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Most of the problems that make up Joel’s laundry list were legacies of earlier events. While Joel’s comment doesn’t exactly ooze responsibility, it’s a valid point. “What I’m trying to get across is that we didn’t start this stuff, we inherited it” ( Rolling Stone, 16 November 1989). “It’s not meant to sound preachy,” he noted. To the rest of us, this might seem an innocuous comment, but Joel read it as a rip on people his age, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was his response. “This guy was saying ‘It just seems like the world is a real big mess and it’s never going to get resolved,’” Joel said. Having just turned 40, he was irritated by a younger person’s remarks. In fact, Joel’s own account of the song’s origins suggests he can indeed get as bristly about his generation as he does his music. More than once he’s lashed out at a music critic on stage one journalist said he was “always pissed off at someone” ( Rolling Stone, 7 August 2008). In other words, Joel’s argument is pretty typical of the notoriously thin-skinned musician. Don’t blame his generation for all the crud in the world, he seems to say-“we didn't start the fire.” If anything, his generation tried to clean up some of the mess it inherited-“we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it.” Inspired by a clown he met while touring Russia, this song compares their Cold War lives, recalls the cataclysmic relief when the Cuban Missile crisis ended-“when the Soviets turned their ships around”-and laments the sad fact that this did not bring lasting peace-“And I watched my friends go off to war, what do they keep on fighting for.”īut for some reason, Joel didn’t offer this sort of commentary in “We Didn’t Start the fire.” In fact, rather than comment, he passed the buck. Another track from the same album, “Leningrad,” illustrates the more satisfying possibilities when Joel digs beneath the headlines. Wikileaks, iPads, Lindsay’s back in rehabīristol’s dancing with the stars, Tiger’s bustin’ up his carīeyond placing his headlines in chronological order, Joel did squat to provide context or commentary. Oil spill in the gulf, health care, Time Square scareīlagojevich, Big Ben, Conan’s gone then back again Today, a simple Google search would flesh out a verse for 2010: In 1989, anyone with an almanac could have come up with the lyrics. He has referred to it as a “novelty song” and suggested that it doesn’t "really define me as well as album songs that probably don't get played.” Even Joel says he’s not all that proud of the piece. Rather than really exploring his past, Joel simply read off “a shopping list of celebrities, events, and popular culture icons without the benefit of context or conclusion” ( Rolling Stone, 14 December 1989). Blender ranked it 41st on its list of the “Worst Songs Ever” (right in between “I Want to Sex You Up” and “The Sounds of Silence”) and said that it resembled “a term paper scribbled the night before it’s due.” Rolling Stone also said the song missed the mark. Of course, not everybody likes the song, though.

Billy Joel’s rapid-fire list of the major historical events of his life provides a lesson plan with a melody, a historical scavenger hunt for the post-war era. The song still gets regular play on 80s stations where styling gel, swatches, and hammer pants cling to life. It reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy.

“We Didn’t Start the Fire” was among the hottest songs of 1989.