REALLY. God looked at the calendar and said “Shit, it’s already 25 years since the last time these washed up jack-offs made a noise so they could feel better about being rich, I better find them another reason to celebrate!.. er commiserate!”
Boom, earthquake, hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted or ended, and now Quincy and the gang can re-make their feel-good sonic tripe.
At least now we know why.
Fuck you, Quincy Jones, and your merry bandwaggoning sympathizing shitheads. Fuck you for many reasons, but mostly fuck you for organizing Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and Miley FUCKING Cyrus to be recorded together.
Also, I didn’t realize that the world needed a cover of “Everybody Hurts” starring Cheryl Cole and Susan Boyle. (Obvious Joke: I’m sure everybody does NOW.)
Quincy Jones is a man of many fine qualities, no argument, but suggesting that God caused the earthquake in Haiti just so that a bunch of overproduced musical popinjays could preen and strut and self-promote indicates that humility and a sense of any perspective are not among them.
“We are the World” was cheesy, cringe-inducing, glurge on par with the brady-bunch variety hour 25 years ago. I’m sure it will be the same this time around.
If they raise money for the suffering people of Haiti who cares?
I don’t care if they raise Michael Jackson from the grave, get Michael Vick to sing the chorus and Woody Allen to produce the video, as long at the money raised eases a little suffering.
Do you honestly think the people of Haiti care about what QJ says or thinks?
Eh. Obviously Quincy Jones has plenty of musical achievements to speak for him, from his jazz years (his cover of “Summer in the city” is one of my all-time favorite songs) to his Michael Jackson productions of the 80’s, which of course made an immeasurable impact.
But yes. The quote in the OP is undeniably tasteless. It’s like the disaster in Haiti was to support WATW and not the other way around!
I thought the thread was about cloning. Quincy had perfected it and could now actually go fuck himself.
I can not wait to see how the religious will deal with that possibility some day in the future.
Do you really think Jones meant that God created the earthquake just so he could record a remake of We Are The World?
Most people who believe in God don’t blame him for the atrocities that occur in life, but rather thank him for providing ways to them to get through it.
It’s pretty clear to me that Jones meant that since the earthquake occurred anyway, it couldn’t be a better time to get musicians and celebrities together to assist in a We Are The World remake to help the survivors. He was probably thinking in terms of how its being the 25th anniversary of the original would make it easier to get celebrities on board to help raise money and/or to get the public to donate more generously.
To me, his “It’s God” remark spoke to a belief that God was aligning the stars to make the relief effort even more effective.
Then what does “25 years” have to do with it? What does he mean by “perfect timing?”
I’m not going to get all upset about one more self-absorbed idiot thinking that God arranges the cosmos around his personal agenda. It’s stupid, but it’s harmless. It’s a non-starter to pretend that’s not what he was saying, though.
I have to agree with this. The alternate interpretation is really to awful to consider. His phrasing may have been awkward, but there is no way he believes that the tragedy in Haiti was God’s way of setting up a recording session.
I think the original quote is in pretty bad taste, but I think it’s clearly a case of poor choice of language and syntax. Starving Artist has the correct interpretation.
This.
Yes, this new WATW (and the old one) is clearly about marketing, hype, and commercialism. News flash: that is the best way in a capitalist system to raise money. It works for private business, and it clearly works for charity as well.
If putting Miley Cirus and Kanye West on an album together in a remake of We Are The World is going to bring in millions of dollars for Haiti, then how can it be a bad thing? It’s not art, it’s marketing, for a good cause.
I think people are just pissed off that the fundraising effort is revealed to be what it almost always turns out to be: a marketing campaign.
I suggest that before everyone pillory QJ for something stupid he said to the press, recall the thread in which it was discussed how the press nearly always misquotes nearly everyone.
After reading that thread, I’d almost bet that QJ said nothing of the sort.
Not sure if you’re being serious but that’s what I was wondering. Was the remake already planned? If not, then clunky phrasing aside, I think that would make QJ’s good intentions clear. Even if the remake was already under way, I definitely interpret the quote as "thank goodness this horrible event coincided with this huge project that has the potential to make some money for the relief effort ". Okay, I didn’t phrase that any better but a few people upthread expressed it quite nicely.