Credit: Brendan Walter

Fall Out Boy share updated version of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’

Thu 29 June 2023 14:51, UK

Fall Out Boy have released an updated version of the Billy Joel classic ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’. It deals with current affairs that have occurred since the original was released in 1989.

Joel’s song mentioned a series of cultural events from the year of his birth in 1949, which have been replaced by Fall Out Boy with lyrics referencing more recent incidents. “I thought about this song a lot when I was younger. All these important people and events – some that disappeared into the sands of time –others that changed the world forever,” they explained on their Twitter.

Fall Out Boy added: “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.”

On the new version of the track, the pop-punk group sing: “Captain Planet, Arab Spring, LA riots, Rodney King, deep fakes, earthquakes, Iceland volcano, Oklahoma City bomb, Kurt Cobain, Pokémon, Tiger Woods, MySpace, Monsanto GMOs.”

Elsewhere on the track, Fall Out Boy state: “Sandy Hook, Columbine, Sandra Bland and Tamir Rice, ISIS, LeBron James, Shinzo Abe blown away, Meghan Markle, George Floyd, Burj Khalifa, Metroid, Fermi paradox,Venus and Serena, Michael Jordan 23, YouTube killed MTV, Spongebob, Golden State Killer got caught, Michael Jordan 45, Woodstock ‘99, Keaton Batman, Bush v Gore, I can’t take it anymore, We didn’t start the fire, It was always burning since the world’s been turning, We didn’t start the fire, No, we didn’t light it but we’re trying to fight it.”

The song concludes: “Elon Musk, Kaepernick, Texas failed electric grid, Jeff Bezos, Climate change, White rhino goes extinct, Great Pacific garbage patch, Tom DeLonge and aliens, Mars rover, Avatar, Self-driving electric cars, S-S-R-Is, Prince and the Queen die, World Trade, second plane, What else do I have to say?”

Earlier this year, Fall Out Boy released their eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust. The new LP marked the band’s full-LP return following 2018’s Mania.

Listen to ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ below.