Comments on: USA FOR AFRICA – “We Are The World”

By: Alfred

Alfred — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:07:35 +0000

#35 is right on: “the second chorus — Springsteen! Kenny Loggins! Steve Perry! Daryl Hall! All of whom were clearly instructed to sound as much as possible like themselves! — is fucking glorious.”

I’ll add the novel idea of following Dionne Warwick with Willie Nelson.

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:17:13 +0000

Actually, unpatriotic as it may seem, I always preferred this to Band Aid, the more so for being more slick and polished. Cyndi’s part was probably my favourite bit – the equivalent of That Line, as sung by Bono, I suppose – and there is still some fun to be gained from listening to the song and identifying the singers in turn (Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry would catch many Brits out, I guess). The little vocal duels in the long fade-out – Springsteen vs Stevie – also appealed to me. It’s not a record I would want to hear that often, but I would go at least a 5 I think.

By: seekenee

seekenee — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:59:19 +0000

This always irritated me, esp. Bruce and Cyndi. I picked this up very cheap in the 90s just to have it but I will never play it. The checking in of the egos was obviously untrue, Michael Jackson’s appearance in the video is preceded by a shot of his glove or his shoes? – unsubtle bit of showbiz buildup they couldn’t resist – I remember thinking, c’mon who does he/they think he is? (since i wrote this I see this has been noted above – makes more sense if it was filmed separately but still this old style hollywood star approach seems vulgar for this record)

By: vinylscot

vinylscot — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:47:28 +0000

Vaguely amusing video using this as soundtrack (You’ve probably seenm the “Let it Be” from the same people recently)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpgGIWZjlTg&feature=related

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:28:16 +0000

I am at least vaguely intrigued to hear Lil Wayne’s bit which is more than I can say for anything on the Cowell horrorshow. Though I will be doing my bit and buying that for review once it inevitably gets to #1.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:27:12 +0000

AIEEE!!! It’s back:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/02/we-are-the-world-haiti

mind you, the UK/Simon Cowell produced version of ‘Everybody hurts’ sounds even worse

By: Pete

Pete — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:51:57 +0000

Ah the Sceptic Tank, the behemoth of the battlefield rumbling round, disbelieving everyone.

By: Rosie Hunter

Rosie Hunter — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:20:14 +0000

Would love to know how many of those over inflated egoed Sceptics actually even knew where Africa was when they recorded the worst song in history…
Will never forget an article at the time comparing the Brits recording ‘Do they know.., wherer they all just pitched up one Sunday as opposed to the Sceptics ‘Hospitality area and skiny Latte & Cappucino machines…

Like everything else we did it first and we did it better – bring back Maggie!!!!

By: taDOW

taDOW — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:44:10 +0000

‘self destruction’>>’bad cover version’>’we’re all in the same gang’>’sun city’>>’we’re stars’>>>>>’kidney aid’>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>’do they know it’s xmas’>’we are the world’>>>>>’hands across america’>’voices that care’

By: Rory

Rory — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:15:27 +0000

Hence Queen’s 1986 riposte, “Who Wants to Give Forever?”

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:47:19 +0000

Sun City doesn’t bother the bunny because it didn’t even make the Top 20 here, a combination of melody-deficiency, too many unfamiliar artists (to a mainstream audience) and boycotting by fans of artists who were implicitly being criticised in the lyrics and explicitly in publicity for the single. In the process it fractured the charity consensus; Queen felt they were unfairly singled out due to resentment at their stealing the show at Live Aid.

By: MichaelH

MichaelH — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:38:39 +0000

I think the comparison with Sun City is very interesting here. Sun City is just as clumsy a record – more fun to listen to the first time, but equally vapid the second – so I suspect it’s only the combination of cause and artists (Joey Ramone! Run DMC! George Clinton! etc) that makes it seem so much more appealing. It’s also staggeringly, horrifically, unforgivably long. It does, though, have the advantage of being recognisably a pop record, unlike We Are the World.

By: taDOW

taDOW — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:08:15 +0000

god in terms of lineup and actual track how much does ‘sun city’ absolutely slay both these records! dylan and bono! the fat boys!

By: taDOW

taDOW — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:31:21 +0000

the cut to mj in the video is presumably due to that part of the song having to be recorded later (it was initially to be prince’s line but then he no-showed – either due to having to bail out a bodyguard or just generally thinking this was corny i forget which – and mj had to step in). strange that by this point prince had peaked stateside and was already receiving blowback but in the uk was such a nonfactor that “i feel for you” (the closest the classic prince sound gets to #1) gets snarked at as nonrepresentative of 80s soul (unlike “careless whisper or “do you really want to hurt me?” apparently). the other notable non-hiphop big (arguably peaked also) in 1984 omission here: madonna. though she did play live-aid (as did run dmc). as for the tracks neither are great to listen to but they’re fun objects – prefer ‘we are the world’ for straight gawk factor and actual performances, much prefer the verses in ‘we are the world’ vs. the verses in ‘do they know it’s xmas’, slightly prefer the chorus to ‘do they know it’s xmas’ vs ‘watw’. much more likely to actually listen to ‘xmas’. much much much more likely to watch this or of course this. big ups to japanese bruce as always.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:34:17 +0000

#62 – I think it’s fairer to say that British people tend to see hymns as a matter of communal rather than personal engagement – there’s a strong tradition of religious singing (which spilled over into secular singing) but not a lot of room for the solo passion that’s a hallmark of gospel.

We have a good opportunity to think about the idea of the ‘secular hymn’ in a few entries’ time, in fact.

By: koganbot

koganbot — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:21:46 +0000

Xgau reviewed seven Joe Jackson albums in the ’80s in his Consumer Guide, grading none higher than a B or lower than a C-PLUS. He’d originally given Night And Day a B but when he re-reviewed it for the book he lowered the grade to B-MINUS.

Both Xgau and Chuck Eddy have a second body each; their normal body carries out the regular activities of life: eating, sleeping, writing, etc. The second body does nothing but listen to records.

By: Jonathan Bogart

Jonathan Bogart — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:16:55 +0000

It occurs to me that a further cultural divide might be in British v. American attitudes towards hymnody — “We Are The World” is after all a secular hymn (much like “Bridge Over Troubled Water”), with the usual faults of facile lyrics and repetitive dum-dum melodies towards which modern (and historical!) hymns trend. (This I think is some of what Christgau was getting at in his insistence on seeing WATW as an extension of gospel tradition.)

My impression is that British music listeners mostly experience hymns as part of an official culture with which they’re not personally engaged; while Americans, even those who aren’t regular churchgoers, see church singing as an outgrowth of personal passion, in which “is it good” matters much less than “is it sincere.”

I personally have quite a lot of affection for hymnody, thanks to my upbringing and general interest in music history; which isn’t to say that I like “We Are The World” — I just don’t dislike it for that specific reason.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:01:50 +0000

re 57 I think (c) probably played a big part. Jerry Dammers was instrumental in organising the Artists against Apartheid concert on Clapham Common in 1986 (at which Boy George memorably appeared in white face and a slogan covered outfit – and less memorably I consumed at least one bottle of white wine and can barely recall any of the acts). He was around the University of London (including SOAS) when I was there between 85-86. He also helped organise the Mandela birthday concerts.

He’s quoted in a recent interview in the Independent:
Today, Dammers supports the Love Music Hate Racism charity, but finds the environment depressingly changed. “Most bands nowadays aren’t really political,” he says. “They’re looking after their careers, and for some reason they think getting involved will affect that. God knows why. I was disappointed with Live 8, too. Saying we’re just going to raise awareness – that’s all right if it’s in the music, if the artists are actually committed politically and are putting it in their lyrics. But just having someone on the stage singing about something that’s got nothing to do with it, how that’s going to raise political awareness I don’t know.”

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:22:21 +0000

#59 Terry Hall alleged that Jerry couldn’t play anything well enough for recording purposes though of course he’s not an unbiased source.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:24:22 +0000

57, I was thinking of his prominent role, i.e.composer/producer etc on Free Nelson Mandela – and he was a talented keyboard player, although I take your point about control-freakery/star on the wane

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:50:07 +0000

#29 “J. Arthur Rank” is rhyming slang for something, erm, completely different.

Wasn’t there some minor scandal at the time about there being a lavish catered buffet for the stars at the end of the recording session?

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:33:34 +0000

# 54 Interesting question Conrad. I’d guess one or more of these were correct

a) The Special AKA album had bombed completely; Bob may have thought one has-been (i.e himself) on the project was enough.
b) He was/is a control freak and without any vocal/instrumental talent to bring to the party he’d have wanted to be on the top team.
c) he’d have wanted to politicise the venture possibly compromising its reach (look how they kept Weller on a leash).

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:06:57 +0000

I know it’s the thing that Meltzer twitted him about — viciously too, being Meltzer — but one of the things I admire, as pointed out I think by Chuck Eddy, is that if you look at the mark Christgau gave some minor LP by Joe Jackson that no one else remembers the name of, and compare the original mark with the mark in “Rock Albums of 80s”, he’s adjusted it, from D to C-: meaning he diligently re-listened to it! And all the others! Which is kind of mental and kind of awesome — what a pro!

Of course I never listen to anything in case I taint my objectivity (/whiskered old mark s joke): so, no! *I* am the anti-xgau!

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:01:17 +0000

Where Christgau’s taste departs from mine is his Euroscepticism mostly but I’ve never thought of him as conservative in taste exactly: certainly not compared to Marcus or Marsh (though I haven’t kept up on Marsh’s views).

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:56:01 +0000

#40, I used to enjoy reading Christgau and have a well-thumbed copy of Rock Albums of the 70s, but his musical conservatism became a bore. The lauding of dull acts like The Band, the overrating of the Byrds and Big Star, and he’s on more comfortable ground discussing a Stones live album in 82 then a Dollar record. I can’t take his opinion seriously anymore, certainly not post new wave.

Also, as Swanstep eloquently puts it at 47, this presumptious and didactic style of rock criticism really is off-putting.

As for the record, absolutely horrendous. Bloated, imperialist corporate America, no thanks.

#43, I’d have liked a bit of toasting from Ranking Roger added to that particular mix

Actually, why wasn’t Jerry Dammers on Band Aid?