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Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while,
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies.
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst,
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power, but we never say never
Sitting in the sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man.
Can you imagine when this race is won?
Turn our golden the faces into the sun,
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the madman.
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young,
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young.
Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun,
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures given up today,
So many songs we forgot to play.
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
Oh let it come true.
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever, and ever?
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever young?
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever, and ever?
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever?
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies.
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst,
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power, but we never say never
Sitting in the sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man.
Can you imagine when this race is won?
Turn our golden the faces into the sun,
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the madman.
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever, and ever
Forever young,
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young.
Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun,
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures given up today,
So many songs we forgot to play.
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
Oh let it come true.
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever, and ever?
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever young?
Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever,
Forever, and ever?
Forever young,
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever?
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Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while,
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies.
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst,
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
1st Paragraph: It seems wishing of someone who's not free but to be this someone will make you both happy, and dropping the bomb or not is some kinda taking a risk to be together.
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power, but we never say never
Sitting in the sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad man.
2nd Paragraph: Let us take the risk or holding into life we have, life is so short not to be happy.
This song is about holding on something that's not meant for us, and taking a risk is to be forever young.
This song was written by a West German group, who lived in the shadow of East Germany and the Soviet Union. The references are very explicit - "the bomb" refers to a nuclear bomb. They're watching the skies to see if the bomb is dropped or not. It may happen tomorrow, it may happen in a few days, it may never happen... but the threat loomed great over all of them.
"The race" is a reference to the nuclear arms race - who can amass more nuclear weapons.
The rest of the song is equally as referring to the cold war - "the madman" is whoever decided to drop the bomb.
There are many similar songs from the 80s to refer to the cold war and the nuclear arms race: "99 Luftballons" is another one by a West German/West Berlin group (Nena) (West Berlin was not part of West Germany - it was occupied territory, occupied by the US, British, and French forces). "Red Skies" and "Stand or Fall" by the Fixx. "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes" by Ultravox is more about a nuclear explosion in general, but is in the same genre.
- 99 Luftballons (about someone who lets off 99 red ballons in Berlin and military folk mistake it for an attack and destroy the city
- 1999 (about partying because of the risk of nuclear war)
- Wind of Change (Scorpions, another great German band) - about the fall of communism.
For the record, I was there at the Brandenburg Gate in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall "fell" (it didn't actually fall that year it was demolished the year after but the gate was opened in 1989). This song was played during the celebrations that day and I will never forget it!
Essentially it is saying, we don't want to live under this shadow for our whole lives...better we be bombed so that our youth remains forever, like diamonds, than to be put down like an old racehorse.
Everyone lives through a golden age of youth. Everyone also ages and dies.
In this song the author suggests that he does not want to age or "perish like a faded horse".
"can you imagine when this race is won, turn our golden faces into the sun" - "race is won" = life is over. "golden faces" = aged.
Youth is over before you know it....and there are so many things left to do...."so many songs we forgot to play"..."why don't we stay young".
"hoping for the best but expecting the worst
are you going to drop the bomb or not?"
Talking about the nuclear missile race between US and USSR
"can you imagine when this race is won"
Also talking about the nuclear race.
"some are like water, some are like the heat
some are a melody and some are the beat
sooner or later they all will be gone
why don't they stay young"
That whole verse is interesting. It seems like it's talking about that US and the Soviets should "get over" their differences.
"so many adventures couldn't happen today
so many songs we forgot to play
so many dreams are swinging out of the blue
we let them come true"
Kind of talking about the "bucket list" philosophy. It talks about that people should live in the "now" and go out and make their dreams come true, as if it was their last day, which it might as well have been back during the Cold War.