TS: Billy Joel's "I Didn't Start the Fire" v REM's "It's the End of the World"

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Who all know "which is supposed to be cooler" but what is the better song?

― pedro the jagura (pedro the jaguar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 02:40 (twenty-three years ago)

billy troll/

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 13 March 2003 02:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Losing My Edge"

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 13 March 2003 02:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I rather like the REM song.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 13 March 2003 02:48 (twenty-three years ago)

i like the way the billy joel song lists iconic signifiers while commenting only: "what more do i have to say?".

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 13 March 2003 02:51 (twenty-three years ago)

OOOPS! I guess the BJ song is "We Didn't Start the Fire."

― pedro the jagura (pedro the jaguar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 02:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, well, that changes everything.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:03 (twenty-three years ago)

("We Didn't Start the Fire" -- "But you did, you git!", opined R.Wyatt, once)

erm, REM

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:05 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah... but which song came first?

― pedro the jagura (pedro the jaguar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:07 (twenty-three years ago)

i think r.e.m. came a little sooner.

billy joel's is pretty amazing... that he says so much, yet says nothing.

― john fail (cenotaph), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:09 (twenty-three years ago)

One featured Marlee Matlin burning a bra and smoking, one featured a boy and his dog... winner REM.

― Carey (Carey), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to admit I like the REM song better and am amazed that there are a number of History professors that use the BJ song in some of their lectures. I don't think the song is a bad one but I don't think it is that great to use it as lecture material to people who are paying good money to get edjumakated.

― pedro the jagura (pedro the jaguar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:15 (twenty-three years ago)

"It's the End of the World," one of the few REM songs I've ever enjoyed at any point. (I liked it for the first time the one and only time I drank so much that I got sick to my stomach the following day. It took a lot of whiskey to get me to appreciate that song. I'm not sure what I'd think if I heard it right now.)

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I guess the BJ song is "We Didn't Start the Fire."

[insert witty DPerry-like joke here]

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know why I get such a kick out of throwing Beavis and Buttheadisms into "intellectual" discussions.

― pedro the jagura (pedro the jaguar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:22 (twenty-three years ago)

when i was a kid i had a penpal what lived in new plymouth, once she wrote me telling me how horrified she was that her class was forced to recite "we didn't start the fire" for like a poetry thing or some such shit.

― di smith (lucylurex), Thursday, 13 March 2003 03:40 (twenty-three years ago)

di,

check out these products of higher education inspired by the bj song:

http://uploader.wuerzburg.de/gymfkg/schule/fachber/englisch/joel/songtext.html
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~yel/Fire.html

― pedro the jaguar (pedro the jaguar), Thursday, 13 March 2003 04:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry, both songs suck.

― Davlo (Davlo), Thursday, 13 March 2003 04:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I dont understand we didnt start the fire.
I think its cause I'm european and we cant say anything directly. So I keep thinking that its not *just* a reactionary diatribe against the critics of US foreign *policy*.
Is it ?

― kevin brady (groeuvre), Thursday, 13 March 2003 12:19 (twenty-three years ago)

BJ said "WDSTF" was about the Cold War, and since the Cold War ended around the time of the song, he was glad he wouldn't have to write another verse to a song he didn't much like anyway (something about it's melody).

REM wins by the virtue of mentioning some of the great figures of the 20th century, by which I mean Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.

― Charles McCain, Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

haha jbr ownz this thread!!

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 13 March 2003 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

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