Fall Out Boy - We Didn't Start The Fire (2023)

Fall Out Boy, the indie, power pop, punk band who crashed onto the the rock music scene in 2005 just released a cover version of Billy Joel's classic, "We Didn't Start The Fire," but instead of using Joel's historic references - which would have been a waste of time - the Chicago band updated the song for the children of the baby boomers.

Many people have wondered - including me - if the Piano Man would ever update the song's lyrics but since he no longer writes or records music I knew that was never going to happen. Here is what he had to say about Fall Out Boy's new release, "Everybody’s been wanting to know when there’s going to be an updated version of it, because my song started in '49 and ended in '89 — it was a 40-year span," Joel told Zoe Ball of BBC Radio 2. "Everybody said, 'Well, aren’t you going to do a part two?' I said, 'Nah, I’ve already done part one.' So, Fall Out Boy, go ahead. Great, take it away!"

While Joel's version lists the events of his generation mostly in historically accurate, chronological order, Fall Out Boy does not. Like Joel did, the band's update covers a lot of ground using 1989 - Joel's end date - as their starting point. They cover Brexit, both of Donald Trump's impeachments, Michael Jackson's passing as well as Queen Elizabeth's, Harry Potter, Michael Jordan, Sponge Bob, Woodstock 99, George Floyd, Bush vs. Gore, Pokemon, the Twilight movies and a whole lot more.

For no explainable reason the quartet does not reference the COVID pandemic, one of the major news stories of the last few years. Pete Wentz, Fall Out Boy's bassist told Frank Rojas of the New York Times, "we debated it, but we leave that to the next generation's update."
Musically, Fall Out Boy's take is close to Joel's but less slickly produced. It received negative reviews from many major news outlets including Stereogum, Slate and the Los Angeles Times. Many critics panned Joel's original too, and it was often used by his detractors as an example of why the Long Island native was so awful. Despite the hatred, he took the single all the way to #1 in 1989 so it didn't really matter what the writers thought.

Below is Fall Out Boy's official video followed by a Joel live performance.

Comments

  1. wardo9:31 AM, July 27, 2023

    Billy's is chronological and through out. Fall Out Boy's is thrown together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Charlie Ricci10:35 AM, July 27, 2023

      Yes, I mention that in the 3rd paragraph above.

      Delete
    2. wardo3:56 PM, July 27, 2023

      sorry, that should be "thought out"

      Delete

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