We Didn`t Start the Fire!!!

Talking about the Cold War, we analysed three songs of the 80's that represent different aspects of those times. Not only did we enjoy the music and the lyrics but we also saw how rock musicians could write music for us to dance and lyrics that make us think.

First song we talked about: "Russians" by Sting (1985) from The Dream of the Blue Turtle. As from the title we are able to guess what he will sing about.

Sting cautions about the repercussions of the Cold War including the mutually assured destruction doctrine ("there's no such thing as a winnable war/It's a lie we don't believe anymore"). Hence he hopes that the "Russians love their children too", since he sees this as the only thing that would save the world from a holocaust brought on by nuclear weapons ("Oppenheimer's deadly toy")

Our next song was "Guns in the Sky" by Australian band INXS. According to his frontman and songlyricist, Michael Hutchence, he wrote the bruising "Guns in the Sky", the opening track on "Kick"(1988), as a protest against nuclear weapons in space. The video for the song specifically flashes the letters S.D.I. - for the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars system - in case viewers might otherwise misunderstand the song's intent.
Hutchence says the inspiration for "Guns in the Sky" was "pure anger". "I wouldn't call it a political song," he says. "I'd call it an anger song. I was reading that they spent $2 million a minute on arms in the world in 1987. Two million dollars a minute. How much money did Live Aid raise? Seventy million dollars? So in an hour... That's when I started getting angry!"

To watch the video, click here.

Last song we dealt with in class was "We didn´t start the fire" by Billy Joel (1989, from Storm Front).In this song, Joel makes reference to a catalogue of headline events during his lifetime, from March 1949 (Joel was born on May 9 of that year) to 1989. The events are mixed with a refrain asserting "we didn't start the fire".
The song and music video have been interpreted as a rebuttal to criticism of Joel's Baby Boomer generation. The song's title and refrain reference "the fire", which refers to conflict and societal turmoil; Joel asserts that the existence of these issues can't be blamed on his generation alone, as it has been "always burning since the world's been turning".

Poetry

OK, I admit for many poetry is "boring, unintelligible, nonsense"...yes, and you might be right! Partly this has been caused by us teachers with our mania for looking for the"MEANING" or worse still..."THE POET´S INTENTION"(intention that sometimes not even the poet knows!) We are such killjoys! Because that is what poetry is about...joy! The joy of reading something that we would have liked to say, the joy of discovering someone akin to us, or just the joy of the miracle of words, the same words that we use everyday can produce magic by a skilled/gifted/inspired pen. So how can we go about poetry? First, relax, read with your mind and all the senses open, forget about meanings, look for the"punch"...What is that? The assault to your mind and senses...the way a word or two keeps coming to your mind...the awareness that you would have wanted to say that...the recognition of words that make you happy, even if it`s for a moment or sympathy for a feeling you share. I invite you to listen to two poems by one of the most important and influential poets of the 20th century, the Irish William Butler Yeats, Nobel prize winner and recognised figure of the times...His poems are everlasting...


Two versions of "Second Coming" from Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1920

And a modern one with exquisite music...



Or a surprising version of "Mother of God", from The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)recited by Bono from Irish band U2: