::hi-can anyone help me find a website that can describe the entire song "We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel, line by line meanings?  i've been searching for a couple of hours now.  I need by tonite.  thanks.

well if you want the line by line of what every term means I can help you because I know 90% of it, the only problem is it takes up alot of time to type, becuase there isnt a site that has the meanings behind all lines.  

There is a site that has all the events in chronological order, with the meanings, actually.. I found it about a year ago, and acatually tried finding it again about 2 weeks ago, if I can find it, I'll let you know.

there are lyrics, and what it means, my comontary on what it means is in ()'s  the stanzas go by year, starting with 1949

Harry Truman(president in 1949), Doris Day(actress), Red China(communist china), Johnny Ray(its slipping my mind of what he was)
South Pacific(musical that was popular then about WWII), Walter Winchell(newscaster), Joe DiMaggio (baseball player)

Joe McCarthy(the communist hunter, whom had a list of communitist in the gov), Richard Nixon(at the time was a Congressmen from California in the news in 1950 because of popularity with the Algar Hiss trial), Studebaker(it was a car), Television(do i need to write anything)
North Korea, South Korea(this and N korea goes together, the korean war was going on at this time), Marilyn Monroe (actress)

Rosenbergs(a couple convicted of espianoge on the US gov for Russia, and were exectuted shortly after), H Bomb(the bomb, that destroys alot), Sugar Ray(a boxer named Sugar ray leonard, he probably won the heavyweight title or something), Panmunjom(The end of Korean war)
Brando(Marlon Brando is an actor), The King And I,(musical about the king of Burma, really boring) and The Catcher In The Rye(book by JD Salinger)

Eisenhower(Became president in 52), Vaccine( I thinks its the polio vaccine that hes talking about), England's got a new queen(self explanatory)
Maciano(I dont remember), Liberace(gay piano vertuoso tha twore sparkling suites), Santayana goodbye (umm, damn my history isnt as good as I thought it was)

(courus)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

Joseph Stalin(communist leader of USSR), Malenkov(?), Nasser(leader of Egypt) and Prokofiev(I should remember him)
Rockefeller(governer of NY Nelson A Rockafeller), Campanella(Catcher for Dodgers), Communist Bloc (its the communist countrys)

Roy Cohn(I think he was Joseph Mcarthys attorny or something), Juan Peron(Leader of Argentina), Toscanini(he was a conductor of NY Philimonic), Dancron(?)
Dien Bien Phu Falls(The climax of Indochinese war), Rock Around the Clock (song by Bill haley and his cometts used in the movie blackboard jungle)

Einstein(scientist, died in 55), James Dean(actor), Brooklyn's got a winning team(i believe its the dodgers who  I think won their only Ny world series that year)
Davy Crockett(I dont know why hes in the 55 brracket, but he was a fronteirsmen who became a sentor from Tennessee), Peter Pan(its a cartoon), Elvis Presley(singer, and later actor he became really popular in 55), Disneyland(first opened in 55)

Bardot(Bridget Bardot was an actres), Budapest( is the capital of Hungrey), Alabama(its a state, but it has another meaning that I dont remember, it may have been a ship or something), Khrushchev(Leader of USSR)
Princess Grace(actrees Grace Kelly whom married Price of Monico), Peyton Place(soap opera), Trouble in the Suez (This was the conflict that took England and france out of being world powers, and left the USA as a superpower against Russia, enemies had tryed to take over the British run Suez canal, and we had to stop them)

(chourus)

Little Rock(capital of Arkansas, in 56 it had to integrate its schools with both black and white children, made famous Little rock 5), Pasternak(i cant believe I forgot who this is), Mickey Mantle*baseball player for Yankees), Kerouac(wrote DR Zvivago (that i spelled wrong))
Sputnik(Russian Sattillite, first in sppace), Chou En-Lai(forgot), Bridge On The River Kwai (movie staring Alec Guiness)

Lebanon(its a country), Charles de Gaulle(leader of France), California baseball(I think it was the dodgers that were the first to move to California)
Starkwether(I can be wrong about this but I think Starkwether is related to Thalidmide), Homicide, Children of Thalidomide(I think its a fertility drug)

heres part two
Buddy Holly(singer of many hits like Maybe baby, Peggy Sue, and Oh Boy), Ben Hur(epic movie staring Charleston Hestin), Space Monkey(we sent a monkey into space), Mafia(la casanostra, its the mob)
Hula Hoops(Wammo created them you should know what they are), Castro(led a revolt in Cuba against Battista and took it over forming a Maxist government), Edsel is a no-go (a car that flopped)

U2(spy planes), Syngman Rhee(i think is a leader of one of the Koreas), payola(radio scandel which DJs were paided to play certain records, ruined Alan Freeds carear) and Kennedy(ran for Pres)
Chubby Checker(singer of the twist and Lets twist again), Psycho(great movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock), Belgians in the Congo (self explanitory)

(chourus)

Hemingway(author who killed himself and wrote really boring books), Eichman(Adolf Eichman was a nazi found hiding in Argentina), Stranger in a Strange Land(movie)
Dylan(bob Dylan was a folk singer), Berlin(capital of Germany, I dont think this is the right year of the Berlin airlift, but if it is, then the Soviets wanted to take over all Berlin, so they blockaided the roads, and we had to airlift them food), Bay of Pigs invasion (botched attempt to take over Cuba using Cubans)

Lawrence of Arabia(movie), British Beatlemania(Beatles in Britian, not yet America)
Ole Miss(?), John Glenn(first man to circle earth), Liston beats Patterson (boxing)

Pope Paul(new pope), Malcolm X(radical leader of Black Muslims), British Politician sex(scandels in Britan)
J.F.K. blown away(Kennedy assassinated in 63), what else do I have to say

(chourus)

(This is like 64-89)
Birth control(do i have  to explane), Ho Chi Minh(leader of Vietnam), Richard Nixon back again(became president)
Moonshot(we landed on the moon in 69) , Woodstock(3 day rock festival in 69), Watergate(scandel in Nixon white house), punk rock(genre that broke through in 77)
Begin(the leader of some country), Reagan(ores from 80-88), Palestine(you should know this), Terror on the airline(Flight over Lockerby scotland blew up)
Ayatollah's in Iran(Hes in Iran), Russians in Afghanistan(they invaded)

Wheel of Fortune(game show), Sally Ride(first women in space), heavy metal(popular genre of music), suicide
Foreign debts(self explantory)), homeless Vets(vetrens without homes, formation of Dept of Vetrens affairs), AIDS(came to forefront), Crack(use of this drug was rampant), Bernie Goetz(shot two kids on subway when they tried to rob him)
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars(pepsi and coke were having color wars , it was stupid), I can't take it anymore

(chourus)

BF, I like your shortened explaining of the song better than the website I found explaining the song last year.  I am saving this.

I love the song.  It's awesome that he wrote it in about an hour.

Marciano - "Rocky" Marciano was a boxer.

Ole Miss has something to do with the State of Mississippi - Does it not, Wicked lester?

Davy Crockett - He's in the '55 brracket because Disney released a movie around that time, which featured the adventures of Davy Crocket and all kids wanted to be Davy Crocket and the "coon-skin" cap became a huge fad (every kid had to have one).

Here are some more explanations:

Johnnie Ray was a singer whose hits included "Cry" and "Just Walkin' in the Rain."

Sugar Ray referred to Sugar Ray Robinson, a famous boxer of the 1950's.

Rocky Marciano was a boxer who retired undefeated and was killed in a plane crash in 1969.

Santayana was a philosopher who's best known for the line, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Davy Crockett was the subject of a very popular TV show (and its theme song was very popular as well) in the 1950's.  My dead brother was named David because of it.

Boris Pasternak wrote "Doctor Zhivago," and Jack Kerouac wrote "On the Road."

Syngman Rhee led South Korea.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961.

Ole Miss refers to the University of Mississippi, which refused to accept black students until James Meredith (a black) enrolled under a court order.

Menachem Begin was the prime minister of Israel.

I didn't do too badly, Did I?  ;)

Sugar Ray Leonard is I think regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers of all time.

Sergei Prokofiev was a Russion composer (whose music was deliberately used by Sting for the song "Russians")

Zhou En Lai was the Chinese Premier whom Nixon visited, although I suppose given the time period, Joel is referring to Zhou's initial rise to power.

Thalidomide was a drug used aginst morning sickness which unfortunately causes horrific birth defects. Interestingly, it seems to be effective against leprosy!

Nice work ,Billy - I know how tedious transcription can be  8)

damn, well even though I did get some stuff wrong, I got most of it right.  Its hard to remember all those things, they happened so long ago, alot before I was born.  

Some more info for Billy (and don't feel bad, a lot of of it was before most of our time too).

Starkweather and Homicide belong together.

Charlie Starkweather was a serial killer that went on a rampage with is girlfriend.

"...Her folks disapproved of the quarrelsome, out-of-work man, so he shot them..."

There is a lot more, but I have moderated myself in the interests of good taste...

FBVP

i've been tryingto write a parody of this for a few days and i'm having no joy >:(

back in 1990 when I was in High School, a group of kids in my school picked this song apart and did Mac Hypercard stacks detailing each reference.. I kinda wished I had that stuff, I would have stuck it up on a website when I started doing websites ages ago.. not surprised others have done it since.. it's a well thought out song..

I wrote one in 1996 called "I didnt fart you liar"...actully I only wrote 2 verses and the chourus...but it got the point across lol

Skisics Surus sent in a political parody of this song to my web site, called "We Didn't Want This Liar."

http://bootnewt.tripod.com/thisliar.htm

Quoting:
i've been tryingto write a parody of this for a few days and i'm having no joy >:(

End Quote

Two friends of mine wrote a parody of this song about the history of our soap, As The World Turns.  It was hysterical!!

I've been trying to write a parody of this forever.  No luck.