Earlier this week, Fall Out Boy announced that they’d be putting a modern twist on Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” While updating the events to current times has been something many have tried to do, the band thought they would add themselves to the list.
In the song, FOB run through all the events from 1989 (when Joel released the song) to 2023. They swap Joel’s JFK assassination line for one about 9/11, “World Trade – Second plane / What else do I have to say?.”
On the lighter side, they toss in fun references to My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade, Pokémon, Twilight, Spongebob, the Taylor Swift VMA debacle, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Michael Keaton’s Batman, and more headline-ready rhymes.
And, just in case anyone was wondering, they do keep Joel’s catchy original chorus in their version.
“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. 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.” they wrote on Twitter.
1. 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. pic.twitter.com/uT1epNnxyw
— Fall Out Boy (@falloutboy) June 28, 2023
Check out Fall Out Boy’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” spin above.
