What Else Do I Have To Say?

Billy Joel has said that if he hadn't become a musician, he would have wanted to be a history teacher. His secret history-buffitude emerged in the 1989 hit "We Didn't Start the Fire," which was basically a rapid-fire tour through the second half of the 20th century, jam-packed with references to pop culture, politics, sports, and science.

Here are a few awesome tribute sites, which will give you some extra background information on various lines in the song you may have missed or misunderstood:

• Here's a flash video with accompanying images for each reference. (Yeli.us)


• The BBC's in-depth tour of the song.


• Here's one of the many hyperlinked lyric lists that are floating around out there.


• And finally, the fine folks at JibJab.com made an awesome send-up covering everything that happened in 2007. (The name "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" was MADE for that song, wasn't it?)