By tincanman
Live Aid 40th Anniversary …
Between keeping up with your blog posts and watching Live Aid replayed on social media (because any job worth doing is worth doing to compulsive excess) over this weekend, it felt like Live Aid at 40 was more nostalgic stroll than rebel yell; a superstar Top of the Pops on the Saturday night telly and the official broadcaster trusts we’ll all behave with the respectful decorum expected of a live studio audience if you please. Which we did. If anyone misbehaved this weekend it was overexcited Oasis fans at Heaton Park spraying [craft] beer on each other.
Live Aid was the direct inspiration for Comic Relief (£1.6 billion and counting), among ovver fings, which you wouldn’t guess from the mostly “Ooo, I always loved that guy/hated that c——” posts on the twitters and whatnots this weekend. I had to google and drill down for that kind of info. Also mostly not discussed was that after the after-parties most people went home and put their feet up for 20 years. We disappointed and frustrated Geldof et al no end, and it was their hounding of political leaders that finally taught the world to sing, in 2005, not a microphone thrust from the stage for a Radio Ga Ga singalong in 1985.
But that’s the way of celebrity culture, innit. The Guardian’s circulation is but a rounding error of the red tops’ and all the great Brexitting public wants to hear about Africa is how many castoffs we can ship out next month and if, fingers crossed, all the diseases are in check. But, hey, did you hear Hugh Grant fell asleep watching one of the Wimbledon matches?
Then again, LBJ didn’t wake up the morning after Woodstock and pull us out of Vietnam. That took four more years. And the world has measurably less disease, less poverty and more education than it had 40 years ago, which can’t all be down to Moore’s Law and the twin miracles of compounding interest and democracy. The global conscience does shift; it’s just so amoebic you can’t tell why or when it moved.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying I’ll not pronounce judgment on Live Aid’s place in history. I’m not qualified and I didn’t see Song Bar patrons claim to be either. What I did see, quite admirably, is a consensus among punks and metalheads and hippies and all of us in our varied ilks and persuasions that you’ve got to hand it to the guy for trying.
As UncleBen put it: “I made every attempt to look down on the whole thing, whilst privately perhaps being impressed and a little bit moved by what Geldof had done.”
Maybe that’s the lasting legacy of Live Aid: Bob remains a poster child for jumping up off your couch and having a go at fixing things because, dammit, someone has to. People will laugh at you. They’ll call you names. You’ll lose your marbles and probably all your money too. And it probably won’t do any good. But it could. And you’re mad, in both senses, so you do it.
In the end, that’s what informed my playlist choices. It’s a celebration of your more courageous punts, songs I’m quite sure you knew in your heart of hearts had no realistic chance of ever being picked. Good stuff, and on topic. But odd. And yet, because they share a certain spirit I can’t put my finger on, collectively they do what Bob and Midge did – put on a show.
Shine on you crazy diamonds.
The All-Together A-List Playlist:
Boukan Ginen - Ede M Chante (Help Me Sing or I Must Sing) (Nicko)
Richard Strange - International Language (ShivSidecar)
Cee ElAssaad & Thandi Draai - LoMhlaba (magicman)
The Comet Is Coming - Unity (severin)
Todd Rundgren - All The Children Sing (ShivSidecar)
Matata - Talkin' Talkin' (Nilferd)
Neil Young - Nothing Is Perfect (BanazirGalbasi)
Zero 7 ft. Mozez - This World (magicman)
Grant Lee Buffalo - Side by Side (barbryn)
Lost T Shirts Of Atlantis - Let's Get Together (severin)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Premature Burial (severin)
H20 - It's A Small World (TarquinSpodd)
Dead Can Dance - Ghost of Seraphim (Sara van O)
Doyal Naniou with Oumou Sangaré - Cheikh Lô (Nicko)
Woody Guthrie - There's A Better World A Comin' (TarquinSpodd)
Bryn Haworth - We're All One (severin)
Benjamin Zephaniah - Rong Radio (Shoegazer)
Guru’s Wildcard Pick:
Jackson Browne - For Everyman
In literature and movies the Everyman character is integral but dull (much like Jackson himself, it could be said) and only nominally registers. Until he’s faced with some call to conscience that he can’t ignore, and then it’s game on. Jackson’s tipping point was the CSN song Wooden Ships, David Crosby’s every man for himself response to the Cold War. Wait, Jackson thought. That can’t be right.
Live Aid 13th July 1985: The second concert at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, following Wembley Stadium in London
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Live Aid at 40: songs about, or inspiring unity and togetherness. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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