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

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!"

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

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

Subterranean Homesick Blues?

Too Much Monkey Business? Junkie Business?

Seventh Son?

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.

(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.)

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

::rimshot::::

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

Bahhahahahah! Fuck that shit.

"The cook did not HONOR THE GAS FLAME!"

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.....

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

Bahahahahahahahahahahaha

Bahahahahahahahahahahaha

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

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

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.....

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.

neilkulkarniinamouthingoffmatchyeahyeahyeahyeah
dubioususeof"you"inthatsentencetoo
btwloveyourwritingingeneralnoreally

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

"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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

YEAH!

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

hahahahahahahahhahahahaha

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

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

Ha ha

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..."

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

INDIE CRED

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

Milo Greene Is The Joel Machine

Matt H's history class story is incredible