"It's The End Of The World As We Know It" vs. "We Didn't Start The Fire": which is more annoying, and why?

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I can't single out one as more hated than the other, but songs like this make my blood boil.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 21 February 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

R.E.M. has stopped playing that song in their live sets, whereas Billy Joel has not (I think). So at least we know which of the songs each respective artist finds annoying.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 21 February 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I have an mp3 at home of Mr. Bungle doing a cover of "We Didn't Start the Fire" where Mike Patton is all like "blahblahblah blahblahblah blahblahblah blahblahblah JFK BLOWN AWAY WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY" that is CLASSIC.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

When REM played "End of the World..." on their Unplugged episode, Stipe read the lyrics off a printout. I don't think their not including it in their live set has to do with anything other than Mt. Baldy's ability to remember the shit ton of lyrics he slapped onto that song.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Personally, I still love "End of the World...". One of like four big REM singles left I can still enjoy.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I love Raymond Cummings for this thread.

I'd say Billy Joel's is more annoying (though I fuckin' hate the REM one as well). As much as it pains me to do so, I must paraphrase a review by Joe Levy (of all people) back when he was at SPIN (where I was paylessly interning at the time) of the Joel single which simply read:

"No, but that didn't stop you from rushing to the scene of the crime and jerking off!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

REM played 'It's End Of The World...' at Glastonbury 2003 and it was great.

'We Didn't Start The Fire' has never done anything for me.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"We Didn't Start The Fire" may be one of the ten worst songs ever recorded.

"It's The End Of The World As We Know It" isn't even one of the ten worst REM songs.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

the boomer anti-apology is worse

― billy joel, Monday, 21 February 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

songs like this make my blood boil

Subterranean Homesick Blues?

Too Much Monkey Business? Junkie Business?

Seventh Son?

― dan. (dan.), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan, the Dylan one is the only one of those you listed that I've heard, but i don't mind it.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

What gets you going about the two you listed? The sentiment? The gist of Billy Joel's song is much, much harder for me to take for what it's worth. Also, it's lazier and in keeping with the genre they’re playing with just silly.

― dan. (dan.), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

we didn't start the fire -

it might be the worst song ever put to tape and shipped to all major radio stations... well, it's a close race between that and "look for a reason" (or whatever it's called) by Michael W Smith.

― deadair (deadair), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"We Didn't Start The Fire" is a billion times more annoying.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

And the video is even 100 times worse than the single.

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was in 8th grade I had a history teacher who made us do a paper detailing each of the events in the 3rd verse of "We Didn't Start the Fire". Seriously, fuck the fuck out of "We Didn't Start The Fire".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

You should've set her on fire.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

oh man I bet that teacher thought he/she was cool.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know why you go to extremes, Alex.

(Storm Front just might be his worst album. But this is a bit like saying which torture instrument one can think of stings the worst.)

oh man I bet that teacher thought he/she was cool.

Rivalry in the cool stakes -- the bio professor who heralded each test in her class with Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," so as to alert us to the incipient worry of an exam. (The year was 1991 or so.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

My seventh grade teacher made us all sit around listening to Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel.

I don't know why you go to extremes, Alex.

::rimshot::::

You may be right, Ned, I may be crazy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

You're just a big shot. You and your Halston dress.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, Ned, you're only a woman to me.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

whoops, always a woman. Fuck, messed up a joke.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Did you spend your weekend on the Jersey shore? You know I love you just the way you are.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys are all high. We didn't start the fire is awesome..

Bahhahahahah! Fuck that shit.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no scars on my face, and I cannot handle pressure.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I like imagining what scenes in an Italian restaurant with Alex must be like.

"The cook did not HONOR THE GAS FLAME!"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Teeny, that teacher thought he was TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL. When he pointed at the chalkboard, he THREW TEH HORNS.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeesh, Billy Joel, pas question.

― Ian Riese-Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha! My jr high social studies teacher made us listen to that in class too!

He also did a (in hindsight) very very questionable "slave auction" during our CIvil War chapter....other students could buy other students and make them carry their books and stuff....I was a slave...it was supposed to make us think about slavery in a new way, he said, but it seems very inappropirate in hindsight.

the wierd thing was that the slave auction used this paper money that he made....the money was small photocopies of 10 dollar bils but replaced the picture with Willie Nelson....our teacher was a huge huge Willie fan...had a picture of him up in the classroom.....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe it should be required listening, just like "Pump pump pump a pump pump a pumps your blood" is required listening in Biology.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

..no child left behind, ya know...

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

haha that story is super-creepy Matt

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

seriously guys seriously, fuck Billy Joel

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Middle school teachers are all creepy.

― Aaron A., Monday, 21 February 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i like the REM one more

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish I would have saved some of the Willie Nelson money, though.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

A truly great question, though I suspect if Joel came on the radio I'd have to listen to it all the way through (kinda like smelling your own farts) just to join in with the 'JFK!' bit whereas REM would just get turned off straight away.
PUt it this way - I can imagine watching a load of Billy Joel fans dancing and singing along to 'Fire' and just being totally amused. Whereas the idea of watching a load of REM fans mouthing the words of 'WOrld' to each other is making my skin crawl even writing it down.
SO - Joel is less annoying cos you can enjoy it as one of the worse singles ever this side of Spandau's 'Through The Barricades'. Whereas REM just make you want to kill them before that spindly cunt of a lead singer even has a chance to start whining.

― Neil Kulkarni, Monday, 21 February 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Whereas REM just make you want to kill them before that spindly cunt of a lead singer even has a chance to start whining.

Bahahahahahahahahahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Whereas REM just make you want to kill them before that spindly cunt of a lead singer even has a chance to start whining.

Bahahahahahahahahahahaha

I don't get why people hate Stipe so much....seriously....he gets namechecked for death more than anyone....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"Everybody Huuuuuurts."

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Goddamn, Neil, where have you been? Post more often! Also please let me know if you'll be around London in July.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

uhhh...."we didn't start the fire" is an AWESOME song.

― rockaction (rockaction), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

You are a sick fuck.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

uuuh.....NO, IT'S NOT!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Spandau's 'Through The Barricades'

That was never a hit here so when I first heard it I was all 'What the...martial drums, what IS all this?'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

TROUBLE IN THE SUUUUUUUUUUUEZ!

the wierd thing was that the slave auction used this paper money that he made....the money was small photocopies of 10 dollar bils but replaced the picture with Willie Nelson....our teacher was a huge huge Willie fan...had a picture of him up in the classroom.....

This sounds like the lyrics of Boceaphus' "If the South Woulda Won" come to life.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

This sounds like the lyrics of Boceaphus' "If the South Woulda Won" come to life

yeah except this was Minnesota...and I don't think he was like racist...just clueless...honestly he wasn't a bad guy....HS wrestling coach....His Willie obsession was HUGE though.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone named Helgeson from Minnesota? Get out of here!

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Whereas REM just make you want to kill them before that spindly cunt of a lead singer even has a chance to start whining.
-- Neil Kulkarni

neilkulkarniinamouthingoffmatchyeahyeahyeahyeah
dubioususeof"you"inthatsentencetoo
btwloveyourwritingingeneralnoreally

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

What would happen if we were all together in a room and We Didn't Start The Fire was playing on repeat for 36 hours and we couldn't get out or turn it off? Concussions galore!

Seriously, although both songs are nearly equally as repulsive now, the REM was at LEAST somewhat bearable when it came out.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The REM song is still one of the half-dozen best songs they ever did, or at least one of the half-dozen that I liked. Doing a "Subterranean Homesick Blues" rewrite freed Stipe from even the pretense of writing lyrics that "meant" something (good) so you could enjoy 'em just for the SOUND. (And I'm still not sure whether Stipe sings "Turn 'em into turn 'em into turn 'em into flies!" OR "Tournament of tournament of tournament of lies!", as if it makes any difference.) Plus it was still cool to namecheck Lester Bangs in '87.

I've defended certain Billy Joel works here in the past, but "We Didn't Start The Fire" is just unspeakable, esp. the video (which I've never even seen in full, just clips & stills; but as George Bernard Shaw said, "You don't have to eat a whole egg to know it's rotten.")

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

"Fire" introduced the phrase "space monkey mafia" into the lexicon, so it deserves some points for that.

― bruno ponce-jones, Monday, 21 February 2005 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

His Willie obsession was HUGE though.

didn't that make the locker room a little awkward?

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

hat's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, Harry Truman, Doris Day, an aeroplane and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn - Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio, world serves its own needs, television dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker - grunt, no, strength, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, Ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye", coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen, team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing! Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, Marciano, Liberace, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right, right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched. Santayana goodbye.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

didn't that make the locker room a little awkward?

hahahah

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone named Helgeson from Minnesota? Get out of here!

UFF DA!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

HUSKER DU, WHICH IN NORWEGIAN MEANS, DO YOU REMEMBER?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

WHERE ALL THE WOMEN ARE STRONG, ALL THE MEN ARE GOOD LOOKING, AND ALL THE CHILDREN ARE ABOVE-AVERAGE!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Racist. Oh wait.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, come on, dude, Arcwelder/Odds tour. You know it will rock Brainerd.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

not realy the same thing, but:

"We Didn't Start the Fire" >>> "1985"

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

ANA VOOG IS SLEEPING!!!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"End of the World" is worse. At least Billy Joel had the good sense to retire.

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 21 February 2005 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

And there is NOTHING AT ALL cool with Lester Bangs or namechecking Lester Bangs.

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 21 February 2005 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

lester bangs is not afraid

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

ha :)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Joel is more annoying as his is a proper List Song, and one dominated by infuriatingly overfamiliar Americentric boomerisms. At that instant he when rhymes 'Marilyn Monroe' with 'Joe DiMaggio', I MUST KILL.

REM's is not really a list song, but a song cunningly delivered like a list!! Looks like the main listing bit is "Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs", grouped together for no better reason (??) than they share the initials LB!!! Which is borderline classic.

OR MAYBE: Breshnev > Khrushchev

the bio professor who heralded each test in her class with Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," so as to alert us to the incipient worry of an exam.

This is just utterly superb Ned.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 21 February 2005 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I also had a teacher who used "We Didn't Start The Fire" to demonstrate what hip, fun, different kind of teacher he was. He (my AP American History teacher) gave extra credit to anyone who could flawlessly recite the lyrics to the song in front of the class.

He also used to act out these weird sniper fantasies about people he hated. He would crouch down, hold his wooden pointer like a gun, and then simultaneously make a gunshot noise and lift the pointer up slightly to emulate the recoil. He did this several times throughout the year.

― Lingbertt, Monday, 21 February 2005 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

The answer to the question is Hello by The Beloved.

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe that someone could possibly conceive of a universe where REM at their WOST could even begin the reach the heights of bloody-minded shittiness that Billy Joel seems to hit without even breaking a sweat.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, my 8'th grade teacher made our class do a paper on the events in "We Didn't Start the Fire" too. Must of been published in the "Teacher's Journal of Annoying the Hell Out of Your Students." Seriously though, writing a paper on every part of that song with make you hate it so much.

That REM song ain't so bad, but played too much so now it's just crap to me. "Stand is much better! Ha!

― Zombie Lisa, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

My crazy typing class teacher made us practice our keyboard skills (on MANUAL typewriters you young whippersnappers) to "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan, and "Spicks And Specks" by the Bee Gees...so getting to do an analysis of "We Didn't Start The Fire" is getting off pretty lightly if you ask me. The horror..

Back to the topic, much as I love Billy Joel, his song SUCKS ASS. But please allow me to be the first to bring the Simpsons into this thread...how can you talk about "It's The End Of The World.." and not mention this:

Leonoid whatsis name, Herman Munster Motorcade;
Birthday party cheetos, pogo sticks and lemonade;
You symbiotic stupid jerk,
That's right Flanders, I am talking about you!

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I love "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" without reservations. I sang it with a live karaoke band tonight and totally fucked up in the middle of each verse, completely losing track of where I was in the measure. But it was fun!

Every time I hear "We Didn't Start The Fire" I just want Billy Joel to be singing "Kevin Percy Kevin Percy Kevin Percy Kevin Percy Kevin Percy Kevin Percy Keving Percy Kevin Percy Kevin Percy Kevin Percy" etc.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

R.E.M. has stopped playing that song in their live sets,

But only on this tour, though. They played it as the final song of the night on nearly every night of three consecutive world tours, and it was a set staple on the Green and Document tours.

Also, it was the first song at the Madison Square Garden show last year the day after Bush won a second term.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:57 (twenty-one years ago)

R.E.M. = Retarded Eeel Murderers

B.i.l.l.y. J.o.e.l. = Big Idiotic Lazy Larcenous Yapper Jumping On Eel Lovers

― Sporf, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 09:16 (twenty-one years ago)

matt you've heard yo la tengo's "we didn't start the fire" from the fmu telethon last year yeah? everytime the 'cortez the killer' part comes in i lose my shit.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 09:22 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I missed last year's YLT marathon show!

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm so happy that this thread is thriving!

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

aargh matt you HAFTA find this/dl it - best marathon yet imho. LOTS of fun per usual.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is annoying, "It's the End of the World as We Know It" isn't, therefore...

― Thunder Kitten, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh but it is.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.sunsquashed.com/cgi-bin/mp3.cgi

i don't even like Yo La Tengo much, but a friend made me listen to their live version of We Didn't Start the Fire (at the very end of the show linked to above) which J Blount mentioned, and i thought it was a truely brilliant and funny performance.

― slb3, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"We Didn't Start the Fire" isn't as annoying as "It's the End of the World as We Know It".

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Personally speaking, I find Joel's song just kinda desperate in a sort've "Look, I'm still relevant! Let's hear it for the `boomers!" sorta way (in the same cloying way as the Police's irritattingly self-congratulatory "Born in the 50's"). "It's the End of the World as We Know It," meanwhile, just comes across as fuckin' smug and pretentious (''oooh...look at how many public figures with the initials L.B. I can name!") That's nice that you feel fine about it, Michael, but I DIDN'T ASK! Fuck those guys.

And giving shoutouts to Lester Bangs is not exactly ground-breaking.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

But, back to Joel for a second....

"JFK, BLOWN AWAY..WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY?"

Well, maybe YOUR POINT? I mean, simply citing the Kennedy was assassinated....and? Where do you stand on that issue, William? Pro? Against? Am I supposed to fetch you a hanky after you went to the trouble of living through such an experience? Get the fuck over yourself.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"It's the End of the World as We Know It" is a joke, "We Didn't Start The Fire" isn't.
"It's the End of the World as We Know It" wins.

― dan. (dan.), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Dan may have a point, there. I don't believe R.E.M intended their song to be taken so very deathly seriously, whereas Joel seems to so trying to make some sort've oh-so-earnest statement........like a dick.

http://www2.msstate.edu/~els4/billyjoelvideopic.gif

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh god, that video...

― dan. (dan.), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

It's The End of the World... is a great song....

Billy Joel is a ham-fisted choad. always has been always will be.*

*although I've always really dug Pressure and Allentown....I'm a Nylon Curtain kinda guy!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I so love the word "choad".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

R.E.M. has stopped playing that song in their live sets

No, they just changed the words to something about a Bad Day.

which is more annoying, and why?

This is like asking people to choose between different shades of shit.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm quite happy to choose between those. Worst = red (I have never experienced this but it might indicate something as serious as cancer, or bilharzia), followed by yellow and then black.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

No, they just changed the words to something about a Bad Day.

Actually, they haven't been playing that one much either. They were playing both every night on the 2003 tour.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Interestingly, they've been revisiting a lot of Monster/Hi Fi era music in the past few weeks.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Also: "Bad Day" predates "It's End of the World As We Know It." It's technically an early version.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

The only BJ (haha, nice initials TOOL) song that bothers me nearly as much as "...Fire" is whichever one goes "IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, I GO WALKIN IN MY blah blah blah".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Like it or not Alex, your moniker signifies that you should have at least some passing interest in Mr. Joel. Unless you're a transplant. Like it or not, the guy defines blue collar NYC from the mid 70s to the mid 80s.

― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, for a start, Billy Joel is from LONG ISLAND, not NYC, so there goes your theory down the toilet, and I'm no transplant.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Oyster Bay, to be precise.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

From the town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island
Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

R.E.M. has stopped playing that song in their live sets

I have yet to see a single R.E.M. show where they don't play this song. And I've seen six or seven. As for reading lyrics off a sheet, Stipe always does that, and not just to this song. I find it a pretty innocuous affectation.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

The answer to the question is Hello by The Beloved.

naw, it's Can You Dig It? by Pop Will Eat Itself!

― heywood jablomi (heywood), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Billy Joel should have his nuts smashed on an anvil by gnomes for inflicting this song upon me.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"We Didn't Start The Fire (Argh Argh Not My Eyes)"

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, I found a song that's much worse!

Sample lyrics:

Gays Have a Marriage Ban, Troops in Afghanistan
May be an Angry Turk, Health Insurance is a Perk

Wedgewood, Baptist Church, Hurricanes, Google Search
Terrorists in New York, No one has to Go to Work!

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Billy Joel should have his nuts smashed on an anvil by gnomes for inflicting this song upon me.

YEAH!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish that Billy Joel would really set himself on fire.

What happened to that cute kid in the "End of the World" video? He must be like, 40 by now.

― Sara Sherr, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

The relative inscrutability of the video is REM's get-out-of-jail-free card in this contest!

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The video for "We Didn't Start THe Fire" would be great if it featured Billy Joel being flayed alive by the cast of "Empty Nest" alternating with pictures of kittens.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 02:40 (twenty-one years ago)

has anyone mentioned how "We Didn't Start The Fire" had the lyrics changed in Ireland so it could become a cash-in on Italia '90?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Will Farrell, Tommy Franks, Ivory Coast, Low Blood Banks
Mad Cows all Chewed, Santana Still a Cool Dude

hahahahahahahahhahahahaha

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

eight years pass...

Just dropped by to say that these two songs can still fuck off

― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 18 May 2013 20:41 (twelve years ago)

I had turned forty. It was 1989 and I said "Okay, what's happened in my life?" I wrote down the year 1949. Okay, Harry Truman was president. Popular singer of the day, Doris Day. China went Communist. Another popular singer, Johnnie Ray. Big Broadway show, South Pacific. Journalist, Walter Winchell. Athlete, Joe DiMaggio. Then I went on to 1950 [...]. It's one of the worst melodies I've ever written. I kind of like the lyric though

― Michigan seems like a dream to me now (Treeship), Saturday, 18 May 2013 20:50 (twelve years ago)

Ha ha

― Beatrix Kiddo (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 18 May 2013 23:54 (twelve years ago)

Terrified by that ellipsis and the suggestion that he went through each year of the song in the same droning fashion. "...the pill, that was birth control. The Vietnam War - Ho Chi Minh. The '68 election, Richard Nixon back again..."

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 19 May 2013 00:41 (twelve years ago)

http://deadhomersociety.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/homersbarbershopquartet9.png

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 19 May 2013 00:43 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

INDIE CRED

http://www.avclub.com/articles/milo-greene-covers-billy-joel,93875/

― This amigurumi Jamaican octopus is ready to chill with you (Phil D.), Tuesday, 25 June 2013 15:18 (twelve years ago)

Milo Greene Is The Joel Machine

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 25 June 2013 16:47 (twelve years ago)

ten years pass...

Matt H's history class story is incredible

― very sneaky cis (symsymsym), Thursday, 29 June 2023 04:14 (two years ago)

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