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December 9, 1989
One of the most innovative, creative and cleverly-written songs in pop music history (IMHO) sat at the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
With it’s rapid-fire lyrics, We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel began at two-week stay at number one – having (thank God) replaced the Milli Vanilli record Blame It On The Rain.
Essentially, the song recites the names of high-profile people, significant world events or fads from Joel’s – and the entire baby-boomer generation’s – childhood and adolescence in the 50’s and 60’s, through adulthood in the 70’s and 80’s.
With a frustrated and angry tone throughout the song’s chorus, he emphatically repeats “no we didn’t light it, though we tried to fight it” – clearly his indictment against the previous generation for creating the mess in which he found the world as an adult.
From his album Storm Front, We Didn’t Start The Fire was Billy Joel’s third and final hit single to reach the peak of the Hot 100, following It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me (a 1980 platinum-seller) and Tell Her About It (million-selling in 1983).
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WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE
Billy Joel
[1989]
(Album Version)
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Not surprisingly – but uncharacteristically for him – Joel wrote the lyrics first, with every two lines (until the final stanza) representing a year, beginning in 1949, the year he was born.
The full lyrics are provided below for scrolling as you listen to the song.
https://youtu.be/gBypnRdnlwQ
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LYRICS
WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE
(Billy Joel)
© 1989
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Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
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Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, “The King and I” and “The Catcher in the Rye”
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s Got a New Queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
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Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, “Rock Around the Clock”
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s Got a Winning Team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, Trouble in the Suez
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
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Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, “Bridge on the River Kwai”
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
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Buddy Holly, “Ben Hur”, Space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, “Psycho”, Belgians in the Congo
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
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Hemingway, Eichmann, “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion
“Lawrence of Arabia”, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician Sex
JFK blown away, what else do I have to say?
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
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Birth Control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, Punk Rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the Airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
“Wheel of Fortune”, Sally Ride, Heavy Metal, Suicide
Foreign Debts, Homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the Shores, China’s under Martial Law
Rock and roller Cola wars, I can’t take it anymore
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on …
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burnin’
Since the world’s been turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
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WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE
Billy Joel
[1989]
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The official video for We Didn’t Start The Fire is extremely well-produced and, like the record, it’s very cleverly constructed.
The vid contains images and artifacts which adhere closely to the chronological verses in the song (no non sequiturs here).
In many instances, Joel is seen observing a single family’s physical and emotional evolution through each of the time periods.
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BONUS TRAK!
WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE
Billy Joel
[1989]
(Live Version)
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This is a previously unreleased ‘live’ version of WDSTF from Billy Joel’s compilation album Greatest Hits, Volume I & Volume II.
https://youtu.be/H-GSB19xgiA
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Produced & Written By: Rick Murray Hunter / HouseoftheHits.com
Songs Source: The Music Vault of HouseoftheHits Inc.
Billboard® Chart Data: Joel Whitburn’s Record Research (eBook Editions)
References:
• The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits (5th Edition) by Fred Bronson
• 1000 UK Chart Hits (Kindle Edition) by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh
• The Archives of RollingStone.com
Record Sleeve & Label Graphics: Courtesy of 45cat
