Who Bodied Their Verse On "We Are The World"??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM&feature=related

^for reference

Had to go with Ray.

LOL MJ recorded all alone, away from all their GERMS

quick takes:

willie does a pretty good job with his weirdo behind the beat phrasing

brooce is really embarrassing

micheal's chorus is great

gonna be REALLY hard to vote against wwwooahwoooOOOAAHWOOOOOAHHWOOOOOOAAAH OOOH LETS REEEEEUUUUHLLIIIIIIZE THATUH CHEEEE-AAAAAUUUNNGE CAN DO US GOOOOOOD by cyndi though

dylan is awesome cuz he kinda sounds like a standup comedian dude imitating him singing "we are the world"

the hell is Bruce doing. Other than the obvious, that being shitting hard.

I too have to go for Cyndi, although that new way of thinking about Dylan's bit tempted me.

Bob Dylan, really. But excellent performances also from Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper.

Ray Charles was Ray Charles.

Bob, Bruce, Michael, Cyndi (especially) did comedy versions of themselves.

So, Ray! (h'ray)

say what you want about this song but Lionel Richie & Stevie Wonder harmonizing is a beautiful thing to hear

voted stevie, but dionne warwick kinda kills it in her little spot. never noticed before.

cyndi!

huey seems to be channeling eddie money

ok I haven't watched that in years and I have a question and require an answer. HOW THE FUCK IS IT THAT KENNY LOGGINS GETS A LINE TO HIMSELF AND SMOKEY FUCKING ROBINSON DOES NOT. fuck that shit imo

xpost w/jordan otm but then again no matter what the poll I would probably vote dionne over anybody including a masked bandit with a gun who told me he'd kill me if I didn't vote for him instead of dionne

HOW THE FUCK IS IT THAT KENNY LOGGINS GETS A LINE TO HIMSELF AND SMOKEY FUCKING ROBINSON DOES NOT.

yeah i thought that too when i went to wiki and got the list of ppl in order....saw smokey down there in the cameos...waylon jennings too :(

It's a little terrifying to me exactly how many of the ppl in this video I recognize on sight (esp James Ingram, lol)

ha, Dan Ackroyd looks confused about why he's even there

Almost voted Cyndi Lauper, but Stevie coming back in the last minute makes the endless choruses tolerable.

Oldie but goodie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87-MUkH3fgU

ftr this video is the main reason why I really really really want to vote Cyndi

Went for cyndi in the end, was between her and springsteen on the insanity scale. I really like willie nelson's almost not there attitude and kenny loggins beard (and the strangely sheepish way he moves back from the mic after his solo - maybe he knows he doesn't belong), but Lauper wins more or less based on the wwwooahwoooOOOAAHWOOOOOAHHWOOOOOOAAAH alone.
I was also wondering about the ones who didn't get a solo compared to those who did (or got more than one), would it have killed them to throw in a Midler/Belafonte duet?
Also, i wonder how close the sound of the group sections is to reality, sounds a bit to smooth for all those different vocal styles.

cyndi tore this one up

It pains me to say it but I've always loved Billy Joel's solo the best, and I sing "and the truth, you know love is all we need" BJ-WATW style ALL the time, so I was compelled to vote for it. After that, probably Lionel b/c it opens this beast and so it's super memorable, and then Bob b/c yeah it sounds like a piss take, and to me like Bob doing a Bob parody (wearing his Bob Dylan mask?).

Lionel is mad dignified on this

I just thought it would fit to post this here :) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsQOU77F7IQ

the thing that's most interesting to me from an aesthetic standpoint is how the veterans really kill it with their professionalism. the really awesome ones in here are from people who've been pretty much living on stages in front of audiences for 20+ years and know the difference between singing in an ensemble & singing duet & having a line where you want to both shine & not look like you're trying to out-do anybody (this is where stevie w. & ray charles really give a master class - they both go WAY up, but they could both have taken it much further if they weren't both dudes who know exactly what they're doing & how to always remember that your job is to make the song better than it was before you got there, not to make it a Spotlight On Me deal, which is springsteen's problem imo). dionne, al jarreau, lionel r., tina & willie are to me the ones who outshine everybody else by not trying as hard.

LOL MJ recorded all alone, away from all their GERMS

His first parts maybe (strange that he didn't want to be near Diana Ross, I thought he had been that a lot anyway..), but he is undeniably filmed in the same room with Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper there.

for the record, We're All in the Same Gang is a bazillion times better than this twaddle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXGgWf2lacM

Some of the greatest talents in the world assembled to record a song.

This is a strenuously arguable assertion.

You don't think any of those people were among the greatest talents in the world at that time? Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Dionne Warwick, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner...? (We all know how wrong you are about Michael Jackson.)

I hate Bob Dylan, but him and Stevie Wonder alone raise the bar.

(for the assertion, I mean, not the performance)

many Alex in NYC arguments have been broken down by his undeniable love and admiration for Miss Dionne Warwick

ha yeah Bob Dylan, oops

Alex, walk on by.

Is We Are The Pizza a real thing?

Surprised no one's reppin' for Steve Perry, who plainly got inspired by the company; or Daryl Hall.

Okay, let's go through them, then, shall we?

Lionel Richie - Crap.
Stevie Wonder - Was great at one point but then became crap.
Paul Simon - See Stevie Wonder.
Kenny Rogers - Oh please. COMPLETE crap.
James Ingram - Fine, but hardly a groundbreaker.
Tina Turner - Okay, yes -- she's a huge talent.
Billy Joel - Crappy craphound of the crappiest order.
Michael Jackson - Do you really need me to go into detail here?
Diana Ross - Big talent dwarfed by massive ego.
Dionne Warwick - Nice voice, dwarfed by insane devotion to psychic friends.
Willie Nelson - Good guy, nice voice, dope-advocate.
Al Jarreau - Whatever.
Bruce Springsteen - Slavishly overrated, but a nice guy.
Kenny Loggins - Champion of shite, redeemed only by the title song to "Caddyshack."
Steve Perry - Shrill airhorn of a voice redeemed only by "Separate Ways."
Daryl Hall - Legitimately huge talent.
Huey Lewis - Legitimately huge embarassment.
Cyndi Lauper - Talented, but irritating.
Kim Carnes - A damp fart.
Bob Dylan - Wheezing, oversung gasbag of washed-uppedness.
Ray Charles - Way too talented to be sharing a studio with the rest of this gang.

Willie Nelson - Good guy, nice voice, dope-advocate.

If Willie needs an obit, here it is.

Alex in NYC Non-OTM

Al Jarreau - Whatever.
ahahaha

http://blog.cleveland.com/ent_impact_music/2008/02/medium_jarreau.jpeg

BIlly Joel = Zach Galifianakis

Cyndi's dancing is cute. Bruce is like John Travolta in a bad movie. Kenny Roger ain't so bad imo.

but the first MJ chorus is the best thing happening here.

Stevie Wonder announced at 1 am that he would like to substitute the "sha-lum sha-lin-gay" sound for a line in Swahili.[16][17] At this point, Waylon Jennings left the recording studio and never returned; he allegedly felt that no "good ole boy" ever sang in Swahili.[16][17] A heated debate ensued, in which Geldof revealed that Ethiopians do not speak Swahili.[16] Michael Jackson also disagreed with using a Swahili line, choosing to stick with the the "sha-lum sha-lin-gay" sound, which, after being sung a few times, ran into opposition as well.[16] The participants eventually decided to sing something meaningful in English.[16] They chose to sing the new line "One world, Our children", which most of the participants enjoyed, apart from Tina Turner, who liked "sha-lum sha-lin-gay" better.[16]

it's mj vs ray for me. mj is so technically sound, immaculate phrasing. restrained and subdued for him, too, which is nice to hear. you can tell he mapped out every single syllable though, whereas ray seems--SEEMS--to be winging it, and that bit of emotion fits the song better than mj's approach.
also thought tina, willia, dionne, and stevie killed it.

Ray Charles sold this one

I forgot I had "Future Days" playing while I was listening to this

Diana Ross - Big talent dwarfed by massive ego.

Mr. In NYC, with love I say to you that no fan of Killing Joke is in a position to claim that the presence of a massive ego has any mitigating effect on said person's talent.

Moreover, if Alex can point out how her "massive ego" affects her WATW performance, I'd like to read it.

Because absolutely everything about "We Are The World" sucks a massive bag of greasy cocks, that's why.

Jaz (since JOhn invoked him) may indeed have an outsized ego (though he's quite humble compared to La Ross), but at least he's ENTERTAININGLY INSANE at the same time (plus, he rocks).

http://www.gtdtimes.com/files/2009/01/surprise.jpg

Glad we settled that.

Alex, you forgot Jeffrey Osborne, who's second to last.

btw Jones' decision to pair Dionne Warwick's plummy diction against Willie's behind-the-beat phrasing is the kind of instinct you can't buy.

Most underrated duo trading off lines segment at about the 2:25 mark: Daryl Hall then Steve Perry.
Otherwise mostly good voices giving good performances: Ray, MJ, Stevie, James Ingram, Cyndi Lauper and Willie stand out.
There was a making of "We Are the World" video that came out at the time which shows Stevie Wonder sitting at a piano trying to get Bob Dylan to sound like the Dylan of the mid-60's. A priceless clip that I've not been able to find on Youtube, so if anyone has a link, please pass along.

I prefer "We Fuck the World", which was sung by those puppets back in like 2000

Ok...several things

1. alex's statement about the talent is wayyyyyyyyyyy wrong.
2. the song is so goddamned corny. it sounds like it came out of a song vending machine, almost as bad as "Power of the Dream".
3. the fact that it was for charity redeems it. musically though...why do these types of songs have to sound so ridiculously overwrought?
4. thank god this didn't have the LOL factor of Will Smith rapping a la "Voices that Care" in 1991.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeGVObZgVbs

not much of a satire there. too obvious.

Obviousness was always part of Culturcide's charm.

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Love the bad English...

ok I did that wrong

Daryl Hall - Legitimately huge talent.

o_O of all the people on the list this is the one you choose to lionize O_o

For the record, I prefer Canada's b-side.

Kenny Rogers - Oh please. COMPLETE crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZYcqlEZxGQ

I love Alex in NYC's "let's go through them" post although I'm stunned he was aware of the existence of James Ingram and wonder how he knows Springsteen's a nice guy. Also, I agree with his assessment of Al Jarreau but "Wheezing, oversung gasbag" and maybe even "washed-uppedness" characterizes Dylan from the very beginning of his career (a positive in my book).

And what's with all the "yay subtlety" cheerleading? What, did y'all really want the Bruce of Nebraska? One of the things that makes "We Are The World" such great pop music is its mixture of subtlety and OTTness, the way it creates an illusion of a complete spectrum of pop vocalizing.

Presented with such a buffet, though, I have no clue where to park my plate. Lionel Richie's marvelous opener seems found in amber. But Steve Perry is certainly the most surprising. Too bad "the choir/chorus" isn't an option.

the concept of a choir should be erased from human consciousness.

Do you like black music then?

congrats on the most wtf question i've ever been asked on ilx

See, this is why I don't live in Naperville.

i don't care if your choir is black, white, purple

I was trying to pair it with your wtf remark.

(xxpost)

nor do I but I don't see what that has to do with anything
xxxxp

Well, let me be clearer: using WATW's choir to indict all choirs is like saying you hate synthesizers because of "My Humps."

true but i do hate all choirs regardless. next i will tell you how i hate peanut butter and jelly so you can reach your wtf'd quota for the month.

ok gregorian shit is alright

true but i do hate all choirs regardless. next i will tell you how i hate peanut butter and jelly so you can reach your wtf'd quota for the month.

Do you the peanut industry?

*hate the peanut industry?

NO, Granny likes an assortment of meats (esp hams and sausages) different than your typical bland sandwich shop

First of all, as a guy named after Al Jarreau, fuck you guys.

While most of the performers either maintain a properly respectful tone or get their showboat on, Ray sounds totally elated to be doing this and his parts validate the whole enterprise.

Brooce is by far the worst, the only completely laughable performance.

steve perry & huey lewis are always to be lol'd @, now matter how noble the cause

Tina's part is the most phoned-in.

Kim Carnes' two word part sets a new world record for brevity.

Stevie for the win.

Steve Perry in 1985 looks like a dude in Brokencyde or something in 2009.

i wish the guy that played Kreese in Karate Kid had sung on it

Every time you diss the concept of a choir, someone somewhere is dying.

choirs are awesome. bland generic triad arrangements aren't.

My vote:

Street Talk [Columbia, 1985]
The head Journeyman's USA for Africa cameos were so discreetly intense and discreetly tossed off they made me wonder what I'd been missing. Now I know--musical gastroenteritis. Pat Boone didn't understand, so why should Steve Perry--oversinging signifies not soul and inspiration but will and desperation. Upped a notch for good intentions, and just in case Sam Cooke has finally taught him a lesson. C

ray charles is amazing on this song -- the way he comes charging in at the end is one of those 'stand up and cheer' moments, like he's just arrived to bring some genuine feeling and warmth and redeem the whole event. which he pretty much does. it's worth listening to the whole thing every time just to get to his part.

it's a pretty terrible song (though "there comes a time, when we heed a certain call" is a memorably weird opening line), but there's some great performances on it. cyndi is wonderful. dylan's cameo is great because he obviously doesn't give a shit about what he's singing and sings it exactly the way you'd expect him to -- "just yoooooo and meeeeee!"

stevie's last line kills it imo, usually the first part i remember when i think of the song
we are THAA^ ones who make a brighter day-ey so let's! start! GIVn! totally stevie but unlike any way he'd sung before (that i know of)
daryl hall doesn't seem to get the volume he wanted (nyuk)
james ingram's last part takes the desperation prize i think, i like steve perry's part

Alex, you forgot Jeffrey Osborne, who's second to last
that's ingram but watching the video there's jeffrey! (would have muuurked)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

willie does a pretty good job with his weirdo behind the beat phrasing

this should be Willie's main artist entry at AMG or something

god *paul simon* was on this?? my mind had blanked that out totally. mind you i suppose this was in his not selling any records phase. NO WAY he'd have doen this after GRACELAND. wasn't prince asked but he said no or something?

apparently Prince's planned line was so mindblowing that he couldn't even think of it in his own head without suffering pain so he skipped it

Damn you, DJ Koze cover version, for not being on YouTube. (Ray in a walk, duh.)

Surprised no one's posted Christgau's essay: http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/song-85.php

otm:

Talent and tradition make a lot of the difference. It's no fault of Bob Geldof, who did his damnedest to enlist bigger and better (and non-Brit) names in the project, but not only can't Band Aid's Bowie and McCartney and Sting compete with Michael and Lionel and Bruce as box office or with Dylan and Smokey and Brother Ray as history, they can't compete with such lesser lights as Steve Perry and James Ingram and Dionne Warwick as vocal technicians. Whatever compromises multiplatinum or Vegas or middle age have entailed, whatever odium attaches to Diana Ross's vanity or Steve Perry's group, however suspect the presence of Michael's siblings or Huey's News or Quincy's protégé or Ken Kragen's clients, "We Are the World" achieves a genuinely phenomenal concentration of voices. Almost every one of the veterans still calls up extraordinary work on occasion, and while too many of the new guys habitually confuse meaning with technique, the technique they favor is designed to transmit whatever meaning comes near it and is made for this kind of spiritual uplift.

Cue Brit "WTF?!" blitzkrieg.

nah they were ripping into their own on the other thread. both great songs

you know, i actually like this song.

up:
dionne warwick
willie nelson
steve perry
ray charles

down:
billy joel
al jarreau
kim carnes (alex sez it best: "a damp fart")

way down:
bruce springsteen (it's like he thought he had to singlehandedly hold up the RAWK part of the proceedings by over-emoting x1000)

i like how the backing track sort of downshifts into "off the wall" mode when michael takes his solo chorus

i would pay for a dionne warwick/willie nelson duet album

One of the things that makes "We Are The World" such great pop music is its mixture of subtlety and OTTness, the way it creates an illusion of a complete spectrum of pop vocalizing.

may be some truth in this.

ray charles owns this song but i'll give it to dionne for diversity's sake.

kenny rogers's facial expressions easily the worst part of the video.

my theory about why michael is alone in the studio on his chorus: he probably refused to record in the same circumstances, being a perfectionist, wanting many extra takes for his few lines, etc. and since he produced the track, he could do whatever the fuck he wanted.

actually down on billy joel, too. he makes his line sound icky and lascivious.

oh i already got billy joel. i'll stop posting now.

kenny rogers's facial expressions easily the worst part of the video.

worse than Bruce's?

Isn't the story of Michael's verse that it was supposed to be Prince's but he didn't show up so Michael had to sub?

"I am also the world/ I am also the children . . ."

Went for Willie, if only because "as God has shown us by turning stone to bread" is one of the great "WTF?" lyrics.

so I've been curious, have there been any other lesser known 'FIGHT FOR THIS CAUSE' type anthems with pop superstars (besides these two and Voices That Care) that like....were either hilariously bad or didn't really do that well?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMvhLRBWzYw

Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Edward Markey led an official protest over every New England state being excluded from Hands Across America. Political leaders in the south and Florida additionally weighed in against the route that was chosen to span the continental United States. Various protests broke out in the Upper Midwest, notably Minneapolis and Milwaukee, as well as northwestern cities such as Portland and Seattle. In Hawaii actor Tom Selleck and Sen. Daniel Inouye led a counter Hands Across Hawaii program that was held to remind mainlanders that "Hawaiians are Americans, Too!"

"broke out"

I have no memory of this event.

lol @ Baltimore, Maryland (with R2-D2 and Emmanuel Lewis.) The first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland due to R2D2 not having hands.

I bet they were "grassroots campaigns" like these anti-health care protests...

There were undoubtedly many breaks in the chain, but enough people participated to form an unbroken chain across the country if the path had been a straight line.

My god, my 6th grade awards night ceremony concluded with all of us joining hands and singing "Hands Across America." The summer of '86 was the high point of Reaganmania.

watching the video, kept wondering about the intense diplomatic negotiations behind who got to sing what, with whom, and how many lines they got to sing. also the fact that this many artists on the top 40 charts could actually sing?

anyway, tina turner. i love tina turner. i got this on cassette when it came out but can't remember any of the other songs

hah, i remember the 'hands across america' thing too. i think they gave out t-shirts for it? i was probably in 3rd grade. unaffected by reaganmania due to my dad brainwashing me with the gift of a 'ronald reagan coloring book' (democratic propaganda sarcastically showing how reagan was screwing up the country, only i didn't know that, i colored in it & believed everything they said)

this song came out when i was 3 and i've managed to go pretty much my entire life without paying any close attention to it. listening to it now, i dunno who to vote for. maybe steve perry, maybe mj, maybe ray.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

who voted for springsteen?!?!

what the hell

how did huey lewis get 3 more votes than michael jackson?

Michael Jackson doesn't do much worth voting for on the track?

Most underrated duo trading off lines segment at about the 2:25 mark: Daryl Hall then Steve Perry.

^^^^ so great

This is my favorite thread title on ILM.

Said thread title has made it impossible to find.

I've never seen "body" used as a verb...

kinda feel like huey lewis sort of went beyond himself in this song, like the dude had no business being there, but had that 1984 chutzpah to just fuckin do it, u know?

And That's Why I Voted For Huey Lewis

I've never seen "body" used as a verb...

I take it you don't listen to much rap music

I've never seen "body" used as a verb...I take it you don't listen to much rap music
― a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier)

Spot on, old chap! While I have you, do you have any Grey Poupon?

this is gangsta musik if u can't hang u a herb imo

poor kim carnes :'(

If you watch the Carnes-Lewis-Lauper clip when they all sing STAND TOGETHER AS ONE it's pretty obvious that Cyndi and Huey fulfilled their silent vow to outsing and outbody Carnes.

carnes would've won if this poll was for foxiest watw singers. maybe. daryl hall could win too.

Daryl Hall's mullet was as hot as it was gonna be.

daryl hall could have had white dude dreads and goatee and he'd still be "the hot one" though

http://www.americanmustacheinstitute.org/images/oates_stache.jpg

Always a bridesmaid...

http://www.tampabay.com/multimedia/archive/00108/world_108120c.jpg

What's Daryl scowling at?

the popularity of sweaters in the 80s

"How did 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' outsell 'Out of Touch?'"

maybe if Hall and Oates had gotten themselves featured on The Cosby Show

they could have tried to molest cockroach ala that very special diff'rent strokes

oates already has the mustache after all

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5p8vyWGrkO0/Rpe1aR1VuXI/AAAAAAAAAxA/T1d6FqNP4bw/s400/cosby-show2.jpg

Cliff and Claire are not having this.

"I'm out of touch and I need a refill"

Cockroach is incapable of being molsested :(

its so sad he was a cockroach

buried by Tony Montana iirc

Omg me and homie just had this convo irl

James Ingram going WE ARE THE WORLD
Ray Charles going YESSIR

Kim Carnes wuz robbed! You show me a more emotional "when we" in pop music history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IATz8ZVTALo

that 'Making Of' VHS mentioned upthread is here by the way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SGFcYLO0jg

Dylan looks hilariously uncomfortable throughout.

No problem with the results on this, except for Springsteen getting any votes whatsoever - he's so bad! He sounds like a parody act of Bruce Springsteen, and looks like Belushi doing Joe Cocker. And they keep cutting back to him! Whereas, like, Paul Simon's part is actually kind of convincing...undermined only by Kenny Rogers's bizarre facial expressions while they're overlapping each other.

Daryl Hall is the most disappointing - anybody could have done that - and Billy Joel is the most surprisingly okay, and I say that as a fan of his. Huey Lewis also sounding way better than I'd have expected, though yeah, uh, a little OTT. Ingram probably most underrated in the results here. Sort of by the numbers, but sounds great.

These things are such great windows into how, briefly, it can seem like Kim Carnes (who does nothing for this) is a bigger, more bankable charity-driving star than Bette Midler, Harry Belafonte, or Smokey fucking Robinson.

Would be into animated gifs of each performer's "greatest" moments. Just saying.

Carnes (and Kenny Rogers) were clients of co-pseudo-organizer/agent Ken Kragen, hence their presence.

Ha, there you go then!

Kim Carnes (who does nothing for this) is a bigger, more bankable

for years I've wanted to write about Carnes' post-"Bette Davis Eyes" career. She didn't even have a ride-along second top ten -- she collapsed, completely, not even visiting the top twenty again until 1985, no doubt greased by payola.

apparently moroder had a road to damascus moment over 'bette davis eyes'

epitomizes El Lay New Wave though

wonder if there's enough good stuff to make an el lay synth pop playlist - 'bette davis eyes', 'stand back', 'boys of summer'. there's probably some dave stewart stuff i'm forgetting though that's cheating kinda.

Motels!

At this point, I'm more likely to think of Kim Carnes via Tori Amos's "clone myself like that blonde chick who sings / Bette Davis Eyes," than via "Bette Davis Eyes" itself.

This thread title makes me thing it would be tight if world poverty had its own comeback diss track

My user name agrees with the Kim Carnes bashing.
Please continue.

Just watched the video for the first time in 20 years. Amazing how Cyndi Lauper's "oww wow ow ow" just defines the whole song. The only solo I could remember.

For the record, I prefer Canada's b-side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJN3u1wAWIk

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/01/27/we-are-the-world-30th-anniversary/22395455/

My favorite thing about this is from Huey Lewis on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me:

SALIE: I have to ask you about something that I loved when I was a teenager, "We are the World."

LEWIS: Right.

SALIE: Can you talk about that day? I mean were you really like - were you guys standing at craft services with, you know, like Bruce Springsteen is on your right and Diana Ross is on your left.

LEWIS: Exactly.

SALIE: What was it like?

LEWIS: It was amazing. It was amazing. I mean, I'm talking to Willie Nelson about golf and Bob Dylan over here says are you guys talking about golf?

He said yeah. And Willie said, yeah, we put the clubs on the bus. And Bob says, man, that's outrageous. He says that's outrageous. I said no, Bob, "Nashville Skyline" was outrageous. This is just golf.

SALIE: In that room, were there like cool kids and not cool kids?

LEWIS: No, but Paul Simon said - it's probably not nice to say. I don't know. Paul Simon said if a bomb drops on this place, John Denver is back on top.

lol

i legit enjoy this record, and feel a strong need to listen/watch from time to time

the more i do so, the more i appreciate michael jackson's solo chorus

Bruce really does bomb this, doesn't he? Kenny Loggins sounds great by comparison.

Michael Jackson	0

Wait, what?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_tZUg8onNg

How in the ever loving fuck did Ray Charles not walk this?????

He etc

idk if this is a poll u wanna "win" necessarily

"we are the world" is something that sounds like a generic anthem until you realize how profoundly fucking weird it is

i think i must have heard it a hundred times before the bizarreness of the line "as god has shown us, by turning stones to bread" finally sunk in

also

"when you're down and out, and there seems no hope at all/BUT IF YOU JUST BELIEVE, THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN FALL"

which, in the context of what the song is meant to be about and who it's meant to be addressing, is just incredibly funny and insane

clap your hands if you believe you're not starving!

I like Greil Marcus' response "When you're done and out" ("The Ethiopians are 'down and out'?").

what does it mean to body a verse?

“If you just believe, there’s no way we can fall.” Yep, that’s all it takes to end famine in Ethiopia, just believing.

In one of the "making of" videos IIRC, there's a moment with A. Jarreau recording his part and he's so not ale to follow the rhythm you have to wonder how that's possible for a "professional" singer (especially after such a long career) !

He was a jazz guy, it was him being avant garde

I like Greil Marcus' response "When you're done and out" ("The Ethiopians are 'down and out'?").

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, December 16, 2019 4:52 AM (two days ago)

marcus also pointed out how weird it is that a song written by two guys who'd done pepsi commercials centers on the line "there's a choice we're making," which sounds like an unconscious echo of pepsi's then-current slogan "the choice of a new generation"

xpost

killed their verse in outdated rap slang

It's time: Who Bodied Their Verse On "Tears Are Not Enough"??