Some consider it a masterpiece, and others consider it one of the worst songs ever written. But the song’s popularity is undeniable. Of course, we’re talking about Billy Joel’s smash hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.
What’s the Inspiration Behind the Song?
The origin behind the song lies with John Lennon’s son Sean Lennon. One day Sean and a friend decided to visit Joel in his studio. Together they told Billy Joel how hard it was to be happy during the difficult times of 1989. They felt Joel had been luckier, because he grew up in the 50s, a time when nothing happened.
Joel couldn’t believe what he heard. So Sean and his friend never heard of the Korean War? And the events in Little Rock? Or the Suez Crisis?
Joel immediately realized he wanted to write a song about these historical events. And so he began writing “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. He started with the historical events of 1949, the year of his birth, and continued writing about historical events until 1989, the year the song was written.
What’s the Meaning of the Song?
Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a song about the impact of historical events on young generations despite their lack of influence and responsibility.
The song mentions a total of 188 historical events. It starts with the presidency of Harry Truman in 1949, and ends with the Cola wars between Pepsi and Coca-Cola in 1989. Most of the events mentioned are political and cultural.
The chorus recites the title of the song. It implies that ‘we’ aren’t responsible for the occurrence of major historical events (‘the fire’).
How Did the Song Get Its Title
Billy Joel struggled to find a title for the song. He knew he wanted to include the word ‘fire’, but struggled to fit it into a catchy sentence. When Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner visited Billy in the studio, Billy started throwing random song titles at him. Wenner disagreed with all titles until Joel mentioned: “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. Wenner thought it was a good title and so Joel decided to stick with it.
What Does Billy Joel Say About the Song
Billy Joel has mixed opinions of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. He particularly despises the melody of the song.
Read more: The 10 Best Billy Joel Songs of All Time
the melody is horrendous. It’s like a mosquito droning. It’s one of the worst melodies I’ve ever written. I kind of like the lyric though.
Billy Joel in the book In Their Own Words by Bill DeMain
But Joel does like the meaning behind the song.
It’s just a song that says the world’s a mess. It’s always been a mess, it’s always going to be a mess.
Billy Joel in Fred Schruers book Billy Joel
The Legacy of We Didn’t Start the Fire
The song appears on Billy Joel’s eleventh studio album Storm Front (1989). “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was released as the album’s first single.
The song reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It didn’t top the charts in any other country, but was still a worldwide top-10 hit.
In Popular Culture
The song is very popular as a parody song. The Simpsons, for instance, parodied the song as “They’ll Never Stop the Simpsons”. The Office parodied it as “Ryan Started the Fire”, and Cornell University parodied it as “We Didn’t Go To Harvard”.
But the most famous parody is arguably from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where the avengers sing about Marvel history over Billy Joel’s tune.
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