do u LISTEN to the music??

I guess I was in the 9th grade when this happened. I got my hands on one my cousin's mixed tapes (yup we had tapes back then). It had this old Billy joel song on it, we didn't start the fire. Nice tune, everybody loved it. Neway, during one of my history classes at school, the teacher mentioned this song and said it was an example of history in pop culture....WHAT?? Nope, none of us had a clue as to what was she talking about. On the other hand, she was shocked that all we did was listen to the melody and never actually heard the song.

As it turns out this is what she was talkin about.....the song actually is a chronological list of specific events, names, and places, beginning in Joel's year of birth (1949-1989). The lyrics are as follows, for maore info on the events mentioned here take a look at this the bottom of the page has the whole info

We didn't start the fire.....lyrics

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China and Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell and Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker and Television
North Korea, South Korea and Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray and Panmunjom
Brando and The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine and England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace and 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 and Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella and Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini and Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls and Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean and Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter PAN, Elvis Presley and Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama and Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place and 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 and Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai and Bridge ON The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle and California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide and Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey and Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro and Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho and 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, Eichman and Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin and Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia and British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn and Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul and Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away and 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 and Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate and punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine and Terror ON the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran and Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal and suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack and Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics ON the shores and China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars and 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
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Thanks to my history classes, I LISTEN to the music now......