[Verse 1]

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

[Brief instrumental interlude]

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb

Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

Brando, The King And I,

And The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine

England's got a new queen

Marciano, Liberace

Santayana goodbye

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

[Verse 2]

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

Brooklyn's got a winning team

Davy Crockett, Peter Pan

Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev

Princess Grace, Peyton Place

Trouble in the Suez

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

[Verse 3]

Little Rock, Pasternak

Mickey Mantle, Kerouac

Sputnik, Zhou 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]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

[Verse 4]

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

J.F.K. blown away

What else do I have to say?

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

[Verse 5]

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

China's under martial law

Rock and Roller cola wars

I can't take it anymore

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

But when we are gone

It will still burn on, and on

And on, and on

[Outro]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning