Billy Joel: what’s your favourite line from ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’?

[Gruffalosoulja]

Trouble in the Suez!

I absolutely love this song. Can’t say a favourite line but just love it

North Korea
South Korea
Marilyn Monroe

m.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g&pp=ygUYd2UgZGlkbid0IHN0YXJ0IHRoZSBmaXJl

I love all of this song but can’t listen to it with DH. He insists that it is NOT in chronological order (it is, it’s pretty much the whole bloody point of the song!).

JFK blown away, what else do I have to say.

Epic song!

Come on!

’Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania’ is clearly the best line. With a runner up nomination for ‘Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo’.

Malcolm X, British politician sex

Love Billy Joel, although a little less since I saw the price of his Anfield concert tickets.

Nothing meaningful to add here except my history teacher in Yr 6 tasked us with listening to and researching lyrics to this song.

Oh and has anyone heard the Fall Out Boy update? I don't recommend 😂

I recently was talking to some people far more educated about the world, and someone mentioned someone from the Congo being a French speaker. I nodded along saying 'of course, the legacy of the Belgian colonisation..' but my thought process was actually 'chubby checker, psycho, Belgians in the Congo'. I had to say the line to make sure I had the right colonial country as i wasn't sure

There's a podcast about it that's quite good. I never used to understand a lot of the references but I liked it anyway.

Billy Joel hates it apparently and I will admit it's no American Pie.

I like "Chubby Checker Psycho Belgians In The Congo".

I don't like the bit about coca cola wars, that wasn't actually a seismic event, probably was just on the news during the 15 minutes it took him to write the song (although it turns out now that coca cola have been taking hits on Colombian citizens, but we didn't know it at the time).

I also don't like the trite line about JFK. "What else do I have to say?" Well I dunno Billy, you're the one writing the damn song so you should put the effort in and say something at least. Lazy bastard.

Oh dear. It's not even in chronological order which, as has already been pointed out, is a large part of the point. Also really bad lyrics. It's a pretty basic format so wouldn't have been hard to do better.

Bay of pigs, Ronnie Biggs, Twiggy’s mini skirt…

I love Billy Joel - pre Uptown Girl when he jumped the shark for me. However I make an exception for We Didn't Start the Fire.

My favourite line would probably be 'Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock' only because he's about as far from punk rock as you can get.

He does try to sound a bit punky at that point though, which is quite sweet.

Love this song. Wish he’d do a part 2!

My favourite line isn't in it

Lol.

My Lai, Stephen Fry, Little packs of spangles.

British politician sex.

Are we the only country that has it?

JFK blown away. What else do I have to say?

DH and I are now listening to the podcast.

I've set myself a challenge to learn all the lyrics so I can actually sing along to this next June!

Yes they're sharing a drink that's called loneliness
But it's better than drinking alone

Much prefer the piano man, and I'm a non conformist. Sorry 🤷‍♀️

From my bookmarks 🤓

https://www.britannica.com/list/all-119-references-in-we-didnt-start-the-fire-explained

Can you play me a melody?
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes..

@cakeorwine I'm cynical and twisted, but I sing that song at the top of my lungs, and cry