A major hit in 1989 was "We didn't start the fire" from Billy Joel. The concept was to resume 40 years of events in one song, from the end of WW2 up to 89. So I thought to myself, why not remake it and turn up an updated version, from 1989 to today?
One damn good reason why not is that is was one of those things that I figured would be done in an afternoon and would wind up taking me a month and a half, but as usual I had no clue and by the time I realised it it was too late to stop. It was worth it though: it has been a great opportunity to take a stroll through the past; sure is a lot that happened last twenty years.
You can find the original lyrics on Billy Joel's official site; Teacher Oz's site also has them, with relevant links to various sites.
I tried as much as I could to keep the original meter to facilitate the transition, while respecting the concept of staying in chronological order. That was anything but a walk in the park, but I suppose I had it easy compared to the original: if Billy had twice as much years to work with, he didn't have access to Wikipedia. I think he must have spent weeks perusing old newspapers in the local libray; in any case I tip my hat to him.
"We didn't start the fire", Billy Joel; revisited by moi.
Exxon Valdez, Botha falls, Field of Dreams, Berlin wall
Salman Rushdie, Bush and cocaine, riots in Tiananmen
Lech Walesa, Noriega, Trafalgar Square, free Mandela
East Germany, West Germany, Leonard Bernstein
Rodney King, Ötzi, Desert Storm, Mercury
Hussein, Terminator, and the Silence of the Lambs
EuroDisney, Clinton, Europe's got a union
Randy Weaver, LA riots, Soviet Union goodbye
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Stephen Hawking, Escobar, NAFTA and Bosnian war
don't ask don't tell, David Korech, Jurassic Park
Rwanda, Kurt Cobain, Ayrton Senna, sarin
baseball on strike, Woodstock 94
Listyev, Sampoong, O.J. Simpson's on the run
Unabomber, Carl Sagan, Kevin Mitnick, Cal Ripken
Deep Blue, Tim Leary, Colalympics, Dolly
Larry Flynt, JonBenét, Oklahoma City
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Lady Di, Applewhite, cartoon seizures, Phoenix lights
Gingrich, oil-for-food, gunfight in North Hollywood
Lewinsky, Stephen Glass, Aryan Nations' anthrax
McLibel, Ken McDuff, US versus Microsoft
dot-com bubble, Kenya, Columbine, Viagra
Kosovo, Matrix, Y2K is all fixed
Euro, Melissa, Dubya in Florida
Milosevic, Putin, Rage Against The Machine
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Pakistan, Chavez, Elian Gonzalez
Napster, Potter, AOL Time Warner
spy plane stuck in China, talibans and Al-Qaeda
iPod, Google, monolith in Seattle
Enron, Barry Bonds, Roy Moore and the Commandments
Twin Towers blown away, what else do I have to say
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Daniel Pearl, Tama-chan, Saddam Hussein back again
Hans Blix, Idol, East Timor, Jintao
Powell, Limbaugh, Abu Ghraib, shock and awe in Baghdad
Michael Jackson's Neverland, Chechen terror in Beslan
global warming, Kim Jong-Il, Al Jazeera, human shields
Lance Armstrong, Superdome, SARS, meth, Colbert bump
ethanol and food riots, banks are pleading for bailout
Barackobamania, I can't take it anymore
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on and on and on...
You try this in your next karaoke party.
0 comments:
Post a Comment