MickyDolenz said:

Great video and great song. This and, "Do They Know It's Christmas", are my two favorite charity songs. As much as I love MJ, I cannot stand, "We are The World".

I enjoy this song. Never got around to owning the album though. Is it any good?

thesexofit said:

I enjoy this song. Never got around to owning the album though. Is it any good?

Here's another song from the album.

shorttrini said:

MickyDolenz said:

Great video and great song. This and, "Do They Know It's Christmas", are my two favorite charity songs. As much as I love MJ, I cannot stand, "We are The World".

you know, EVERYBODY knows how i feel about michael. but i don't like we are the world either. you are not alone, my friend. 'sun city' was a MUCH better track. and i like how they called some artists out publicly for playing at sun city at the time too.. people like queen and tina turner.

I remember this track! I can say, without even revisiting it, that it's a great track.

Ah yes, this was back when music meant something instead of being the "soundtrack to your life"; back before corporations devalued it and conditioned the public to believe that artists should just "shut up and entertain them" instead of taking a stance on specific causes and using their talents to express themselves. Ah yes, the good ole days.

[Edited 2/4/11 0:05am]

BlaqueKnight said:

Ah yes, this was back when music meant something instead of being the "soundtrack to your life"; back before corporations devalued it and conditioned the public to believe that artists should just "shut up and entertain them" instead of taking a stance on specific causes and using their talents to express themselves. Ah yes, the good ole days.

[Edited 2/4/11 0:05am]

Music was always entertainment, like Bobby Sherman, the Lennon Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Lawrence Welk, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, Broadway, doo wop, 60's girl groups, etc. Even James Brown was mostly about the show and would fine band members who missed dance steps. Jazz and ragtime was originally music for people to dance to. Look at Motown, Berry Gordy didn't want to release stuff like Cloud Nine, War, and What's Going On. He was satisfied with "The Sound Of Young America". The Furious Five didn't really want to record The Message and wanted to continue to release the party jams that they were known for. Protest music was generally in genres that weren't mainstream like folk and blues. I don't really recall Sun City getting radio airplay like We Are The World or Do They Know It's Christmas did. MTV & Video Soul used to air the video though. Also this song came out in the mid 80s, when performers were doing commercials for Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Michelob, Schlitz Malt Liquor, Wendy's, etc.

That may all be true but there is no denying that there have always been artists like Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Public Enemy and many others who desired to change the world in some way with their music. In this day and age, an artist like that has 0 chance of success in the American market. I never said music wasn't about entertainment; there were just fewer barriers back in the day when it came to saying what you wanted to say - whatever that was. Artistic expression has been given parameters in mainstream music; strict parameters.

Even the "message music" of today is full of vague platitudes rather than something specific like this.

[Edited 2/4/11 11:06am]

Nah nah nah nah nah naaah nah nah nah nah!

BlaqueKnight said:

That may all be true but there is no denying that there have always been artists like Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Public Enemy and many others who desired to change the world in some way with their music. In this day and age, an artist like that has 0 chance of success in the American market. I never said music wasn't about entertainment; there were just fewer barriers back in the day when it came to saying what you wanted to say - whatever that was. Artistic expression has been given parameters in mainstream music; strict parameters.

Even the "message music" of today is full of vague platitudes rather than something specific like this.

[Edited 2/4/11 11:06am]

The only reason Stevie was allowed to record what he wanted is that he threatened not to resign with Motown when he turned 21, and go elsewhere. There was a bidding war for him, and he recorded Where I'm Coming From while he wasn't actually signed to a label with his own money. That's also how Stevie became one of the few acts on Motown to get a good contract with the label, when later acts like DeBarge & Teena Marie still got the rip off deals. Berry Gordy refused to release Marvin's What's Going On single and it sat in the vault for awhile. He told Marvin that it was the worst thing he ever heard and nobody wanted to buy a record with scatting on it. Marvin refused to record anything else. It got released because Berry went on vacation, and Motown released it without Berry's knowledge and they were desperate for material from Marvin and had no choice as Marvin wouldn't do anything else.

I like this track a lot, and I still listen to it from time to time. It was the best of these charity singles, for me, because it's actually a pretty good song, and so much less mawkish than the others. Plus, whereas pop stars are far less informed when it comes to the causes of poverty and famine than their egos would have them believe, the issue of how to respond to the tempting offer of thirty shiny pieces of sliver for giving a performance in an Apartheid state, and what abuses you might be complicit in if you do, is a subject they actually have some knowledge about.

Maybe someone should send it to Macy Gray.

Overall, it's an interesting period piece you'd listen to once. The only other interesting song is Bono singing "Silver and Gold",which U2 hadn't released yet, with Keith Richards and Ron Wood.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...sGEm-QWqaU

Between the Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela", Peter Gabriel's "Biko", this song, and the 70th birthday concert of Mandela being aired everywhere but South Africa (supposedly Prince and Bono were going to do a song together??), it drew a lot of attention.

dalsh327 said:

Overall, it's an interesting period piece you'd listen to once. The only other interesting song is Bono singing "Silver and Gold",which U2 hadn't released yet, with Keith Richards and Ron Wood.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...sGEm-QWqaU

Between the Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela", Peter Gabriel's "Biko", this song, and the 70th birthday concert of Mandela being aired everywhere but South Africa (supposedly Prince and Bono were going to do a song together??), it drew a lot of attention.

Interesting bit of trivia about that. It aired in the US, but the Fox network edited out all references to Mandela and the political issues at stake, and repackaged it as 'Freedomfest'. I remember hearing an interview, years ago, with one of the artists on the bill, who said that someone had come up to him a few months later and said they enjoyed the show but what was it all about!

Btw, you're right that the AAA track/video probably best viewed as a period piece. It's just that it's so endearingly earnest, I give it a spin every so often as my 'secret shame'!

[Edited 2/4/11 16:23pm]

Great video, great cause