How Fall Out Boy Rekindled the Fire: A Lyrical Analysis of Their Cover of Billy Joel’s Classic

Fall Out Boy decided to take on the impossible in 2023—revamping Billy Joel’s 1989 hit, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

In a world of TikTok trends and AI-generated music, reimagining a beloved song packed with history is like trying to take a selfie with a tornado.

There’s a lot to capture, but chances are it’ll end up messy. Yet here we are, looking at a modern spin of Joel’s rapid-fire timeline that covers cultural milestones from 1989 to 2023, and let’s just say the result is nothing short of a chaotic symphony.

What Made Fall Out Boy Pick This Song Anyway?

Fall Out Boy’s version of the song aims to bring a 21st-century context to Joel’s catalog of global events.

It picks up where Joel left off, adding new names and moments from Woodstock ’99 to the tragic assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Pete Wentz, in a 2023 interview, admitted they intentionally chose not to keep the chronology, stating they wanted it to feel a bit like the chaotic scramble that history often is—you know, like your brain when it tries to remember if it turned off the stove.

There’s no neat timeline here, just a mishmash of “Unabomber” next to “deepfakes” and “Brexit” paired with “MySpace.” Sure, it’s messy, but that might be the point.

A Nostalgic Tour or a Twitter Feed on Fire?

Critics were not kind, and you can see why. Fall Out Boy’s version has an energy that makes you feel like you’re scrolling your phone at 2 a.m., aimlessly bouncing from news headlines to memes.

Slate humorously pointed out the flaws, calling it a “Google doc thrown together by elder millennials.” And honestly? The critique isn’t far off.

Compared to Joel’s nearly chronological recount of Cold War events, Fall Out Boy took liberties—like, a lot of them.

Imagine reading a history book that’s been attacked by highlighters at random. It’s all over the place.

Chronological Chaos: An Artistic Choice?

Unlike the original, Fall Out Boy didn’t stick to a year-by-year approach.

The cover chooses an almost schizophrenic arrangement: one moment you’re at Woodstock ’99, the next you’re deep into “Pokémon” and then in a blink, “Rodney King” and “deepfakes.”

While it feels like a list made by someone half-remembering things in a bar, that might’ve been the charm they were going for.

Pete Wentz even confessed they wanted people to have something to complain about—and boy, did they succeed.

The 2023 version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” often referred to as the updated version by Fall Out Boy, for better or worse, mirrors our frenetic, meme-driven society.

The original, although a whirlwind of events, still had an element of reflection. Fall Out Boy’s update?

It’s less of a story, more of a highlight reel—kind of like scrolling through Twitter: no coherent flow, just fragmented snapshots of everything that’s happened since you were a kid.

What’s Missing in Action?

The critics had a field day noting the omissions. No mention of Twitter or Facebook, but somehow MySpace gets a shoutout.

Kanye West made the cut, but other cultural figures were oddly absent.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the event that practically defined the 2020s, was left out—Wentz claimed it’s “too soon.” Also missing?

Titanic, O.J. Simpson, and, bafflingly, Beyoncé. Slate called out these gaps, calling them missed opportunities, while Polygon just dubbed the whole thing “tasteless.”

The remake of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was intended to modernise Billy Joel’s classic, yet it left many cultural moments untold.

The Reactions: A Mixed Bag of “Love It or Hate It”

Despite the backlash, the song performed well commercially, even hitting respectable chart positions in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.

But its reception was mixed, with some fans loving the nostalgic chaos and others yearning for a bit more structure—maybe even a nod to the COVID-19 pandemic that turned everyone’s life upside down.

The lyrics of Fall Out Boy’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” cover sparked conversations about what should have been included in an updated version of such an iconic song.

It’s almost like Fall Out Boy wanted to make something that wouldn’t be forgotten—even if it meant everyone remembers it for the controversy.

Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny they succeeded in making a version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” that fits this moment: messy, fast, full of mixed emotions, and distinctly unapologetic.

We Didn’t Start The Fire Fall Out Boy Lyrics

Verse 1
Captain Planet, Arab Spring
L.A. riots, Rodney King
Deepfakes, 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

Chorus
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 itbut we’re trying to fight it

Verse 2
More war in Afghanistan
Cubs go all the way again
Obama, Spielberg
Explosion, Lebanon
Unabomber, Bobbitt, 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 and Taylor Swift
Stranger Things, Tiger King
Ever Given, Suez

Chorus
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 itbut we’re trying to fight it

Verse 3
Sandy Hook, Columbine
Sandra Blandand 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

Chorus
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 itbut we’re trying to fight it

Verse 4
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
SSRIs
Prince and The Queen die
World Trade, second plane
What else do I have to say?

Chorus
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 go 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