NOVEMBER 16, 1985 – Starship started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with “We Built This City.” It also hit #1 on the U.S. Top Rock Tracks chart, became #1 in both Australia and Canada, and it made #12 in the UK. It was later named Worst Song of All Time by Blender magazine. The song was inspired by events that transpired on May 23, 1977 when a free Jefferson Airplane concert in Golden Gate Park was canceled after San Francisco suddenly outlawed electronic musical instruments in public. The ban was lifted two years later, but the incident inspired Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin to co-write “We Built This City”, a song recorded by former members of the band who were now known as Starship and released as its debut single on August 1, 1985.
LYRICS:
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Say you don’t know me or recognize my face
Say you don’t care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night
Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio
Don’t you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Someone’s always playing corporation games
Who cares, they’re always changing corporation names
We just want to dance here, someone stole the stage
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page
Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio
Don’t you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
It’s just another Sunday
In a tired old street
Police have got the choke hold, oh
Then we just lost the beat
Who counts the money underneath the bar?
Who rides the wrecking ball into our guitars?
Don’t tell us you need us ’cause we’re the ship of fools
Looking for America, coming through your schools
(I’m looking out over that Golden Gate bridge on another gorgeous sunny Saturday and I’m seein’ that bumper to bumper traffic.)
Don’t you remember? (remember)
(Here’s your favorite radio station, in your favorite radio city, the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps.)
Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio
Don’t you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city (oh)
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
(We built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city)
(We built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city)
(We built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city)
(We built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city)
