A very insightful comparison

I first heard both of these songs as a college student in the Southern US back in the 80s. I (still!) have a cassette tape version of Peter Schilling's album with both on it. I was taking German at the time (I've had four semesters; it was a long time ago, and I'm currently trying to recover from that with study), and, to be honest, I preferred the German one (I also preferred "99 Luftballons" by Nena to "99 Red Balloons"). I think both unpack more information in a subtler way. I did not know about David Bowie's "Space Oddity" then (it came out when I was young and buried under a rock at home before I discovered pop music of the time) and only made the connexion later. This was a great video, and I really appreciate the comparison of the text and the ideas behind them.



Also, I do not read music, or play an instrument, but this guy explains to me exactly why I react a certain way to this song's lyrics vs. chorus:



And just for completeness, here's Nena's "99 Luftballons".

I stumbled into an '80s mood

because I was reminded by my Freegal application on my phone that I had three free songs to download (via my library card, three free songs to keep each week), and decided to look for the Murray Head version of 'One Night in Bangkok' for some reason. So I played it on YouTube, and then followed the suggested videos around. So here is the first and last song I listened to:





(I prefer the German to the English version--I was learning it then--I had four semesters of it.) I also had Peter Schilling's album with the German and English versions of 'Major Tom'. Oh, drat, I'll include that too, so Nena isn't really the last.



Okay, I think I'll go listen to some Imagine Dragons now and come back to the present. But there are times I miss the '80s.