Although Billy Joel’s hit song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” wasn’t intended to become a deeply political song, people found it to be extremely telling and honest. In an interview, Billy Joel states that he tries to stay out of politics. In another interview he talks about how he thought the song wasn’t very good because the melody was terrible. He said that he just started writing down major events in chronological order. In general I think it’s a good idea for musicians to avoid being involved with politics as much as they can. If a musician wants to get involved, more power to them, but it’s certainly easier to avoid becoming involved. Even at Eastman, I find that there are a lot of political events happening behind the scenes that have potential to affect students negatively. There are politics with part assignments, paychecks, international students, relations with other schools, funding, scholarships, etc. Heck, there could be a (biased because I wrote it) song just about the living situations in the dorms:
Leaking roof, moldy showers,
rats, expired orange juice,
res life, piss bottles,
throw up in the halls.
Smelly washers, used condoms,
mental illness, fire alarms
Burned a candle, on probation,
The Elevator’s broken
We don’t want to live here
We have to buy it and we can not fight it
We don’t want to live here
We have to buy it and we can not fight it
The list could go on forever. Once students become involved with politics they usually end up having to sacrifice time and energy they could be using for becoming better people and musicians. So, most of the time when musicians are sucked into politics they don’t have as much energy to focus on a musical career. A lot composers and artists use politics as inspiration though. For example Shostakovich wrote a lot of music as a satire on Russian leaders. Eminem does the same thing in his song, “Role Model”. Eminem and Shostakovich refer to events in their music, but the difference is that Billy Joel’s song is unbiased. What makes that so cool is that people can interpret the song however they want. Billy Joel isn’t very public about controversial topics and he doesn’t apply negative or positive connotations in the lyrics. So, people could take the lyrics, “Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again/Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock” and say that he is against birth control and Nixon. Or they could say he thinks birth control and the moon landing is great but Nixon and Punk Rock is now. There are many ways to interpret this song depending on the listener’s personal view. In my unprofessional opinion I think that he is liberal simply because is seems like rock stars tend to be more open minded towards topics like gay marriage, abortion/birth control, immigration, etc.
In the song, Billy Joel mentions not only negative events but positive events. He sings about vaccines, Prokofiev, James Dean, Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, and many other famous people. What’s interesting is that all of these people were icons and held a lot of power in politics due to the fact that they had a large audience. Some people, like Prokofiev were directly involved with politics. Even though it’s probably easier for musicians to stay out of politics, it seems impossible for famous artists to stay out of the spotlight when they have such large influence. By writing this song, it seems like Billy joel is signalling his interest in politics. Why would someone write this kind of song if they didn’t have something to say about the topics? It seems like people in general tend to signify what their views are and their thoughts either through talking or by reacting to something. I think this is especially true with musicians. Whenever we play something we find a way to relate to it so that we can express something we think or feel. This is just what Billy Joel is doing. He’s writing something he can relate to and knows about which resulted in something a lot of people related to.
Role Model:
This song is timeless because it makes people think. While it’s mostly un relatable to people who didn’t live through the era, it’s a simple form that can be applied to any era. I even found a couple “We didn’t Start the Fire 2017” editions online:
George Bush, Noriega, Batman, Genesis by Sega
MC Hammer, Kuwait, Long Dong Silver Hi Ho
Wayne’s World, Right Said Fred, Cross Colours, Gennifer Flowers giving head
Hurricane Andrew, Somalia, Joey Buttafuoco
Tonya Harding, Kurt Cobain, Forrest Gump, “Insane in the Membrane”
Newt Gingrich, Pulp Fiction, OJ got away
Chupacabra, AOL, Bob Dole, “Macarena” goes to hell
Beanie Babies, Spice Girls, Jon Benet Ramsey
[chorus]
Seinfeld, Monica Lewinsky, Backstreet Boys, Elian set free
Y2K, hipster chic, Cheney’s first name is Dick
Ralph Nader, “Who Let the Dogs Out,” Florida recount
Anthrax letters, 9/11, world’s gone sick
Sopranos, Al Queda, Bin Laden playa hater
Lord of the Rings, Napster, Afghanistan
Condaleezza, Kobe/Shaq, Bush lies about Iraq
Napoleon Dynamite, John Kerry, and Lindsay Lohan
[chorus]
TomKat, Kanye West, New Orleans gets wet
MySpace, Prius, President Barack Obama
iPhones, housing bubble, bank bailout, Kardashian trouble
Sarah Palin, global warming, GMOs, Octomama
Guantamano, Arab Spring, Paul Ryan, LeBron wins a ring
Obamacare, Killer Drones, Lady Gaga, Game of Thrones
Fukushima, Hunger Games, books of binders women names
Selfies, twerking, Jersey Shore, I can’t take it anymore!
Stephen Bannon, KKK, homophobics, woke baes
Trans-Pacific, Gallup polling, Putin’s puppet show
Trump is worse than Richard Nixon, addicted to his television
North Korea, South Korea, “Little Marco”
Lyin’ Ted, atom bombs, refreshing browsers all day long
FAKE NEWS, spreading lies, a crowd that falsely multiplies
So-called judges, fake tears, Muslim BAN, stoking fears
Paul Ryan, KFC, Scotch tape on a neck tie!
We didn’t start the fire
Now the planet’s burning
And we’re anti-learning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Refugees, Russian hacks, FBI, alt-facts
Richard Spencer, Kellyanne, L.L. Bean stock
Ivanka’s tanking fashion line, Melania who plagiarized
Rick Rolls, taco bowls, Obamacare block
John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Congress doesn’t have a plan
Bathrobes, emoluments, time to GET SMART!
Women’s March, pussy hats, tiny hands, Democrats
Orange face, hair disgrace, “glam room” in the White House
We didn’t start the fire
Now the planet’s burning
And we’re anti-learning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Bowling Green, Iraq, Wikileaks, Big Macs,
Tax returns, First Amendment, Julian Assange
Private server email, Black Lives Matter, third rail
Neo-Nazis, Liar Spice, SNL’s not very nice
NBC, CNN, voter fraud, Marine LePen, Hamilton, viral memes, is this all a bad dream?
Mike Pence, hashtags, late-night #MAGA Twitter brags
Rogue accounts, Sally Yates, church is melding into state.
We didn’t start the fire
Now the planet’s burning
And we’re anti-learning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Hannity, Infowars, urinating Russian whores
Filibuster, VERY SAD, Yemen raid DISASTER!
Mar-a-lago golf carts, Brexit, lawsuits, Breitbart
Patriots, protests, bathroom bills, policing sex
Pope Francis, Facebook feed, corporate lobbies, rampant greed
Common sense, equal pay, what else do I have to say?
We didn’t start the fire
Now the planet’s burning
And we’re anti-learning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Birth control, thin skin, Scott Baio’s a has-been
Scientists, gun rights, DeVos was some pick
Netanyahu, Palestine, Dakota Access Pipeline
Made a “bad deal” with Iran, crumbling Afghanistan
Feuding friends, Jared K., golden toilets, Doomsday
Foreign debts, homeless vets, super-bugs, Trump regrets
Plastic garbage washed ashore, U.S. flirts with martial law
Schwarzenegger ratings wars, I can’t take it anymore!
We didn’t start the fire
Now the planet’s burning
And we’re anti-learning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
So, I think what makes this piece have so much impact is the honesty and it’s power to make people think about what is happening around them. In the “Music Trumps Politics” article we read about, it says that “Lamell’s invitation was explicitly intended to create a new group of people for desiring, and taking pleasure in, classical music–a pleasure, according to Lamell, that is apolitical”. Like the author of the article, I disagree. I think it is virtually impossible for music to be apolitical. The artist can write or perform a song intended to be removed from politics, but they can’t stop their audiences from making their own interpretations on their music just like “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. It wasn’t intended to be super political, but there are copious amounts of articles and websites dedicated to decoding the events and politics in the song.
Betsy Devos Brochure (?)
Handlebars by Flobots:
Handlebars is another example of popular music addressing politics!