Billy Joel hit We Didn’t Start The Fire is updated for a new generation
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Rock band Fall Out Boy has picked up where Billy Joel's hit single left off with an updated cover version.
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NEW YORK – Three decades have passed since Billy Joel released his hit single We Didn’t Start The Fire, a song that chronicled cultural and historical events from 1949 to 1989.
Its rapid-fire lyrics took listeners through a time machine, with references to figures such as former American president Harry Truman and American actress Marilyn Monroe and events such as the Korean War and Woodstock.
Now, rock band Fall Out Boy have picked up where the song left off with an updated cover version.
The single’s cover art reads “A Fall Out Boy cover of the Billy Joel song ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ covering newsworthy items from 1989-2023”, and the new lyrics include references to social networking service Myspace, the Mars Rover, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the deaths of singer Prince and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
“I remember hearing the song when I was a kid,” bassist Pete Wentz wrote in an e-mail. “The ‘JFK blown away’ line always stuck out to me. I would always start the verses, but get kind of lost a few references in.”
He added: “This song was omnipresent in that era, but in a way where it crept through the cracks of pop culture. I remember talking about the lyrics in history class.”
According to Wentz, instead of a straight cover of the song, the band wanted to amend the lyrics to reflect the 34 years that had passed since its release.
“I listen to Joel’s and so many of the things in it are either massive moments or just kind of shoulder shrugs within history now.
“It’s interesting to see what he referenced from the 1950s and 1960s and what he didn’t. And in some ways, it’s just etchings inside of a cave – documentation that we existed and these things happened, both triumphant and terrible. We made this song for ourselves and then we hoped our fans would have fun with it.”
Brady Gerber, a rock music critic who contributes to New York and Pitchfork, is a fan of the original, and he is quite fond of Fall Out Boy’s take.
“I think every generation gets its own We Didn’t Start The Fire,” he said. “I still think the melody is really catchy and fun. And I remember that the initial reaction to Joel’s original version wasn’t really great. I think a lot of people actually hated the song at the time. So it’s funny, because I’m also seeing a lot of people criticising the song thinking it’s ridiculous, but it’s also just a ridiculous song to begin with.”
While it is hard to capture every historical moment, the song mimics the original in that its references span a wide range, covering climate change as well as Pokemon and the Twilight films.
Fall Out Boy did, however, leave out one of the most recent historical events. “I think our biggest omission was a Covid reference,” Wentz said, “and we debated it, but we leave that to the next generation’s update.” NYTIMES
