08-12-2016, 16:44
a brief summary of the song, then the full wiki meaning of it...
just a Billy turned 40 he met Sean Lennon who had just turned 21 at the time,
Sean remarked something like "man it sucks being 21" and Billy thought back to when he was 21 and said to Sean
"man it sucked when I was 21, we had the Cold War, Vietnam etc"
he then went back over his life from 1949(his birth year) and made a list of famous people, movies, writers, events etc that
shaped every year from '49 to '89 and came up with the song....
the "we didn't start the fire" chorus was basically him saying "don't blame us,we tried to fix it/solve it", as in the "we didn't light it but we tried to fight it" lines...
its not one of my favourite BJ tracks but its probably the cleverest set of lyrics he ever wrote.
BTW, in 1990-95 the song itself formed part of an English literature degree at several Universities in the UK,
he is not the first musician to have that honour bestowed upon him by UK Universities,
several of Lennon's lyrics from 67-71 have also been the subject of the UK educational curriculum as has the writings of Bob Dylan.
anyway,
heres the full Wiki article on "we didn't start the fire" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn%27...t_the_Fire
just a Billy turned 40 he met Sean Lennon who had just turned 21 at the time,
Sean remarked something like "man it sucks being 21" and Billy thought back to when he was 21 and said to Sean
"man it sucked when I was 21, we had the Cold War, Vietnam etc"
he then went back over his life from 1949(his birth year) and made a list of famous people, movies, writers, events etc that
shaped every year from '49 to '89 and came up with the song....
the "we didn't start the fire" chorus was basically him saying "don't blame us,we tried to fix it/solve it", as in the "we didn't light it but we tried to fight it" lines...
its not one of my favourite BJ tracks but its probably the cleverest set of lyrics he ever wrote.
BTW, in 1990-95 the song itself formed part of an English literature degree at several Universities in the UK,
he is not the first musician to have that honour bestowed upon him by UK Universities,
several of Lennon's lyrics from 67-71 have also been the subject of the UK educational curriculum as has the writings of Bob Dylan.
anyway,
heres the full Wiki article on "we didn't start the fire" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn%27...t_the_Fire
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..." - Me 2014.