It was 23 years ago today that the artists of USA For Africa came together as one to record their debut smash single, We Are The World. The song would spend four weeks at the top of the charts, sell 7.5 million copies, and win four Grammy awards, not to mention its key role in helping move 3 million copies of USA For Africa’s self-titled debut album. As a footnote of mildly passing interest, over $63 million was raised for famine relief, and no one ever went hungry in Africa again.
Though the promise of many amazing future projects was tantalizing at the time, we now know that We Are The World would be USA For Africa’s only album with its original lineup. Was the group afraid of being unable to replicate its success? Was it simply difficult to find studio space for all 45 members of the band? Or was it a clash of egos and ideas about the band’s future musical direction?
With so many talented artists making up the roster of USA For Africa and so much at stake, some members of the band may have attempted to outdo their bandmates. And so I ask you to consider, watching the performance today and putting aside any past or future success of the members: among the 45 musicians jockeying to be the one who most ended famine by standing around in a semi-circle, wearing headphones and singing intensely, Who won We Are The World?
Some factors you may wish to consider: Vocal performance, Look, dignity (and consider whether attempting to maintain dignity was a positive or negative factor towards winning), band interaction, general showmanship, facial expressions and facial hair.
Optional bonus essay/rock fanfiction (500 words or more):
Ostensibly there as a representative from The Movie Industry, Dan Aykroyd’s presence in the video for We Are The World has long been a source of puzzlement. Describe, in as much detail as needed, the series of events that led to Aykroyd’s participation in the USA For Africa* project.**
*Aykroyd is notably Canadian, and keep in mind that the “USA” in USA For Africa stands for “United Support of Artists” and not “United States of America.”
**Please note that all essay entries will become the property of this Townsperson and are, by nature of posting in this thread, subject to use as material in the upcoming motion picture Untitled Dan Aykroyd Project, which chronicles the 24 hours leading up to the recording of We Are The World.
Alexmagic, thanks for marking this historic day! I plan on giving this a proper review and analysis once this busy day slows down. I’d forgotten all about Aykroyd’s short-lived “Hoboken Look.” What’d he come from, a night on the town with Matthew Sweet and Lloyd Cole?
Based on cursory review of the video and song, I say Steve Perry won the day, and defeated the Ethiopian famine, through sheer lung power. He probably saved a few lives in South Detroit while he was at it.
What’s with Billy Joel’s beard? Did he think it made him look like Stallone in Nighthawkes?
I also say this is Springsteen in full self-parody mode. It makes Human Touch look like Born to Run in comparison.
It may help Townspersons to know that Phillip Seymour Hoffman is currently slated to play Aykroyd in Untitled Dan Aykroyd Project.
A banner day for hilarity in the Hall. Funny stuff, Alex! I will ponder your probing questions and opine further later. For now… well done!
Oats, your Nighthawks reference may blow Andyr’s earlier contender for Post of the Day out of the water. There’s always a danger in awarding POTD too soon. We have at least 2 worthy nominees to consider so far.
Per my initial viewing, I was impressed by Huey Lewis’ gesticulations. The Kennys – Loggins and Rodgers – also helped quell my late-afternoon hunger following a very small lunch.
I’m not going to choose a winner so soon, though. This requires further contemplation.
So this is how RTH ends, in the nuclear winter of We Are The World?!?! Who would have thought it? All the worthwhile threads of the last year, of the years prior in RTH v1, that could have brought about Rock Town Armageddon, the 14 best top 3 Costello albums, ZZ Top vs. Thorogood, 1981 (?) – the year rock ended, the EP that could have been Exile, Psychic Oblivion, and yet this is it…
For surely, nothing can come after this, nothing need come after this. This video has enough Rock Crimes to carry RTH discussion for another decade at least.
Please, I beg you, let no one start a last man standing of Rock Crimes here, lest we all be standing, leaning against one another for months on end, like an MTV version of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
I’m glad that the knee-jerk reaction to just hand it to The Boss has been avoided so far, though I’d be happy to hear arguments in his favor. Not only do I think he was potentially engaging in parody, I think he has to lose some points for the head-to-head battle with Stevie Wonder. Going to the editing room afterwards and making sure your head was four times the size as the blind guy’s during the splitscreen is pretty low.
Some additional questions to mull over: did it help or hurt to wear the official band sweatshirt? Does Loggins get any points for his one-handed headphone technique or the little pirouette out of frame when he hands the spotlight over to his pal Steve Perry? What is Steve Perry wearing? Is band co-founder Harry Belafonte bringin’ it so hard by the end to make up for how much Lindsey Buckingham is phoning it in?
Good question about the band sweatshirt. Isn’t it a faux pas to wear one’s own band t-shirt on stage? At least that’s what I’ve been told when I’ve done that. In my notes I’ve been meaning to check whether Diana Ross initially wore the sweatshirt, or whether, as I thought I noticed, she changed into it following her solo turn, for her wide-angle choral shots.
One of the things I mean to key in on further is the way the singers back off the mic. I noticed that some are more gracious than others when backing off. I feel less hungry when the singer does a classy back-off move. I would think The Children felt equally satiated.
I think the true winners are the ones who left with a measure of dignity intact. Those would be Dylan, Ray Charles and anyone else I may have overlooked who clearly recorded his or her parts separately.
As for the rest, they all clearly THINK they won. Why stomp on them?
I had forgotten what a thoroughly offensive song this is. “Thank” “you.”
By the way, what’s with the poll shenanigans? You’re trying to split the Ray Charles vote! What’s next, Diebold voting machines?!? Don’t make me get all Jimmy Carter on your ass!
I’m not splitting the Ray Charles vote! Somebody didn’t take the time to read all the options they’d been given. I’m going to delete the extraneous Ray Charles entry.
My wife thinks it Springsteen and I was leaning that way but his glancing at the lyrics at the end ruined it for me. So for that reason, I’m going with the master, Ray Charles – he’s a spark plug for the others
Now, does the winner get to go against the winner of a “Do they know it’s christmas” challenge?
Oh, another plus for Ray Charles, those glasses are excellent
Is a sweatshirt in rock ever cool? Especially on stage? A sweatshirt is shorthand for being comfy and cozy around the house, for someone who likes sports (participation in sports optional), for eating a tub of ice cream in front of the TV, MAYBE for shooting a few hoops in the park. I guess there are sweatshirt sightings in Hip Hop, but that’s a whole different set of connotations, right? And no, sports jerseys are a different thing all together.
So Ray Charles gets the nod because he’s not glancing at the lyrics, Andyr? Come on, man!
Tvox, I’ve got a Stones book with an early shot of Jagger in what looks like a grey sweatshirt. HE makes it work. Possibly for this reason alone, Young Jagger is rock’s greatest frontman – or among the contenders for that title.
Mr. Mod, I’ll give you that brief window in 1965 when rockers sort of made sweatshirts work. Eric Burdon’s good guys sweatshirt (in yellow, no less), Keith Moon’s target, and the Jagger T in that Get Off of My Cloud TV appearance. It could be called a Mod fashion. But I think part of that was that these guys were, what, 19? 20? 21? They still look like adolescents. Put Paul Simon or Lionel Ritchie in a We Are the World sweatshirt one and look out.
You’re right, Tvox. Sweatshirts have never worked outside that brief window. Care to write up a Rock’s Questionable Fashion Choices post on this subject in the coming weeks? Rock could use the reminder. If so, contact me offlist and I can set you up in The Back Office. Thanks!
There are so many noteworthy moments in this fine video:
– Paul Simon fearfully backing away from Kenny Rogers, after smelling the huge fart Kenny cut just before stepping up to the mic
– The creepy juxtaposition of Michael Jackson and his doppelganger Diana Ross
– My feelings of unsurpressed rage and/or revulsion when Cyndi Lauper does her “thing”
– Willie Nelson, undoubtedly stoned out of his mind, flubbing his harmony vocals, then winning the “GOD, but this lame-ass song sucks!” expression prize
… and many more. Now for a few — just a few — highlights:
– Yes, Dylan.
– Ray Charles.
… and the winner of the shootout, the person whose contributions probably saved the greatest number of African lives:
– Darryl Hall. Come on, Mod! He’s like the only dude who actually makes that corn-studded, fly-blown turd of a melody listenable. Darryl Hall rocks!
I remember everyone in my family having our minds blown by Jagger wearing the sweatshirt on Ed Sullivan whenever it was.
Which is undoubtedly Bono. Whatever one might think of him, he pretty much curbstomped the rest of Band-Aid with his famous line, a lopsided beating on the order of Tyson-Spinks.
I agree with everybody on the sweatshirt question. Putting that thing on for the video was a fool’s play. Geldof or Quincy Jones probably showed up with a box of them that morning. The only way to win in one of those is if everybody else is wearing them, or if you’re the only one wearing it, going for irony. Which hadn’t been invented yet. In fairness to Kenny Rogers, though, the USA For Africa sweat might have been the nicest shirt he owned in the 80s.
I’m not willing to give Dylan the win. I think holding back – and as a result, depriving some hungry children of vital nourishment – was a sign of weakness here, and I bet this recording session was the exact moment that Springsteen looked over and thought “I’m comin’ for you, old man!”
While I continue to review footage and consider my choice for winner – I’m liking the cases made for Ray Charles – I’d like to suggest that the biggest loser, in a relative sense, was Lionel Ritchie. He co-founded the band and co-wrote the song, and his attitude is clearly that of a guy who thinks he’s got this thing all wrapped up. He gives himself the opening, and check out the huge thumbs up he throws out at the end.
But just like he lured in McCartney, Michael Jackson was laying a trap for Lionel. Lets him have the opening line, but then gives himself the huge pan-up entrance in the video and takes the introduction of both the chorus and the bridge. Prince was wise not to show up, he knew Michael was setting his rivals up to fail.
I suspect this is what the person who voted for Jackson in the poll was thinking, but I would like to hear further thoughts on the subject.
OK, now I’ve got some time to dig in!
I’m first struck by Paul Simon’s backing away from Kenny Rodgers’ linebacker-sized shoulders. I know Paul’s a small man, but I had no idea how large Kenny is. Points off for the sweatshirt, but note the caring look Kenny gives the next set of singers when his turn is up. Class act!
I’d love to have seen the contract that specified that the film crew had to begin shooting Michael Jackson from the socks up. They should have fed him to the starving children. Was this exactly the point when Michael Jackson jumped the shark?
Yes, as I suspected, Diana Ross changed into the sweatshirt for a chorus. No sweatshirt during her opening couplet.
Dionne really goes for it on her couplet, but she doesn’t make enough eye contact to help the hungry.
More in a bit…
OK.
I think we’d all agree there’s not enough Al Jarreau. Good god, the lives another vibrattoed couplet might have saved!
Springsteen should also have been fed to the starving nations for his overblown opening couplet.
Hrrundi, you’re right about one thing: Hall sings the hell out of his lines. It’s like he’s auditioning for a Dr. Pepper commercial.
I’m telling you, my early contender each time I watch this is Huey Lewis. His thumb=pointing fist gesture predates Bill Clinton’s use by a few years, right? VERY SINCERE. I also like the way Lewis studies the lyrics after Lauper and Kim Carnes step up to the mic. You’d think Lewis was formulating a strategy for ending world hunger. Cyndi Lauper badly needs to get laid, don’t you think?
In the Mega-Chorus, add Al Jarreau to the list of participants who made a quick stop to the Merchandise Table.
Has it been confirmed that that’s Dylan? What brought him out, Willie’s stash? Was Mark Knopfler kicking around in the background, trying to set up a collaboration between him and Tina Tunrer?
How pissed do you think Art Garfunkle was that Oates got to sing on the chorus but not him?
I never saw the movie Ray. Please tell me there’s a scene in which Jamie Foxx re-creates this scene with Ray Charles. You know, I’m not buying any of these dudes who didn’t actually appear in the big crowd scenes in the studio: Ray, Michael Jackson… How can I be sure they checked their egos at the door?
Stevie Wonder has a real gift for singing soda pop jingles like his life depends on it. He’s a notch better than Darryl Hall, I think. Too bad The Boss practically bites Stevie’s head off.
Lindsey Buckingham couldn’t look like more of a tool in his brief chorus shot. I can’t believe some of you like those solo albums he’s put out. We need to talk about this some other day.
OK, I’m going to have to go with my gut: I say Huey Lewis wins “We Are the World”!
I voted for Micheal Jackson, and it was based on nothing. I was just bein a jerkoff.
when that many rockstars get together in 1 place, no one wins.