# Is there a longer version of "We Didn't Start the Fire" ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 1, 2000, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223 "2000-11-01T12:38:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MadHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadHatter)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/1 "2000-11-01T12:38:43Z")
I have just donwloaded the song, and while each year has its own little line or two, 1964-1989 is covered in just a verse.
Is there a longer version of the song?
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### Author:  [@MadHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadHatter)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/2 "2000-11-01T12:39:46Z")
I know, I know “Should be in GQ”, my mistake…
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/3 "2000-11-01T13:22:57Z")
It was originally 3 hours long and started with the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Apparently the market wouldn’t bear a triple album set of obscure references.
Seriously, I’ve always wondered why the last verse covers so much more time than the earlier ones.
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### Author:  [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/4 "2000-11-01T13:53:30Z")
Isn’t it long enough?
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### Author:  [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/5 "2000-11-01T13:59:17Z")
We could always write our own new version…
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### Author:  [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/6 "2000-11-01T14:00:51Z")
Darn, Luna, you stole my line!
Yeah, that’s a rather looooooooong song. Good one, though! It really couldn’t get much longer.
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### Author:  [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/7 "2000-11-01T14:14:01Z")
To quote from “The Entertainer”:
Oh, it took me years to write it
They were the best years of my life
But if you’re gonna have a hit
You’ve gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05.
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### Author:  [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/8 "2000-11-01T14:21:37Z")
[Somebody right here on SDMB already did rewrite it.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=43476)
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### Author:  [@Nurlman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nurlman)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/9 "2000-11-01T16:45:33Z")
It appears you are missing a verse. According to one of only 10 million pages on [Billy Joel lyrics](http://www.rhx.com/tid/joel/albuminfo/stormfront.html#2):
> [@](#):
>
> …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, Woodsto, 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 shores, China’s under martial law
> Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore.
That’s what you get for using Napster. I’m sure Columbia records would be happy to sell you the full version on your very own copy of _Storm Front_
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### Author:  [@MadHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadHatter)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/10 "2000-11-01T16:52:54Z")
Nah nah, I got that verse.
That’s the verse I’m talking about which covers 1964-1989. Where as the years before it all have their own line, sometimes 2 lines to themselves. Then all of a sudden he slips the song in to cruise control and rockets through the next 25 years.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/11 "2000-11-01T19:12:34Z")
I read a newspaper story where he was interviewed, back when it came out. Part of the point of the song, apparently, was a response to hearing “nothing happened in the 1950s” one too many times. So that’s the period the song focuses on - through Kennedy’s assassination, which many people consider the endpoint of the '50s, culturally speaking.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-longer-version-of-we-didnt-start-the-fire/39223/12 "2000-11-01T22:58:29Z")
I once wrote a 90’s verse, that went on about things like mobile phones and the internet and Arnold Scwarzenegger.
I thought it was quite good, actually, though I have since lost track of it (to coin a phrase).