"We Didn't Start the Fire" vs "Love It If We Made It"

probably not the first & certainly not the last to make the comparison

Hot take: The new 1975 is the “We Didn’t Start The Fire” for millennials

— Japanese Breakfast (@Jbrekkie) July 21, 2018

for reference:

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

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

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, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

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

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

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

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?

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

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah'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

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, and on, and on, and on, and on
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

vs

We're fucking in a car, shooting heroin
Saying controversial things just for the hell of it
Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men
Start with misdemeanors and we'll make a business out of them
And we can find out the information access all the applications
That are hardening positions based on miscommunication
Oh, fuck your feelings, truth is only hearsay
We're just left to decay, modernity has failed us

And I'd love it if we made it
Yes, I'd love it if we made it
Yes, I'd love it if we made it
Yes, I'd love it if we made it

And poison me, daddy, I've got the Jones right through my bones
Write it on a piece of stone, a beach of drowning three-year-olds
Rest in peace Lil Peep, the poetry is in the streets
Jesus save us, modernity has failed us

And I'd love it if we made it
Yes, I'd love it if we made it
Yes, I'd love it if we made it
Yes, I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it, oh
And I'd love it if we made it
I'd love it if we made it
Tell me something I didn't know

Consultation, degradation
Fossil fueling, masturbation
Immigration, liberal kitsch
Kneeling on a pitch

"I moved on her like a bitch", excited to be indicted
Unrequited house with seven pools, "Thank you, Kanye, very cool"
The war has been incited, and guess what? You're all invited
And you're famous, modernity has failed us

And I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it
Tell me something I didn't know
And I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it
And I'd love it if we made it

British politician sex

Love It If We Made the Fire

The 1975. I feel like REM's "It's the End Of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is the same kind of song

"Funny Feeling" from that new Bo Burnham special:

[Verse 1]
Stunning 8K resolution meditation app
In honor of the revolution, it's half-off at the Gap
Deadpool's self-awareness, loving parents, harmless fun
The backlash to the backlash to the thing that's just begun

[Chorus]
There it is again
That funny feeling
That funny feeling
There it is again
That funny feeling
That funny feeling

[Verse 2]
The surgeon general's pop-up shop, Robert Iger's face
Discount Etsy agitprop, Bugles' take on race
Female Colonel Sanders, easy answers, civil war
The whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door
The livе-action Lion King, the Pepsi Halftime Show
Twenty-thousand years of this, seven more to go
Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul
A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall

[Chorus]
There it is again
That funny feeling
That funny feeling
There it is again
That funny feeling
That funny feeling

[Verse 3]
Reading Pornhub's terms of service, going for a drive
And obeying all the traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto V
Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown
A book on getting better hand-delivered by a drone
Total disassociation, fully out your mind
Googling "derealization," hating what you find
That unapparent summer air in early fall
The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all

[Chorus]
There it is again
That funny feeling
That funny feeling
There it is again
That funny feeling
That funny feeling

[Outro]
Hey, what can you say?
We were overdue
But it'll be over soon
You wait
Hey, what can you say?
We were overdue
But it'll be over soon
Just wait
Ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da
Hey, what can you say?
We were overdue
But it'll be over soon
You wait
Ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da
Hey, what can you say?
We were overdue, oh
But it'll be over soon
You wait
Ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da
Hey, what can you say?
We were overdue
But it'll be over soon
You wait
Ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da

if we didn't start the fire wins this, then the gen-x overrepresentation on this board is even worse than I thought

i'm a millennial and you'll never shame me into listening to the 1975

i'm not a fan of either but i sort of enjoy making fun of them (not sure what that says about me, or the songs). the 1975 is easier to have strong feelings about bc it feels so (/too) obviously made *for me*. there is some embarrassment in that it feels like exactly the kind of thing i'd come up with if i tried to write a "topical" song (& happened to be a competent songwriter). BJ is so off my radar it's hard for me to really hate (or love) his song(s) - a different story if i was from long island i'm sure

British politician sex

― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Saturday, June 19, 2021 9:51 AM

this is the only 1975 song I like, it reminds me of tears for fears

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

this is the only 1975 song I like, it reminds me of tears for fears

Billy Joel was my 2nd concert ever, and as a kid, I adored his greatest hits, but seriously, that 1975 song is an order of magnitude better.

did billy joel ever use cocaine? "we didn't start the fire" seems like a coke song.

BJ’s “Pressure” strikes me as a coke song

on musical terms "love if if we made it" is far far better and as an attempt to be topical and capture the feeling of the era, it's goofy and ridiculous but works fine.

"we didn't start the fire" is relentless and really needs a bridge or something, it makes you totally sick of the chorus after a single listen. it's not a bad lyrical gimmick but it doesn't really have anything to say except "history sure keeps happening, huh"

Xpost that's about fecal impaction

_this is the only 1975 song I like, it reminds me of tears for fears_

Have you heard “heart out?”

I know Joel didn't think much of WDSTF as a tune but did he think he was making any kind of deep statement with the lyrics or was the whole thing supposed to be a tossed off novelty song? I don't know whether that should affect my assessment of it; certainly some people seem to think it says something important anyway

I believe LIIWMI may be *trying* to say something more than that but does it really succeed? it's just that "everything happens so much" tweet turned into a song isn't it?

(in any case it will presumably soon be as incomprehensible to people who weren't overly online in the late 10s as half the joel song is to me)

i don't think joel was trying to make a deep statement, he's said it was in response to someone young telling him that it was an exciting time to be alive & that nothing happened in the 50's

i don't think "love it if we made it" is a deep statement either but it at least captures the feeling of the time a little more than just saying "things keep happening" and the basic sentiment of the song is very real while "we didn't start the fire" doesn't really have even something like that to it

starting to regret my vote for joel now on political grounds- since at least the 1975 is *trying* (and failing, probably) to break free from the rest of the song through the refrain, while the joel just kind of shrugs and says what are you gonna do. i can relate to both sentiments sometimes but i have way more respect for the former. and now that i've thought about it too much the joel song is way too reminiscent of all the sensible people who insist we have to let it all burn because that's how we've always done it and this is the real world grow up snowflakes. the 1975 don't know how to stop the fire but at least they want to, instead of pretending it's just some eternal cosmic bullshit that no one is really responsible for. how do i change my vote

biden should use WDSTF for his reelection campaign

Is this thread missing rem’s “end of the world As we know it?”

seems to be very much the missing link (older than the joel i think? but spiritually younger)

i would have included it in the poll if i'd heard of it before people started bringing it up but as everyone knows millennials don't care about REM

i'll just put it here anyway bc the similarities are striking (is this an actual genre? how far back does it go?)

[Verse 1]
That's great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane
Lenny Bruce is not afraid
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs
Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength
The ladder starts to clatter with fear of height, down, height
Wire in a fire, representing seven games
And a government for hire and a combat site
Left of west and coming in a hurry
With the Furies breathing down your neck
Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped
Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

[Chorus]
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's the)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's the)
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine

[Verse 2]
Six o'clock, TV hour, don't get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform, book burning, blood letting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a votive, step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh
This means no fear, cavalier renegade and steering clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline

[Chorus]
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
And I feel fine
(I feel fine)

[Chorus]
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
And I feel fine

[Verse 3]
The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck
Right? Right!

[Chorus]
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
And I feel fine

[Bridge]
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
And I feel fine

[Chorus]
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
And I feel fine

[Outro]
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(It's time I had some time alone)
And I feel fine

Also Subterranean homesick blues maybe
I find this kind of song exhausting…

if we didn't start the fire wins this, then the gen-x overrepresentation on this board is even worse than I thought

― josh az (2011nostalgia), Sunday, 20 June 2021 00:03 (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

We Didn't Start The Fire is definitely a boomer anthem though, not gen-x?
I like the idea of the 1975 track as the millennial equivalent, and End Of The World As We Know It the gen-x variant. (End Of The World came out before We Didn't Start The Fire but REM are mostly about ten years younger than Joel I think?)

are these patter songs? they're probably not fast or tongue twisty enough to count but they feel like part of the same family tree at least

i'm assuming antecedents in comic opera, music hall, vaudeville, talking blues (which the dylan is presumably drawing from) - both for the pace and the "commentary" - i'm going to try to track down some older tracks that fit both criteria

Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled Me by Reunion from 1974 is another patter/list-song thing

poll works, will provide some granular detail instead of REM getting every vote

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

idgi

ngl

We Didn't Start The Fire is definitely a boomer anthem though, not gen-x?

In a lot of ways, I feel like WDSTF does a good job of establishing the anxiety of influence that became one of the core components of the Gen-X worldview

this is the only 1975 song I like, it reminds me of tears for fears

― brimstead, Saturday, June 19, 2021 6:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It sounds a lot like blue Nile - downtown lights

The REM song is in no way the same kind of song as the Billy Joel song

Oh you’re right. Shiny happy people is much closer

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

The REM song is in no way the same kind of song as the Billy Joel song

counterpoint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEYc8ar2Bpw

(is this an actual genre? how far back does it go?)

"American Pie" is an earlier example I guess