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Netflix’s new documentary about the making of ‘We Are the World’ will be hard to resist for many.
Photo: Netflix
Gen X nostalgia is a powerful drug. We grew up in an era of rampant mass media, but before the internet recorded every moment of our childhoods. Therefore, the signposts of our lives are well documented but never present. They need to be actively mined from time to time. For example, I vividly remember the rather surreal 1985 American Music Awards, hosted by Lionel Richie, who also swept the categories. I remember him yelling, “Out la jejas!” After his victory. I don’t know why, but this is a formative memory for me. Every once in a while, I run into someone who also witnessed this show as a child, and there’s an instant bond between us.
So what I learned from watching Netflix’s new documentary came as quite a shock. great night of pop The same night after hosting and winning the AMAs, Richie went straight to a music studio in Los Angeles and joined dozens of pop stars to record “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson. It is said that he did. I had written earlier that week.. Two Gen-X milestones collide. “We Are the World” is probably the only song that I can immediately remember all the lyrics to. Not because I like the song, but because I was made to sing those lyrics over and over again in my sixth grade music class. It was burned into my mind.
It’s probably undiplomatic for Bao Nguyen’s documentary to start criticizing “We Are the World” as an actual musical work. The song was never intended to be great art, but rather a charity single to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, part of a mainstream activism effort by some of the most famous people on the planet. Just a few months earlier, Bob Geldof had convened a who’s who of British and Irish pop stars to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” It’s for the same purpose. “We have white people saving black people,” Ritchie remembers Harry Belafonte saying. “There are no black people to save a black man.” And dozens of the known world’s biggest musical stars (and Dan Aykroyd, who apparently just happened to be there) to record “We Are the World” We gathered.
The single was a huge hit and generated a huge amount of money for the designated cause. The song itself contains artistic evidence of its creation, and most importantly, the film gets to the heart of how “We Are the World” was arranged. Bruce Springsteen has stated that the song had to be broad in order to convey all these voices. I was later told that even though the soloists on this song only sang a small portion of the verse (basically a few words), each had to sing it in their own way. “Your style, your key in half a line.” Producer Quincy Jones’ friend and collaborator Tom Baylor arranged the vocals to contrast each other, following Springsteen’s raspy voice. Kenny Loggins’ higher, cleaner voice followed, followed by Tina Turner’s lower, warmer voice and Steve Perry’s operatic growl. This makes for a very strange listening experience, but that’s also part of the song’s novelty act. Those of us who owned his LPs of almost all of these singers had a grand old time identifying their voices.
Richie (who co-produced) tried to come up with the song while sitting in Michael Jackson’s house, constantly distracted by the pop superstar’s herd of animals, including Jackson’s pet boa constrictor Muscles. As you may remember, he is a very engaging talker. “I had seen this horror movie, and it didn’t end well for the brothers,” Richie recalls of the moment when he and Jackson came up with the chorus for the song, when a snake suddenly appeared. (“He heard us sing, Lion-El,” Richie remembers Jackson saying innocently. “He wants to meet you.”)
Recordings of “We Are the World” have previously been recorded in documentaries and books, so much of the information contained in the film is not new. Still, I can’t help but enjoy the sight of these then-god-like stars standing around getting to know each other like awkward kids in a school ballroom. Jones had posted a sign at the entrance that read, “Check your ego at the door,” and musicians were not allowed to bring assistants or handlers into the studio. They knew the cameras were on them and were on their best behavior since the music video and documentary were being recorded at the same time.
And anecdotes are mostly on brand for musicians. Cyndi Lauper’s solos were repeatedly ruined by strange background noises that sounded like people laughing, but it turns out the culprit was the jewelry she was wearing. Bob Dylan was always the odd one out in the songs themselves, but because he was “more uncomfortable than anyone else in there,” he didn’t know how to do his lines until Stevie Wonder did a Bob Dylan impersonation. I didn’t know if I should sing. When Wonder suggested singing part of the song in Swahili, Waylon Jennings agreed. (That idea was abandoned when it was pointed out to Wonder that Ethiopians don’t speak Swahili. Jennings has reportedly returned.) Sheila E., a relative newcomer, never showed up. I started to suspect that she was there just to seduce the prince who wasn’t there. . Al Jarreau was drunk. By the end of the night, Diana Ross was like her high school friend who never wanted the night to end.by the end great night of popI could relate.
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