That was the last day of the 20th century and it ended 15 years ago and counting.
And I lived through almost half of it. Now this really dates me. Come to think of it, if you count the birth of our nation as 1776, next year, I will have lived through a quarter of American history! Yikes!
Let's go back to the turn of the century. Not 2001. The other century.
January 1, 1901
That was the day the 20th century started. And thirty years later they were singing the blues, literally - the Twentieth Century Blues (1931), as shown below from the Noel Coward play, Cavalcade (1931).
The first few decades of this century had its dark days. And the rest of the first half of the century was not much brighter. The Noel Coward play, Cavalcade, ended in 1929, which was the beginning of The Great Depression (1929-1939), the worst depression in recent history. And that only ended with the coming of World War Two (1939-1945), the worst war of the 20th century.
The last half of the 20th century?
We baby boomers have our songs, too, which continue these blues in the form of rock music. For example in the spirit of the 20th century, Billy Joel composed and performed We Didn't Start the Fire (1989) from his album Storm Front. Its lyrics are chuck full of 40 years of history:
1949 - 1989
It hits the major wars, US presidents, world leaders, world tensions, the culture, leaps in science and technology, triumphs and angst of the age.
The 20th century has been quite a ride. And the Billy Joel song gives a quick history lesson as well as a taste of the times. And if you didn't catch it all,
Always love your presentations. So informative. Yes, the 20th century was very tumultuous… Filled with highs and lows. So far the 21st seems to be starting out better even though so many seem to have 21st-century blues. Every generation has a hard time learning from history.
Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" is classic.
Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" is classic.
Things are getting better all the time…
Ron