The lyrics for Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” seem like a fitting way to bring this book to a conclusion. Not all of the things listed in the song are referenced in this book, but many of them are. The background for the song is described in Chapter 14 of the book In Their Own Words, by Bill DeMain:
This monster hit of a song was created in 1989, when Joel turned 40. The idea spawned from a conversation he had with a friend of Sean Lennon. The friend just turned 21 and was complaining about how crazy it was to be living in his era, therefore undermining any other time before his. This encouraged Joel to write a song that would prove that any time is filled with extremes. Starting from 1949 (the year in which he was born), he chronicled the major events that occurred during that time in a rapid fire delivery of names, places, and cultural works. These are his words on the subject: “I started doing that as a mental exercise. I had turned forty. It was 1989, and I said, ‘Okay, what’s happened in my life?’ I wrote down the year 1949… It was kind of a mind game. [It’s] one of the few times I’ve written the lyrics first, which should be obvious to why I usually prefer to write the music first, because the melody is horrendous. It’s like a mosquito droning. It’s one of the worst melodies I’ve ever written. I kind of like the lyric though.
“We Didn’t Start the Fire,” by Billy Joel (1989), (https://youtu.be/eFTLKWw542g), is a summary of significant social, curtural and political events and personages of the latter half of the 20th century.
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 MonroeRosenbergs, 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 goodbyeWe 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 itJoseph 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, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place,” trouble in the SuezWe 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 itLittle 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…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 CongoWe 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 itHemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
“Lawrence of Arabia,” British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats PattersonPope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to sayWe 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 itBirth 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 anymoreWe didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on and on and on and on
And on and on and on and on…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 itWe 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 itWe 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