It seems strange to me that anyone could miss the topic of “99 Luftballoons”; I recall discussing it at the time as “that German song about getting nuked”.
Per the “Ufos aus dem All” line, I’d be curious for a native-speaker of the era’s sense whether most would have initially processed that as “flying saucer, perhaps from Mars” rather th…
It seems strange to me that anyone could miss the topic of “99 Luftballoons”; I recall discussing it at the time as “that German song about getting nuked”.
Per the “Ufos aus dem All” line, I’d be curious for a native-speaker of the era’s sense whether most would have initially processed that as “flying saucer, perhaps from Mars” rather than a lyricized indicator of “unidentified return consistent with warhead re-entry”. I agree that to whatever extent the former bleeds in, it’s detrimental.
The Captain Kirk reference is also interesting in that context. I always took it as a comment on the United States’ white knight self-image, but if it further pushes a listener away from then current events to science fiction thematically, it too might be problematic.
It seems strange to me that anyone could miss the topic of “99 Luftballoons”; I recall discussing it at the time as “that German song about getting nuked”.
Per the “Ufos aus dem All” line, I’d be curious for a native-speaker of the era’s sense whether most would have initially processed that as “flying saucer, perhaps from Mars” rather than a lyricized indicator of “unidentified return consistent with warhead re-entry”. I agree that to whatever extent the former bleeds in, it’s detrimental.
The Captain Kirk reference is also interesting in that context. I always took it as a comment on the United States’ white knight self-image, but if it further pushes a listener away from then current events to science fiction thematically, it too might be problematic.