For the third time, Bono, Geldof, & co. have re-recorded the perennial Christmas charity song, and as usual it features a who’s-who of British pop stars, including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Passenger, Sinead O’Connor, Sam Smith, Chris Martin, and others.
This time, however, they’ve made some changes. Whereas the original and the prior two re-recordings were about famine, this version is specifically about the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, and the lyrics have been rewritten accordingly.
I have to say, I like this version a lot better than the original. While well-intentioned, it always came off as parochial and hyperbolic to me, describing Africa as a land “where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow” as if it were Mordor rather than an actual place that existed and had people who would know it was Christmastime. This version… works in a way that the previous ones didn’t, IMO - it does a better job of describing the plight of the people caught in the outbreak as something that’s real rather than something overblown and hypothetical, and they ditched that one atrocious line (you know the one) that just plain seemed to imply that the listener should be happy that the death and despair was happening to someone else.
The original could be forgiven because 80s. Just about everything in the 80s screams self-parody. But we’re supposedly a lot more PC and self-aware than we were back then. We should know better.
Honestly doesn’t bother me. Y’all made it sound worse. It just reads like “we want to do something sappy in light of Ebola in Africa.” And Christmas is the time for sappy.
The new lyrics suck as music, but I do think they largely eliminate the cultural ignorance aspect that made the original cringeworthy.
This is more against the original and, well, everyone I’ve heard about the whole Ebola thing. “Don’t let anyone who went to Africa back in the country!” “Those poor Africans and Ebola.” etc, etc.
I don’t see what the problem was with the original lyrics, people just feel the need to be outraged. The original was concerned with drought and famine in a particular region, to which the lack of rain, rivers and snow definitely was a problem.
Unfortunately “Ethiopa” has five syllables and doesn’t scan as well hence the default to “Africa”
And the complaint over “thank god it’s them instead of you” just seems bizarre. Is it not clear that the song is telling you consider how lucky you are? “there but for the grace of god” etc?
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean “phew! that was close”
Thing is, if you run the lyrics of any song through a PC committee you end up with this current bullshit. Anodyne, tedious crap re-hashed and milked for all it is worth by bullying Bob and his band of publicity hungry whores.
I just looked at Band Aid (1984), Band Aid II (1989), Band Aid 20 (2004), and Band Aid 30.
I knew 8/11 and 7/14 from the first two*. For the other two, I could pick out three by sight, although after looking up the names, most were names I had at least heard of.
I don’t think that stupid-ass rap in the 2004 version made it any better.
I had to look up the lyrics to the 2014 version to see what Sinead was saying.
Paloma Faith (also 2014) just had something weird looking about her demeanor for her one line.
Regardless of the negative points about the song/video, I actually enjoyed them, with 1989 being my personal favorite.
*Rough numbers for the denominator, since it’s hard to keep track.
And this time around it’s about Ebola, which is affecting countries (e.g. Liberia) that are overwhelmingly Christian, and others (e.g Sierra Leone, Nigeria) that have significant Christian populations. So, less clueless and misplaced at least. Small steps.
Well, considering that Ethiopia has been largely Christian since, oh the 1st century or so, I’m pretty sure they had that “Christmas” thing down. Except, of course, they use a different calendar and Christmas falls in early January.
When talking about real places and real people, it’s only polite to try to stay somewhat grounded in reality rather than projecting whatever bizarre ideas you might have on them.
Oh man, there’s no comparison. “We Are The World” is one of the most horrid songs ever to be a huge hit. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a delightful slice of catchy, anthemic 80s pop that we are trying to redeem for the 21st century through rewriting and apologetics.
True. But they still had Bono come back to deliver the “corrected” line this time around, of course.
Like it was mentioned by monstro, the 80s original gets a pass because it matches the age. I sort of grew endeared to it back then. This is a quite good remake though still, a remake. And yes, Og help us, at least it’s not “We Are The World”. (Sorry, Quince, MJ, Lionel, was that really the best you could do? Oh, I see. * Lionel* during his Sappy period. Never mind.)
And Earl wasn’t the only one initially confused by Sinead’s delivery, but with a few repetitions her performance grows on you. And may I say when you have Sinead and Emeli Sandé and Seal and Bono in the supergroup, OneDirection end up looking like Weenies’R’Us.
