defend the indefensible: "we are the world"

I forgot I had this, but I listened to a We Are the World compilation I burned many years ago, and besides the many iterations of the UK equivalent, "Do They Know It's Christmas?," there's also the CANADIAN equivalent with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, a French one with Gérard Depardieu somewhere in the mix, and the Spanish-language "Cantaré, cantarás" with Placido Domingo, Miami Sound Machine, Julio Iglesias, Cheech Marin and Apollonia among many others. All on YouTube.

oh man:

Geldof argued that it sounded too close to an African language and that it might be considered mocking, so Stevie Wonder called a Nigerian friend to get a phrase in Swahili that would be appropriate for the song. The phrase was “willi moing-gu”, which didn’t go down well with some of the cast. “Say what!” yelled Ray Charles, “Willi what! Willi moing-gu, my ass! It’s three o’clock in the goddamn mornin’ – I can’t even sing in English no more.” Geldof pointed out that Ethiopians don’t speak Swahili and Waylon Jennings left the sessions claiming “no good old boy sings in Swahili”. When everyone voted to settle on a new line, “one world, our children”, an exhausted Tina Turner muttered, “I like sha-lum better, who cares what it means?”

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/we-are-the-world-usa-for-africa-charity-michael-jackson-and-lionel-ricjie-a9374791.html

“no good old boy sings in Swahili”.

"Some day the mountain might get 'em, but the Swahili never will..."

I'm sad there wasn't a reboot in, say, 1996. Imagine an over-emoting Billy Corgan passing the verse along to an overer-emoting Ed Kowalczyk!

there's no way Ed w0uldn't have been kicked out of the session

Ha! Ed trying to add "MORE WINE!!" to the song might have led him to some early drama he could not sell

somehow no recollection of this vid is possible in my brain without seeing donald trump pretending to sing in that line-up in a terrible vhs capture. i don't know why, it just feels true.

Still an insufferable bag of pungent crap, this song.

Really enjoyed watching this, even though I had seen most of the footage before. The clothes & '80s LA vibes are worth it alone.

Ultimate nightmare audio engineer scenario when it's 4am and there's some weird monitoring issue and Dionne Warwick is mad at you, not mention you need to physically rewind the tape in between every take.

The related bit with Cyndi and all her accessories really made me sweat...

need a similar doc for the 2001 "What's Goin On" with Fred Durst rapping about suicide bombers

Is it as good as this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHT8V5OIkl4

"What's Goin On" with Fred Durst rapping about suicide bombers"

why u tryna ruin universe with this "information" time to die

Ultimate nightmare audio engineer scenario when it's 4am and there's some weird monitoring issue and Dionne Warwick is mad at you

Ok it was probably 4 am when I watched this and correct me if I'm wrong, but was it Dan Akroyd's reverb return in her headphone mix?? Please, let that be true.

Waylon Jennings once again raising the question, "Why not Waylon?"

hearing Huey Lewis stumbling through the solo he'd just been given to see if it was in his range was pretty cool.

the harmony frustration was also funny because unless you have perfect pitch, it's hard to just do on the spot (someone shoulda plunked out some notes on the piano).

documentary left out the bit where supposedly Cyndi had a manager go into the booth and say "the rockers don't like the song" to try to stir up trouble. I don't think Quincy remembers her contributions very fondly

Enjoyed this in a Spinal Tap kind of way, which is perhaps not what the filmmakers intended. The hubris, false humility, and complete lack of self awareness of the pop stars of this era really is an astonishing thing to behold

Do you mean *now* or then (the archive footage), or both?

I think I watched half of it. "Quincy Jones is a genius, one of the most respected musicians, producers and arrangers of all time!" (Quincy immediately signs off on this POS song.)

The doc does represent some sort of empty victory. Yes, it is very hard to wrangle a roomful of cats, but in the end, simply wrangling said cats shouldn't be the lasting achievement. It's very much akin to SNL's original sin. "Sure, we would be better if we had more time, but look what we cranked out in less than a week!"

I do appreciate top-of-the-world Lionel Ritchie as referee, shooting down the stupidest of bad ideas from people not used to be being told "no."

I'm not sure how anyone could write a song intended for these singers and about feeding the hungry that wouldn't come out like "We Are the World."

There's not much arguing in the British Band Aid docu footage, but i suppose you can argue that they hadn't been up all night*, as it was recorded on a Sunday morning.

*except Status Quo obvs.

xpost It's kind of a cart before the horse situation, because yeah, writing a good song for 50 famous singers is an insurmountable challenge. Of course, other tribute songs that had more time and just as many voices didn't necessarily fair better, as we have discussed on ILX. That Spirit of the Forest song, Sun City, the all Canadian one ...

simply wrangling said cats shouldn't be the lasting achievement

I guess the song did raise a significant amount of money, right? Anyway it’s obv not the greatest song, but I don’t think the doc was insisting that it is… it’s just fascinating to see the cats being wrangled, I took that as the main point.

It made a lot of money for sure, though it's hard to get a good accounting for exactly how much was made and how it was spent.

It is some kind of achievement to devise a canvas for all these people at once, most of whom would probably have come up with a better song on their own but none of whom likely could have come up with something like "We Are the World" (for better or for worse) with 50 collaborators in so short a span.

Right, it’s a “functional” song, I don’t think anyone put it on just to enjoy it… the goal was something they could all sing and that would sound “good” and serve its purpose.

Springsteen said something very similar in the doc, sorta gently equivocating about how the "aesthetic" of the song is almost beside the point

It could be like Voices That Care, gooey faux-Gospel pro war bullshit

Still kinda agitated that some aging punks didn't release their own response "Voices That Don't Give a Shit"

We are the World vs Dear Mr Jesus

Some non-aging punks in the form of FNM did come up with "We Care a Lot" as a response though!

And I love them forever for it

It could be like Voices That Care, gooey faux-Gospel pro war bullshit

Except better

I love how Mystery Train jokingly refers to "Voices That Care" as "We Are The War."

(And surprised that Meryl Streep and Sissy Spacek were in the chorus.)

Really liked the doc, but can anyone tell me why Dan Aykroyd was there to begin with? Was Blues Brothers that big to warrant his presence with the rest of these legends? And wtf, how have I been misspelling this dude's name for 30 years

This was less than a year after Ghostbusters (at the time the-highest-grossing comedy ever) so that would explain it.

Here’s what he said in 2009 (it doesn’t make much sense):

Speaking of iconic images, you were in the ensemble for the Live Aid, "We Are the World video." How did you snag that gig?

Totally by accident. My father and I were interviewing business managers in LA and we walked into this office of a talent manager, and realized we were in the wrong place. I was looking for a money manager, not a talent manager. I had managed myself at that time and always have. But he said, so long as you are here, would you like to come and join this "We are the World" thing.

I thought how do I fit in here? Well, we did sell a few million records with the Blues Brothers and in my other persona I am a musician, so I showed up and was a part of it but it was totally by accident.

I bet he (and a few others there) fit in more than a few lines.

Snarf.

The person who was there who I was looking for in the doc but didn't immediately see, and was kinda wondering if they would get as a talking head but didn't? Garry Trudeau. Really. Remember seeing news about it at the time (and he coordinated a comics-related effort later in the year), and per this thread, a run of strips resulted some time after the session:

1. Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau was allowed to witness the "We Are the World" recording sessions that produced the 1985 megahit to aid famine relief in Africa. Producer Quincy Jones corralled 45 pop stars into the studio, insisting everyone check their egos at the door.

— Mark Stryker (@Mark_Stryker) June 13, 2021

And in case you're wondering if this is some weird urban legend, nope -- from a Chicago Tribune story in March 1985.

Although most of the musicians` guests watched the proceedings via a live video feed to A&M`s Chaplin Stage next door, there was one nonmusician in the recording studio. ”Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau spent the night in the studio watching and sketching, with the result being two weeks of USA for Africa-related ”Doonesbury” cartoons.

we still need a 10-episode expose into this thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un3TmvzoVYM

The Milli Vanilli guy was clearly lip-syncing.

That one had a Chumbawumba parody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRG2s9GC_E

I realize these clips were available for years, and also were only shown in a truncated form in the latest documentary, but ever since watching it I can't get Bob Dylan's goofy rendition of "it's a choice we're making, we're saving our own lies, it's true we'll make a better day, just you and me".

it just sounds Randy Newman singing it and getting punched while he farted

*lives

lol that was my generation's introduction to Bob Dylan

woulda been for me if my dad didn't routinely walk around the house singing "Like a Rolling Stone" and overemphasizing the "DIDN'T YEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW".

As bad as it was, Dylan would hit lower lows as the decade wore on. I can't imagine anyone turning into a Dylan fan back then based on his "new" work.

*raises hand* a friend who heard "Tight Connection to My Heart" was moved to hear the back catalog

that "Let it Be" upthread is like a cluster bomb of wtf

xp That's not a bad track - had they dropped a couple of the worst songs and reinstated "New Danville Girl," that would've been a pretty good album IMHO. Also forgot the Traveling Wilburys, that's a fun album. But Knocked Out Loaded, the Hearts of Fire movie, nearly all of Down in the Groove and the live stuff with the Grateful Dead are pretty awful.