Monday, June 21, 2010

Look up the lyrics for the Billy Joel song 'We didn't Start the Fire' and explain the 20th century historical references mentioned in the song.

2 comments:

  1. 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

    Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
    Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

    Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
    Dien Bien Phu and "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

    CHORUS

    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

    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, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
    Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
    Ayatollolah'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 shore, 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...

    ReplyDelete
  2. the main events such as disney land opening ( the 1st walt disney theme park) and important people such as elvis presley ( starting his corea) during 1940's - 1989 were listed.

    they were also listed in order ( if not all - most - )



    Darcy W

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