The Billionaires Of The World Record a Remake Of Michael Jackson’s ‘We Are The World’.
(A Very Different Version)
Mark Zuckerberg had a brainstorm one evening. A fervent brainstorm. One so strong that he called all the other top billionaires in the world to let them know about it. Most of them told him what he could do with himself in an astonishing array of accents and dialects and quite colorfully to boot.
When he came to his sense the next morning the inspiration was still strong with him. He felt more inspired than at any time in his life (excepting, of course, when he got the news that he was among the top five richest people in the world- nothing, not even meeting God- would top that.)
It all came from listening to Michael Jackson. To THAT specific song by the great gloved one.
Michael had created a phenomena when he assembled some of the greatest artists in the world in one sound chamber to record the historic song ‘We Are The World’ back in 1985 (at time when Michael was still black). Zuckerberg had to outdo it.
Calling them back int the daytime, Mark succeeded in convincing a good number of them to join him in his quest.
On an quiet Sunday this winter in Menlo Park, California, after a bevy of private jest flew into the local airport there, some of the biggest names in big business took their places under specifically arranged microphones to take part in what would become know as ‘We Are The World- the Sequel’ and, on queue, started in:
“There comes a time
when we heed a certain call
and must buy up everything in the world
there are things we don’t have
and places we don’t own
that we want to have under our thumb.”
The threee richest indidviduals in the world got the choice spot at the head microphone- Bill Gates, Mark and Jeff Bezos. Gates managed to finangle a spot there as well for his wife, Linda which Mark wasn’t all that pleased with, but she did balance out the overly male voices nicely. There was some bickering about the status of the posrition of the other attendees, but in the end all realized that it was all for a higher cause and went a long with it. There wasn’t anything that future litigatio couldn’t set right.
“We can’t go on
letting good deals go by
we own half the world, we want the other half too
its all a part of making the earth our way
and the truth is, we really deserve it all!”
Charles and David Koch provided the bass tho round out the bottom of the acoustics, while the Walton clan; Alice, Rob and Jim, wounded out the harmonies.
“We own the world
we own your children
we the privileged ones so lets start taking
There’s a choice we’re making
to better our own lives
if no one likes it well that’s just too damn bad!”
Micheal Bloomberg, Larry Ellison and Larry Page did their best to carry a tune, but eventually and wisely just sang softly as some of them had done in church as children. Surprisingly Jack Ma of Ali Baba fame lent a lot of support to the melody, probably owing to his stint as an English teacher before becoming the greatest marketeer in the world.
“Don’t try to stop us,
You know that we don’t care
We just want everything to be for us
And God can keep out of it
otherwise we’ll buy Him out too!”
John and Jacqueline Mars of the candy bar fame added a nice duet sound at their station, unfortunately an octave above what was intended. Sheldon Adelson, Phil Knight and Rupert Murdoch spent most of the session throwing suspicious glances around at the others while croaking out their words. Elon Musk kept to himself at his own mike stand as he felt out of place being next to ‘old money’ people.
“We own the world
we own your children
we the privileged ones so lets start taking
There’s a choice we’re making
to better our own lives
if no one likes it well that’s just too damn bad!”
“When you’ve got it all, and it seems there can’t be more
And it seems like you never can fall
well, well, well it is time to realize
that the world is not only our oyster
it is our treasure chest that is ours for the snatching!”
“We own the world
we own your children….”
After the singing all had a momentary feeling of rapture, a fleeting hint of the joy that song can produce. But after a few quick handshakes and brief goodbyes they all boarded their wailing limousines and headed for the airport. The euphoria quickly lifted and they all remembered what they were put on earth to do -MAKE MONEY!!! At all costs! In anyway possible.
Yet some, as their jets lifted into the air and they could see the cool Pacific stretching eternally below them, felt a faint twinge of s and a sense of innocence lost, much like what Citizen Kane must have felt as the uttered the immortal word “Rosebud” at the end of his life and let the snow globe with the sled in it slide from his dying hand. But, upon opening their laptops aboard the plane they found the morning had cost them valuable time and they dove into it.
