I feel so surprised, didn't realize this song had such lyrics. Makes me really want to come up with a modern set of lyrics and go to a karaoke. Something like this:
~~~
Mitch McConnel, AOC, trade war, Cardi B,
fake news, ICO, arnold schwarzenegger,
wiki leaks, bitcoin, hacker news, facebook,
North Korea, South Sudan, annexing Crimea,
Game of Thrones, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Key and Peel,
On a related topic, apparently the lyrics for "We didn't start the fire" and "It's the end of the world as we know it" by R.E.M work quite well when played together, despite being thematically contradictory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEYc8ar2Bpw
My favourite connection ever was when I noticed as a kid that the Soviet Union anthem and Gummi Bears' theme song[0] can have lyrics swapped and still match perfectly. Try it!
Fantastic. I always connected those songs in my head, I guess because they're both rapid-fire lists of vaguely-connected concepts. Glad someone agrees.
It's an oblique reference to the royal culture of the time, which was indeed pretty cult-like, but also - I believe he is referring to Elizabeth II's coronation as it was a fairly significant socio-political event in the Western world when it happened - the crux of the British Empire, one might say, and by referencing it, Joel made a pretty wry statement about the world powers ..
Woah, I had never heard of the Syringe Tide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syringe_tide)... which was caused by the Fresh Kills landfill??? You can't make this stuff up.
Also the lyrics of the song "Seed (2.0)" from The Roots have hidden meaning[1] that kind of blew my mind (huge Roots fan here):
"I interpret the song to mean that they are attempting to unite the rock and roll and hip hop genres. In this case, they are trying to plant the seed of hip hop within the womb of rock and roll. He's having to do "fertilize another against my lover's will" because hip hop is resistant to integrating other musical styles. This interpretation is supported by the lines in the first verse that go:
"She don't want no rock-n-roll
She want platinum or ice or gold
She want a whole lotta somethin' to fold"
The lines are describing the hip hop culture obsession with money and "bling." Whereas, "I lick the opposition because she don't take no birth control" signifies that rock and roll is open and willing to integrate influences from other genres.
If you're still doubtful, just listen to the beats underlying the song. You have the heavy beats that are commonplace in hip hop and then the distinct guitar riff."
The crazy thing is that Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey) takes that idea one step further within his own lyrics by fusing every (hip-hop) song of his album "The New Danger" with a different genre showing that Hip Hop does lend itself for fusion. E.g. his song "The Rape Over" actually sounds like a song from "The Doors". The whole "The New Danger" album is full of examples like this.
For being based on a gimmick, I agree. The thing is you can only have one of these. Anything even vaguely similar will just a a knockoff. For a less memorable gimmick song, anyone remember Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex?
What impresses me is Billy Joel's range as a musician and song writer. Piano Man, Movin' Out, We Didn't Start the Fire, and Longest Time are all popular, but so different.
The pill link is just a portal to other links. When I used DDG to search for "the pill" it took me to one of the child links first, which has rich details on one form of the pill.
Pro choice, pro life ... what the heck is birth control?
Is Elizabeth the 2nd the most popular person in that list of people or is beth a common name?
[edit: I mean to say, there are hot topics, and search results that land on wikipedia, and the two don't line up super well for some specific parts of this particular report]
> Is Elizabeth the 2nd the most popular person in that list of people or is beth a common name?
If I Google "Elizabeth", there is no link to the Wikipedia page for Elizabeth II on the first page in Google (I do realize of course that Google results can differ wildly by person), but Elizabeth I, and links to various news items about Elizabeth II. Of course people might click Elizabeth I and end up clicking through to her. I have a hard time thinking that drives a huge amount of traffic, though. If I Google "Beth", neither queen is on the first page.
But I'd think the huge amount of the news coverage about her related to a long range of other events and people, is likely what drives a large part of what drives the Wikipedia lookups. E.g. she's probably been in the news even more than usual over the last year over things like the Trump visits and the Meghan Markle wedding, but there's also a steady stream of coverage of her due to various other visits to/by high profile people.
When you're on Google searching for the Queen, you just type "the Queen". There's been no other queen (apart from the Bohemian Rhapsody guys) in a major English-speaking country for the better part of a century, so there's no need to refer to her by her name.
~~~
Mitch McConnel, AOC, trade war, Cardi B,
fake news, ICO, arnold schwarzenegger,
wiki leaks, bitcoin, hacker news, facebook,
North Korea, South Sudan, annexing Crimea,
Game of Thrones, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Key and Peel,
Buttigieg, Snoop Dog, can you "feel the Bern"?
We didn't start the fire, sha-lalA-la-lAla
(and so on... please someone finish the rest)