― Ronan, Friday, 21 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― JK, Sunday, 23 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Pavel Karminsky, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Best version of We Are The World is by Culturcide on Tacky Souvenirs from Pre-Revolutionary America. Re-entitled "We're Not The World" the chorus goes "we're not the world/we're not the children/we're just bosses and bureaucrats/and rock & roll hasbeens/there's a choice we're never given/to run our own lives/without it your "better day"/is just a better lie."
― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
It was a very different experience watching the vid for We Are the World on TOTP, with my mother saying "Who's that dear?" every time a different singer appeared on the screen and me muttering back "I don't know" for the vast majority. Prior to We are the World I didn't have a clue who Willie Nelson was and afterwards I wished I still didn't! I remember thinking "That guy can't bloody sing!" and also the line he sings "As thge Lord has shown us, by turning stone to bread" is such a gut-wrenchingly awful flipping around of the Temptation of Christ story. And then Willie is followed by the horrible warbling of Al Jarreau.
― MarkH, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Among the participants: the Nolans, Joe "That's Living Alright" Fagin, Tony Christie pre-All Seeing I, Bruce Forsyth, Rick Wakeman, Bernie Winters, Jim Diamond and (I think?) Jim Davidson.
It was VILE!
― Nicole, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tom, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Boy George, Level 42, Nik Kershaw, Pepsi & Shirlie, Erasure, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore, Chris Rea, Edwin Starr, Samantha Fox, Mel & Kim, Kim Wilde, possibly Alison Moyet, Paul Young, Swing Out Sister, Curiosity Killed The Cat, several Page 3 models and, on backing vocals "for the experience," Rick Astley (a SAW production I regret to say). Doubtless loads of others but these are the ones which immediately spring to mind.
Main Vocals: Boy George, Peter Cox, Hazel O'Connor, Grace Kennedy, Dollar, Noddy Holder.
Chorus Vocals: Bonny Langford, Sylvester McCoy, Jimmy Nail, Hollywood Beyond, Uriah Heep, Showaddywaddy, The Sweet, Busta Jones, Hot Chocolate, EastEnders, Spitting Image, The Rent Party, Grange Hill, Caren Keating, Shriekback, Roland Rat, Andy Crane, Simon Potter, Lisa Maxwell, Michael Croft, Dave Joyner, Terry Rice-Milton, Tracey Wilson, Jodie Wilson, Patricia Conti, Cantabile, Housemaster Boyz, Jenny Day, Kevin O'Dowd, 'Plus many other artists too numerous to mention'.
Shriekback apparently didn't appear on the record even tho they were credited on the sleeve! At the time they were "very opposed to charity records."
― static, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 8 December 2003 17:14 (twenty years ago) link
I think this is slightly sloppy exegesis. The way I read it, Geldof's question, unpacked, would have undertones that run something like: "We have this time of 'goodwill toward men [people]' that we call Christmas. From our actions, can the developing world (toward whom we have a huge responsibility, having colonized/fucked them over) TELL that we're enjoying such a period of self-congratulating charity?" It's true that "Do they feel like it's Christmas?/Do they feel like celebrating?" would be a better question. Not as singable.
Bono's "Them/Us" line has always bugged me and made me laugh. Geldof's explanation doesn't help; if he really was trying to get people to do all that thinking, he should've known that on top-40 radio, that wouldn't be the effect (celebrity charity singles don't lend themselves to anything beyond sloppy self-regarding sentimentality). Still, it's a likable boppy-synthesizer tune without all the taking-a-shit "sincere" vocal stylings of "WATW."
I bristle at the immediate equation of Christianity and empires--Jesus and Paul weren't Platonists or Europeans, and contemporary theologians (the good ones) are doing their damndest to extricate them from Constantinianism. Still, if people think it's an imperialistic ideology and nothing but, that's MOSTLY Christians' damn fault. We can continue this discussion on the "I Love Arguing About Religion in Public" message board.
>And by the way, if you want to get specific about the religion of >early-80s famine victims, the problem was centrally occurring in the >horn of Africa and into the Sahara, where Islam's had its greatest >inroads: Somalia and Sudan in particular. And while the focal point
And you're right, it's unfortunate that it probably never occured to Geldof et.al. to do this kind of analysis. Humans tend to be insular. When those same humans hold most of the economic/military cards and are helplessly implicated in centuries of imperialism, this works to perpetuate, of course, that same imperialism.
― Phil Christman, Monday, 8 December 2003 19:12 (twenty years ago) link
Regarding the lyrical debate on "Do They Know It's Christmas" one needs to remember that, in 1984, Islam wasn't qute as dominant in Ethiopia as it is today, so asking the question "Do They Know It's Christmas" may not have seemed as pointless then as it may seem now.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 12:41 (seventeen years ago) link
I can't believe all the nonsense on this thread.
"We Are The World" is so much the better performance since it includes people who can, you know, really sing (i.e. sell Richie/Jackson's banalities) next to people who really can't. Among those who can really sing are a number of blacks and women. Besides being unapologetically Christian, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has the honor of featuring no blacks or women in lead roles. So much for community.
(inspired by reading this.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 01:57 (sixteen years ago) link
To make it simpler:
TS: Diana Ross, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Cyndi Lauper vs Simon Le Bon, Tony Hadley, Sting, Bono.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 01:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Um, except... even if you break it down to merely just the question of which is a better song, "Do They Know it's Christmas?" is head and shoulders above the cloying, steam-escaping flatulence that was "We Are the World."
― Pete Scholtes, Saturday, 21 July 2007 02:39 (sixteen years ago) link
Crap see no color.
― Pete Scholtes, Saturday, 21 July 2007 02:40 (sixteen years ago) link
If you prefer Tony Hadley, sure.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 02:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Besides being unapologetically Christian, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has the honor of featuring no blacks or women in lead roles. So much for community.
Which is why it's quite an achievement that "DTKIC" is still a hundred times better than "WATW"!
― Lostandfound, Saturday, 21 July 2007 02:56 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not sure why. Paul Young and Boy George are the only singers who sound like human beings.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 02:57 (sixteen years ago) link
"DTKIC" is a better song by a loooong way.
― Herman G. Neuname, Saturday, 21 July 2007 03:03 (sixteen years ago) link
All that's preferable on "DTKIC" are the synth programs. Daryl Hall, Steve Perry, and Ray Charles -- with and without mullets and hernia faces -- could sell that awful line of Bono's ("WELL TONIGHT THANK GOD IT'S THEM INSTEAD OF YOU!!!!)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 03:06 (sixteen years ago) link
(I'm feeling feisty tonight)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 03:18 (sixteen years ago) link
they are both painfully bad songs. the cause was good though, they tell me
― Charlie Howard, Saturday, 21 July 2007 04:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Besides being unapologetically Christian, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has the honor of featuring no blacks or women in lead roles
In 1984, the vast majority of people living in the UK were actually white. May explain it.
The lack of female soloists was probably partly because most big UK acts of that era were male, but Ure and Geldof also decided that because the UK scene was so male dominated, they wanted an even more male dominated "group". I read somewhere that some huge female acts were left out of Band Aid because of that. Bananarama participated in the choir though.
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 21 July 2007 18:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Besides, I like the lineup in Band Aid better (those people made most of the best music of the 80s), but "We Are The World" is a stronger songs. Both lyrics are quite dreadful though, but I guess they had to if they wanted to find some sort of middle ground between people of all kinds of political wings.
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 21 July 2007 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
If Tom's gonna take the "our shite" tact, I'm going to vote: NEITHER. Instead, I'll pick our lovely Canadian version, "Tears are Not Enough", despite the inclusion of some really horrid Canadian artists (please see the BNL thread for elaboration). Still, it had Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Gord Lightfoot, WAYNE GRETZKY!, and many other fab talents from the Great White North. Not that I can remember many of the words...oddly enough, I remember part of the section sung in French, but only phonetically. It doesn't get much more Canadian than that. -- Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (6 years ago) Link
OTM.
― Eric H., Saturday, 21 July 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Hear N Aid kills both dead
― J0hn D., Saturday, 21 July 2007 20:52 (sixteen years ago) link
The USA for Africa gang is way better than the Band Aid gang but I still like Do They Know It's Christmas best by far
― A B C, Saturday, 21 July 2007 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Xgau makes a convincing argument. I've always liked "Do They Know It's Christmas?" more as a song for the sheer melody/instrumentation/production, but "We Are The World" definitely works better for the cause.
― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 21 July 2007 21:41 (sixteen years ago) link
I guess "Sun City" takes it then?
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 21 July 2007 22:04 (sixteen years ago) link
"We Are The World" is one of the worst songs ever made - who cares about the quality of the singers?
― zeus, Saturday, 21 July 2007 23:37 (sixteen years ago) link
So much insanity on this thread! Alfred OTM. Britishes at least have a valid chauvinistic reason for preferring Band Aid, but jeez, how long have the rest of you been living in a Bizarro world where Bob Geldof and Midge Ure write better songs than Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie?
"We Are the World" is classic American schmaltz, with all the good and bad that such a phrase entails.
Also, Greil Marcus' idiot reading of WATW as imperialist American celebrities devouring the world is a low point in 80s popcrit poststructuralism.
― Martin Van Burne, Monday, 23 July 2007 14:42 (sixteen years ago) link
zeus' last comment is particularly shocking. I'm not defending WATW's songcraft, for God's sake, just the performances!
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 23 July 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I knew the culturcide version before I ever heard of the real WATW. Its pretty funny, but you can't really come to the real one after it....
― I know, right?, Monday, 23 July 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link
How different a thread would this be if Harry Belafonte's original intention regarding WATW - that it feature only black performers - had come to pass?
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 23 July 2007 16:23 (sixteen years ago) link
no Cyndi Lauper, no credibility
― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 23 July 2007 16:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I'd have missed Cyndi, and lots of other white folx too.
― Martin Van Burne, Monday, 23 July 2007 16:47 (sixteen years ago) link
BTW, why is this not a poll thread please?
― Martin Van Burne, Monday, 23 July 2007 17:19 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm afraid of the results.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 23 July 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Alfred: we talk about a bad song, which hasn't got better because of the performance. Or I just can't get your point.
― zeus, Monday, 23 July 2007 21:36 (sixteen years ago) link
OMFG OLD ILX WAS SO STUPID. We are the World >>>>>> Do they know its xmas
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Britishes at least have a valid chauvinistic reason for preferring Band Aid, but jeez, how long have the rest of you been living in a Bizarro world where Bob Geldof and Midge Ure write better songs than Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie?
this cannot be stated enough
WATW = maudlin sappy gag-reflex mush
― ledge, Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
"Tonight thank God it's them instead of you"
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2007/20070406_ethiopia.jpg http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/12/12/nbrit112.jpg
― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Culturcide's version was better.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
I agree with your premise JW - Richie/Jackson theoretically ought to be able to write the better song - but WATW isn't it. Melodically, it's OK, hardly prime work from either guy; lyrically I mean it's not the offensive & condescending "Do They Know?" but I'd rather be offended by content than by vague nonsense (what the hell does "we are the children" mean in the context of the chorus? which children: the starving children? no, "we" are the ones who make a brighter day and are called upon to give; however, we are also "the children" etc etc - just total nonsense, deploying the word "children" 'cause everybody likes children - bizarre, confusing, senseless)
― J0hn D., Tuesday, 25 March 2008 15:27 (sixteen years ago) link
"We Are the World" is classic American schmaltz, with all the good and bad hideous vomit-induction that such a phrase entails.― Martin Van Burne, Monday, 23 July 2007 15:42 (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― Martin Van Burne, Monday, 23 July 2007 15:42 (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 15:19 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UfVmJBF-OY&feature=plcp
― balls, Thursday, 26 July 2012 23:49 (eleven years ago) link
hahaha amazing....genius of american music ladies and gents
― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 26 July 2012 23:59 (eleven years ago) link
i love that.
― kid steel (cajunsunday), Friday, 27 July 2012 00:09 (eleven years ago) link
"Bob, it's great -- you're the only singing the lower octave!"
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 July 2012 00:11 (eleven years ago) link
in which Steve Perry and Daryl Hall demonsrate they can sing well no matter how many takes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwEOOgv5unE&feature=related
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 July 2012 00:25 (eleven years ago) link
lol @ Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, and Kim Carnes trying to harmonize their irreconcilable voices.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 July 2012 00:28 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think Daryl Hall is in the same league with Steve Perry. On several of the takes Mr. Hall is off key quite a bit. Look at Steve's face as Hall is singing. He does look a little annoyed with Hall.
gretchen606 in reply to 511A19Tay92(Show the comment) 1 month ago
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 July 2012 00:36 (eleven years ago) link
Who Bodied Their Verse On "We Are The World"??
― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 27 July 2012 00:57 (eleven years ago) link
we have a new contender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4oz4dfi9gg
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 23 July 2017 21:53 (six years ago) link
that's p interesting!
― niels, Monday, 24 July 2017 09:17 (six years ago) link
arguably the most baffling lineup for any charity single:
Love Song to the Earth: Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Angelique Kidjo, Kelsea Ballerini, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice & Q'orianka Kilcher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBEGxqJKup8
― marty dwalin (unregistered), Monday, 26 March 2018 22:10 (six years ago) link
the Earth = d00med
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 26 March 2018 22:18 (six years ago) link
TS: Love Song To The Earth vs Fistfucking God’s Planet
― Siegbran, Monday, 26 March 2018 22:50 (six years ago) link
wow, can't believe macca took part in that shit
― niels, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 09:33 (six years ago) link
Love this guy:
"Do they know it's Christmas" - HANDS DOWN! Bono...FANTASTIC!!! Great song! I think the radio has decided it. When was the last time you heard "We are the World?" on the radio? However, every Christmas we hear "Do they know..." a million times. As George "Dubyah" Bush said of the British... "We have no closer friend..." Thanks for a great song!!!!!― JK, Domingo, 23 de Dezembro de 2001 1:00 (sixteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 12:03 (six years ago) link