A few new lyrics to add to Billy Joel's song about US/world history since 1989 to 2000. |
It Was Always Burnin' A video of the words is available at YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m50p-XScreM&feature=channel You think you have no "Sympathy for the Devil?" The evilness was always there. So was the good. History burns on, and on . . . . We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel This song is on the Storm Front Album (1989) ('49) Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio ('50) Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe ('51) Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye" ('52) 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 ('53) Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Block ('54) Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock" ('55) Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland ('56) Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez CHORUS ('57) Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai" ('58) Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball Starkweather, homicide, Children of Thalidomide ('59) Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space Monkey, Mafia Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go ('60) U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo CHORUS ('61) Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land" Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion ('62) "Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson ('63) Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say CHORUS ('64 - '89) 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 CHORUS We didn't start the fire But when we are gone Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on..." And since Billy Joel quit writing pop songs, I've given a go at updating the years that have passed since originally recorded. ('89-'03) Freddy Kruger, NRA, Desert Storm, DNA Jerry Springer, paparazzi, Regan, Reagan, Wall falls down Koresh, market crash, land mine, Columbine How many more kids must die? Dolly, embassy, Rodney King, Fox TV SNL turns 25, Harrison's "Sweet Lord" Infomercials, CDs, white Bronco on TV Internet, Johnny Depp, stain on a blue dress CHORUS Bill Gates, tax rebates, Presidental debates Mad Cow, MADD mothers, ladies' botox Superman, Elian, terrorism's in the land Baseball's on strike, James Byrd's not white Will we ever get it right? Wolf Blitzer, Trade Center, terrorist caves Space Station, Pentagon, Mandela, jihad Oprah, Y2K, King Hussein, acid rain Shuttle spacecraft blows again Are we going where we've been? Schwarzkopf, Gorbachev, trouble with the UN And it starts all back again. CHORUS Bill and Hillary, NYC, and HIV George Foreman, Titanic, Powell at the UN JFK dead in the bay, Michael Jordan's back today Kuwait, gas rate, Middle Eastern soldier's gate Saddam, Iraq, Ali, Arafat Palestine, Spielberg, dot com, alert CHORUS We didn't start the fire It was always burnin' Since the world was turnin' We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we're trying to fight it. |