Yesterday, French artist and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot died at the age of 91. Her passing prompted this X post: Brigitte Bardot’s death means there are now just three people mentioned in @billyjoel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire who are still alive.— Jon Hollis (@JonHollis9) December 28, 2025 Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" contains lengthy lists of people and major events from 1949, when Joel was born, until 1989. It's an anthem of Baby Boomer popular c...
I wish the Fall Out Boy update to the song was good.
What’s your issue with it?
I didn’t realize the Fall Out Boy version existed before this comment and streamed it. It sounds fairly good, about what I’d expect from a Fall Out Boy update
The Fall Out Boy version just blasts out a bunch of random events from the generation it is covering. Joel’s version has clearly defined decades/eras and the progression through time.
The selection of items seems weaker to me, but for me the main sin is that the original is basically chronological, which makes it more impressive that it’s a coherent song at all, if a bit overrated and very boomerific. Fallout Boy one just throws shit in at random to make the lines scan and rhyme, so it’s very “meh” even as a follow-up. It feels like they kind of didn’t understand that the original was a survey of the time period.
In Bo Burnham fan circles people joked that That Funny Feeling from Inside is the truer generational update to We Didn’t Start the Fire 🥲
At last there’s a decent 1985 update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaAYUZqZvlA
I liked the medieval version https://youtu.be/drDs-Y5DNH8