Panibagong pang-karaoke

After hearing an uncle's rendition of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" a few nights ago, I have decided to add it to my list of "must songs" during Karaoke. That was the first time I heard the song and I think it's probably unfamiliar too to most of my readers (take a bow my five loyal followers.) But if this song does ring a bell it's probably because you are:

A) musically inclined
B) at least eight years old already during the late 80s
C) A Billy Joel fan

Then again I'm probably just bad at music. I assumed this is a head-scratcher since I have never heard it on radio or sung in karaoke or seen on MTV until that night. The song has a catchy tune (like I said I'm not much of a music buff, so pardon the cliche) but it was the lyrics that really hooked me. Think Sandwich's "Betamax" but instead of prominent Pinoy bands, "We Didn't Start the Fire" list's some of the most important people, places and events from 1949 to 1989, at least from an American's perspective. I even read the song was being used as a tool to teach history to high school students in the US.

I found a bunch of videos of it on Youtube, and so far the coolest is this version of American broadcasting company NBC, which they made to commemorate their 40th anniversary.



If you think the song is good too and would like to sing along, here are the lyrics.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
Though we did ignite it
But we tried to fight it

Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

(Repeat Chorus)

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball,
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

(Repeat chorus)

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land,
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

(Repeat chorus)

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
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

(Repeat Chorus X 2)

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire...

I guess you've suffered enough from my amateurish take on all this so just read this for a more competent review of the song. If you are diligent enough to scour Youtube, you can also watch Dwight of the popular US comedy series "The Office" singing this on the episode where Ryan the "Temp" almost burned their office in Scranton.