We didn't start the fire
It was always burning Since the world's been turning You either love this song or hate it. Or you say that you can't stand it, but you secretly pay attention to it whenever it is played. I'm in the latter group. I don't like it, I don't ever have the urge to listen to it and it lasts about one minute too long, but when it is played or being performed I can't help but listen to it. Critics panned the song as lacking any artistic merit, or being a "cop-out" of a lyric, but that's not fair because the song is not trying to be profound. It's essentially a white man's rap, or Baby Boomers' rap. There must be a lot of boomers and white rap lovers out there because the song reached #1 on the charts.
Billy has said that "We Didn't Start The Fire" is the one song where the lyrics came first, rather than the music. And he himself describes the melody as being like a "dentist's drill." He did, however, do a fantastic job of stringing together pop culture references that fit linguistically and thematically like "Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania." It is an entertaining lyric though "rock and roller cola wars" is awkward. 
Retroactive I by Robert Rauschenberg (1963)
The episodic nature of the song is like a collage of modern history. It reminds me of modern artist Robert Rauschenberg's thought-provoking works such as Retroactive I, above. Billy is a history buff and said he'd have become a teacher if he didn't become a rock star. "We Didn't Start The Fire" became the source of thousands of high school history class projects. There are dozens of amateur and professional cover versions or variations of this song on YouTube such as the ones shown here.
Billy has said that he wrote the song after a conversation with Sean Lennon (John Lennon's son with Yoko) and Sean's friend in which Sean's friend apparently said that he was growing up in troubled times, brought about in part by the Baby Boomer generation. Billy points out in "We Didn't Start the Fire" that his generation (the Baby Boomers) also lived through troubled times that they didn't necessarily cause. "It was always burning since the world's been turning." Every generation has its fires to put out. It is too bad that this song defines Billy Joel for many people who came to know his music in the early 90s since it is so atypical of his entire body of work. On the other hand, it is great in concert.
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We Didn't Start The Fire
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 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 Josef 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 Suez 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 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 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 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 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 J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say 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 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 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 . . . 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 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 Billy discusses "We Didn't Start The Fire" on SiriusXM (2016).
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Annie Zaleski wrote a very good in-depth article on A.V. Club about the origins of the song; the music originally started as a country song Billy had started, called "Jolene." See videos. Some have compared the song to REM's "End of the World."
I like the Hoosiers' little-known cover (at least little known in the U.S.) better than the original. See live version at videos page. They give it a whole new twist with the hushed vocals, harmonizing, glockenspiel accents, and a glorious musical bridge with blaring horns. Billy wrote a good song, but the production of the original was a bit too bombastic. The group Milo Greene also did a cover, as have many others. See videos.
I like the Hoosiers' little-known cover (at least little known in the U.S.) better than the original. See live version at videos page. They give it a whole new twist with the hushed vocals, harmonizing, glockenspiel accents, and a glorious musical bridge with blaring horns. Billy wrote a good song, but the production of the original was a bit too bombastic. The group Milo Greene also did a cover, as have many others. See videos.
Videos
The Vevo music video on YouTube has cut off the first 20-30 seconds, but the full video can be found on the "Eye of Storm" collection, so that video is above. Actress Marlee Matlin appears as two characters in the music video. Read an interview with the women who appeared in the video at Noblemania. © 1989 Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
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Live version from the Live at Yankee Stadium concert video in 1990. The cameras jump around in a dizzying manner with odd angles, which is distracting, but it is a solid performance.
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Billy discusses how he came up with "We Didn't Start The Fire." And here is an explanation of each of the persons, places, and events mentioned in the song.
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See more videos at "We Didn't Start The Fire" - Videos Page.