“We Didn’t Start the Fire”
Billy Joel
Billy Joel reportedly wrote this song after overhearing a child say that he felt sorry for "older people" like Billy Joel because no "history" happened in their lifetime, that NOW (or the time the song was written) was going to be the world's most historical time period. The comment got to Billy Joel so much that he sat down and wrote this song to prove that his lifetime has been FULL of history.
General Instructions:
●You will be working individually to complete the tasks below. .
●All work will be graded for completeness, appropriateness of websites, content and effort.
●You will also be observed and assessed on the way you use class time.
○See Rubric
Step I: Video
Watch a video of Billy Joel’s song

Note: As you watch the video, the pictures will give you a hint about what the topic is.
Ex. Davy Crockett

YES!

NO! / Step II: Highlighting
Using a copy of the lyrics provided:
For #1 & #2, USE ANY TWO COLORS
  1. Highlight all the events that you have heard of before with ???
  1. Highlight all the events that you have NEVER heard of before with ???
  1. Strike out the events that you think you know a lot about.
  1. Circleten (10) events that you would like to know more about.
/ Step III: Research
Using the internet or library material, research the ten (10) events you put a circle around.
HINT: You may need to rewatch the video to record the year that Billy Joel was referring to.
On the form provided, take notes using the Cornell (two-column) method of note taking.
●Left-side: Write the topic in the left column
●Rights-side: Bullet point 6-8 facts regarding the topic.
●Remember that the facts are used to write the event summary.
●Keep track of your sources; 20 min.; easybib.com; MLA
SEE EXAMPLE
Step IV: Fire Project Part A
●Choosing a Project...
●Choose ONE of the options to best display five people/events.
○See handout
○Handout is a guideline; check with your instructor if you have questions
●If you have questions, please ask BEFORE you begin assembling your project
●Final Project is a maximum of 50 points
Step IV: Fire Project Part B
●Presentation
○Choose ONE of the five people or events to present to the class
○2-3 minutes
○Present the 5 W’s
○Sign up - Only ONE person can present the person or event
○No technology
○Share your lyrics to YOUR history*
●A presentation is a maximum of 20 points / Step V: Turn In
On the day you present your topic...turn in your…
Project
Stapled together:
  1. Project Rubric
  1. Original highlighted, lined-out, and circled song lyrics
  1. Two-column Notes of the research on the original 10 people/events
  1. List of resources used
  2. MLA
  3. 20 source minimum
  4. easybib.com
  5. Alphabetical
  1. “Your” Song Lyrics*
/ Step VI: *Extra Credit
OPTIONAL
Write your own verse to add to the song that includes events from YOUR history to demonstrate that YOUR lifetime (so far) has been full of history.
Start with your birth year and end in the present
Turn in with the other Step 5 items

Example:

King and I / ●Broadway in 1951
●Written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
●Starred Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner
●1952 Tony Award for Best Musical
●1996 & 2015 Tony Award for Best Revival
●Based on a novel by Margaret Landon called Anna and the King (1944)
● Based on the memoirs of Anna Leonowens who was the governess to the King of Siam
●Anna was a school teacher who was hired as part of the King’s plan to modernize his country. Their relationship is marked by conflict in the beginning and love and respect at the end
●Today it is a regularly staged show throughout the English-speaking world
Davy Crockett / ●
Trouble in the Suez / ●

Lyrics: We Didn’t Start the Fire

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new Queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
CHORUS:
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez
Chorus / Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide...
Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
Chorus
Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician Sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say
Chorus
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, 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

Work Cited

  1. "Dien Bien Phu." History Learning Site. Moocow, 2016. Web. 05 May 2017.
  2. "Doris Day." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017. Web. 05 May 2017.
  3. "Legendary Actress and Singer." Doris Day. N.p., 2017. Web. 05 May 2017.
  4. Lubbock, Mark. "The King and I." The King and I. theatrehistory.com, 2002. Web. 02 May 2017.
  5. "Psycho (1960 Film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 May 2017. Web. 05 May 2017.
  6. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Battle of Dien Bien Phu." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. 05 May 2017.

NOTE: Alphabetical Order