In My Other World: 2010

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Boomtown Rats - Up All Night, Ultravox - Vienna, Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas Time 1984

Bert......

Evan....

Brooke....did I really have a choice after those two posts????

In case you don't get the connection....Bob Geldof was in Boomtown Rats, Midge Ure was in Ultravox and they both created Band Aid. There were two more versions of Do They Know It's Christmas Time, Band Aid II - 1989 & Band Aid 20 - 2004, but this one is by far the best. Midge Ure said that "Every generation should have it's own version", I don't agree. Morrissey didn't think there should have been a song at all - "I'm not afraid to say that I think Band Aid was diabolical. Or to say that I think Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Many people find that very unsettling, but I'll say it as loud as anyone wants me to. In the first instance the record itself was absolutely tuneless. One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England. It was an awful record considering the mass of talent involved. And it wasn't done shyly - it was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music. The whole implication was to save these people in Ethiopia, but who were they asking to save them? Some 13-year-old girl in Wigan! People like Thatcher and the royals could solve the Ethiopian problem within ten seconds. But Band Aid shied away from saying that — for heaven's sake, it was almost directly aimed at unemployed people." Oh, Morrissey, "why won't you change and be nice?".