Can the Hive Explain This Entire Song?

[Haiku]

I heard We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel today, and it got me wondering whether the collective wisdom of the Hive can explain every historical reference in the song ... without the aid of any reference materials!

 

Can we all chip in and explain each person or event?

 

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, England's got a new queen

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

 

Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev

Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

 

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron

Dien Bien Phu and "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

 

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

 

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy

Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

 

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

 

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon, back again

Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline

Ayatollolah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

 

"Wheel of Fortune" , Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law

Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore

 

 

I'll start:

 

Children of thalidomide--Thalidomide was given to many pregnant women in the 50's and 60's to combat morning sickness and resulted in children born with a range of birth defects

 

AIDS--Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; first reported in 1981; initially called GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) or the gay cancer due to the appearance of Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer associated with immune suppression, in gay men

 

Cola Wars--the Pepsi versus Coca Cola ad campaigns in the 1980s

 

Tara

[Donna T.]

Here's a really cool video:

http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html

 

Guess that's cheating but I had to share. I just love it. You click on the titles in the video and it takes you to info.

[Momling]

Would it be cheating to suggest this?: http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/start_fire_facts.htm#1961 :o

[FaithManor]

I guess I will submit:

 

Truman for ordering the dropping of the a-bombs on Japan.

 

Rosenburgs - I think this was the couple executed for treason, the government believing they were spying for the Russians, which I have heard that the evidence was actually kind of flimsy.

 

Nixon for watergate.

 

Chubby Checkers for "the twist".

 

and Einstein for the theory of Relativity or maybe because he wrote a letter to the president protesting the use of the bomb. Don't know which was intended.

 

Faith

[skaterbabs]

I was just explaining this to my boys the other day. Specifically "terror on the airline" and that back then, we gave the terrorists what they wanted so they'd land the planes. Yacko was in kindy on 9-11, so it took some explaining for him to understand that the terrorists had never used the planes themselves as weapons before.

[Mrs Mungo]

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

 

President,

, communist China, singer, play/movie, gossip columnist, baseball player.

[Spy Car]

Rosenburgs - I think this was the couple executed for treason, the government believing they were spying for the Russians, which I have heard that the evidence was actually kind of flimsy.

 

The release of more evidence in recent decades (including material from the former Soviet archives) makes it pretty clear that the Rosenbergs were guilty.

 

Their "innocence" was a cause célèbre for many years on the left, but the facts proved otherwise.

 

Bill

[patchfire]

Explaining this song was actually my final exam for my senior year hs history course (20th Century World History).

 

My own contribution for this thread:

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen

 

Eisenhower - elected president in the fall of 1952.

Vaccine - the push for a successful polio vaccine in the middle of the '50s

England's got a new queen - QEII was crowned

[mom2jjka]

Here's another resource

 

http://www.teacheroz.com/fire.htm

[Jenny Piaaree]

Dacron: a common trade name for polymer fibers - polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. Developed by Dupont in 1941, it became a wildly popular fabric in the mid '50s.

[EmilyK]

The release of more evidence in recent decades (including material from the former Soviet archives) makes it pretty clear that the Rosenbergs were guilty.

 

Their "innocence" was a cause célèbre for many years on the left, but the facts proved otherwise.

 

Bill

 

I thought I read an article that convincingly showed Julius' guilt, but that Ethel was not actively involved and may not have known all he did.

 

It was chilling to me since he let his wife be executed and his kids be orphaned rather than tell the truth and try to exonerate her.

 

I wish I could remember where I read it -- New York Times?

[Heidi]

 

'nuff said.

[kalanamak]

The release of more evidence in recent decades (including material from the former Soviet archives) makes it pretty clear that the Rosenbergs were guilty.

 

 

 

Even the Mrs?

[momofkhm]

JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

 

I wonder if these re supposed to be together. JFK was shot during a parade in Texas. Blown away is slang for shot, so I think so.

[chiguirre]

This probably just means I'm of a certain age though...

 

Truman dropped the A bomb (twice, because Japan didn't surrender after Hiroshima), Doris Day was an actress and (I think) pin-up girl, Red China (them Communists won the civil war in about 1940, I think), Johnnie Ray (:confused:), South Pacific (the musical), Walter Winchell (a newscaster, I think), Joe DiMaggio (baseball great)

 

Joe McCarthy (the House Unamerican Activities Committee, a communist hunting fraud), Richard Nixon (Ike's VP, attacked in Caracas on a tour of South America), Studebaker (car company that went broke), television (debuted), North Korea, South Korea (the country split during the Korean Conflict), Marilyn Monroe (actress, etc.)

 

Rosenbergs (executed for spying), H-bomb (hydrogen bomb, far more powerful than the A bombs dropped on Japan), Sugar Ray (a boxer), Panmunjon (battle in Korean conflict, I know this courtesy of MASH), Brando (Marlon, On the Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire), The King and I (musical hit), Catcher in the Rye (Holden Caulfield goes off the deep end)

 

Eisenhower (president), vaccine (polio), England's got a new queen (QEII), Marciano (boxer), Liberace (flamboyant pianist), Santayana goodbye (my guess is George Santayana, a philosopher), Stalin (died in the early 50s), Malenkov (:confused:), Nasser (became president of Egypt after a coup), Prokofiev (Russian composer of Peter and the Wolf), Rockefeller (I think Nelson, a prominent liberal Republican from NY), Campanella (Joe, baseball player, I think), Communist Bloc (bloc of countries in Central/Eastern Europe semi-colonized by the Soviet Union after WWII)

 

Roy Cohn (divorce lawyer, later died of AIDS) Juan Peron (Argentive coupster, fell in mid-50s leading to very hard feelings and the dirty war later), Toscaninin (Arturo, famous conductor), dacron (a kind of polyester), Dien Bien Phu (French lost Vietnam at this battle, sucking the US in), Rock Around the Clock (one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock rock...)

 

Einstein (relativity, anti-nuke activist), James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause, killed in a car crash), Brooklyn's got a winning team (the Dodgers, before they moved to LA), Davy Crockett (tv show Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier and coonskin caps), Peter Pan (musical with JR Ewing's mom as Peter), Elvis Presley (the King), Disneyland (duh!)

 

Bardot (Brigitte, very sexy actress before she became an animal rights activist), Budapest (1956 uprising), Alabama (early civil rights), Krushchev (Soviet premier, denounced Stalin, banged shoe on the White House kitchen table), Princess Grace (of Monaca, previously Kelly, Hitchcock blonde), Peyton Place (tv show), Trouble in the Suez (Britain and France wanted to keep the canal, Nasser shut it down)

 

Little Rock (Arkansas, early school desegregation case), Pasternak (Boris, wrote Dr. Zhivago), Mickey Mantle (baseball great), Kerouac (beat author, On the Road), Sputnik (Soviet satellite that beat the US into space), Chou En-lai (Korean president, I think), Bridge on the River Kwai (movie about WWII pows

 

Lebanon (civil war broke out), de Gaulle (president of France after an almost coup, anti-American), CA baseball (the Dodgers moved to LA), Starkweather (:confused:), homicide (maybe the Kitty Genovese murder in NY where a lot of witnesses failed to call the police), Thalidomide (used for morning sickness, it cause kids to be born missing parts of their extremities)

 

Buddy Holly (rock and roller, died in plane crash), Ben-Hur (movie hit), space monkey (monkeys were used to test the effects of space travel before humans tried it), Mafia (it was the hey day of the mob, pre-Tony Soprano), hula hoop (the Razor of it's day), Castro (Fidel, Cuban revolution), Edsel (a Ford model that flopped)

 

U2 (not the band, the spy plane that the Soviets shot down), Syngman Rhee (Vietnamese president), payola (paying radio stations to play songs, a big scandal), Kennedy (JFK), Chubby Checker (popular singer), Psycho (the shower scene), Belgians in the Congo (getting their butts kicked out)

 

Hemingway (Ernest, committed suicide), Eichmann (caught in Buenos Aires), Stranger in a Strange Land (:confused:), Dylan (Bob, great singer-songwriter), Berlin (the building of the Wall), Bay of Pigs (disastrous attempt by US backed Cubans to invade to overthrow Castro)

 

Lawrence of Arabia (awesome movie), Beatlemania (the Beatles were taking off), Ole Miss (being integrated), John Glenn (first American in space), Liston beats Patterson (Sonny Liston heavyweight champion)

 

Pope Paul (elected after John XXIII died), Malcolm X (leader of black Muslims fighting for civil rights), British politician sex (the Profumo scandal), JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say (JFK's assassination, national trauma)

 

Birth control (the pill was invented), Ho Chi Minh (leader of North Vietnamese), Richard Nixon back again (won the presidency in 1968 after losing in 1960 to JFK), Moonshot (1969 moon landing), Woodstock (famous outdoor concert that must have been amazing), Watergate (Nixon probably knew that Republican operatives broke in to the DNC headquarters, he's forced to resign), punk rock (Sex Pistols et al.)

 

Begin (Israeli pm, signed Camp David accords), Reagan (elected president in 1980), Palestine (the whole Israeli/Palestinian problem explodes after the 6 Day War), terror on the airline (spate of high jackings), Ayatollah's in Iran (Khomeini returned to Iran after the Islamic revolution), Russians in Afghanistan (very unsuccessful invasion by the Soviets, their version of Vietnam)

 

Wheel of Fortune (game show hit), Sally Ride (teacher selected to go in space, killed in the first space shuttle explosion), heavy metal (music trend), suicide (:confused:, I don't know who), foreign debts (US foreign debt and trade deficit surged under Reagan), homeless vets (ditto homelessness, especially among the mentally ill, some of whom were Vietnam vets with PTSD), AIDS (emerged in the early 80s), Crack (refined cocaine, all the rage in the 80s), Bernie Goetz (instant hero for killing a subway mugger, later convicted of manslaughter, I think), Hypodermics on the shore (medical waste washing up on NJ beaches, it's always Jersey isn't it), China's under Martial Law (after the Tienamin square protests, remember the guy standing in front of the tank), Rock and Roller (just a guess, Billy Joel himself), Cola Wars (blind taste tests, new Coke...)

 

That was a walk down memory lane, both good and bad...

[mellifera]

Stranger in a Strange Land was a Heinlein novel written in 1961.

[Impish]

The song was actually written in response to Julian Lennon's (son of John) comment to him that 'nothing' had happened since the 60s? 70s? So, all of the things listed are in chronological order.

[skaterbabs]

here's the wiki on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_didn't_start_the_fire

[Haiku]

Gold star, Chiguirre!

 

Tara

[aggieamy]

First of all that was amazing Chiguirre! Good work.

 

 

Starkweather (:confused:), homicide (maybe the Kitty Genovese murder in NY where a lot of witnesses failed to call the police)

 

I think that it actually is Starkweather homicide after Charles (?) Starkweather took off cross country with his girlfriend after killing her parents and maybe some other people.

[Catherine]

Whoa! I'm very impressed!

[CatMomof3]

Here's a really cool video:

http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html

 

Guess that's cheating but I had to share. I just love it. You click on the titles in the video and it takes you to info.

 

 

I liked it :) Thanks for the link

[runamuk]

Heavy metal suicide refers to the controversy surrounding the teenager who committed suicide, his mother claimed, after listening to Ozzy Ozbourne's Suicide Solution. I believe there were several more suicides linked to heavy metal music (I was a sophomore at the time, so the details might be a bit fuzzy).

[skaterbabs]

Heavy metal suicide refers to the controversy surrounding the teenager who committed suicide, his mother claimed, after listening to Ozzy Ozbourne's Suicide Solution. I believe there were several more suicides linked to heavy metal music (I was a sophomore at the time, so the details might be a bit fuzzy).

 

Yeah, I'm pretty certain that's what that line refers to. I was in middle school.

[Remudamom]

It's heavy metal suicide, all together, referring to the connection between violence and music, referring to bands like Slayer, Ozzy, Marilyn Manson, etc, and teen suicide attributed to "backwards" messages etc.

 

Whoops, I see it's been clarified already.