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We Didn't Start The Fire Lyrics

Artist: Billy Joel

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 aand 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

U-2, 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, Woodsto/ck/, 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...

Comments/Interpretations

by sally on 5/26/2008 4:55pm
in the chorus it should be "we're tryin' to fight it, not "we tried to fight it, or at least i think so.

by sammy on 6/2/2008 2:56pm
if i am a history teacher ,iwould give the sudents assignment to write an eassy about each name or event in this song..great song by billy

by Greg on 6/8/2008 10:25am
I LOVE THIS SONG

by alexa on 6/8/2008 9:55pm
i luv billy joel, his music is so inspirational 2 me. all of his songs r works of art.

by Megan on 10/19/2008 3:20pm
I loooove this song! and i love billy joel<333

by fahadhjd on 3/23/2009 7:06pm
adfhfdhjfwadgjadsfngjhgdtjn6zx m,ju6jnmrftgdfhassdfsagfdhadhtektuj,ncx ,xlo.;

by the stranger on 10/13/2009 6:29pm
hey fahadh dont spam it screws things up

by khahring maring on 1/27/2010 10:29am
great song it is much enjoyable when it is sung together>>...tounge twister....

by Craig on 5/27/2010 3:00pm
You know Sammy, my 11th grade history teacher paired our class into groups of two and assigned us each a verse of this song to do exactly what you wrote in the comment. Its a wonderful idea, and the class loved it!

by beast on 4/26/2011 2:54pm
hey sammy my bitchy teachers makin us

by Jeffrey on 10/24/2012 9:21pm
Beast, you are a lucky person to be able to write about this for history. This is a wonderful song, that references many of the major events that occurred. Ah, man, I love having memorized this song.

by A Brony that loves Music on 2/21/2013 1:34am
Great song. It gives me hope for the future by telling me about the past.