We didn't start the fire (1989)
G
D
1.
('49) Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
Em C
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe
DiMaggio.
G D
('50) Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon,
Studebaker, television,
Em C - G - D - Em - C
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn
Monroe.
G D
('51) Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray,
Panmunjom,
Em C
Brando, "The King and I"
and "The Catcher in the Rye",
G D
('52) Eisenhower, vaccine,
England's got a new Queen,
Em C
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye.
We didn't start the fire,
Em
C
it was always burning since the world's been turning.
G D
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
no we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it.
2.
('53) Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev,
Em C
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc.
G
D
('54) Roy Cohn,
Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron,
Em C
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock
Around the Clock".
G
D
('55) Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got
a winning team,
Em C
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis
Presley, Disneyland.
G D
('56) Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev,
Em
C
Princess Grace, "Peyton
Place", trouble in the Suez.
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
it was always burning since the world's been turning.
G D
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
no we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it.
3.
('57) Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,
Em D
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge
on the River Kwai".
C Am
('58) Lebanon,
Charles de Gaulle, California baseball,
Em D ~ ~
Starkweather, homicide,
Children of Thalidomide.
('59) Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur",
space monkey, Mafia,
Em C
hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a
no-go.
('60) U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Em C
Chubby Checker, "Psycho",
Belgians in the Congo.
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
it was always burning since the world's been turning.
G D
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
no we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it.
4.
('61) Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land",
Em C
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion.
G D
('62) "Lawrence of Arabia",
British Beatlemania,
Em C
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats
Patterson.
G D
('63) Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British
politician sex,
Em C
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to
say.
G D
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
it was always burning since the world's been turning.
G D
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
no we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it.
('64
- '89) Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again,
Em C
moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate,
punk rock.
G D
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on
the airline,
Em C
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in
Afghanistan.
G D
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally
Ride, heavy metal, suicide,
Em C
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS,
crack, Bernie Goetz.
G D
Hypodermics on the shores, China's
under martial law,
Em C
Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't
take it anymore.
We
didn't start the fire,
Em C
it
was always burning since the world's been turning.
G D
We
didn't start the fire,
Em C
but when we are gone, will it still burn on,
G D Em C
and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.
We didn't start the fire,
Em C
it was always burning since the world's been turning.
G D
We didn't start the fire,
no we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it. (repeat 2x and fade