This song & its title was an answer to a Final Jeopardy question--only one person got it right. Question was (paraphrased) "What 1980s song do history teachers praise for its educational value." Never could understand all the references on Billy Joel's song. Fortunately, with this video, given the picture(s), we now can "see" what our "ears" couldn't hear. Anyway, checked to see purpose behind the song. Apparently, it's Joel's homage to the 40-years of historical headlines since his birth (1949). Wish we could have appreciated the depths of this song when it was released. Twenty years later, it's amazing 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. It's a neat flashback through the past half century. I never did know all the words. Turn up volume, sit back and enjoy 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.

Click below:

• We_didnt_start_the_fire.exe

Note from Tim Wegner. The link above is an executable file that uses Macromedia flash. It runs on Windows machines. You can download it and run it, or try running directly from the link. I've checked it for viruses and malware, and it appears to be OK. The author who assembled this is Ye Li.

-- LenHockley - 27 Nov 2010