We Didn't Start the Fire

Billy Joel released the hit song We Didn’t Start the Fire which includes short allusions to various significant world events starting from his birth in 1949 up until the release year of the song, 1989. The song is organized nicely in that each stanza represents a decade of time starting from the 40s and ending with the 80s. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and was a No. 1 hit in the United States.

We Didn’t Start the Fire features over 100 one-to-three-word references of newspaper headlines. Many are political or foreign issues during the time such as the JFK assassination, Red China, and the Communist Bloc. Some, though, are references to events pertaining to literature and arts. He mentions several names of artists and actors including Doris Day, Sergei Prokofiev, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and others.

It seems as if he is paying respect to the artists before him who made his career possible but also is grieving their deaths. One example is when he mentions Buddy Holly. Right before he says his name, Joel uses Holly’s signature hiccup “uh-huh, uh-huh”. He does this with other references as well. All of the references are either beginning or ends of careers which evoke two different feelings: one of excitement for beginning and another of grief for the end (usually resulting in death). By doing this Billy Joel takes the listener on a rollercoaster going through all Billy Joel has lived through in only 4 and a half minutes.

The chorus is different from the rest of the song in that it doesn’t reference any events but history as a whole. Billy Joel uses the title ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ over and over again to explain that society isn’t to blame for all of these historical events. He then follows with ‘but we did ignite it when we tried to fight it’. What I got from that line is that when society tries to suppress something or calm it down it can end up making it bigger.

We can also see how Billy Joel felt about all of these headlines when he says, “I can’t take it anymore”. I think Billy Joel created this song not only to pay homage and respect to the various deceased musicians and show how far music has come along but also to portray his feeling about everything that happened. He was tired of all the crazy conflicts overseas and how it affected people domestically. It seemed as though he had all this built up frustration with the world and by releasing this song he also managed to release his anger.

One of Billy Joel’s top songs was not only good because of its sound, but also because of its deeper meaning. Fans are able to go through a timeline in which many exciting, tragic, or stressful events took place and they are able to do it such a short time. People can hear Joel’s emotion and how he feels about all that is happened. This just goes to show how powerful music can be in conveying messages to audiences.