Lyrics of
We Didnt Start The Fire

We Didnt Start the Fire is a song written and performed by Billy Joel, released in 1989 on his album Storm Front. The song lists a stream of historical events from 1949, Joels birth year, to 1989, the year the song was released. Joel crafted the song in response to a conversation with Sean Lennon, who lamented over the world he was inheriting. The lyrics reflect on major global news of the late 20th century, culminating in the resigned, quintesse ... ntial chorus about the inevitability of history. See more [+]

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
Rosenberg's, 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
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Kahn, 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
U-2, 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 Beatle mania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, 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
Moon shot, 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
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on x3
* It has been suggested that Em sounds better than Am