{"id":975665,"date":"2020-03-16T08:21:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T14:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=967692"},"modified":"2020-03-16T08:21:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T14:21:31","slug":"twitter-gives-we-didnt-start-the-fire-revamp-in-wake-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/twitter-gives-we-didnt-start-the-fire-revamp-in-wake-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter Gives \u2018We Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u2019 Revamp in Wake of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Shortly before midnight Wednesday, March 11, Brittany Barkholtz, a therapist in St. Paul, was having trouble sleeping. By the time she\u2019d gone to bed, Donald Trump had attempted to reassure the country with a sullen prime-time address, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson<\/a> had announced they\u2019d tested positive for the coronavirus<\/a>, Harvey Weinstein<\/a> had been sentenced to 23 years in prison and the NBA had suspended<\/a> the rest of its season after a Utah Jazz player had also tested positive for COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unable to sleep, Barkholtz popped onto social media and saw a tweet in her feed: \u201cToday was like if \u2018We Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u2019 was a day.\u201d The author was TV writer Matt Warburton, whose credits include The Simpsons <\/em>and The Mindy Project.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Today was like if \u201cwe didn\u2019t start the fire\u201d was a day.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Warburton (@MCWarburton) March 12, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Barkholtz, who also teaches piano and is Billy Joel<\/a> fan, took him up on his idea and, within a half-hour, had posted to her account a new verse for Joel\u2019s history-chronology 1989 hit: \u201cSchools close, Tom Hanks, trouble in the big banks\/No vaccine, quarantine, no more toilet paper seen\/ Travel ban, Weinstein, panic COVID-19, NBA, gone away, what else do I have to say?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in 1990, and the song ends at the end of the Eighties,\u201d Barkholtz, 30, says. \u201cI said, \u2018We need a part two because everything in my life came after that song.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Schools close, Tom Hanks, trouble in the big banks, no vaccine, quarantine, no more toilet paper seen.<\/p>\n

Travel ban, Weinstein, panic COVID-19, NBA, gone away, what else do I have to sayyyyyy https:\/\/t.co\/N86qx9wZxq<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Caffeinated Therapist (@bellabee13) March 12, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While Barkholtz was inspired by Warburton\u2019s tweet, others may have seen a similar post by another veteran comic and TV writer, Tom Royce (\u201cBilly Joel should do a new version of \u2018We Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u2019 that covers just like the last 10 minutes.\u201d). Whatever triggered the trend, over this weekend, dozens of people on social media \u2014 from professional writers to amateurs to music fans \u2014 wrote their own updated stanzas for a hypothetical remake of \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Billy Joel should do a new version of \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d that covers just like the last 10 minutes<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Royce (@MikeRoyce) March 12, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Among them:<\/p>\n

\u201cTom Hanks is infected, flights from Europe re-directed\/Quarantine, nowhere clean, panic in the U.S.!\u201d (Danielle Lerner on Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cFlights from Europe banned from map\/Sarah Palin tries to rap\/They just shut down the NBA\/What else do I have to say?\u201d (Alex Hirsch on Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cStocks and markets all derailed, Harvey\u2019s gonna rot in jail\/Donnie\u2019s telling lies & tales\/Cover up another fail\u201d (Gav on Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cCoronavirus, CDC\/No one goes to Italy \u2026 Cruise ships stuck, There\u2019s no TP\/Private flights, no NBA\u201d (JonBenet Lennon on Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n

To Barkholtz\u2019s shock, her post wound up being retweeted more than 68,000 times over the next two days, thanks in part to unexpected retweets by George Takei and Patton Oswalt. Oswalt even weighed in with his own idea for a chorus: \u201cWe didn\u2019t stop the virus\/Could have been prevented\/But our leader\u2019s demented.\u201d<\/p>\n

During national tragedies, certain songs have been elevated in the culture; after 9\/11, Jeff Buckley\u2019s version of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah\u201d became the impromptu soundtrack for footage of the World Trade Center rubble and rescue workers. While it\u2019s too early to gauge which pop songs will become the reassuring accompaniment for this unnerving time in the country and around the world, an early contender is \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d \u2014 more specifically, these unauthorized additions.<\/p>\n

\n

\ud83c\udfb6We didn\u2019t stop the virus\/Could have been prevented\/But our leader\u2019s demented\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) March 12, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If any song is ripe for an update, it\u2019s \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire.\u201d First appearing on Joel\u2019s 1989 Storm Front<\/em> album, the song grew out of a conversation between Joel and Sean Lennon, then a teenager and anxious over events of the late Eighties, including turmoil in the Middle East and Europe. \u201cHe said, \u2018Nothing happened in the Fifties and early Sixties,\u2019\u201d Joel later recalled. \u201cAnd the history teacher in me went, \u2018Whoa, didn\u2019t you ever hear of the Korean War, the Suez Canal, the Hungarian Freedom Fighters?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting with \u201cHarry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,\u201d Joel began scribbling down events from the previous 40 years, which, he said in a 1990 interview, \u201cstarted looking like a rap song.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t quite hip hop \u2014 Joel later called the melody \u201chorrendous \u2026 like a droning mosquito.\u201d But the song wound up name-dropping political and cultural touchstones from the end of World War II to the end of the Eighties: the Cold War, the blacklist, Elvis, the space race, Disneyland, JFK, up to \u201cWoodstock, Watergate, punk\u201d and the \u201crock and roller Cola wars.\u201d It was almost a cry for help from someone overwhelmed by the onslaught of news and change in the post-Sixties world.<\/p>\n

As Joel told biographer Fred Schruers, \u201cWhat does the song really mean? Is it an apologia for the baby boomers? No, it\u2019s not. It\u2019s just a song that says the world\u2019s a mess. It\u2019s always been a mess, it\u2019s always going to be a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, it struck enough of a chord to score three Grammy nominations, including Song and Record of Year (both of which it lost to the Bette Midler-sung \u201cWind Beneath My Wings\u201d). The song has since been parodied on The Simpsons<\/em> (\u201cThey\u2019ll Never Stop the Simpsons\u201d) and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon<\/em> (by cast members of Avengers: Endgame<\/em>).<\/p>\n

But \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d hasn\u2019t had quite a moment like this since early 1990, when Joel\u2019s label, Columbia, distributed 40,000 cassettes of \u201cWe Didn\u2019t Start the Fire\u201d in issues of Junior Scholastic<\/em> magazine. Soon enough, kids around the country were writing school papers about some of the historical events mentioned in the song.<\/p>\n

Bruce Handy, an author and contributing editor to Vanity Fair<\/em>, had a similar experience to Barkholtz. He too woke up in the middle of the night, popped onto Twitter, and saw either Warburton\u2019s or Royce\u2019s tweet. Soon enough, he had also dashed off and shared his own new verse: \u201cHarvey jailed, White House failed, Travel ban Jared\u2019s plan?\/No tests, Be best, Call your doctor, Where\u2019s Ivanka\/NBA, NDA, CDC, OMG\/Tom Hanks, Dow tanks, Bernie Biden, Death Toll risin\u2019, Sarah Palin MASS CONTAGION!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Harvey jailed
White House failed
Travel ban
Jared\u2019s plan?
No tests
Be best
Call your doctor
Where\u2019s Ivanka?
NBA
NDA
CDC
OMG
Tom Hanks
Dow tanks
Bernie Biden
Death Toll risin\u2019
Sarah Palin
MASS CONTAGION!!! https:\/\/t.co\/B4vilYUNS0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bruce Handy (@henryfingjames) March 12, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become the most retweeted and most viewed thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Handy says. \u201cUsually I get about 50 likes, but this was in the thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkholtz, whose verse is among the most popular, says she\u2019s been overwhelmed and amused by the response. \u201cPlenty of people have said I should do a whole song, which could be fun,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s wild to me because I\u2019m not an entertainer or a humorist. I\u2019m just a boring normal person who made a Billy Joel joke. People are requesting \u2018content\u2019 from me now. It\u2019s hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Joel himself has not weighed in. According to his spokesperson, he was spending the weekend with family and was not available for comment, and he appeared to be unaware of the revisions to his song. (None of the social-media writers have been contacted by Joel\u2019s camp.)<\/p>\n

But as a trained therapist and social worker who deals with those coping with depression and anxiety issues, including college students and teenagers, Barkholtz thinks there\u2019s more behind the trend than just fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much uncertainty and anxiety now, and humor is a solid coping mechanism,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything now is very overwhelming and stressful, and this is a way for people to say, \u2018I can cope with it by making a joke on Twitter about it, and not an insensitive joke.\u2019 It defuses the tension while acknowledging that these things are still going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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