StORY BEhIND thE

Here’s a challenge for you, Queries Man – can you tell me how many people, real or imaginary, are namechecked in We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel? – L.

The Piano Man takes his cue from Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues with a stream-of-consciousness run through some of the key events of his lifetime, from Harry Truman’s inauguration as US president in 1949, to the Tiananmen Square protests 40 years later.

Of the 59 people referenced, only John F Kennedy is mentioned twice.

“Rosenbergs” refers to Ethel and Julius, an American couple convicted of espionage in 1951.