Well I'm from Germany, from the west part of Berlin and this song really REALLY resonates with me. I was born in 1970 during the height of the Cold War and I grew up with the spectre of nuclear war always overhead. While a lot of the younger generation who didn't live through the Cold War link this to either Ryan and Marissa or to graduation, for me it's really about living life to the fullest because during those days when i was 12, 15, 18, we weren't watching the OC, we were trying to live our lives knowing that if the US and USSR ever went to war our country would be the first to get bombed, by both of them. And that was totally out of our control. That's what this song is about to me, about the fragility of life under the shadow of two superpowers.
Also it should say "if this race is won" because if someone did "win" by getting their bombs off first, "turn our golden faces to the sun" is an allusion to a nuclear explosion which for a split second can rival the heat of the sun.
Essentially it is saying, we don't want to live under this shadow for our whole lives...we didn't want to live under the shadow of fear. Better we be bombed so that our youth remains forever, like diamonds in the sun, than to be put down like an old racehorse. And that sentiment I guess transcends generations, then and now.
Well I'm from Germany, from the west part of Berlin and this song really REALLY resonates with me. I was born in 1970 during the height of the Cold War and I grew up with the spectre of nuclear war always overhead. While a lot of the younger generation who didn't live through the Cold War link this to either Ryan and Marissa or to graduation, for me it's really about living life to the fullest because during those days when i was 12, 15, 18, we weren't watching the OC, we were trying to live our lives knowing that if the US and USSR ever went to war our country would be the first to get bombed, by both of them. And that was totally out of our control. That's what this song is about to me, about the fragility of life under the shadow of two superpowers.
Also it should say "if this race is won" because if someone did "win" by getting their bombs off first, "turn our golden faces to the sun" is an allusion to a nuclear explosion which for a split second can rival the heat of the sun.
Essentially it is saying, we don't want to live under this shadow for our whole lives...we didn't want to live under the shadow of fear. Better we be bombed so that our youth remains forever, like diamonds in the sun, than to be put down like an old racehorse. And that sentiment I guess transcends generations, then and now.