Somehow, during the last session, Shirk and I ended up online watching “We Are The World” videos. The actual video (which I must have seen a zillion times as a kid), making of stuff, quincy jones documentary stuff, the works.
Don’t as me why. I don’t even remember how we ended up there.
But DAMN is it catchy. Yes, it’s totally 80′s cheesy, and some of the lyrics actually make no sense at all, but it’s been stuck in my head since. In fact, I found myself doing the different voices while I was singing in the shower the other day (Lionel/Stevie/Paul Simon/Kenny Rogers… go ahead, I know you wanna try it.)
Regarding WATW, some thoughts:
- The Globe intro is AWESOMELY terrible.
- Stevie Wonder kicked ass on it. holy crap.
- When MJ sings “When you’re down and out, there seems no hope at all” in the bridge… Awesome. Best part fo the song.
- Who the fuck is Kim Carnes??? I didn’t know then and I don’t know now.
- Huey ruins his solo with the fist pump thing. He looks silly.
- I felt bad for Lindsay Buckingham. He doesn’t get a solo and shows up in the video for a milisecond, and in the group chorus no less. Yet, Al Jarreau and James Ingram get solos. And where’s Stevie Nicks… was she even in there?
- I love when Bob Dylan comes in. great placement of his solo. same with Ray Charles. Great that they save those two for later in the song. nice work Q.
- Why is Quincy Jones so insanely famous? “Thriller”, Off The Wall”, “We are the World”, I get it… but what other huge shit?
OK, so here’s the question I pose to the viewing audience, if “We Are The World” were done today, who would be on it? There are so many timeless artists on that tune that were very current then and are still pretty relevant… so who do we got now? Shirk and I were at a bit of a loss.
Feel free to make suggestions. Maybe we can get them to make another one.
and get the 4-disc accompanying CD set. You, of all people, will completely adore it, I promise.
And your question about WATW09? That is why the music industry is so completely different today. You’d get Bono & Madonna–who might as well have been in the original. And a LOT of tv stars. Steve Carell. Ray Romano. Something like that.
Kim Carnes you know from “Bette Davis Eyes.”
And finally, if that making-of vid didn’t lock in the ultimate supreme domination of James Ingram, I don’t know what does. James Ingram totally rules.
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WHAT IS NUMBER3?
January 6th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
oh, also, I love that Oats of Hall and Oats is the YouTube Preview image… what are the odds! he’s in it for like 2 secs!
January 19th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
“Shaaaaa-laa! Shaaaaa-lingay!”
Ah, MJ’s forgotten backgrounds. I love that making-of video.
Quincy Jones is famous because he is supremely awesome. Read his book:
http://tinyurl.com/8wh8j4
and get the 4-disc accompanying CD set. You, of all people, will completely adore it, I promise.
And your question about WATW09? That is why the music industry is so completely different today. You’d get Bono & Madonna–who might as well have been in the original. And a LOT of tv stars. Steve Carell. Ray Romano. Something like that.
Kim Carnes you know from “Bette Davis Eyes.”
And finally, if that making-of vid didn’t lock in the ultimate supreme domination of James Ingram, I don’t know what does. James Ingram totally rules.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
And, because I am anal, here is the CD track listing:
http://tinyurl.com/9weuap