September 19, 2009
We Didn’t Start the Bubble
– to the tune of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
Alexander Graham Bell, please Watson, won’t you help
Elisha Gray, filed same day, didn’t get a go.
Reginald / Fessenden, first AM / signal sent,
Marconi, Montreal, first radio show.
Canadian / Bell Co / starts to make / telephones
Northern / Electric grows, while under Bell’s control
Electric stoves, toasters, kettles and washers
Vacuum tubes, radios, movies and acoustics.
We didn’t start the bubble
It was blowing up
We just got caught up
We didn’t start the bubble
No we didn’t make it
And we didn’t break it
World War 2 / radio, radar shows us where to go,
Microwave / relay links, from sea to shining sea.
Cable, fire halls, gramophones, toll calls,
All things / electric / constructed by NE.
Phones are in / big demand, open up some brand-new plants
Northern-Hammond, vibrato (we built an organ don’t you know?)
Ma Bell, consent decree, DoJ then sets us free
Northern sold, let’s be bold, we can do it alone
We didn’t start the bubble
The market’s overinflation
Led to its conflagration
We didn’t start the bubble
Though we rode atop it
And we didn’t stop it
Cross-bar, TV, Ottawa, Turkey
Satellite / monitoring, multi-tone signaling,
Contempra set, BNR, brand new buildings at CAR
SP-1, Meridian — digital switching systems
John Lobb, codecs: A to D, multiplex,
Digital / PBX, introducing DMS,
Northern / Telecom, leave behind the analog
RTP lab, Raleigh, Digital World’s ready
We didn’t start the bubble
It was already rising
It was quite surprising
We didn’t start the bubble
And when the bubble burst
We had to face the worst
X dot / twenty-five, cell market comes alive,
Judge Green, AT&T, break up starts a spending spree,
Nortel is the second-best / telco vendor in the West,
Fibre World, voice mail, Shonan quake: no switches fail
Speech tech-nology / used to bill a third party
Paul Stern, on his way, what else do I have to say
We didn’t start the bubble
It just rose too fast
And then it couldn’t last
We didn’t start the bubble
Though we hoped to ride it
Until we fell inside it
Competition / enters in, Telecom Act back again
Eliminate / CFCs, energy / efficiencies
Reagan, Clinton, Jean Monty / going back to BCE
Buying Bay to rabid cheers, how the world can share ideas
TCP, Internet, optical and SONET,
Telco debt, accounting theft, cutbacks, layoffs, who is left
Protection from our creditors, restructuring to meet their terms
“Come together”, stay aboard: I can’t take it any more
We didn’t start the bubble
It just kept inflating
Until it started fading
We didn’t start the bubble
But if we are gone
Will it still go on, and on, and on, and on ....
Posted by Isaac at September 19, 2009 6:06 PM