either one of them come up in my random playlist.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:37 AM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
As a German student in the cold war, 99 Red Balloons (and der Kommissar) were class lessons.
Never fear, still taught in the mid-2000s. Now granted, I'm the age where our instructors were all going "What do you mean you don't remember the fall of the Berlin Wall!?" because we were small children then and college students now weren't born for 9/11. (I didn't do the math, but it's entirely possible I'll teach a class tonight to students who weren't born when I was listening to Nena in German class.)
posted by hoyland at 3:00 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
Never fear, still taught in the mid-2000s. Now granted, I'm the age where our instructors were all going "What do you mean you don't remember the fall of the Berlin Wall!?" because we were small children then and college students now weren't born for 9/11. (I didn't do the math, but it's entirely possible I'll teach a class tonight to students who weren't born when I was listening to Nena in German class.)
posted by hoyland at 3:00 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
99 red balloons go by
Remember these are 1983 balloons. Adjusted for inflation it'd be 237 balloons in 2023.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:35 AM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
Remember these are 1983 balloons. Adjusted for inflation it'd be 237 balloons in 2023.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:35 AM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
And the Beatles.
Well, they performed at different clubs in Hamburg for a year and a half at the beginning, so...
posted by kirkaracha at 8:37 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well, they performed at different clubs in Hamburg for a year and a half at the beginning, so...
posted by kirkaracha at 8:37 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’m more bemused by albums in German from Bowie and Peter Gabriel.
And Monty Python!
posted by Snowishberlin at 9:03 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
And Monty Python!
posted by Snowishberlin at 9:03 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Gabriel's Spiel Ohne Grenzen sometimes turned up on our mix-tapes, but Nina Hagen's African Reggae was the ultimate party wind-up.
posted by ovvl at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well, they performed at different clubs in Hamburg for a year and a half at the beginning, so...
And in the tradition of young Englishmen everywhere, they learned almost nothing of the local language. The lyrics for Sie Liebt Dich and Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand were written out phonetically for them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:34 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
And in the tradition of young Englishmen everywhere, they learned almost nothing of the local language. The lyrics for Sie Liebt Dich and Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand were written out phonetically for them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:34 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can't see how this can be posted without a reference to the utterly gorgeous 99 Luftbaloons cover by Kaleida. As far as I'm concerned, it's canonical.
posted by fake at 3:27 PM on February 9, 2023
posted by fake at 3:27 PM on February 9, 2023
I think I still have my 45 with Luft on one side and Red on the other. I could never choose a favorite!
A little ahead of the curve, 7 Seconds did a good cover of it in 1985. I always thought the antiwar angle was pretty apparent!
posted by rhizome at 7:47 PM on February 9, 2023
A little ahead of the curve, 7 Seconds did a good cover of it in 1985. I always thought the antiwar angle was pretty apparent!
posted by rhizome at 7:47 PM on February 9, 2023
We had a tape with the English version on one side, German on the other. It's how I first discovered how bad I am at picking out lyrics: the tape was a *long* way through the English side before I realised that hey, this isn't the same version we started with...
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:19 AM on February 11, 2023
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 6:19 AM on February 11, 2023
Alternative balloon chat for the more politically inclined is on this thread.
posted by Wordshore at 2:38 AM on February 13, 2023
posted by Wordshore at 2:38 AM on February 13, 2023
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posted by MrGuilt at 12:55 PM on February 8, 2023 [10 favorites]