Kia ora koutou ē hoa mā
Welcome to Friday afternoon and the answers!
This week everyone who sent in an answer correctly identified Fall Out Boy’s update of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”; Kasabian’s “Fire” was the most confusing song this week.
1960s: “Light My Fire”, The Doors
1980s: “Burning Down the House”, Talking Heads
1990s: “Fire Water Burn”, Bloodhound Gang
2000s: “Fire”, Kasabian
2010s: “Girl on Fire”, Alicia Keys
2020s: “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, Fall Out Boy
Your leaderboard this week:
🥇 on 12/12: All The World’s A Song, ER and the Insights, Siobhan M, Lore in Order, Megan and The Chamberlains, The Bögan Crüe, Vercisca, and BSA Team
🥈 on 11.5/12: Team Impoverished
🥉 on 10/12: Flying Lizards
Have a great weekend! Looks like it might be a bit rainy on Sunday, which suits my plans of sewing and meal prep perfectly.
Kirsti.
1960s: “Light My Fire”, The Doors
Try to set the night on fire
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now, we can only lose
Hint: One of the biggest hits from this psychedelic American rock band, which followed another massive song for them in “Break On Through (To the Other Side)”. Band name is a thing you go through every day, and song title is not in lyrics quoted.
1980s: “Burning Down the House”, Talking Heads
Ah
Watch out, you might get what you're after
Cool, babies – strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Hint: It’s not by Tom Jones - he’s done a very famous cover, but it’s still a cover. Instead, I want the original American new wave rock band who you may know from such songs as “Pyscho Killer” and “Once in a Lifetime”. Band name is two words - one a method of communication, and the other a top body part. Song title not in lyrics quoted.
1990s: “Fire Water Burn”, Bloodhound Gang
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire
We don't need no water
Hint: Skillfully cut off before I needed to censor anything, this song was the first major hit for this crude American band (they would like you to do it like they do on the Discovery Channel). This song reached number two in Norway, number four in the Netherlands, number five in Iceland and the top 10 in Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden; it went Platinum for us and Sweden. The iconic lines quoted here are originally from a song by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three from 1984 called “The Roof is on Fire”, but I’m looking for the song title and band from the 1990s. Band name is two words: a category of hunting dog, and a group of people often linked to crime. Song title not in lyrics quoted.
2000s: “Fire”, Kasabian
Shake me into the night
I'm an easy lover
Take me into the fight
I'm an easy brother
I'm on fire
Hint: I’m pretty sure this is the first time this band has featured in the lyrics quiz! How neat. This band is an English rock band formed in Leicester in 1997. This is probably their biggest song, but you may also know them from such songs as “Club Foot” and “Underdog”. The band named themselves after Lisa ________, a member of the Charles Manson cult who later went on to testify against Manson at his trial. The name is a common Armenian surname meaning “butcher”, which is…a fact. Not sure if it’s fun. Song title in lyrics quoted.
2010s: “Girl on Fire”, Alicia Keys
She's just a girl, and she's on fire
Hotter than a fantasy, lonely like a highway
She's living in a world, and it's on fire
Feeling the catastrophe, but she knows she can fly away
Oh, she got both feet on the ground
And she's burning it down
Hint: You say the title of this song, and it’s 50/50 whether I start belting the chorus to this song or pretending to be Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games. This song was apparently inspired by this artist giving birth to her son Egypt and marriage to her husband Swizz Beatz, which…is not the vibe I get from this song but okay. You may know this American singer-songwriter from such songs as “Empire State of Mind”, “Fallin’”, and “My Boo” with Usher. Song title kinda in lyrics quoted.
2020s: “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, Fall Out Boy
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
Hint: Last year my favourite band decided to update the 1989 Billy Joel song with major events since 1989, and the result is a banger (I will not accept criticisms of them). Unlike the original, this version basically abandons chronological order, and they change key lines in the chorus and bridge. The COVID-19 pandemic is notably absent from the song, with the band explaining the event's ubiquity and the need for rhyme space for Bush v. Gore for why it was not included (anyway they covered the pandemic in their latest album on “What a Time to Be Alive”, which has one of my favourite song lyrics ever and it WILL turn up on a lyrics quiz one day). You may know this band from such songs as “Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet”, “Rat a Tat”, and “Thriller”. Song title in lyrics quoted.
