Fall Out Boy have shared an 'updated' cover of Billy Joel's 1989 anthem We Didn't Start the Fire. The Fall Out Boy version of the song maintains much of the original's structure while updating the verse lyrics to include people and events of significance between the years 1989-2023 and injecting some trademark Fall Out Boy pop-punk energy and flair.
Commenting on the release, which arrives accompanied by an official lyric video, vocalist Patrick Stump states "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…"
The timespan covered by the references is sure to hit home with the bands elder millennial fanbase, who will no doubt find themselves singing along with glee as the likes of Captain Planet, MySpace, Kurt Cobain, Poke'mon, My Chemical Romance, LeBron James, blink-182 and more get their moment while reflecting on the absolute chaos that has taken place in their lifetime, with the majority of the major events from wars to terrorist attacks, nuclear explosions, social movements, the election's of Obama and Trump, Brexit mixed in with a blitz of pop-cultural references. Being Chicagoans, the Cubs winning the world series also gets a line, while Michael Jordan gets two.
The full lyrics can be seen below.
Captain Planet
Arab Spring
LA Riots Rodney King
Deep fakes
Earthquakes
Iceland volcano
Oklahoma City bomb
Kurt Cobain
Pokémon
Tiger Woods
MySpace
Monsanto GMOs
Harry Potter
Twilight
Michael Jackson dies
Nuclear accident Fukushima Japan
Crimean peninsula
Cambridge analytica
Kim Jong Un
Robert Downey Jr Iron Man
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
More war in Afghanistan
Cubs go all the way again
Obama
Spielberg
Explosion Lebanon
Unabomber
Bobbit, John
Bombing Boston marathon
Balloon Boy
War on terror
Qanon
Trump gets impeached twice
Polar bears got no ice
Fyre fest
Black Parade
Michael Phelps
Y2K
Boris Johnson
Brexit
Kanye West
Taylor Swift
Stranger Things
Tiger King
Ever given suez
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
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 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
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-S-R-Is
Prince and the Queen die
World Trade
Second plane
What else do I have to say?
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on
And on, and on, and on, and on, and on
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
See how they compare with the Billy Joel original then revisit that version below for a refresher on the people and events of significance for past generations.
Fall Out Boy released their long-awaited eighth studio album So Much (For) Stardust earlier this year. To celebrate the album's arrival, the band appeared on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform single Hold Me Like A Grudge. The performance saw them bring the songs video to life, wearing the same costuming and kicking the performance off with a key Easter egg.
The official video for Hold Me Like a Grudge is a continuation to the video for This Ain’t A Scene (It’s an Arms Race) and third in the trilogy of Fall Out Boy music videos that began with Dance Dance. Directed by Brendan Walter, the video follows an alternate timeline in which Pete breaks his leg after jumping off the stage at the end of the This Ain’t A Scene (It’s an Arms Race) video. The band continued to record music, but eventually all went their separate ways until Pete gets a call from a future version of himself, beginning an epic quest to repair a rip in the space time continuum in the Fall Out Boy universe.
The band also joined Jimmy Fallon and The Roots to form the (temporary) supergroup Cluck Cluck Boy and deliver a very special performance of their 4x platinum hit Sugar, We’re Goin Down.
So Much (For) Stardust sees the band reunited with renowned producer Neal Avron, whom they worked with on three previous albums: From Under the Cork Tree, Infinity on High and Folie à Deux. So Much (For) Stardust is Fall Out Boy’s first new studio album since 2018’s M A N I A, which garnered a GRAMMY nomination for Best Rock Album and marked their third consecutive and fourth overall #1 album.
So Much (For) Stardust is available in various formats here.
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