Listening and hearing are not the same thing.

[bladespark]

Have you ever been listening to a song that you've heard hundreds of times and suddenly noticed that the lyrics are really interesting? The other day I was driving down the road and "99 red balloons" came on the radio. I've always dismissed it, just a happy nonsense song with a helium obsession, but this time for some bizarre reason I actually listened to the lyrics. And laughed. It was most amusing! It also, for reasons that will be obvious if you read the lyrics, reminded me of Fleet, and of Bob in particular. ("The war marchine comes to life, opens up one eager eye," gives me a mental image of Bob sitting up, opening his eyes and grinning that disturbing grin of his. He he he.)

Anyhow, there's something about happy, bouncy end of the world songs that amuse me muchly. And if any of you can send me a copy of this, or of "It's the end of the world as we know it," (by REM) I'll jump for joy.



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
99 red balloons go by.

99 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 99 red balloons go by.

99 Decision Street, 99 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 99 red balloons go by.

99 Knights of the air
ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Silverhero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go by.

99 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 souvenier
Just to prove the world was here...
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go.

Comments

[justplainbob.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just a wonderful song?

*grin*

-Just 'Should be asleep in bed but slept too much last night' Bob

[siece.livejournal.com]

I've got it on CD. Hotmail doesn't let you get big attachments, though. Do you have either a) an email address that allows attachments in the neigborhood of 3-5 Megs[1] or b) a place that's good for snail mailing physical CDs? In the case of the latter, find me on IM sometime, and I'll take you on a virtual tour of my music collection so we can fill out the disk.

[1]I haven't burned the copy yet, so I don't know exactly how big it will be. If your alternate mail site is really close, I'll rip it and give you the exact size.

[siece.livejournal.com]

Update: File size, 3.54 megs, in MP3 format, 3:52 track time. Also, I found out someone made a music video of this using scenes from Neon Genesis Evangalion hefting in at 32+ Megs. I'm trying to get a copy to see if it's any good.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the thought (and actually, I've seen the AMV. It was all right, but I'm not a big Evangelion fan.) I have, however, aquired a copy of both of the above already.

If you know of any more happy, apocalyptic music, feel free to reccomend some. *grins*