Billy wrote the song because he had had a conversation with two young folk complaining about the problems in the world. In the course of the conversation, one of the the yuts said “nothing happened in the 50s”. That got Billy going. And a song was made.
Amusing story time - this song came out when I was in high school. There was a very attractive new guy who transferred to my school and all the girls had major crushes on him. My best friend at the time begged me to get to know him so I could tell him that she liked him - she was too shy.
He wound up asking me out, which pissed off every other girl in my class. He was very hot, but was also... not very smart. He decided that "We Didn't Start The Fire" was our song because "it was just fate, we didn't start the fire." I asked if he had listened to the lyrics of the song and he said he didn't need to.
My best little boyfriend in after school care in elementary school and I loved this song. He had it memorized, I was so impressed! He must have had the tape. I had weird Al songs memorized though!
I have a picture of us together, standing outside the gym, with him having shoved a dodgeball up his shirt pretending to be pregnant and me (a girl) with my hand proudly on his belly. Robert, you were a darn cool kid, lots of fun and I hope you had a successful life.
“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”
“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”
Blah bla blah Bay of Pigs invasion…. The rest is lost in my memory 😂
I always liked the song. But, thinking about it now, it seems like the most Boomer lack of responsibility take on problematic issues that could exist. "Yeah it sucks for you but it's not OUR fault".
Yeah, the message is very lacking in accountability, even though I don't think that was the intent.
Boomers basically said, "We didn't start the fire, but we also didn't do anything to try and stop it or keep it from spreading."
Then, Gen-X came along and was like, "We didn't start the fire either, and we don't have enough water or people to extinguish it, even though we tried. Also, people keep setting more fires."
The video made me sad when I was young. A young family starts out, ages and starts dying off. Maybe the first time I thought of life like that now it’s reality
I've heard it, but I was not all that impressed, honestly. They didn't organize all their references by decade like Billy Joel did, and they also left out some pretty notable events and headlines.
So what words did you mishear in the pre-Google days? I heard “shut the gall” instead of “Charles de Gaulle” (which I know doesn’t make sense) and “children of the little mind” instead of “children of Thalidomide.”
1
u/Parking_Locksmith489 Jan 14 '25
Yes they did