Which song is worse American Pie or We Didn't Start The Fire

this is really really hard.

Also special thanks to Dan and John I was singing both of these songs as I fell asleep last night, my wife was all WTF

American Pie is so much worse

yeah, American Pie, easy. even the Weird Al version wasn't that great.

also it's almost twice as long.

i'm gonna have to disagree with you. at least you can hum American Pie.

We Didn't Start The Fire sparked interest in 20th century history in social studies classes across the nation, what the fuck did American Pie do for anyone

launched at least half a dozen cultural studies careers

I can't stand either, but We Didn't Start the Fire is definitely worse.

Made Don McLean a shitload of money? (xxp)

no song about the Big Bopper has a right to be so boring, or to not even say "Big Bopper" in the lyrics.

has V/VM treated either of these yet

the fire = big bopper?!?

We Didn't Start the Fire infinitely worse, because it is not actually catchy (and if American Pie has anything going for it, its the melody)

"American Pie" gets on my tits much more. But Killdozer didn't do "We Didn't Start the Fire". But neither did Madonna. So I still have to vote "American Pie".

James Dean can fuck off as well.

Shakey's got it right.

i agree that American Pie has a better melody, but there is something catchy about We Didnt Start the Fire.

what the fuck is this not catchy shit? everybody's been singing We Didn't Start The Fire since the thread started!

yeah, it's always been burnin'

"it's a pity they can't both lose"

WDSTF = not as catchy as AP.

Neither are as catchy as "Reasons to be Cheerful, part 3"

there are worse crimes

xpost

"American Pie" is easily worse. "We Didn't Start the Fire" is kind of horrible, but it's an awesome, fun kind of horrible. "American Pie" is just boring and interminable.

hey speaking of which, why doesn't kissinger get a shoutout in WDSTF?? massive fail

nothing rhymes with Kissinger

we didn't start the fire is way way worse

Rhyme with "missing ya" considered too tacky by Billy Joel.

Well, that's obviously debatable. But, sure, RTBC is an infinitely wittier song. No argument there.

xp to Mark G

"I ain't Kissinger at all since you've been gone away
I ain't Kissinger, no matter what I might say..."

Asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean once replied, "It means I never have to work again."

Kissinger > Kissing Her

Beyond the titular phrase, I honestly cannot recall the melody to We Didn't Start the Fire - its a sloppily composed song from start to finish. Not to get all Geir on everybody but American Pie's melody is really quite pretty and inventive, even if it is put in service of an otherwise terrible song.

Pie. Fire is hilariously bad, Pie is depressing.

Making your fuck-awful song catchy and melodic is aggravation, not mitigation.

"American Pie". Unless it's the Madonna version.

OH GOD i almost forgot about her cover!

they're both awful horrible narcissistic boomer handjobs but you never have to listen to WDSTF anymore unless you basically seek it out. American Pie is so overplayed and over-covered and overcooked you can't help but despise it. It's a fucking black hole of all that's bad in crap drippy self-indulgent music and seems more sincere as an ode to masturbation than as a requiem. WDSTF you can at least laugh at. AP is a holocaust.

what, you've never heard a good holocaust joke?

Shakey's got it right.

There is never any reason to type this on ILX.

the more I think about the arrogance of the title, the insipid sappiness of the chorus, and the way so many folks of a certain age seem to treasure, the more AP infuriates me, actually. I want to go put a litany of sexual offenses on McLean's wikipedia page.

most Radiohead songs are worse than these two

"American Pie" beget Dashboard Confessional
"We Didn't Start the Fire" beget Propaghandi

American Pie: acoustic guitar, 70's drums=okay
We Didn't Start the Fire: cheesy syntho pop=not okay

oh boy, haven't heard "syntho pop" since my crazy rockist toupeed ex-friend usta say it

most Radiohead songs are worse than these two

CRACKHEAD

Radiohead is actively trying to destroy music, McLean & Joel didn't know what they were doing.

Mr. Que's logic, above, is faulty.

Indeed

Madonna's "American Pie" = more cheesy syntho pop than Joel's "WDSTF"

whatever Tom D. you admitted to liking BOTH of the songs.

Heh heh, outed!

tom i'm with you except for the fact that WDSTF came out 18 years after AP, making it some really well-distilled boomer self-regard: infintely worse.

also has anyone officially covered WDTSF? and if so, doesn't make that song WORSE because it is SO BAD that NO ONE wants to cover it????

I break it down for you now, baby its simple
If you play a syntho, I'll play a syntho

guy fannying on about the jester and james dean in 1971 > guy laying the groundwork for a 'forrest gump' view of the 20th century in 1989

i voted for American Pie because it's harder to avoid. plus, as Shakey said, it's catchy. which means once i hear it - it's stuck in my fucking head all day.

We Didn't Start the Fire is like an unpleasant whiff of a fart; where as American Pie is being stuck at a desk all day next to a building getting its roof tarred.

don mclean seems like a useless old dipshit with one lucky break but i'd be happy seeing billy joel fired out of a cannon

how is this even controversial

So, what is a pleasant whiff of a fart???

But WDSTF came out 18 years after AP, meaning AP has done much more damage.

whoa many xposts

I have a lot of residual Billy Joel Rage but I don't think I ever knew exactly how batshit insane the lyrics to "American Pie" are.

Mr. Que is all kinds of RONG.

dude dan try digging up the newsgroup posts out there explaining american pie

WTF "American Pie" is not catchy, it's just like "bluh de bluh and the book of love blah de bluh bluh bluh de bluh de bluh bluh de bluh chevy bluh bladh de bluh levee" while an old hippie with a gray ponytail and john lennon glasses does a slow twist in his stocking feet with a big smug grin on his face

Imagine if the dialogue to the movie "American Pie" was substituted with the lyrics to the song.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/american-pie/

At least Billy Joel sounds kind of pissed off. He's pissed off about having to stop the fire even though he didn't start it.

c'mon Chicago folks, where's the hippie love?

Or just imagine a Tara Reid/Natasha Lyonne duet of "American Pie"!

Well I know you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancing in the gym

Slowdancing COULD just be dancing, or it could be vertical
"making out". It wasn't hard to watch a couple slow-dancing
and figure out whether they had some sort of relationship, if
you knew anything about slow dancing. So just the fact they
were dancing didn't tell you anything, but if "I saw you
dancing in the gym" I could tell from watching whether
there was anything between you (figuratively :-). (Thanks
to Dave Tutelman for this note.)

AP is like some kind of anthem for old golf-playing dickweeds who sing along to the chorus softly while playing it over the boat stereo and clutching a half-empty can of some miller brewing product. fuck it.

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WDSTF is some kind of anthem for 7th grade social studies teachers, bachelors all of them, who try to be the cool teacher and get kids interested in learning by bringing in the Storm Front CD into class one Friday afternoon.

AP is like some kind of anthem for old golf-playing dickweeds who sing along to the chorus softly while playing it over the boat stereo and clutching a half-empty can of some miller brewing product. fuck it.

I know for a FACT that my dad:

A) likes Brubeck and Steely Dan way more than AP;
B) drinks Leinenkugel.

"American Pie" aims to be literature and thus, with all its symbolism and metaphor, fails more spectacularly. Catchy chorus, though. I'd probably rather have an "American Pie" ringtone.

Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.

Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.Someone should make a teenage sex comedy called We Didn't Start The Fire.

I would watch all these movie.

So, what is a pleasant whiff of a fart???

when it's your own, naturally.

"Fire" is worse; I dunno, "American Pie" has made a lot of people happy. I have seen people dancing to it in bars. I think it was a positive contribution.

I think I would be terrified of bars where people danced to either of these songs.

You've probably seen people dancing to it for 4 minutes then going, "Fuck this, I'm grabbing a beer"

American Pie - 8:31
We Didn't Start the Fire - 4:49

WDSTF - shorter, therefore wins.

what, you've never heard a good holocaust joke?

-- Alex in Baltimore, Thursday, November 1, 2007 12:53 PM (Thursday, November 1, 2007 12:53 PM) Bookmark Link

They get boring after the first six million times you hear 'em.

"Fire" is worse; I dunno, "American Pie" has made a lot of people happy. I have seen people dancing to it in bars. I think it was a positive contribution.

This is the flip side of "American Pie" being more literary, sentimental, etc. -- it's a more emotional song. Billy Joel is in a classroom or the Brill Building; Don McLean is in a parked car on a bluff overlooking something or other.

dude dan try digging up the newsgroup posts out there explaining american pie

-- gff, Thursday, November 1, 2007 6:14 PM (21 minutes ago)

FOR FURTHER INFO:

TERRIFYING NONSENSICAL AMERICAN PIE LYRIC FOOTNOTE POLL

"American Pie" is easily worse. "We Didn't Start the Fire" is kind of horrible, but it's an awesome, fun kind of horrible. "American Pie" is just boring and interminable.

-- jaymc, Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:21 AM (Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:21 AM) Bookmark Link

Pie. Fire is hilariously bad, Pie is depressing.

-- Bill Magill, Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:32 AM (Thursday, November 1, 2007 10:32 AM) Bookmark Link

these posts: otm

This is the flip side of "American Pie" being more literary, sentimental, etc. -- it's a more emotional song. Billy Joel is in a classroom or the Brill Building; Don McLean is in a parked car on a bluff overlooking something or other. at the levee, duh.

-- Eazy, Thursday, November 1, 2

jesus john

he didn't park there, though. he just drove up and noticed it was dry, then presumably kept on driving. (xpost)

a screen full of those options just made my mind grind to a complete halt

Parking at a dry levee could feel a little like parking at a bluff, if you're at the top.

american pie is extended torture, we didn't start the fire is like getting shot in the face. they're both awful songs but at least no one really takes the latter one seriously, right? i mean for some people american pie is like "the secret".

gff, did you read down to the part where I quoted the user comments from songster or whatever? AWE INSPIRING.

I think the only thing that could possibly be better than We Didn't Start The Fire is if someone made a song called We Didn't Start The St Elmo's Fire.

I'd love to hear Death Metal covers of both.

The worst would be We Didn't Start the American Pyre.

Funeral Pyre, surely.

I'll take 8.5 minutes of tired and mildly pretentious over 4 minutes of mindlessness

I heard Don Mc singing Am Pie live on the Aled Jones show on Radio 2 last week. It was fucking horrible. And I loved WDSTF when I was 14. List songs always get an instant +5 bonus, even ropy ones.

countdown to "It's the End of the World as We Know It" lyric poll

and "Reasons to be Cheerful, part 3"

And "The Radio Rolled Me".

And that song by Bishop Allen that rips off "Eve of Destruction".

American Pie is worse because it is catchy. I don't know what you all are saying.

anyways, 'we didn't start the fire' is like 'we built this city' so it wins points for being funny.

"52 Girls" poll?

52 Girls

'we didn't start the fire' is like 'we built this city'

no, 'we didn't start the fire' is dumb. 'we built this city' is actually evil.

they are both evil

I am sensing a Starship poll!

"We Built This City" is worse than either of these songs.

wait wait wait. whatever song loses this poll goes into a Starship spinoff poll

although i think John Justen is right, it is worse than both of these songs

"We Built This City" vs "Sara" vs "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"

WE BUILT THIS STARBUCKS

I kind of want to cover WDSTF in my band now.

my normal internet abbreviation sense keeps making me think "We Didn't Shut The Fuck" on this thread

Only if you use cookie monster vocals, nick.

I'm going to plunder that other thread for updated lyrics; royalty checks for everyone!

"American Pie" vs. "We Didn't Start The Fire" is a little like "Walking in Memphis" vs. "We Built This City" -- the latter are anthems/lessons/party tunes; the former want to move the listener.

Move the listener...to tears.

wait wait wait. whatever song loses this poll goes into a Starship spinoff poll

-- Mr. Que, Thursday, November 1, 2007 3:44 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

first bracket in the fantasy shit song competition?

they're both awful horrible narcissistic boomer handjobs

American Pie is pre-boomer at heart. Isn't he saying that the 50s were grand, then the 60s came along and ruined everything?

Don McLean started the fire.

TSF OTM

"We Didn't Start The Fire". That one is awful, repetitive and tuneless, while "American Pie" is a great song. So no competition.

(And I don't care too much about the lyrics - it's the melody that is almost most important, and the melody is so much better on "American Pie")

I'm intrigued by the back story of WDSTF. It's responding to an accusation; namely that "we" did in fact start the fire. "We" I presume being Billy and his bandmates.

It's interesting that when Billy is accused of some petty attempt at arson, he doesn't come back with a straight denial, evasion, or attempt to pass the blame, but instead comes back with some universal karmic shit.

Did this pattern of behaviour start when he was a kid? Was he all "I didn't steal the candy, my hands were guided by Mahatma Ghandi" etc.?

"We Didn't Start The Fire" . That one is awful, repetitive and tuneless, while "American Pie" is makes it look like a great song. So no competition.

Those who don't start the fire...pass the torch.

American Pie, easily. Worst song ever.

http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/andy/americanpie.html

american pie
soo easy

nothing rhymes with Kissinger

Bissinger

Fichandler

We didn't honor the fire.

When you're in a pub full of Australians in Australia who hear American Pie and break out in chorus as though it affirms their patriotism, highlighting what the fuck is wrong with the western world in 2007, they all must die. So easily the worse song.

White People Didn't Start The Fire

I think I like "American Pie" better for "drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry" - for a few moments there it's kind of like retarded Creedence

American Pie is far worse, if only for the 'fire is the devil's only friend' line, one of the worst lyrical atrocities in rock history

These songs are both great, but WDSTF isn't as great as American Pie, ergo WDSTF is worse. QED

Speaking of retarded Creedence, do people drink whisky AND rye? Like together? Because that seems like overdoing it a lttle.

I'd like to think that Pie - at some point during its long rape of the American ear - has inspired someone, somewhere to develop an appreciation for the music of Buddy Holly.

I don't understand ILM's hatred of "American Pie".

On the other hand, I absolutely don't understand ILM's hatred towards the baby boomers, and there seems to be a connection here.

^^^ban

rye is short for Ryvita.

Whisky and Ryvita.

^^^ban

-- Dom Passantino, Friday, 2 November 2007 10:09 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

ban banning.

The only way that American Pie could be more awesomerer is if they got Pato Banton to update it e.g:

bye bye bye bye b b bye bye bye bye
i must admit i was a clown to be messin around
but that doesnt mean that u have to leave town
yes and give me one more try
cuz a love like this should never ever die
Come back yes with me colour t.v
and me cd collection of bob marley
Come back yes with me bag of sensi
and we can be together for eternity
Bye bye Miss American Pie (come back yes)
etc

That would be rad.

Weird thing is you seem to be a bit too young to be a boomer, Geir-O. So why not show some love for your own generation then?

xp

The X-Generation invented hip-hop and unmelodic dance music. For that alone....

and Generation X recorded "Your Generation". For that alone...

Generation X weren't Gen X though. They are too old for that. The punk generation is the one between the baby-boomers (hippies) and the next wave of baby-boomers (Gen X). :)

No, Gen X recorded "Dancing with myself" and then Billy Idol left and took the blueprint with him.

http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/youth_genx.jpg

I have a copy of this at home.

American Pie is just another overplayed pop song. But W.D.S.T.F. is gawdawfully pretentious. Plus it stole the idea of "It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)"

"We Built This City" is worse than either of these songs

I like that song too!

I'm intrigued by the back story of WDSTF. It's responding to an accusation; namely that "we" did in fact start the fire. "We" I presume being Billy and his bandmates.

Well, for a guy who goes around breaking windows, arson is not such a big step

http://www.kkbox.com.tw/funky/album/71290.jpg

best pie lyrics:

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satans spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

worst pie lyrics:

Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while lennon read a book of marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.

Tom, maybe that's him breaking in to steal a pie.

x-post

neither song has even a flash of the genius that is life is a rock:

B.B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin' Eddy, here's my ring we're goin' steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Locomotion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby gotta gotta gimme gimme gettin' hotter
Sammy's cookin', Lesley Gore and Ritchie Valens, end of story
Mahavishnu, fujiyama, kama-sutra, rama-lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Archies, Righteous, Nilsson, Harry
Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin'

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me (whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tock-a-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stones and centerfoldin'
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stop and kick it

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me (whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

Arthur Janov's primal screamin', Hawkins, Jay and
Dale and Ronnie, Kukla, Fran and Norma Okla
Denver, John and Osmond, Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and De De Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me prouder, CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Osmond Brothers, Johnny Thunders
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy
CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me (whoa whoa whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

spoken:
Listen--remember, they're playing our song!
Rock it, sock it, Alan Freed me, Murray Kaufman, try to leave me
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey,
Make it bad and play it funky.
(Wanna take you higher!)

"American Pie" is a crappy song that become more-or-less a one hit wonder ("Vincent" was a hit too I guess, but hardly remembered.) "WDSTF" is one of many many many many crap songs in a row from the horrible pen of Billy Joel. Don McLean, whatever his sins, moved on and did not really try to repeat this surprising success. Presumably even he was disturbed by the tune. Billy Joel remained a total whore.

My analogy is thus:

Don McLean = One-time perpetrator of accidental manslaughter.
Billy Joel = Serial killer. Of innocent and hungry children.

Plus, "WDSTF" is a rip-off of the awful "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion, with the added dimension of being even crappier than the original.

So I vote that the Billy Joel tune is worse, and I urge you to do the same.

CRAZY, Scott! I wrote my response re: Life Is A Rock and posted it simultaneously with your own.

But flash of genius is stretching it a bit.

Life's Is A Rock That Billy's Gonna Throw Through Don Maclean's Window

Reunion.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

These songs are about as rock and roll as the Christmas carol Roger Angell used to do every year at the New Yorker.

The tour started like this: we were on the plane. McLean glanced out the window. he said he saw a shooting star. I said make a wish. He said "I did, but it didn't work. You're still here."

i lol'd. if this played out exactly this way, my admiration of don maclean went up just a tiny little bit.

i'll come out and admit it: i hate self-identified baby boomers.

i hate the people from that generation who refer their generation as a "we". while i'm at it: i hate anyone from any generation who refers to their generation as a "we".

my hatred of "american pie" had a lot more to do with the simple sing-song melody, dumb ass lyrics, and memories of my semi-retarded uncle 'performing' it any time he was within 30 feet of an acoustic guitar; but my hatred of WDSTF may have actually been part of what triggered my hatred of all things 'baby boomer'. i think i'm a better person because of that, so thank you Billy Joel.

The plot thickens: Annoy Don McLean, Win Annoy Don McLean, Win $200!00!

OK, that's a typo, but I actually like it better that way.

I ate in the public market today where there was an old black dude playing tepid versions of Stevie Wonder songs on the keyboard. I sat down near him and ate my lunch, too aware of the fact that I had walked right in front of him and was now ignoring him.

I started thinking these dumb scenarios in my head of what songs he could start performing to pander to me. Like, switching from "Just the Two of Us" (okay, they weren't all Stevie Wonder songs) to "Monkey Gone to Heaven" since I was a thirtysomething white boy.

Instead, the dude rips into "Just the Way You Are" and I immediately realized that I have wasted a lot of worktime reading this thread today.

American Pie is a fantastic, beautiful song.

WDSTF is devoid of melody or inspiration.

Easy decision.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

WDSTF is infinitely more catchy and generally works better than American Pie, which is unbearably annoying, cringe-inducing even.

"We Didn't Start the Fire"'s brilliant doppelganger: X's "Must Not Think Bad Thoughts"

"American Pie" is the most pretentious and humorless song ever made. "We Didn't Start the Fire" wins.

This is a great poll guys.

We didn't honor the fire.

-- Trayce, Friday, November 2, 2007 4:15 AM

high-quality!

My freshman year, our fiftysomething history teacher assigned a 60's music video project. A friend stupidly picked "American Pie," even after I told her how fucking long and terrible it is. And then we had to sit through six minutes of "American Pie," coupled with a shitty slideshow of generic protest pictures.

I'm not friends with her anymore.

nothing rhymes with Kissinger

my lai, kissinger, quicksilver messenger

or

cambodia, kissinger, antonioni passenger

also this has maybe been saluted on one of these threads, but if not it should be:

New Kids On The block,had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick.
And I think it's fly when girls stop by for the summer,for the summer
I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch,
I'd take her if I had one wish,
But she's been gone since that summer..
Since that summer

[Verse 1:]
Hip Hop Marmalade spic And span,
Met you one summer and it all began
You're the best girl that I ever did see,
The great Larry Bird Jersey 33
When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet
Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets
Call me Willy Whistle cause I can't speak baby
Something in your eyes went and drove me crazy
Now I can't forget you and it makes me mad,
Left one day and never came back
Stayed all summer then went back home,
Macauly Culkin wasn't Home Alone
Fell deep in love,but now we ain't speaking
Michael J Fox was Alex P Keaton
When I met you I said my name was Rich
You look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch

[Chorus:]
New Kids On The block,had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick.
And I think it's fly when girls stop by for the summer,for the summer
I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch,
I'd take her if I had one wish,
But she's been gone since that summer..
Since that summer

[Verse 2:]
Cherry Pez,cold crush,rock star boogie
Used to hate school so I had to play hookie,
Always been hip to the B-boY Style
Known to act wild and make girls smile,
Love New Edition and the Candy Girl
Remind me of you because you rock my world
You come from Georgia where the peaches grow
They drink lemonade and speak real slow
You love hip hop and rock n roll
Dad took off when you were 4 years old
There was a good man named Paul Revere
I feel much better baby when you're near
You love fun dip and cherry Coke,
I like the way you laugh when I tell a joke
When I met you I said my name was Rich
You look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch

[Repeat Chorus]

[Bridge:]
In the summertime girls got it going on,
Shake and wiggle to a hip hop song
Summertime girls are the kind I like,
I'll steal your honey like I stole your bike

[Verse 3]
Bugaloo shrimp and pogo sticks
My mind takes me back there oh so quick
Let you off the hook like my man Mr. Limpet
Think about that summer and I bug,cause I miss it
Like the color purple,macaroni and cheese,
Ruby red slippers and a bunch of trees
Call you up but whats the use
I like Kevin Bacon,but I hate Footloose
Came in the door I said it before,I think I'm over you
but I'm really not sure
When I met you I said my name was Rich
You look like a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch

[Repeat Chorus]

[Bridge:]
In the summer girls come and summer girls go
Some are worth while and some are so so,
Summer girls come and summer girls go
Some are worth while and some are so so,
Summertime girls got it going on
Shake and wiggle to a hip hop song
Summertime girls are the kind I like
I'll steal your honey like I stole your bike

Conversely we could have a debate over Weird Al's parody of American Pie vs. Tom Greens parody of WDSTF (which is, for better or worse, a tribute to euphemisms for male genitalia)

Reasons why WDSTF is great--

If it had been released just 35 years earlier everyone would agree that Joel was some kind of flippin' Nostradamus.

The fact that it rightly characterizes Beatlemania as a purely British phenomena.

Makes us ask ourselves important metaphysical questions-- how can we know that the fire's been burning since the world's been turning if the earliest evidence we have of it dates to around the time that young Billy Joel started watching the nightly news?

Somewhat more coherent lyrically than REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It."

Cries out for 20th anniversary version with extra lyrics covering Ruby Ridge, OJ, Monicagate, 9/11, High School Musical, and death of Robert Goulet (what else do I have to say?)

The fact that it rightly characterizes Beatlemania as a purely British phenomena.

Alternately, that it's drawing a clear line between the mania surrounding the British Beatles and the rather lesser excitement concerning their non-British imitators, Toledo's own Beatles. The American Beatles went on to some minor success and accepted the similarly-named band with aplomb, a little-known chapter of pop that contrasts sharply with the 90s, when the Charlatans had to explicitly label themselves the "Charlatans UK," and Bush was forced to go by "Bush-X" in Canada.

i used to get pretty psyched when i heard billy belt out the JFK BLOWN AWAY line

then again i was 7

this lazy social commentary is still more tolerable than the self-appointed 'epic' that is the horrid 'american pie', however.

"American Pie" is fun to sing and that's good enough for me

I once started coming up with a special Pride Week version of this song, listing famous gay people throughout history, maybe accurate or not, culminating in "JFK! He was gay! What else do I have to say?"

This could also be the refrain for a list of conspiracy theories and cover-ups throughout American history.

Most difficult poll yet. Both are terrible.

"American Pie" is fun to sing and that's good enough for me

Me too! Also, dissing "American Pie" means you ruin the memories of the dances at my childhood summer camps, not to mention those at camps attended by millions of other kids. Does anyone want that on their conscience? Vote for Billy Joel!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Am I the only one here that thinks Don McClean's response is totally lucid and makes sense? The accuracy of what he says can only be verified by those that were there I guess, but it's all believable.

Oh, close result and massive turnout, by the way!

People really hate these two songs, that's for sure.

I agree mark, he doesn't sound unreasonable at all. Doesn't stop the song being shit though.

Close thing, but this was the correct result.

man. so close.

YES.

is this the most-voted-in poll yet...?

Nope, I think the Can albums poll is still number one. On ILM, anyway.

justice is served

Yep, 159 votes on BEST CAN ALBUM! (POLL Closes 4th May)

If I'd seen/voted in this on time, it woulda been 62-60

man, i hate we didn't start the fire so much more than american pie, which I find easier to ignore

the only way i've ever seen people dance to WDSTF was like this:

http://www.funny-myspace-comments.com/animation/81.gif

part of me would pick WDSTF as worse if only because it's more "in your face!" but american pie is much worse, just more subtly worse.

Wait that kind of makes me like WDSTF

so doing that when i remember to do WDSTF the fire at karoake

Ha, that looks like great fun!

We Didn't Start To Feed The Fire?

WDSTFUTF

^^^^^ you have a point