Looking for “We Didn’t Start the Fire” type songs -
Similarly quick and tricky lyrics consisting of lists of things - like REM’s End of the World and Life is a Rock.
Similarly quick and or tricky lyrics but doesn’t have to be lists of things like Barenaked Ladies’ One Week.
Similarly lyrics consisting of lists of things, but doesn’t have to be quick and or tricky.
Actual covers, expansions, or parodies of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.
“I Do The Rock” – Tim Curry
“Life is a Rock” – Reunion
Neither are quite what you are asking, but…
"My Favorite Things" (from *Sound of Music*)
and
"When You Are Old And Grey" (by Tom Lehrer)“One Week” wasn’t a list of things?
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” was probably the blueprint for those kind of songs.
“No Handlebars” by Flobots.
“Welcome”, by Australia’s The Church.
Neil Diamond’s Done Too Soon
A couple by The Tubes: Proud to Be An American and What Do You Want From Life ("…hell, a herd of Winnebagos–we’re giving them away!!!).
“Liposuction” by Da Vinci’s Notebook comes to mind first.
If your waist line is a’surgin’
And in need of some reversion
And your overall weight dispersion’s
Gettin’ on the verge of perversion
I’m encouraging an excursion
To go searchin’ for a surgeon
And get your emergency purgin’ of the burgeonin’ fat emergin’ from your chin!
Cheryl Wheeler’s “Potato”
She was walking through the woods with James, her border collie, when the chorus of the Mexican Hat Dance kept running through her head, using only the word potato. To make matters more difficult, she decided to sing it so that each line started with a different syllable. Later, when she was driving to a concert, she started on the verses.
PO ta to po ta to po ta to po
ta to po ta to po ta to po ta
to po ta to po ta to po ta to
po ta to po ta to po ta to
How about…
Reasons To Be Cheerful, part 3. - Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Rush - You Bet Your Life
"Anarchist reactionary running-dog revisionist
Hindu muslim catholic creation/evolutionist
Rational romantic mystic cynical idealist
Minimal expressionist post-modern neo-symbolist
Armchair rocket scientist graffiti existentialist
Deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist
Be-bop or a one-drop or a hip-hop lite-pop-metallist
Gold adult contemporary urban country capitalist"
It looks like what you’re looking for are patter songs. Wikipedia has an incomplete list of them here.
I’m not sure it qualifies, but I have long thought that “Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better” by Steve Taylor reminds me of REM’s “It’s the End of the World…”
No one’s mentioned “Give Peace a Chance” yet?