May Music, Day 20 – One Among Many

Many years ago I studied the poem, ‘Icarus Allsorts’ by Roger McGough, as part of the war poems series my year group had to learn for a ‘major’ exam. I learned it by heart at the time. I think his poem is as valid today as it ever was although, back then, the preoccupation with impending nuclear war felt like a creepy necessity; a scary dystopia we more than imagined we had every chance of being part of sooner rather than later.

The last song, alphabetically, on my I-pod play list, as requested by Twindaddy, made me recollect this poem.  It is ’99 Red Balloons’ by Goldfinger.

It floats now,

 alone,

though one among many,

aspirationally buoyed

beyond the rest,

elevated,

tethered in hearts,

in words,

multi-threaded bytes

reaching

faster, higher, stronger.

Olympian endurance,

against

the  machine.

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26 thoughts on “May Music, Day 20 – One Among Many”

  1. Awesome song. I remember when this song came out in the 80’s (I think) by the German Group Nena it was during the time when the “Wall” was coming down during the Cold War.

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      11. Haha, no. Traffic dried up and we ran out of submissions. Plus, Zoe and I were overwhelmed with trying to maintain it, our own blogs, plus the multitude of side-projects we had going on.

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      12. I can imagine. I find it hard enough to keep one going. I’d never see my man and weans at that rate. They might think that’s a bonus, right enough. 🙂

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  3. Ooh, “99 Luftballons”! I used to hear it when was very young but never understood, mainly because it was German. But I liked the beat. Some years ago, I don’t remember why, but I searched for it on YouTube and my research also led to an interesting fact that the German version was more of a political nature. It was said that the English version lost a bit of the beauty of the original.

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    1. I think the German version is probably better although I don’t know if any of the words were altered or whether it just lost a certain quality in translation. I can pick out bits and pieces but German’s not my forte. Must check and see if there is a strict German translation.x

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    1. I just clicked there to check them out and now going back in for a listen. I Know these so well. My kids love them. And Let It Go was an anthem in my class all last week. We must have sung it together twenty times, full-blown actions and all! I only saw the DVD for the first time with my kids a few weeks ago. And loved it. 🙂 x

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      1. Me, too! I just watched it last week and though the song had been around for months, only then was I able to appreciate it. But Defying Gravity is still my fave Idina song, followed by For Good, Seasons of Love (from Rent the Musical), THEN it’s Let It Go…I can foresee a future Frozen stage musical…

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