[Intro] G  D  Am  C 
        G  D  Am  C 

G                        D
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
Am                              C
South Pacific, Walter Winch ell, Joe DiMaggio
G                            D
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
Am                        C
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
 
( G  D  Am  C )
 
G                   D
Rosenberg s, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Am                       C
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"
G                    D
Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Am                  C
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
 
G                   D
We didn't start the fire;
       Am
It was always burning,
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      Am
No we didn't light it,
       C
But we tried to fight it
 
G                        D
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Am                       C
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
G                     D
Roy Kahn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Am                    C
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
G                     D
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Am                        C
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
G                 D
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Am                              C
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez
 
G                   D
We didn't start the fire;
       Am
It was always burning,
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      Am
No we didn't light it,
       C
But we tried to fight it
 
Am                      Em
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Am                     D
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Am                          Em
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Am                       D                      D2 D
Stark weather, homicide, children of thalidomide 
 
G                       D
Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia
Am                  C
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
G                  D
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Am                        C
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo
 
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
       Am
It was always burning,
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      Am
No we didn't light it,
       C
But we tried to fight it
 
G                     D
Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Am             C
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
G                     D
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatle mania
Am                    C
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
G                     D
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
Am               C
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say
 
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
       Am
It was always burning,
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      Am
No we didn't light it,
       C
But we tried to fight it
 
G                           D
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Am                    C
Moon shot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
G                         D
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Am                   C
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
 G                              D
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Am                            C
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
G                          D
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Am                         C
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore
 
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
       Am
It was always burning,
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
         Am
But when we are gone
        C                  G       D       Am   C
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on