Karen’s First Time Reaction to: Billy Joel - We Didn't Start The Fire | EVERY GENERATION RELATES

Comments · 1K

• DA

  @darrinlindsey · 9 months ago

  I leave this comment for everyone that hears the song, for the first time. If a Middle Schooler would take the lyrics and research every person and event mentioned, plus all the branches that come off of them, they would probably qualify to be a 20th Century History Teacher, as soon as they're done.

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• DO

  @DoktorPerryCox · 9 months ago

  A crazy detail about the song is that Billy Joel lists everything in the correct chronological order, from the start of his own birth year up to the time of its release (summer '89).

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• JO

  @johnhannon2676 · 9 months ago

  Shout to my 10th grade history teacher, Mrs. Maneese. She played us this song, gave us a copy of the lyrics and told us to figure it out. There wasn’t any Google or Chatgpt back then lol

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• KE

  @keith6485 · 9 months ago (edited)

  One of our twin daughters' Junior High teachers posted the lyrics to this song around the wall of their classroom. During the course of the year, they discussed each reference and the historic placement and impact of each one. She was one of the best teachers they ever had. She left the school to seek better paying employment.

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• LI

  @lilamuzik3385 · 9 months ago

  And, may I suggest again as one of his best.." GoodNight Saigon". But Karen will need a whole box of Kleenix.  The Vietnam Vets asked Billy to do a song about their experiences.  It kills your soul, but such a tribute to our troops.

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• DA

  @David-s4l7l · 4 months ago

  My mom heard me listening to this back when it came out. She asked if I knew what the line about Thalidomide was about. I didn't, damn I hated admitting to my mom she knew more than me, so she sat down and explained how a company made a pill to help women tolerate pregnancy pains. And how it started in England. And she described the deformities it caused to precious defenseless babies. I was disgusted. And then she explained how the moms didn't know. Helped me form empathy as a kid. Miss you mom.

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• ST

  @steve9199 · 9 months ago (edited)

  "Welcome to Modern American History 101 with Dr. Joel". Basically this came out because Billy overheard some youngster saying "You don't understand, what we're going through in the world", and he started thinking about all the news events and items he's seen in HIS lifetime.

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• FR

  @FrancesThompson-e3m · 9 months ago (edited)

  It starts from Billy Joel’s year of birth in 1949 ( when I was born) to when the song was written in 1989. Incidents and characters from history in chronological order are listed brilliantly!❤

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• RO

  @rockero1313 · 9 months ago

  a 40 years history lesson in 4 minutes. BJ is just brilliant.

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• FU

  @Fuzz32 · 9 months ago

  The genesis of this song actually began with a conversation Billy Joel had with a twenty-one year old man in the late eighties. The young man complained to Joel about what a terrible time it was to be twenty-one. Joel said he understood because his twenties were the sixties. But the young man stated that Joel’s childhood was the fifties and “everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties”. Joel immediately demanded to know if the kid knew about the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis. And that is what formed the basis of the song. Though Joel himself has said he doesn’t really like the song, mainly because, without lyrics, he describes it as sounding like a “dentist drill”. I think it’s a great song.

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• BR

  @bradsullivan2495 · 9 months ago

  A musical version of the old quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,"

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• JO

  @JoeKerr_AKA_Mr.J · 9 months ago

  When this song came out, I was in Middle School and our teacher made us write a summary describing  every person/event mentioned in this song as an extra credit project! 👍

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