Billy Joel – We Didn't Start the Fire

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Send "We Didn't Start the Fire" Ringtone to Cell

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

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

[Chorus]
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy hn, 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

[Chorus]

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"

Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

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

[Chorus]

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

[Chorus]

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

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on

Send "We Didn't Start the Fire" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by kevin, edited by Moustacher

Track duration: 04:48

"We Didn't Start the Fire" as written by Billy Joel, John O'brien-docker

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


We Didn't Start the Fire song meanings
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105 Comments

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  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think it's just about how everybody always complains about the current generation, and now Billy Joel is pointing out that problems like the ones we deal with now have always existed, and will always exist.
    Flag ilovekelly75on April 30, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think it's just about how everybody always complains about the current generation, and now Billy Joel is pointing out that problems like the ones we deal with now have always existed, and will always exist.
    Flag ilovekelly75on April 30, 2013   Link
  • 0
    Link(s):twolumps.net/d/…
    Flagged megmoiraon March 22, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Great song!
    Flagged redshiftdazzleron January 03, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:Since the earlier posted links no longer work, here is a link to a Wikipedia article which breaks down what each reference is about:

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
    Flagged dainbramageon January 01, 2012   Link
  • -3
    General Comment:Catchy song, but it doesn't take a lyrical genius to make non-sequiturs over such a broad topic rhyme. Don't believe me? Here's something I whipped up in like five minutes:


    Androgynous Justin Bieber
    Shitty music, disco fever

    Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw,
    NBC, Harry’s Law

    Sarah Palin, Tina Fey,
    Transformers Michael Bay

    Billy Mays, snortin’ coke
    Cheech Marin, Up In Smoke

    Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze
    Richard Pryor, Stir Crazy
    Morgan Freeman, Miss Daisy
    Billy Joel is pretty lazy



    Flagged TheGassyGunslingeron February 20, 2011   Link
    • 3 Replies
  • 0
    General Comment:We had to listen to this song in history class and then write down the events/people from the song...sort of like a memory retention game. I was the only one who had already memorized it (due to my love of Billy Joel), and got the entire thing correct, lol. Then we had discussions of the events in the song. Was probably the funnest day in history class! It must have been anyway, considering that was 20 years ago
    Flag Dragonsgrrlon January 13, 2011   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:Its clearly about the Cold War
    Flag creature92on September 14, 2010   Link
  • 0
    Memory:When I was a Senior in HS- I did a project in which I had to define each term in this song. I don't remember all of it-but this song will always hold a special place in my heart.
    Flag MMQCon August 13, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:We listened to this song in my music class. I used to remember all of the lyrics, and then we stopped having our music classes. This is a truly great song, and I'm glad that I was able to listen to it(:
    Flag foblover102on June 19, 2010   Link

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