We didn't start the fire

We Didn't Start the Fire (in German about “ We didn't start the fire ”) is a pop song by the singer and songwriter Billy Joel . It was released in October 1989 on his album Storm Front and previously as a single in September 1989 and reached number 1 on the US Billboard charts .

In Germany he stayed in the top ten for a total of ten weeks from autumn 1989 to spring 1990 ; the best place was fourth.

Content and background

What is unusual about this piece is the structure of the text, which - apart from the refrain - consists almost exclusively of a string of catchwords on more or less important contemporary historical topics from 1949, the year of Joel's birth, to 1989, the year of publication. The list is initially arranged chronologically according to years, in the last stanza the period from 1964 to 1989 is skimmed over in less detail. Names of personalities from politics and culture, political and social events, titles of films, books and plays as well as objects are mentioned. The refrain refers to the fact that these problems had existed long before. In some places paraphrases are also used. This way, approximately 120 topics are addressed in 4:50 minutes.

Billy Joel explains the motivation for this piece with his interest in history. Had he not made a career as a musician, he would allegedly have liked to become a history teacher. The idea for the song arose when a 21-year-old friend of Sean Lennon's told Joel that not much had happened in the 1950s ("everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties"). Joel referred to the Suez Crisis and the Korean War . The memory of the headlines since then eventually got him on the lyrics.

Instead of the apt translation "We did not start the fire" , the literal translation "We did not start the fire " is sometimes used. The title, however, does not refer to a shootout ( "We did not open fire" - in English "to open fire"). The chorus includes expressly that the fire always burned ( "it was always burning") and mentioned that we did not ignite it ( "we did not light it").

List of terms listed in the text

1949		Harry Truman		American President (1945–1953) begins his second term on January 20
		Doris Day		American film actress and singer, who started her screen career in 1948, becomes famous
		Red China		Proclamation of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong on October 1st
		Johnnie Ray		one of the most popular American singers of the 1950s begins his career this year
		South Pacific		Musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein will premiere on April 7th
		Walter Winchell		American journalist and inventor of the gossip column
		Joe DiMaggio		American baseball player becomes the first professional athlete to sign a contract with an annual salary of $ 100,000 on February 7; later husband of Marilyn Monroe
1950		Joe McCarthy		American Senator , begins a campaign against an alleged infiltration of high American state offices by communism (see also McCarthy era )
		Richard Nixon		is elected to the US Senate
		Studebaker		American automaker , builds millionth post-war car
		television		At the beginning of the 1950s, television became a mass medium
		North Korea, South Korea		Beginning of the Korean War between North and South Korea
		Marilyn Monroe		first important roles for the US actress and future wife of Joe DiMaggio in Asphalt Jungle and All About Eva
1951		Rosenbergs		The espionage trial against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins
		H-bomb		Hydrogen bomb (The first detonation of an H-bomb did not take place until November 1, 1952.)
		Sugar Ray		Sugar Ray Robinson, boxer, becomes world middleweight champion
		Panmunjeom		Place of signature of the Korean War Armistice Agreement
		Brando		Marlon Brando, American actor, becomes a Hollywood star with the film Endstation Sehnsucht
		The King and I		Richard Rodgers musical premiered on March 29th
		The catcher in the rye		Publication of The Catcher in the Rye , a novel by JD Salinger
1952		Eisenhower		Election of Dwight D. Eisenhower, American President (1953–1961)
		Vaccine		Jonas Salk tested on July 2, he developed vaccine against polio , among others, himself and his family
		England's got a new Queen		With the death of her father King George VI. Elizabeth II becomes Queen of Great Britain on February 6th
		Marciano		Rocky Marciano, boxer, becomes world heavyweight champion
		Liberace		American entertainer
		Santayana good-bye		George Santayana, philosopher and author, dies on September 26th
1953		Joseph Stalin		Soviet politician, dies March 5th
		Malenkov		Georgi Maximilianowitsch Malenkow, Stalin's successor for a few months
		Wetter		Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian President
		Prokofiev		Sergei Prokofiev, composer, dies on March 5th
		Rockefeller		Winthrop Rockefeller, Arkansas Governor
		Campanella		Roy Campanella, American baseball player
		Communist block		Eastern bloc
1954		Roy Cohn		American lawyer persecutes followers of communism
		Juan Perón		last full year as President of Argentina
		Toscanini		Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor, is making his last recordings this year
		Dacron		Brand name for a synthetic fiber, see polyethylene terephthalate
		Điện Biên Phủ falls		greatest defeat of the French in the Indochina War
		Rock around the clock		Song by Bill Haley & His Comets
1955		Einstein		Albert Einstein, founder of the theory of relativity , dies on April 18th
		James Dean		American film actor, dies in a car accident on September 30th
		Brooklyn ’s got a winning team		the Brooklyn Dodgers , American baseball team, win the World Series Championships
		Davy Crockett		American politician and war hero (1786–1836); starts a television series about him produced by Walt Disney ; Development of the tactical nuclear missile Davy Crockett (W54)
		Peter Pan		Animated cartoon by Walt Disney
		Elvis Presley		American musician, signs his contract with RCA Records on November 21st
		Disneyland		the first of the amusement parks opened on July 17th
1956		Bardot		Brigitte Bardot, French film actress, has worldwide success with the feature film And always women beckon
		Budapest		the Hungarian uprising begins on October 23 with a large demonstration in Budapest
		Alabama		Montgomery Bus Boycott
		Khrushchev		Nikita Sergejewitsch Khrushchev, Soviet politician, criticized the personality cult around Stalin in a secret speech
		Princess Grace		Grace Kelly , marries Prince Rainier III. from Monaco
		Peyton Place		Publication of the bestselling novel by US writer Grace Metalious
		Trouble in the Suez		Suez crisis
1957		Little rock		Little Rock Nine
		Pasternak		Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, publishes his first and only novel, Doctor Zhivago
		Mickey Mantle		American baseball player
	Kerouac	Jack Kerouac, American writer, publishes his novel On the Move
	sputnik	first flight of the Soviet space missions on October 4th
	Chou En-lai	Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China
	Bridge on the River Kwai	Publication of the Oscar-winning film adaptation of The Bridge on the Kwai
1958	Lebanon	Lebanon crisis
	Charles de Gaulle	French resistance fighter and president is charged with forming a government
	California baseball	The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, and become the first US baseball teams west of Kansas City as the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants .
	Starkweather homicide	Charles Starkweather , American serial killer
	Children of Thalidomide	Contergan children
1959	Buddy Holly	American singer and songwriter, dies in a plane crash on February 3
	Ben Hur	Film adaptation of the novel by Lew Wallace
	Space monkey	Monkeys in space as part of the Mercury program
	mafia	Economic activities of the Cosa Nostra in the USA
	Hula hoops	The advent of the hula hoop
	Castro	Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, comes to power
	Edsel is a no-go	Ford car model with little sales success
1960	U-2	U-2 crisis, US spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union
	Syngman Rhee	President of South Korea, emigrated to the USA (Hawaii) in 1960
	Payola	Bribery scandal in the music industry
	kennedy	John F. Kennedy, President of the USA (1961–1963), wins the November presidential election against Richard Nixon
	Chubby checker	American twist musician
	Psycho	Publication of the Hitchcock novel adaptation of Robert Bloch's book
	Belgians in the Congo	Operation Dragon Rouge and Dragon Noir , Congo Independence
1961	Hemingway	Ernest Hemingway, American writer commits on July 2 suicide
	Eichmann	Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking National Socialist war criminal, is caught by the Mossad in Argentina
	Stranger in a Strange Land	Publication of the novel Stranger in a Strange World by Robert A. Heinlein
	Dylan	Bob Dylan, American musician, signs a record deal with Columbia Records
	Berlin	Construction of the Berlin Wall begins
	Bay of Pigs Invasion	failed attempt at a CIA-supported invasion of Cubans in exile against the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs
1962	Lawrence of Arabia	Release of the Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia
	British Beatlemania	The Beatles will release their first single Love Me Do in the UK on October 5th
	Ole Miss	the black student James Meredith can, thanks to federal troops at the University of Mississippi enroll
	John Glenn	first American astronaut in earth orbit (see Mercury Atlas 6 )
	Liston beats Patterson	Boxing match for the heavyweight title on September 25th
1963	Pope Paul	Pope Paul VI is selected
	Malcolm X	a leader of the American black movement caused outrage with his comment "... the chickens coming home to roost ..." on Kennedy's murder
	British politician sex	Profumo affair
	JFK blown away	John F. Kennedy , murder of the US President on November 22nd
1964-1989	Birth control	prevention
	Ho Chi Minh	Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman
	Richard Nixon back again	was elected American president in 1968, making his political comeback
	Moonshot	Apollo 11 , the first manned moon landing
	Woodstock	Music festival of the hippie movement
	Watergate	Affair that led to Nixon's resignation
	Punk rock	Origin of the punk music genre
	Begin	Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel
	Reagan	Ronald Reagan, American President
	Palestine	Palestinian Territories in the Middle East Conflict
	Terror on the airline	Members of the PLO hijack aircraft and destroy aircraft
	Ayatollah's in Iran	Ruhollah Khomeini
	Russians in Afghanistan	Soviet-Afghan War
	Wheel of Fortune	TV game show, in German-speaking countries: Wheel of Fortune
	Sally Ride	American astronaut, first American woman in space
	Heavy metal suicide	Trials against Ozzy Osbourne ( Black Sabbath ) and the band Judas Priest , accused by parents of conveying subliminal calls for suicide in their music
	Foreign debts	rising foreign debt due to the severely negative trade balance of the United States
	Homeless Vets	Homelessness among American War Veterans
	AIDS	Spread of the immunodeficiency disease
	Crack	Cocaine-based drug with very high potential for addiction
	Bernie Goetz	In 1984 Bernhard Goetz shot four young people in the New York subway who wanted to rob him
	Hypodermics on the shore	Medical waste washed up from the Fresh Kills Landfill to surrounding beaches in 1987/88
	China's Under Martial Law	State of emergency in the People's Republic of China after the Tian'anmen massacre on the Gate of Heavenly Peace
	Rock and Roller Cola Wars	Cola war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi flares up in the form of lavish advertising with musicians

Parodies

The Hessian comedy duo Badesalz wrote a modified version with the title Wie willste your eggs , the Austrian rapper Money Boy published a parody called Big Eggs , Otto Waalkes wrote the version We Have Reason to Celebrate , which lists a number of alcoholic drinks , and in 1995 JBO published the version Mir sta'dd'n etz die Celebration , which lists sights and various other facilities in Erlangen , the hometown of the fun metal band. The NDR satirical magazine extra 3 created a humorous song on the Munich football club under the title Mir san der FC Bayern , in which, among other things, criminal machinations of board members as well as self-righteousness and arrogance are discussed. The comedian duo Elsterglanz released the song with new lyrics as Wir sind totally stupid on their album In der Ding: Der Staat gegen Godzilla .

The song They'll Never Stop The Simpsons from the television series The Simpsons is based in part on the song by Billy Joel.

The British comedy music duo Amateur Transplants has also covered this song under the title Finals Countdowns . It lists various topics of a final medical exam.

On the occasion of their 20th anniversary, the Dutch band De Heideroosjes also covered the song under the title De Wereld Draait Door , in which, as in the original, they enumerate historical turning points from the years 1989 to 2009.

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	platinum	70,000
Canada (MC)	gold	50,000
United States (RIAA)	platinum	1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	400,000
All in all	2 × gold, 2 × platinum	1,520,000

Main article: Billy Joel / Music Sales Awards

Web links

• Original text on billyjoel.com
• Background to the lyrics
• Interview with background information on the creation of the song
• Solveig Grothe: 25 years of "We didn't start the fire" - world history in 291 seconds . Spiegel Online, September 25, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ release date
2. ↑ https://www.onefinalserenade.com/we-didnt-start-the-fire.html
3. ^ AS Hornby: Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English . Oxford University Press, Sixth Impression 1977, p. 598