We Didn't Start the Fire

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a 2023 single by American rock band Fall Out Boy. It is a cover of Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire", updating the song's cultural references to span the years since the original was released. Critics reacted negatively to the song, panning the tone and content of its updated lyrics. Composition "We Didn't Start the Fire", like Billy Joel's original version released in 1989, is a catalog of major events in world history through a certain time period. Joel's original mainly centers around the events during and surrounding the Cold War, and Fall Out Boy's version continues where Joel's ends, covering the events from 1989 to 2023. Fall Out Boy's version includes references to Brexit; the Boston Marathon bombing; Bush v. Gore; and Myspace, which Stereogum notes was connected to the band's rise to fame. In the chorus, the original lyric "we tried to fight it" is replaced with "we're trying to fight it", and in the bridge, "will it still burn on and on…" is replaced with "it will still go on and on…". In a deviation from the original, Fall Out Boy's updated lyrics abandon chronological ordering, at one point referencing Rodney King next to deepfakes. Pete Wentz talked about that choice in an interview with Zane Lowe:Listen, we did our best. It's very, very, very difficult. His is not totally in chronological order, but it's more in chronological order than ours. We just wanted the JFK blown away line, and clearly, I think that the World Trade one was a little more… that was probably… People probably felt a similar way. You remember where you were or whatever. So it's just a little bit out of order, but it is what it is. Listen, we wanted the Internet to still have something to complain about.The COVID-19 pandemic is notably absent from the song; Wentz cites the event's ubiquity and the need for rhyme space for Bush v. Gore in explaining why it was not included. Critical response "We Didn't Start the Fire" was met with a mocking and negative reaction from critics. Chris DeVille with Stereogum wrote "Well, this is happening."; the staff of Slate wrote "Move over, Gal Gadot's 'Imagine'!"; and Alexandra del Rosario with the Los Angeles Times wrote "sugar, it isn't goin' down well with some fans". James Rettig with Stereogum described the song as "abominable" and Owen S.