Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof founded Band Aid in 1984, and while I'll avoid the obvious question of royalties to a certain American pharmaceutical corporation over the name, I will note that every ten years, it seems, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" gets a reworking with a new group of artists. The 30th anniversary edition is making the rounds now.
However, it's time to look back at the original, which, of course, got a ton of airplay back in the day on MTV. The Band Aid roster then included a Who's Who of British music of the period, including Boy George (Culture Club), Paul Young, Sting, Bono (U2), Geldof, and so many more.
The message remains to this day, as there are still starving children in the African countries, as well as other parts of the world.
2 comments:
I always liked the song - and I remember how cool it was to have the rock & roll equivalent of the Superfriends gathering for this great cause and sing a little song together.
The current version I barely bother with - as I don't know most of the acts singing on it.
While hearing the song during my commute, I couldn't help but think of how cool it might have been to have had an HB version of the single - the video would have all the musical acts from those old toons - Josie & The Pussycats, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kids, The Neptunes, The Chan Clan, and of course, The Impossibles would all be there for one swinging video!
Mystery Inc. could even be there - since they were supposed to be a band originally.
20 years ago, that might've worked. Today, WB would have to develop that without any help from the nimrods at Cartoon Network.....
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