Billy Joel
We Didn't Start The Fire

Everyone seems to have this wrong,
so here we go...the CORRECT version
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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)
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OPENING CHORDS

G D
Em c
G D
B C
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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

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(INTRO RIFF is played for 4 bars)

G D
Em c
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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
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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
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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

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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

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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
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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
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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