My family loves music. My mom especially loves music from the 80s and recently played Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” which was written about the time from his birth, 1949, until the release of the song, 1989. It made me curious about the historical events, pop culture, and innovations from that time.
Well, I haven’t experienced 50 years of history, but I certainly have begun to realize how much has happened since I was born in 2004. That being said, maaaaaaybe his lyrics could use an update. This is of course not everything, but it is a good start and a history lesson of my life so far. As you read it, I hope you are as much in awe of what has happened and also mindful and hopeful for the things to come. Thank you, Billy Joel, for making history fun and giving me inspiration to look back at my 16 years of life and appreciate it. (Here's the original song for reference)
Facebook, Reagan dies,
Friends ends, Lance wins with lies
Killdozer, Bush again,
Youtube, North Korea’s nukes
Spirit lands, Cheney, Zarqawi,
Wii, Katrina, Bonds, Pelosi
Steve Irwin, Bob Barker,
housing bubble, Swine flu spooks
Obama, iPhone,
Miners trapped, fake genome
Minecraft and Falcon 1,
Germany’s done WWI
Osama Bin Laden,
Jobs, and Iraq war ends
Sandy Hook, Hurricane Irene,
Shuttle program is done
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
MH three seven zero,
Crimea, Charlie Hebdo
Robin Williams, Ebola,
iWatch and Spock
Summer of PoGo,
Prince, Russian hacker woe
Fisher, fake news,
Trump is on the clock
Comey, Trump tweets
Football players take the heat
Russian interference mess
North Korea missile test
California fires
Zuckerberg is a liar
Hawking dies, college bribes
World cup the French acquire
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
Notre Dame up in flames
Black hole picture gains quick fame
Hong Kong China protests
Self-driving car passed road test
Vaping on the ascent
Pelosi impeachment
Dow is looking dire
Australia fights bushfires
Kobe dies
Coronavirus a pandemic
Brexit is a real thing
Fauci says quarantine
RBG at rest
Black Lives Matter protest
From this what can we glean?
The rest is unforeseen
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