First Time Reactiion | Billy Joel - We Didn't Start The Fire | Reaction 

The song contains world events from 1949 through 1989 when he turned 40 years old. It's from the album Storm Front and the entire album is fire. The video covers the fashions decor, etc through the decades. We is the current adult generation. The newer generation tends to blames the fires on the previous generation.

I don't think they are all controversial. It's history. Beatles. Buddy Holly. Others are of course. It is history. We didn't start it whoever's we is. I think it is whoever is listening. I liked it back then and still do. Don't listen to it all the time but I enjoy it.

All in a timeline. You see the styles (clothing, hair, decor) change in the video along with the flipping calendar. He's a genius!

We is the current generation, as every generation blames the one before.

I interpret it as others have said - events in history good, bad and neutral, that have effected us all but we didn't start it. However, the video shows families living their lives (as we all do) while all this is going on around them. "We" didn't start "it" but it doesn't exonerate us nor take away our responsibility to try to put the fire out. I like the song!

Cultural touchpoints - for students of history during those years, every one of those references is important for understanding the people, the politics, the evolution of the time. It's about how we got here from there.

There are SO many music, pop culture, and political references in this song. It's a lot, I know. I've always liked this song. I so appreciate the research you do to dig deeper.

This song is pure genius, Billy Joel was brilliant for this one…he’s naming all the big people, places and events of the 40yrs of his life and that we don’t make this mess, it’s been messy but we have been tryin to make it better

Love this song. Great historical nugget. I'm 70, and I sure do remember a lot of the people/places/things named in the song.

the video shows you that even the little families who seem happy are actually affected by all the events he's naming.....

"We" means "we here right now". the old saying "its the music you kids listen to today" Well......we didn't start the fire!

Billy Joel is super critical of his own work. He is all about the music. He does not seem to understand how good a lyricist and singer he is. He was raised in a classical music family and I think he judges his work through ghat lens at some level.

History lesson in a song this man is genious. Starts in 1949 and ends 1989.

You finally got it right. The WE is his/my generation.

Not controversial events just historical events from around the time he was born till the song was released!Good story from a historical perspective. Great songs musically and lyrically by Billy Joe are summer highland Falls, Say Goodbye to Hollywood, Stilletto, and Zanzibar!

Billy is a Genius. I cried the first time I saw this video and heard this lyrics. Pull the lyrics up on Google. BOOM!

Please do Billy Joel's "River of Dreams"

As someone who graduated in 1989 I love this song. I don’t care what the critics say. It’s not my favorite Billy Joel song but I still love it.❤️✌️🌼

To get a different side of Billy Joel, I suggest Scenes From An Italian Restaurant LIVE from Long Island. It is one of my favorite live videos ever. So much fun!!

"We" are the people, anyone that is living.

this entire song is a history lesson (and not always controversial events and people, although some definitely are). We is everybody, all of us, however you want to phrase it. By the way, your musical journey must by definition includes the events that inspires that music, and this song list a whole lot of events and people from 1945 or so to 1989

If you're interested in a comprehensive history of mid-20th century, you could go to Wikipedia and look up each of the things he names in order. It's quite a list of world events and people. The song has been used with some success in history classes as an index for the students. As to Joel's opinion of the song, just remember you're always your own worst critic. :)

Song is fine -- he's just stressing. You're right it's catchy. The names and images will keep people talking. That's art.

Someone Billy knows said that all the big events in history were recent( at the time) so Billy wrote this as answer to show what had happened in his 40 years on this planet. Points well made I think.

We, means, we the people.

The group Fall Out Boy did an update on this song. Picking up where Joel left off in '89. Same title.

A friend of his said that nothing important had happened before they were born, and as a reply he wrote this song that is nothing but Important Historical events. During the video it’s a college of things that have come and gone or improved. I still like the song, To me it’s still relivent to this Day, But to people who don’t know any History they have No idea what he’s singing about.

Starts with his parents wedding then goes through the events happening as he grows up until he wrote this

Basically saying that every generation does the best they can after the mistakes of the previous generation and it just repeats with each generation making mistakes along the way but it’s not any one generations fault.

Even though this is an old song, it means so much more after 2020. The We is the people

This is very likely the most information dense song ever, at least successful. It's a freaking pop song, but I've listened to it many hundreds of times and I can sing probably 80% of it.

The song ages well in that it's a history lesson for anyone who would challenge themselves to look up the events and get some of the education our schools are obviously missing in recent years.

Historical events and people over 40 years, and an existential element "we didn't start the fire" "and it still goes on and on and on..." I think it's that things keep happening whether we like it or not

Billy Joel has always been super critical of his own songs. He said much the same thing about Piano Man, saying it was little more than a jingle. He finally quit writing songs entirely, because he didn't like anything he was writing. It wasn't until 2024 that he finally released a new song.

The knowledge of History is so important. When Standardized Testing became mandatory in public schools, History was sacrificed, this, newer generations didn’t understand this masterpiece.

Not exclusively controversial. just momentous people and events that encapsulates those particular years. This has been used in history classes to engage students. We is, take your pick, the judgement of the following generations.

I love the Matter of Trust official video by Billy Joel

The point of this song is we are fighting our battle just like the people before us and the ones who follow us will fight the battle. It's meant to say we should understand we all have our own fight and remember what it's like when we meet the new ones how it was for us and try to understand each other.

"We" means his generation.

6:43 that is burning of the draft card

This song is a lot different than a lot of other Billy Joel songs. It has more of that pop 80s feel but it’s still a great song.

"We" is the 8 billion people living on earth, today. Or, the 7 billion at the time he wrote this. If it could've been released earlier in the 80s, it would be a more popular song now. I love it. If a person researched all 119 subjects mentioned, and all things related to each subject, they would be the most interesting person alive.

All the Baby Boomers know what the vaccine was he was referring to, we have the scar on our upper arms from it ,Smallpox, pretty sure it was discontinued early 1970's.

If I am remembering this correctly he and some younger artist was sitting around talking and each generation started blaming the other generation for the way the world was and it gave him the idea to write this song showing it was not just his generation that started this and every one generation had something too do with it even theirs

I've had teachers specifically use this song in classes, because while most people have heard of some of the events involved, a lot of people have forgotten about, like, Thalidomide. The song is actually structured to bring up important events, and then follow culturally significant events that had less lasting implications, like "North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe". It's specifically about drawing attention to the worst things happening, and then drawing them away with a sideline. Which you know. Is still happening. Some of the point is that there is always *something* the current generation has no control over, or has just never heard of, as well as entertainment events that really easily overrode the really bad things happening, or things people just didn't realize were going on. So sometimes it's better to think of someone as an ally, or at least give grace that people weren't able to fix everything.

Thank you for sharing, Always loved this song because it’s history. It’s been said… Events during Billy years birth to the current dat of song ( late 80s). ❤

Younger generations blaming the baby boomer generation for all of our problems. Truth is we saw a lot of trouble , tragedy, war , civil unrest when we were young cause we didn't start the fire

Other commenters have provided the facts. But to put it in human terms. BJ is a bit older than I am; I was born in the ‘50s and grew up in the ’60s. My parents were born in the ‘30s. They lived all the events the song listed, I knew OF all the events or lived through them: Eisenhower was President when I was born-and the US only had 48 States). I vividly remember Kennedy’s assassination-and MLK, and RFK. And the NASA Space program from the Mercury missions through the Gemini missions to the Apollo missions to the Moon landing. Growing up in the NE Jim Crow got a mention when (sic) social studies was taught but it was taught as yesterday’s problems “now solved.” Mid-‘60s. I watched Biden leading the judiciary committee hearings on Clarence Thomas for Supreme Court justice-who from that time can forget the pubic hair on the coke can incident. And on and on and on. You got the gist of it. It is musically simple and repetitive BUT so is the message of the lyrics. There is an oft repeated saying: *those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it*. There is precious little learning that takes place but events, as they take place, are explosive (hence the fire). AND we all inherit the circumstances from those that came before us just as we pass along circumstances to those that follow us; anyone can point the finger of blame backwards or forwards OR they can be the rare few that accepts what’s here, now (however it came about) as ones responsibility to make right. If there’s a *deeper* meaning to the song, that’s it-but more superficially it’s just that we’re another link in the chain of history and aren’t to blame for what others did to get us here. The best aspect of the song is probably that it makes people think about what their place in history is or might be, rather than just being an anonymous leaf carried along in the stream…

You have grown so nicely in your musical journey. While generationally we can always point our fingers at another generation for the problems of today. BTW, I love this song.

His generation!

Someone should update this song

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song written by American musician Billy Joel. The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and later released as part of Joel's album Storm Front on October 17, 1989. A list song, its fast-paced lyrics include brief references to 119 significant political, cultural, scientific, and sporting events between 1949 (the year of Joel's birth) and 1989 when the song was released, in mainly chronological order. Here is a version with the lyrics and pictures of all the events. Someone spent a lot of time making this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s6os_ieY0m8.html There are several people who have made updated versions. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-la5VY5Z_imA.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5xn_yR7afm0.html

The story goes (I can't say for certain if it's true or that I got the names correct) that there was a discussion between Billy Joel and a 20-something musical up-and-coming (I've heard Julian, John Lennon's son) about how boomers had it easier than the current generation. The point being put forth by the younger man to Joel was NOT that the boomers caused all the trouble, but that not much earth-shattering occurred in the boomers' youth. Joel left the discussion pretty pissed off. It led him to list out all the groundbreaking and earth-shaking that occurred in his own [boomer] lifespan. Joel's point is that a realistic examination of ANY specific time period unearths culture-affecting historical events. No time period is devoid of chaos, and to make that claim just demonstrates a lack of knowledge. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ To answer your central question, "We" refers to the Baby Boomer generation, those individuals who were born 1946 to 1964. Those years were bracketed by the end of World War 2 (the generation conceived by returning veterans) and the turning tide of the civil justice movement (the popular movements concerning anti-war, anti-nuke, anti-poverty, pro-discrimination/racial justice). It can also be argued that "We" refers to EVERY generation; each generation encounters its own injustices, sets its own cultural goals, and mounts its own battles to improve what they have inherited. In that respect, 'the fire' can represent the chaos that blows through each era and 'the passion' each generation brings to subdue it. 'MY' generation didn't start it [the problems or the fighting back], 'YOUR' generation didn't start it, 'My PARENTS' generation didn't and neither will 'Your CHILDREN' or 'Theirs'. It's a relay race, and each generation in turn takes on the job of meeting the arising challenges and correcting injustice. So each subsequent generation can take this song and its chorus and just write new keywords to insert. It's NOT a song about blame, but more a song about reality. The reality is this stuff never stops; the job is never over. It's not about 'who started it', but about the fact that the work never ends. And it seems like a song about courage, because every generation accepts the responsibility, and THAT is a positive. You ask if I liked the song when it was new, how did I feel about it... I was already well-into the Billy Joel fan camp, so I have to say it's a banger, but not especially deep. It was written mainly as kind of a rant to an ignorant remark, and on that point it was satisfying but not hugely memorable, so I can see Joel's point. It's a blood-stirring anthem, great for raucous parties or working your energy up, but then forgettable. It's 'fastfood pop'. When I compare it to the more thoughtful lyrics Joel has written or the more interesting tunes and arrangements, it doesn't keep pace, doesn't meet the bar set by his other songs. But that said, it's ok. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Addendum: I happened to check the dates, and it can't be (as some reported) Sean Lennon who had the discussion with Joel in the studio that day. Sean was born October 1975, so would have turned 21 in October 1996. "We Didn't Start The Fire" was released in September 1989, just before Sean's 14th birthday. But Julian Lennon was born in April 1963; he turned 21 in April 1984, 5 years before the song's release. Having a song in development and recording for 5 years makes more sense. Even if completed earlier, the only other album on which it could have been released was put out 2 years or less from the time of the studio discussion between the two men. It strikes me Joel is more careful that to rush a song out. Or, it was completed but didn't make the cut for the 1986 album. It may have sat a few years before being included in the next album in 1989.

Same ol' shit, different day.

Ths is a hisoty lesson, all evebts are in chronological order.

Savage garden did the same thing with affimaation in 1999

Julian Lennon told him that nothing happened in the 50's...and he was like...what? Julian was a kid at the time, John Lennon's son. The entire song is a timeline of his life.

MMBxMOB - I think the WE is that current gen - us Boomers. We were young once, and older generations often blamed us for everything because things were changing rapidly, and rock & roll was a big part of that. What I get is a response to older ones, bursting their little pink bubble that change, disruption, violence, celebrity and more didn’t really start with us. A lot of it had been around for millennia, though clearly things worsened when WW1 broke out, to which historians have testified. Could be a generational thing the other way, but I think the title fits my theory. I also lived thru this time of immense change. 😊

He’s saying we as in the U.S

I actually love the story behind this. Billy Joel was at some family function and his 15-year-old nephew was in a conversation with him. And the kid made some comments about how people who grew up before their current time.... and this would have been right before he released this song.... Those people didn't really have a very hard life and that all of the worst shit is happening in his generation not in Billy's. Aside from the fact that that is obvious BS He took it even further and wrote an entire song that hit number one listing all the things that had happened in his lifetime before that kid was even born.

not really controversial but just historical.

Next…Go to Church with “River of Dreams”

We is the previous generations. In this case he specifically means baby boomers

He's telling you everything that happened in the first forty years of his life, which is when he wrote it. If you printed out the lyrics and read about each item, you'd have a Master's Degree level of understanding of the middle of the 20th century. You mention the couple, they represent his parents. He stands in the room watching them, so he's telling you his own life story. Your inability to figure out who the "we" is isn't unique to you. A lot of us liked the song but couldn't figure it out, and that may be part of why Billy has soured on it. He knew it had this flaw.

Billy is his own worst critic he admitted that in an interview recently. That's why I stopped writing for so long because he was so hypocritical about what he was writing that he didn't think any of it was any good. I'm so happy that he's back and I'm so thankful to the person that got through to him and got him writing again. If you haven't heard his new song you really do have to hear it it's amazing

it's kind of like the what comes around goes around philosophy... and how humans kind of are their own worst enemy... we -I think being American.

The only song that Billy Joel ever wrote the words first. He is all about the music and considered this his worst melody. His musical expectations for himself are ridiculously high. He hasn’t forgiven himself for not being Beethoven. He still sings it in every concert though. It’s so catchy you can’t help but sing along.

I wish Goodnight Saigon would get more reaction play.

Billy is often his worst critic and has also stated that he dislikes the sound of his own singing voice, so there's that! I was a child when We Didn't Start the Fire came out. It got a LOT of airplay on the radio. At first I resisted but eventually it grew on me, and I kid you not, just dare me to sing all the words and I will 😆 Now here's a suggestion: since this is Billy's own least liked song, how about reacting to the song he likes the most -- And So It Goes. Just be careful, it'll break your heart.

He is a boomer. We is the current generation. In this instance boomers.

It's our Baby Boomers get out song...we were being blamed for a lot of stuff back then!

They stopped giving Thalidomide to pregnant women two years before I was born. I remember a few deformed kids that were 1 or 2 years ahead of me in highschool.

❤

panned by politically correct crybabies. it's really hard to deal with history. that last sentence was pure sarcasm. we didn't start the fire is referring to human beings. it's our lot in life to live through everything that is happening that has nothing to do with anything we've ever chosen. still 100% true today.

Fallout Boy did an updated cover with more modern events.

It's a story about events he believes his generation are not responsible for

For most of his songs Billy Joel wrote the music first and then the lyrics. This song was written differently as he wrote the lyrics first and then the music. It might be he did not like this particular song later on because he thought he did not spent as much time on the music as his other songs. Of course this is just my perspective and I could be completely wrong about it.

This is another late era Billy Joel and not among his best, imho. Try "Big Shot," "My Life," "Still Rock-n-Roll to Me," "Captain Jack," or "Movin' Out".

Pure commercial pop. Billy Joel let it be known in a RS interview that he really didn't care for this song.

Look at your comments for the answers. 😊

Historic not controversial

Pretty much, stop blaming it all on his generation

I think all music from 80s sounds "dated" in the sense that it's unique to the time and easily indentifiable. This particular song was powerful for it's time, but always more of a message and a statement than it is a song in my mind, and it was hugely overplayed on the radio our main source of music in the 80s. It definitely lacks the musical depth in comparison with pretty much any one of his other songs that I can think of. I view him as one of the greatest artists of all time you should check out some of his live performances they are incredible!

He's talking about the fire starting since the beginning and it being passed from generation to generation. "We" (his generation) didn't start it. He's talking about 1950-1980ish...but that's only one generation. My generation is retiring and sort of out of the loop. Younger generations have to deal with what they were left from the previous generations....and back and back and back....several generations if you think about it critically, every generation inherits a bunch of s&^t to deal with, and they figure the previous generation is completely responsible. But the world doesn't work that way. Plua new "fire" is started in each generation....but it's really just a continuation of the same crap. Mankind has always been great at destroying itself.

Google Children Of thalidomide. It’s crazy

It is a aacvount of want I it was like before the times of the late 80s that at that timrpe it wasn’t as bad but now?……..

We as in we

Sometimes it's funny to watch u reactors to react.... has nothing to do with rock 'n rollers... it's just a generation question. Didn't know if u already react to "The piano man"... some day u will understand that... we can't all the time be blamed to that what was before us... good advice: try to do it better as we did. And sorry don't ask me how u should that! I have no answer to that! I just could say how i would do that. 😁😆

This is one of his songs that I actually like. Billy Joel is too pop for me.

Mix of controversial and mundane, I would say.

It’s basically a list of events that the US shouldn’t be blamed for.

Himanity

It's biblical... There but for the grace of god... Go "I". Human beings didn't start the bad things that happened, ( or did they? ) Good people tried to stop bad things... even if they didn't succeed, they tried to fight it. It's really all down to that bumper sticker. "Shit Happens!" It does... Always. I don't think it's a human thing. Shit also happened to the dinosaurs. It's just life man. It's been always burning... Since the worlds been turning. FACT!

His generation. Boomers.

My opinion: this is the worst billy Joel song. I can’t listen to it. His other songs are slice of life poetry. This song is clap trap. I don’t know why people like it so much. Again, I’m a billy Joel fan. I’m not a hater. But this song is sub par.