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
When ninety-nine red balloons go by

99 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 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


Lyrics submitted by ups_and_downs

99 Red Balloons Lyrics as written by Carlo Karges Joern-uwe Fahrenkrog-petersen

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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99 Red Balloons song meanings
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31 Comments

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  • -1
    General Comment

    Fahrenkrog-​Petersen and Karges wrote BOTH versions and both versions are about the Cold War. As has already been explained, songs translated from one language into another pretty much NEVER get a LITERAL translation because the metre and rhymes don't work. Don't start talking out of your ass about the "censors".

    crakkerjakkon October 27, 2011   Link

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