Fall Out Boy updated Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ Fans say it’s ‘unhinged’
Fall Out Boy offered a new and updated take on Billy Joel‘s 1989 history-tracking hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” And sugar, it isn’t goin’ down well with some fans.
The pop-punk band released the cover Wednesday, announcing on Twitter that the new song covers “newsworthy items from 1989-2023.” The band, fronted by Patrick Stump, reflected on “all these important people and events — some that disappeared into the sands of time — others that changed the world forever.”
“So much has happened in the span of the last 34 years — we felt like a little system update might be fun. Hope you like our take on it…,” the band tweeted.
Billy Joel has left the building — almost. The singer’s historic residency at New York City’s Madison Square Garden will come to an end next year.
Fall Out Boy’s take maintained Joel’s catchy guitar melody, but the changes become clear once Stump sings the new opening lyrics.
“Captain Planet, Arab Spring / L.A. riots, Rodney King / Deep fakes, earthquakes / Iceland volcano,” he sings. In another line Stump lists “Meghan Markle, George Floyd / Burj Khalifa, Metroid.”
Unlike Joel’s original “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which lists cultural and historical touchstones in chronological order, Fall Out Boy’s version lumps more current events in the same lines as those from the ’90s and earlier. Some listeners took issue with that.
“Big Fall Out Boy fan here, but for the life of me I don’t understand why their version of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ isn’t chronological,” tweeted reporter Richard Newby.“It’s just 30+ years of randomly assorted s—.”
Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman has returned less than six months after announcing he was taking time off to focus on his mental health. He will be with the band when it plays in L.A. in July.
“I want to like the Fall Out Boy ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ cover, but it’s not even remotely in any sort of chronological order? Wasn’t that a key part of the original song?” said content strategist Taryn Fiol Williford.
The song’s structure wasn’t the only bone fans had to pick with Fall Out Boy’s latest release. Lyrics rhyming the 2020 murder of George Floyd to the video game “Metroid,” and a line referring to the 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (“Shinzo Abe blown away”) also caught listeners’ attention.
“[Fall Out Boy] chooses to have some of the most unhinged lyrical juxtapositions I’ve ever heard in a pop song,” tweeted @TheOtherJeff.
Twitter user @Pithy_Remark defended the band’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” lyrics but took issue with how the events were strung together. “This might, in fact, be the very worst combination of words in the history of human language.”
Writer Scott Holleran said Fall Out Boy’s version “lacks the cultural insight, sharpness and bite” of the original, while a number of listeners said the cover was simply “cringe.”
Also getting a shoutout in the divisive, nonchronological cover were Michael Jackson‘s death, Kim Jong Un, the Kanye West-Taylor Swift feud, Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” the 9/11 tragedy, Elon Musk and antidepressants. Notably missing from the song was any mention of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When asked about that exclusion, Fall Out Boy bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz reportedly said in an interview that the pandemic was one of “a couple of things that felt like a little on the nose.”
The 66th Grammys Awards will take place at downtown L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 4, 2024, while nominations will be announced on Nov. 10.
“Listen, we did our best,” Wentz also said about the cover, according to Stereogum.
Joel’s original track served as a time capsule, offering generations of listeners a bite-sized lesson on contemporary American history in just under five minutes. “We Didn’t Start the Fire” earned Joel a Grammy nomination and topped the Billboard Hot 100.
But Joel told Billboard in 2009 that “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was an anomaly in his songwriting process, despite its impact on listeners.
“I think the one time I didn’t write the music first was ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ and I think it shows, because it’s terrible musically,” he said. “It’s like a mosquito buzzing around your head.”
See more reactions to Fall Out Boy’s cover below.
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