Billy Joel - we didn't start the fire

노래는 20세기 중반부터 후반까지의 주요 사건과 인물들을 언급하며, 인류가 겪어온 끊임없는 갈등과 문제들을 상기시킨다
우리는 그 불을 시작하지 않았지만 그 불과 싸우기 위해 노력해 왔으며, 그러한 역사가 앞으로도 계속될 것이라는 우려를 나타낸다
결국 과거의 갈등이 현재와 미래에도 계속 영향을 미칠 것임을 암시한다

'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

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 Bloc

'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, Krushchev
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place",
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

'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

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

'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

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

'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

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

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on,
and on, and on...