harry truman, doris day, red china, johnnie ray
South pacific, walter winchell, joe dimaggio

joe mccarthy, richard nixon, studebaker, television
North korea, south korea, marilyn monroe

rosenbergs, h-bomb, sugar ray, panmunjom
Brando, the king and I and the catcher in the rye

eisenhower, vaccine, englands got a new queen
Marciano, liberace, santayana goodbye

Chorus
We didnt start the fire
It was always burning
Since the worlds been turning
We didnt start the fire
No we didnt light it
But we tried to fight it

joseph stalin, malenkov, nasser and prokofiev
Rockefeller, campanella, communist bloc

roy cohn, juan peron, toscanini, dacron
Dien bien phu falls, rock around the clock

einstein, james dean, brooklyns got a winning team
Davy crockett, peter pan, elvis presley, disneyland

bardot, budapest, alabama, krushchev
Princess grace, peyton place, trouble in the suez

Chorus

little rock, pasternak, mickey mantle, kerouac
Sputnik, chou en-lai, bridge on the river kwai

lebanon, charles de gaulle, california baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

buddy holly, ben hur, space monkey, mafia
Hula hoops, castro, edsel is a no-go

u-2, syngman rhee, payola and kennedy
Chubby checker, psycho, belgians in the congo

Chorus

hemingway, eichmann, stranger in a strange land
Dylan, berlin, bay of pigs invasion

lawrence of arabia, british beatlemania
Ole miss, john glenn, liston beats patterson

pope paul, malcolm x, british politician sex
Jfk, blown away, what else do I have to say

Chorus

birth control, ho chi minh, richard nixon back again
Moonshot, woodstock, watergate, punk rock
Begin, reagan, palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollahs in iran, russians in afghanistan

Wheel of fortune, sally ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, aids, crack, bernie goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, chinas under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I cant take it anymore

Chorus

We didnt start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...