Billy Joel's "We didn't Start the Fire"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the song "We didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. According to the paper, Billy Joel sings about the 20th Century, particularly the year 1961. The paper discusses the fact that the song mentions events that are important to our history and have laid the foundations to our present. This paper further discusses the work of Ernest Hemingway, Bob Dylan and Robert Heinlein, taking a look at how they relate to each other and to Billy Joel's song "We didn't Start the Fire".

From the Paper:

"While these words were being written to later be sung: 'Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows / That too many people have died?' On July 3, 1961 others were being read in the headline of Chicago Daily Tribune, 120. "Gunshot Kills Hemingway". When his end came, it was by his own hand, sudden and violent as the events in many of his own novels. 'Ernest Miller Hemingway was born at eight o'clock in the morning on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In the nearly sixty two years of his life that followed he forged a literary reputation unsurpassed in the twentieth century. In doing so, he also created a mythological hero in himself that captivated (and at times confounded) not only serious literary critics but the average man as well. In a word, he was a star."

Sample of Sources Used:

• We didn't start the Fire, Billy Joel, http://www.teacheroz.com/fire.htm
• Frederick W. Turner III, 1971
• Morgan Kathryn, Associate Director for Special Collections Alderman Library, University of Virginia / Charlottesville, Virginia / 22903
• Shelton Robert, Bob Dylan: "20-year-old singer is bright new face at Gerde's Club" September 29, 1961 New York Times.
• Dylan Bob, (2004) Chronicles Volume One, Simon & Schuster, New York

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