We Didn't Start the Fire

Well, since I wrote about Marconi in my last post, I was inspired to look at another 80s tune with historical names -- lots of historical names.  "We Didn't Start the Fire" was written by Billy Joel in 1989, which is much later than I originally thought.  I guess it works out well since it is a historical retrospective montage, so it makes sense to have it end in the last year of a decade.  Hard to believe that 24 years have gone by since it was written!  Wow.  Anyway, this is not the kind of tune you can easily sing in your car or at karaoke, but nevertheless, it would be a challenge in both cases (especially karaoke).  Have you ever sung karaoke, finding yourself scrambling to get all the words in as they go by the screen?  I admit that I have.  It's pretty fun.

I think we all know that this song is kind of a giant poem with some accompaniment rather than a song in the melodic sense.  Does it have a melody?  Well, only if you count the chorus.  Meanwhile, the video for this tune is awesome.  I was blown away by the quality of the video in terms of direction, acting, etc.  It seems to have a plot as well, since we follow a family through all these decades.  I watched it and thought, "Hey, isn't that Marlee Matlin in there?"  Come to find out, it is!  She was the one burning her bra in the '60s/70s part and thumbing her nose to her family.  I think she may also have been the girl on the table getting her prom dress hemmed just before the bra burning scene, but I can't really confirm this.  Rewinding just a but further, I have to say that I was just a bit bugged that the mom in the 50s/60s part is popping pills because of her child playing violin.  That's not fair!  I guess I never noticed that when I was younger, because back in '89, I had never even seen stringed instruments up close and personal.  It's alright, though.  We'll let that one slide in the name of art.  As for Mr. Joel, well, we know he is a musical genius, and this song is just kind of a neat little anomaly in his catalog.  I'll probably write about more of his songs later, but for now, we can all challenge ourselves to sing along with this!