Check out this video, which unfortunately I don’t know how to embed:
If you don’t do anything else the rest of the day, do yourself a favour now and just watch/listen to this totally awesome video. Read the stuff first so you can tell what’s going on….. It’s awesome!
This song and its title was the answer to one question of Final Jeopardy — only one person got it right. Question was (paraphrased): “What 1980’s song do history teachers praise for its educational value?”
I never could understand all the references on Billy Joel’s song — fortunately, with this VIDEO, given the pictures, now I can “see” what my “ears” couldn’t. Apparently, it’s Joel’s homage to the 40-years of historical headlines since his birth (1949). WAY TOO COOL — wish I could have appreciated the depths of this song when it was released. Twenty years later, I’m in awe of what Joel was able to put into music and lyrics lasting only a few minutes.
Whether you are a Billy Joel fan or not, you probably remember his great song, ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ Here it is, set to pictures… Very, very cool. Had to share this one. It’s a neat flashback through the past half century. I never did know the words. Turn up the volume, sit back and en joy a review of 50 years of history in less than 3 minutes! Thanks to Billy Joel and some guy from the University of Chicago with a lot of spare time and Google.
Top left gives you full screen….top right lets you pause. Bottom left shows the year. The older you are, the more pictures you will recognize. Anyone over age 65 should remember over 90% of what they see. But it’s great at any age.
I don’t know who wrote that copy — I got it in an email — but I’m afraid I’m a bit older than he or she is, because almost none of the references were mysterious to me. Although I could always use a brush-up on, say, Dien Bien Phu. After all, Billy Joel IS four years older than I am.
Interesting thing to watch. And yes, each image is clickable, and takes you to Wikipedia.
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Also, if you get the chance, Billy Joel is awesome in concert. Far more than you think he might be.
The music video is pretty good also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g
I’ve used the lyrics for Table Topics at Toastmasters meetings. I give the lyrics for a year and ask the person what year it was and tell me what they remember of that year.
Neat! Thankyou.
I stopped listening to Billy Joel when he tried to convince Catholic girls it was OK to have premarital sex. (Only the Good Die Young.)
Although I, well, nevermind.
That’s a cool video, but there’s a side effect: I just spent the last three hours clicking around the web…
Actually, Burl, I saw Billy Joel and Elton John together in concert right here in Columbia. Not a bad show. Of course, they are both solid professionals…
Doug T. – I guess that’s when you turned to Lawrence Welk.
but, but, but Doug T.–I thought he and Virginia were running off to get married. I’m shocked at your interpretation!
Y’all are kidding, but personally I always found that song pretty offensive, even back before I had quite so many daughters and granddaughters.
I mean, as an artistic evocation of the never-ending male drive to lead young girls to forget their own best interests, it’s spot on. But to the extent that it contributes to such efforts (being, you know, a highly appealing pop song), it’s offensive.
Just listen to any rap song kids are listening to today, you’ll get over what Billy Joel sang in a hurry.
and BTW – most of the Catholic girls I knew growing up, didn’t wait too long.
Well, it’s all relative. Maybe most of the girls Billy knew growing up were Catholic, and HE thought they were all waiting too long…
When the song came out, I was working as a waitress in Aiken with some of my former high school classmates, most of whom were not in college as I was. As yet another of the less academically inclined of my classmates died in a senseless way–driving drunk, swimming in Lake Thurmond drunk–not sure which one it was this time, they all nodded their heads, saying, “Only the good die young.”
The mythologizing of risky behaviors….
Actually I guess I never paid attention to the words… I just liked the song. I probably don’t know most of the words to the songs I like.
What’s an “ooga chaka”???