Here are the lyrics for Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". There are tons of Cold War references that need to be explained by the class. Give us your input.
The amount of references in this song is crazy! i had no idea that Billy Joel was such a learned man. However, i would find the song more effective if instead of justing mentioning events, Joel had gone into detail on the more meaningful happenings so that i could be educated simply be listening.
I disagree with Woody, I believe that Billy Joel is most effective in this manner. His lists of names show similarities between the actions of the characters while at the same time capture our interest enough to make us want to investigate why people are important enough to be mentioned.
i could never understand everything that billy joel said in this song. now i know what he says AND i have a deeper understanding for the lyrics. its shocking how many things happened in such a short amount of time. this blog has opened my eyes to the reasons that america had such controversy about so many issues. there were political problems, social problems and economic changes. the people of the time must have been so confused about what was going on. the fact that this song was written shows that through it all music was a thing that people could unite around.
i never realized that the words in this song really were connected or even what any of them meant. I agree with Kyler that it is more effective in this manner than to go into detail and it would make the song drag on. The way that everything is connected really shows how eventful this time really was in all realms, politics, economics and the social climate. There were some that i had no idea about like the heavy metal suicide part with tipper gore and how this is when the middle east started to actually truly effect the US.
i had no clue that the lyrics of this song had so much meaning! everything has a reference to the time period, but i agree that going into detail would ruin the effect of the song. i actually learned a lot by this website, like the sex scandal, heavy metal suicide, and more about the commmunist scare in the united states. this song reflected all the events going on in this time period. it kind of suprises me in a way that we don't have a song like this today, with everything going on in society today, like the war, politics, and many other social events.
I also never knew that the amount of information and important events in this song were there. Of course i never really analyzed the song. But it is still cool to recognize events and things he was talking about in his song. there is a lot of important events and people who were mentioned in the song that i find interesting and not necessarily have to do with the cold war.
I had heard this song many times but never once did I truly understand or listen to what the song was saying. The website helped to me to have a deeper understanding of the song and it's lyrics. Its very interesting to see many of the events we've gone over lately jam packed into a good song. Most interesting is this is a small amount of time in history yet many things had happened. The song seems to reflect however more on the bad and the many issues we faced with civil rights, the red scare, and the war filled society. Billy Joel must have been an educated man or had a talented writer who wanted to educate others by getting them first interested in the song then into the events mentioned in the song. I think it is effective in its motive when you notice it for what it is. It truly, as the chorus states, goes over the fire that spread around the globe of political, social, and economical unrest. When examined it contains a plethora of information that can be read and discovered.
This song is a really useful tool in studying the important events of the mid-twentieth century. I thought that many of the information was self-ecplanatory, such as the presidents and famous actors and literary works, but other facts needed some explanation. the links were really helpful for those things that I did not know, and I learned a lot about the time period.
So my favorite line in the whole song is "edsel is a no go." Haha. It's my fav because the edsel is known as one of the most spectacular failures in American history. There were so many things wrong with the model that it ended up being a total disaster...or better yet, a no go. =] And I also find it interesting that for the most part the song lists the events in chronological order...so that's pretty sweet.
This song certainly includes the many major figures and events from around 1950 to 1990. Over this time span which was the time span of the Cold War, these infamous people and events made headlines as they now have significant roles in our history...leaders such as Truman, Khrushchev and Ho Cho Minh; actors and actresses; movies and entertainment; and major events as mentioned in the song, all greatly impacted the world and especially the United States at the time of conflict. The song is generally saying that these historical figures and events all contributed to the times of the Cold War conflict. The Cold War wasn't an average war, (no combat=no fire), but rather seemed like a rivalry as many progressions and significant events occurred.
i never knew that this song had so many references to the cold war and events around that time period. the only reason i knew the song was because of the office....but i do agree that it may have been more effective to give a bit of explaination rather than just list names/events. i do like that the website that is on has links to each of the references, that way if we don't know what he is talking about, we can click on the link and it will give us a detailed explaination of what it is.
I found this blog very interesting in how an enumerous amount of events were displayed in this hit solo which featured so many historical events on social, political, economical, religous and foreign issues. Billy Joel himself is also an interesting story understanding the impact Billy Joel made upon society traveling to Cuba for Havanna Jam, participating in US for Africa (awareness of AIDS and support of victims), performing at Radio City Music Hall to benefit New York Police Athletic League, performing at another concert for the benefit of marine-related groups, performing two USO concerts in Philippines during the Persian Gulf War, performing with other starts to beneift AIDS project Los Angeles, Dontating proceeds from two concerts in Osaka to local earthquake relief efforts, performing with Sting and others at Rainforest beneift concert at Carnegie Hall and through all of his efforts eventually being named Music Cares Person of the year in 2002. I felt the need to point out that extrodinarily long list of events Billy Joel took part in to show the revelance of what I believe what his calling to writing such a powerful and intelligble song which provided society of all kinds around the nation with a better understanding of the evolving world around them.
I had never, efore hearing the preview in class, been exposed to the lyrics of this song beyond the famous chorus line. It's a little bit ridiculous how many references he used in such a rythmic way it must have taken a long time and alot of musical insight which undoiubtabely billy joel possess, and of course ina song that everyone has heard of.
Wow, going through the lyrics word by word gives so much more insight to what the song is trying to say than just the well-known chorus. There are constant references to the cold war, including joe mccarthy, the rosenburgs, red china, the H-Bomb...the list goes on and on. I feel like the song didn't need an explanation on each word, and that it was very effective in just mentioning all the things that have contributed to this "fire", and show that over time it has just gotten worse.
i never thought about what was acctually being said in this song. i used to sing along without ever wondering why it was just a bunch of names and stuff. But now i understand that this song has so much more meaning then just random names and ideas. It all has to do with the time period and what was going on in the country. i think its cool how he used all this important information dealing with the cold war and put it into a popular song. People can learn alot from this song and its lyrics.
I think its really cool how he got so much info about the cold war into one song, and everything is in order. Amazing. It kind of sounds like lyrics you would make Mr. Blais. And everything fits, how clever. I knew Billy Joel was a great musician but i didnt know he was a historian too.
17 comments:
This song is on my ipod! i had no idea that it had so many references to the cold war though. its mostly like all the big events from 1948-1990.
The amount of references in this song is crazy! i had no idea that Billy Joel was such a learned man. However, i would find the song more effective if instead of justing mentioning events, Joel had gone into detail on the more meaningful happenings so that i could be educated simply be listening.
I disagree with Woody, I believe that Billy Joel is most effective in this manner. His lists of names show similarities between the actions of the characters while at the same time capture our interest enough to make us want to investigate why people are important enough to be mentioned.
i could never understand everything that billy joel said in this song. now i know what he says AND i have a deeper understanding for the lyrics. its shocking how many things happened in such a short amount of time. this blog has opened my eyes to the reasons that america had such controversy about so many issues. there were political problems, social problems and economic changes. the people of the time must have been so confused about what was going on. the fact that this song was written shows that through it all music was a thing that people could unite around.
i never realized that the words in this song really were connected or even what any of them meant. I agree with Kyler that it is more effective in this manner than to go into detail and it would make the song drag on. The way that everything is connected really shows how eventful this time really was in all realms, politics, economics and the social climate. There were some that i had no idea about like the heavy metal suicide part with tipper gore and how this is when the middle east started to actually truly effect the US.
i had no clue that the lyrics of this song had so much meaning! everything has a reference to the time period, but i agree that going into detail would ruin the effect of the song. i actually learned a lot by this website, like the sex scandal, heavy metal suicide, and more about the commmunist scare in the united states. this song reflected all the events going on in this time period. it kind of suprises me in a way that we don't have a song like this today, with everything going on in society today, like the war, politics, and many other social events.
I also never knew that the amount of information and important events in this song were there. Of course i never really analyzed the song. But it is still cool to recognize events and things he was talking about in his song. there is a lot of important events and people who were mentioned in the song that i find interesting and not necessarily have to do with the cold war.
I had heard this song many times but never once did I truly understand or listen to what the song was saying. The website helped to me to have a deeper understanding of the song and it's lyrics. Its very interesting to see many of the events we've gone over lately jam packed into a good song. Most interesting is this is a small amount of time in history yet many things had happened. The song seems to reflect however more on the bad and the many issues we faced with civil rights, the red scare, and the war filled society. Billy Joel must have been an educated man or had a talented writer who wanted to educate others by getting them first interested in the song then into the events mentioned in the song. I think it is effective in its motive when you notice it for what it is. It truly, as the chorus states, goes over the fire that spread around the globe of political, social, and economical unrest. When examined it contains a plethora of information that can be read and discovered.
This song is a really useful tool in studying the important events of the mid-twentieth century. I thought that many of the information was self-ecplanatory, such as the presidents and famous actors and literary works, but other facts needed some explanation. the links were really helpful for those things that I did not know, and I learned a lot about the time period.
So my favorite line in the whole song is "edsel is a no go." Haha. It's my fav because the edsel is known as one of the most spectacular failures in American history. There were so many things wrong with the model that it ended up being a total disaster...or better yet, a no go. =] And I also find it interesting that for the most part the song lists the events in chronological order...so that's pretty sweet.
This song certainly includes the many major figures and events from around 1950 to 1990. Over this time span which was the time span of the Cold War, these infamous people and events made headlines as they now have significant roles in our history...leaders such as Truman, Khrushchev and Ho Cho Minh; actors and actresses; movies and entertainment; and major events as mentioned in the song, all greatly impacted the world and especially the United States at the time of conflict. The song is generally saying that these historical figures and events all contributed to the times of the Cold War conflict. The Cold War wasn't an average war, (no combat=no fire), but rather seemed like a rivalry as many progressions and significant events occurred.
i never knew that this song had so many references to the cold war and events around that time period. the only reason i knew the song was because of the office....but i do agree that it may have been more effective to give a bit of explaination rather than just list names/events. i do like that the website that is on has links to each of the references, that way if we don't know what he is talking about, we can click on the link and it will give us a detailed explaination of what it is.
I found this blog very interesting in how an enumerous amount of events were displayed in this hit solo which featured so many historical events on social, political, economical, religous and foreign issues. Billy Joel himself is also an interesting story understanding the impact Billy Joel made upon society traveling to Cuba for Havanna Jam, participating in US for Africa (awareness of AIDS and support of victims), performing at Radio City Music Hall to benefit New York Police Athletic League, performing at another concert for the benefit of marine-related groups, performing two USO concerts in Philippines during the Persian Gulf War, performing with other starts to beneift AIDS project Los Angeles, Dontating proceeds from two concerts in Osaka to local earthquake relief efforts, performing with Sting and others at Rainforest beneift concert at Carnegie Hall and through all of his efforts eventually being named Music Cares Person of the year in 2002. I felt the need to point out that extrodinarily long list of events Billy Joel took part in to show the revelance of what I believe what his calling to writing such a powerful and intelligble song which provided society of all kinds around the nation with a better understanding of the evolving world around them.
I had never, efore hearing the preview in class, been exposed to the lyrics of this song beyond the famous chorus line. It's a little bit ridiculous how many references he used in such a rythmic way it must have taken a long time and alot of musical insight which undoiubtabely billy joel possess, and of course ina song that everyone has heard of.
Wow, going through the lyrics word by word gives so much more insight to what the song is trying to say than just the well-known chorus. There are constant references to the cold war, including joe mccarthy, the rosenburgs, red china, the H-Bomb...the list goes on and on. I feel like the song didn't need an explanation on each word, and that it was very effective in just mentioning all the things that have contributed to this "fire", and show that over time it has just gotten worse.
i never thought about what was acctually being said in this song. i used to sing along without ever wondering why it was just a bunch of names and stuff. But now i understand that this song has so much more meaning then just random names and ideas. It all has to do with the time period and what was going on in the country. i think its cool how he used all this important information dealing with the cold war and put it into a popular song. People can learn alot from this song and its lyrics.
I think its really cool how he got so much info about the cold war into one song, and everything is in order. Amazing. It kind of sounds like lyrics you would make Mr. Blais. And everything fits, how clever. I knew Billy Joel was a great musician but i didnt know he was a historian too.
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