We Didnt Start The Fire

Billy Joel

tom:

We Didn't Start The Fire

Everyone seems to have this wrong, 
so here we go...the CORRECT version
____________________________________________________

MAIN LEAD RIFF (thanks Aussie, you got it right.)

E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|------------12--------12----------12--------------------------------------|
G|--------1214------1214--1412--1214--1412------Repeat over and over again--|
D|12121214--------14----------14----------14--------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

(this goes on for 16 bars until the rest of the music kicks in, and continues)
____________________________________________________

OPENING CHORDS

G                       D
Em                      c
G                       D
B                       C
____________________________________________________

VERSE

G                         D
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
Em                               C
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
G                             D   
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
Em                         C   
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

____________________________________________________

(INTRO RIFF is played for 4 bars)

G                       D
Em                      c
____________________________________________________

VERSE

G                    D      
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Em                       C      
Brando, The King and I, and The Catcher in the Rye
G                    D  
Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Em                    C  
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
____________________________________________________

CHORUS (intro part is the lead here)

G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
No we didn't light it
       C  
But we tried to fight it
____________________________________________________

VERSE

G                        D 
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser aand Prokofiev
Em                        C  
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
G                    D
Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
Em                   C 
Dien Bien Phu falls, Rock Around the Clock
G                     D
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Em                         C
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
G                 D
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Em                             C
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, trouble in the Suez

____________________________________________________

CHORUS (intro part is the lead here)

G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
No we didn't light it
       A  
But we tried to fight it

____________________________________________________

BRIDGE 

C                       A                            
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac 
Em                    D                             
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge on the River Kwai 
C                           A
Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball 
Em                      D                            
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide     
____________________________________________________

Exit to Bridge - Lead Guitar Part (these are hammer ons)

E|----12-0-0---10-0-0---8-0-0---7-0-0-8-------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
____________________________________________________

VERSE

G                     D
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkey, Mafia
Em                   C
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
G                  D
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Em                       C
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
____________________________________________________

CHORUS (intro part is the lead here)

G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
No we didn't light it
       C  
But we tried to fight it

____________________________________________________

VERSE

G                    D
Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Em             C
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
G                   D
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Em                    C
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
G                     D
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
Em                C
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

____________________________________________________

CHORUS (intro part is the lead here)

G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
No we didn't light it
       C  
But we tried to fight it
____________________________________________________

VERSE

G                           D
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Em                   C
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
G                         D
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Em                    C
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
G                             D
Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Em                             C
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
G                          D
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Em                         C
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore
____________________________________________________

CHORUS (intro part is the lead here)

G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
But when we are gone
       C                  D                      
It still burn on, and on, and on, and on
                    Em              C
And on, and on, and on, and on, and on
G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
No we didn't light it
       C  
But we tried to fight it
G                   D   
We didn't start the fire
Em
It was always burning
          C
Since the world's been turning
G                   D
We didn't start the fire
      B
No we didn't light it
       C  
But we tried to fight it