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We Are the World

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About This Episode

In 1985, a group of the biggest music stars on the planet came together for one night to record a song that would make history. The powerful anthem they produced raised millions for famine relief & proved that music can truly change the world. In this Backtrack, we’re traveling back forty years explore the history and legacy of the song that saved lives, We Are the World!

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

Transcript

JonWelcome back, Gen X Grown Up Podcast listener to this backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. I am John. Joining me as always, of course, is Mo. Hey, man.
MoHey, how’s it going?
JonGood. It’s not a show without George. How doing, George?
GeorgeHey, how’s it going, guys?
JonIn 1985, a group of the biggest music stars on the planet came together for one night to record a song that would make history. The powerful anthem they produced raised millions for famine relief and proved that music can truly change the world.
JonIn this backtrack, we’re traveling back 40 years to explore the history and legacy of the song that saved lives, We Are The World. That is a fascinating topic that I learned so much more about than I already knew leading into this backtrack.
MoThank you.
JonAnd I can’t wait to get into that. Before we jump in, though, here in this opening segment, it’s time for some fourth listener email. The three of us are on the show. We’re one, two, three. If you listen, you are the fourth listener.
JonAnd specifically, if you drop us a line to tell us your response to one of our episodes and the episode And the fourth listener for this episode is Scott C.
JonScott dropped us a line to the subject, Satanic Panic Episode Story.
MoOh, God.
JonMan, we’re getting so much feedback still on the Satanic Panic. I know so many people have resonated with them because it was just, it was such a big deal. turned out to be nothing. And it impacted so many people.
JonBut so it impacted Scott and he dropped us a line. So he opens it off, says, Hey, John, the story you told on the Satanic Panic episode about your marauding days. Yeah, it’s vandalism some would call it, yes, reminded me of a story from my misguided youth.
JonYou mentioned drawing pentagrams and upside down crosses on things to blame the Satanists for your vandalism.
MoUgh.
JonAnd I just had to share this story. The summer before my junior year, 1987, I got a maintenance summer job with the school district. The staff consisted of the custodial staff from the high school and about eight high school kids, me included.
JonWe had to do lawn maintenance, clean the school, and other odds and ends. But one day, was by myself mowing behind the elementary school when I hit something with the mower. I looked over and saw I’d run over the corpse of a recently dead bird.
Jonyeah
Moah
Jonwho Now, he says, i am not sure what possessed me to do what came next, possibly Satan, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I took one of the big chunks of mulch that every school had around their shrubbery and I drew a big pentagram in a circle on the sidewalk.
JonI then dragged the mangled bird into the center to create the appearance of a minor satanic sacrifice.
GeorgeOh, Jesus.
MoOh my god.
JonJust a small one that tied over the Satanists between sacrificing children and goats and such, you know. The following week, I heard the custodial staff ranting about how the Satanists were everywhere, even right here in our school district.
GeorgeHa ha
MoOh, jeez.
JonHe says, I was snickering inside and also scared that my theatrical work got pinned to me. I’d be branded as a Satanist to spend the rest of my life in jail. Fortunately, it was the 80s.
JonMy prank was surveilled by no one.
Georgeha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha
MoThat’s funny.
JonThank you, gentlemen, for unearthing that skeleton from my closet. Oh, pun intended. Bird skeleton. Yours and Satan. Yours and Satan, Scott.
JonUgh.
MoOh my god.
JonI get it. Yeah, it’s I think it was almost like we didn’t know what we’re doing back then. We were trolling the people that thought that was was something, you know, it like, well, we’ll just do crazy stuff and blame it on Satanist.
GeorgeSure.
JonNo one will think it’s me because I’m not one of those. mythically Yeah, yeah. Crazy. Scott, great story. Well written. Thanks for sharing that. We’re glad we dredged that memory up for you with our backtrack.
JonListener, if you would like your email or story featured here on the show, look, it’s drop dead easy. All you have to do is hit us up with an email directed to podcast at genxgrownup.com.
JonWe’ll read every single one. And most of them, just like Scott’s, will eventually make the show. Okay. With that good business behind us, it is time now to jump into the body of this backtrack all about We Are The World after this very quick break.
JonIt’s been 40 years ago now that every radio station, I think coordinated on the planet, tried to air We Are The World at the same time. And I remember looking forward to it like, man, everybody’s in it.
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
JonI can’t believe they all got together for this thing. And even George, I’ve had to be a few months ago. You talked about this, this fantastic podcast. Netflix documentary called The Greatest Night and Pop.
JonAnd you shared with us already some of this story about how we are the world came from concept to execution to the unlikely circumstances ah to get us there.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonBut We all may know about the song. I don’t think anybody doesn’t know We Are The World or has heard it or knows. it’s it’s It’s a feel-good anthem, even though it is a fundraiser for a terrible situation the other side of the world.
Jonah But as we were prepping for this backtrack, I rewatched that documentary that you suggested, and it it is amazing, a tearjerker in many cases. So ah as we get started talking about We Are The World, why don’t you, I think you’re probably the most informed about all of us about the background of this with your love of music.
Jonum Let’s talk about… Let’s talk about the origins, the very basic, the context that lays the groundwork for how we got to We Are The World.
GeorgeYeah, I mean, so and I do have a love of music, but I’d say it’s more my love of history that really helped frame my knowledge about the subject.
JonOkay.
GeorgeSo let’s talk about the historical context in what we came from and what we moved towards during this time in 1985.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeSo we had just kind of come off… Historically speaking, from bunch of musical protest influences out of the 60s and 70s, especially around the Vietnam War in this country, ah there were a lot of protest songs.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeThere was also protest songs happening in ah England that centered around things a little bit more closer to home, like labor unions and stuff of those countries. natures and how people were being mistreated in their own country. But here in the U.S., it was all about the Vietnam War and, you know, how the government was running roughshod and not listening to what the people really wanted at the time.
Georgeah At that same time, in the early 80s, 83 to around 85, there was a drastic weather-driven famine that happened in Ethiopia.
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeLike, they had just had a drought for like decades. Years and years and years. And there was no food to be had.
JonThen
GeorgeAnd it was already a sparsely um vegetative populated area to begin with.
Jonit just got worse.
Georgeum Yeah, very poor country at that point as well. It’s not like they had a ton of exports that they were able to use to bolster their economy. Of course, you know, wars and infighting and whatnot that happens in a lot of places.
Georgeum But it it was really coming to fruition 83 to 85. The Ethiopian famine was dramatic. It was drastic. It was on our TVs all the time in the news at that point.
JonYeah.
Jonyeah
GeorgeNow, this all happened during what we term as the Cold War, right? So all of this is kind of viewed in our minds front through that lens of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry.
Jonknow
GeorgeAnd some people were looking at it like, well, you know, this government’s not doing this and that government’s not doing that. And America was trying to help other countries as best they could, solidify alliances and quote, do the right thing. Of course, the government was kind of sometimes doing it with ulterior motives, right? they
JonAs governments do.
MoYeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Georgeyeah
Jonright
GeorgeI’ll give you a whole bunch of relief. If I can build a base, can I build a base in your area?
Moyeah yeah yeah
GeorgeRight. That was kind of a big thing in the early eighties. Um, But there were some individuals who saw what was going on and decided that they wanted to make a difference on a different level.
GeorgeAnd the one individual, and he’s not without his own controversies, but ah the one person who really kind of drove this whole wheel forward is Bob Geldof. Now,
JonYeah.
GeorgeI know John and Mo, you guys know who he is because you just watched the documentary.
MoYeah. Mm-hmm.
JonYeah.
Georgeum
JonYeah.
GeorgeBut you also probably knew him from before because originally he was a leader along with ah another lady. And I’m trying to remember her name. It was Midge Ure who ah they helped produce a song called, Do They Know It’s Christmas?
GeorgeThis was in 1984.
Jonye
GeorgeYeah.
JonMm-hmm. Yep.
Georgeum They called the group Band Aid, and it was a bunch of British vocalists and artists who came together to produce this one song. And it’s a beautiful, it’s a fun song.
GeorgeIt’s a tear-jerking song.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd it was kind of a precursor to We Are The World. It did raise a significant amount of funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.
JonYou know, i I remember, like I remember We Are the World, I remember the Do They Know It’s Christmas ah coming out. And at the time, it was it was much like we’re talking about.
JonWe are the world. It was one of those things that it felt larger than just a song. I mean it clearly was larger. It had a, it had a fundraising component, but the fact that all these people came together, volunteered their time and their efforts.
MoYeah.
JonI’ve heard recently, i don’t know if you’ve come across this, but, It’s come under a lot of scrutiny lately. The Do They Know It’s Christmas? Because it’s I mean, it the It was written at a different time. And it frustrates me when modern sensibilities shine a light back on things and go, oh, it’s insensitive.
Moyeah
JonThey said the lyrics were promoting stereotypes.
GeorgeRight.
JonIt was condescending to the people of Africa. And I understand that. I’m sympathetic to anyone who is offended by it. But being offended doesn’t mean it didn’t also have a good intent behind it and a good heart.
JonIt was to help, you know, any condescension that was in there.
MoRight.
JonSo whenever people talk about, you know, these kind of efforts and go, well, these days you shouldn’t have said that or whatever. This was the beginning of of music trying to be an activist, trying to do more than just do something for themselves.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
Jonso it frustrates me when people look back and go, oh, it was ill-informed. They were based, it’s 40 years ago, in information, right?
MoYeah, yeah, I totally agree because I saw some of those comments as well. as like, oh, why do you have to, why why why Christmas? Why this? Why that? I’m like, that wasn’t the point of the song, right?
JonRight, exactly, right.
MoI mean, you were you’re totally missing the whole point of the song, you
JonHow about the spirit of the thing?
MoRight, exactly. They’re just saying that these people are so poor that they realize they can’t appreciate holidays. they have no They have no fun like that. So, I mean, yeah, I think those people just need to go get a better hobby.
Jonyeah
Mothe I mean, kind honestly, I mean, come on. um But the thing is that is also, you know, George, you brought up like protest songs, all this stuff. I think that was one of the first efforts to literally say, we’re going to do the song and the proceeds going going to this cause.
MoLike most the other ones were awareness, right?
GeorgeSure.
MoWe were bringing awareness to the Vietnam War.
GeorgeRight.
MoWe were bringing awareness to these things.
JonBut we’re still getting paid, right?
Moyeah Yeah, exactly.
JonBut now it’s, yeah, purely, yeah, yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
Moyeah But this one, we’re going to do this thing and every dollar that this thing makes is going to go to helping this cause.
JonRight. Right. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeYeah, well, and that’s kind of the, there was that shift of all of this funding the famine relief effort, as opposed to, like you’re saying, Mo, the the original songs from the 60s and 70s bringing awareness and people still making a profit.
GeorgeOf course, we know the artists likely didn’t make shit on those 60s and 70s songs.
MoYeah, probably.
GeorgeIt was always the music labels making all the money.
Jonright
Georgeah In this case, ah Bob Geldof having been in the music industry for years knew how to navigate those waters and knew how to make sure that at least a large portion of the proceeds maybe not every single dollar because every time I hear something say every dollar goes to blah blah blah you’re full of shit there’s some money that gets paid to somebody to turn the lights on for electricity something but still yeah
MoYeah. a
JonRight.
MoYes, absolutely.
Jonthere Yeah. There’s overhead. There are expenses.
MoYeah, there’s just overhead and everything.
Jonyes Yeah.
Georgewhen When you say the prophets go toward this thing, that resonates a little bit more true to me.
MoMm hmm.
JonThe net.
Georgeah In this case, I think with Do They Know It’s Christmas, I always looked at the sentiment of the title to not say anything condescending about Christmas is the giving holiday, but just Christmas is a giving spirit.
GeorgeAnd do they know that there are people out there that care enough to give to them?
MoYeah.
Jonthank you there are meanings beyond the literal there absolutely should be and are yeah i agree
MoYes. Yes.
GeorgeRight. Yeah, and I think the people in that country were going through a horrific time in history ah that affected them, obviously, dramatically, personally. you know Tons of young children dying for a needless reason.
GeorgeIn this country, even in 1985, the amount of food that we threw away in the average American household would have fed so many people in another country.
JonYeah. Sure. Sure.
MoOh, it was ridiculous.
Jonsure
MoYeah.
GeorgeIt’s ridiculous. And the fact that as human beings… We can’t find a way to solve even the simplest fucking problem of hunger because of greed of commerce pisses me off even now.
MoYeah.
GeorgeAnd I was ah Reaganite person. I was Gordon Gekko with the slick back hair. I believed in making profit in the 80s. I’m fortunate enough to be older and a little bit more mature and hopefully a little bit wiser based on my experiences now to know that this was full of shit and still is today.
GeorgeBob Geldof and Midge Uri, they were trying to change that.
JonRight.
GeorgeThey did that with Do They Know It’s Christmas. They got the ball rolling. And we’re going to talk about We Are the World in depth in the next few segments.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeBut want to mention just one other thing that also took place in 1985 that was also one of their creations. And that was Live Aid, which kind of came after we Are the World, but was still writing that same
Jonyeah Oh, yeah.
MoOh, yeah.
Georgelike generosity wave that the music world was feeling at that point. And we know, you know, all the details. I think we, did we do a podcast on live aid at some point or we talked about it in one?
MoWe talked about it.
Jonwe We talked about those ah ah live aid, farm aid, comic relief, those kind of spiritual.
GeorgeYeah. Yeah.
JonYeah. Yeah. Yeah. A group of those.
Georgeno need to go back into it now, but it happened in July of that year two venue event across the world.
JonWe did one of those. Yeah.
GeorgeWe know the whole story about what Queen did during that event, which is still a miracle and amazing to this day.
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeBut it was that kind of time that things were starting to change. We were just coming off the second election of Ronald Reagan.
JonYeah.
Georgenineteen eighty five 1985, and people were starting to slowly come out of this greed is good mentality and start to move into the, what about these other people?
GeorgeCan we help them? We’ve got money and food. What can we do?
JonYeah. And maybe if the government can’t, we’ll do something to step in and do it ourselves. but Don’t follow the government, lead the government and show them what they should be doing.
GeorgeYeah. Yeah.
JonAnd I think, yeah, that’s what some of these things did.
MoRight.
JonTremendous.
JonThat’s fine.
MoWe mentioned the, you know the greatest night in pop documentary on Netflix that, again, if you haven’t seen it, you totally should because it really documents this whole, what happened there is so, so well.
JonMm-hmm. Yeah.
Moum But one of the things they talk about right off the start is, you know, this thing all started with Harry Belafonte, know, where he wanted to do something like this.
JonMm-hmm.
JonYeah. Day. BJ Day.
MoAnd he’s like, can we do something similar? Like George was talking earlier about Live Aid before, you know doing it was Christmas. Can we do something in the United States to help these people? Because part of the also said was like, he’s like, Ethiopia, these are our people.
Moyou know you know like You know, here’s you know London, all these other people doing it, but they’re ancestors. They’re people that we came from that we should be also helping them.
JonRight.
MoAnd he, of course, then enlisted very intelligently you know Quincy Jones to help him, and that really got the ball rolling.
JonYeah, it was it was really tremendous. And know I even said we were talking in the break about and I said earlier, everybody knows we are the world.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonBut what lot of people don’t know about it is just what a unique situation it was as we kind of dive into this.
MoMm-hmm.
Jonah It was literally it wasn’t. You know, we just come out of the COVID situation where everybody was at home and they went in their closet and recorded something and sent it over the internet. This wasn’t that. This wasn’t even each person show up on your day and record your bit. We’ll assemble it.
JonThese were all of these artists were in the room all night long in the same place to get all this work done in basically like a 12 hour, 15 hour window.
MoYeah.
JonIt was unheard of for, think they said the documentary, if a bomb hit this place,
MoJohn Denver be back on top.
JonPop music has changed forever.
MoHe said John Denver be number one again or something like that.
JonWho is it?
GeorgeRight.
JonYeah, right, right.
GeorgeJohn Denver.
JonDon’t be back on top because all the big names were there.
GeorgeWho wanted to be in this and was rejected, by the way.
MoYeah, I know. Is that sad?
JonYeah.
Mothat terrible? Although that was a funny comment. i things was like Paul Simon or something said that, but yeah.
JonYep. Yep. yep
MoBut again, like you said, Quincy Jones, and then of course he said, okay, we need a song, right? That’s the first step in all this. And in order see song, we need someone to write the song. So he pulled it.
GeorgeRight.
MoI mean, again, the the amount of talent out there was just ridiculous, but he pulled Lionel Richie, who in the 80s was just ah top of the game, top of the game.
Jonon top of his game.
Georgehe was He was coming into his own singular renaissance after leaving the Commodores, right?
MoRight.
JonThe Commodore’s right.
MoExactly.
Georgeso
MoYou know, and he had hit albums already. I mean, he was just doing phenomenally well. And then, you know, then they went to get Stevie Wonder, you know, which again, who wasn’t, right?
Georgesure
JonSure.
MoWho, but unfortunately, seemed like he just didn’t return their phone calls.
Jonha ha ha ha.
Moyeah
GeorgeWell, mean, you want to talk about the people that, so they put together this plan. They get Quincy Jones involved very early on. Quincy Jones is, of course, going to gravitate towards the roots that he thinks are important to this USA for Africa Aid Relief Foundation.
JonRight.
GeorgeAnd he’s going to go to his Motown artists that he knows, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder.
MoYeah.
GeorgeThey leave a message for Stevie Wonder and with his agents and everything. And it’s not, you know, cell phone era where they can just, you know, pick up the Murtaugh car phone and call them back in a heartbeat.
MoYeah. I’ll send him a text.
GeorgeRight.
Jonah
GeorgeNone of that stuff is possible. So then they also bring in arguably the most popular man in music at that time, Michael Jackson, the king of pop.
MoOh, yeah.
Jonsure Yeah.
MoYeah.
GeorgeHe was just coming off of, I think,
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeThriller maybe at that point did I think Thriller had already released or maybe it was bad. I don’t know, but he was just in between some of those like seminal Michael Jackson, eighties albums.
Moyeah
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeSo you get Lionel Richie coming off the Commodores and having his big Dancing on the Ceiling run. You have Michael Jackson coming out of his big I’m Bad thriller kind of stuff.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeThey tried to get Stevie Wonder, obviously. Phone lines were down. But just those people along with Quincy Jones.
Moyeah Yeah, absolutely.
GeorgeHoly shit. I mean, it was already perfect.
JonAlready, right.
Moyeah And that’s the thing, you know, again, looking at me on my project management background, when I watched that documentary, that’s the thing that impressed me the most was how do you organize?
GeorgeSure. Right.
Moah and This is worse than cats trying to herd cats. I mean, this is way worse than that.
JonYes, of course.
MoBut somehow they got all these people together had them check their egos like they had a sign over the thing, check your egos at the door because you’re talking everybody there, like 90% of people were just like top, top of their game kind of people at the time.
JonThe door, yeah.
Georgeright
MoAnd so we need you all to work together at one time. you know, we’re going to rehearse. We’re going to do rewrites on the fly. We’re going to do all this stuff and create this song.
JonYeah, it’s it’s tremendous. And yeah it it all happened the way they got it to happen that way. was they They talk about in the in the the film of how musical acts, they their schedules were often several months out.
Moah look Yeah.
JonThere was no way you could all coordinate everybody to get to the same place for one night for this for free.
GeorgeMm-hmm. Right.
MoMm-hmm.
JonSo the genius thing that they did was, well, the night of the Grammys, we’ll just do it right after the Grammys, where everybody is already in town.
Georgeright
MoRight.
JonThey were already going to be there. Not all of them, most of them.
MoMost of them.
JonSome of them actually flew in.
MoA couple exceptions, but most, yeah.
JonBut the vast majority were already there.
MoRight.
JonAnd they had to have a secret place. They ended up being A&M Studios at a studio that they could be in.
MoRight.
JonAnd now, so you’ve you’ve listed here in and our research, The volume of talent here, and it’s an absolute who’s who of there was the soloists and also just the chorus.
Georgeand Sure.
JonThe people didn’t have solos was tremendous.
Moyeah
GeorgeRight.
JonSo let’s just start to walk through a few of these. We start with Lionel Richie, who was at the forefront.
MoOf course.
GeorgeSure.
JonHe was almost the ringleader of this ah for from the talent side.
MoYeah. but Creating the music.
JonAnd he kind of right.
MoYeah. yeah
Jonah Stevie Wonder, who was going to be involved in in of in the writing, just ended up as a performer. Wonderful. ah Paul Simon.
MoYeah.
JonKenny Rogers. James Ingram. Tina Turner.
MoI know.
JonBilly Joel. it And the contrasting personalities and stuff in here, it just it seemed like it didn’t matter. they all As you said, they all kind of checked their ego at the door.
MoYeah.
JonMichael Jackson.
MoYeah.
JonRight? Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick. Oh, this is beautiful. there was There was a bit at the end of the film where she says she stayed late because she didn’t want this night to end.
JonShe was having such a good time in this experience.
MoYeah.
JonWillie Nelson, one um one of one of my top five voices on the planet.
Moyeah
JonWillie Nelson was there. Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, who was just coming off of a concert.
Moyeah
Moyeah
JonHe flew from his last show of a concert
GeorgeRight.
Mofrom East Coast to West Coast.
Jonto do this thing yes yeah uh so i just want to pick up and read through a few i don’t want to oh yeah yeah yep voice 80s
GeorgeYeah.
MoOh, yeah. I mean, Kenny Loggins.
GeorgeYeah.
MoI mean, we we’ve we’ve talked about him many times on this show.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoYou know, Steve Perry. I mean, unbelievable. You know, Daryl Hall. Unbelievable. ah Huey Lewis. Sidney Lauper. She was, she won album, I think, Best Female Artist that year.
Jonyeah yeah
Moi mean, that’s, she was just starting her career. Kim Carnes.
JonHuey Lewis was like, but he was just starting the ascent of his, ah of his fame.
MoYeah, he had a couple hits, but yeah, he was just really starting his way up at that point.
JonYeah.
Moum Bob Dylan. Bob freaking Dylan. Who knew? And this one to me, I think was, I mean, for me personally, was one of the best, but Ray Charles.
GeorgeSure.
JonIt’s just.
MoHe just, oh, he was just amazing. Just watching that documentary in him was just phenomenal.
GeorgeAnd I’m just going to point out when I when I put that list in the card for us to go through, I made sure to put it in the order of appearance in the song.
JonYeah.
MoOh, yeah.
JonOh, okay.
GeorgeSo that’s the that’s the singing order for solos throughout the song.
JonNice. Yeah.
MoOh, nice.
GeorgeSo if you guys listening ever want to go back and figure you can use this podcast now as your thesaurus a little bit.
MoOkay.
Moas who’s who for For your kids who don’t know who all these people are.
JonAs a map.
Georgei couldn’t do that with chorus singers. I just did them alphabetically.
JonYeah.
GeorgeBut I thought solos is important because the order that you have, like, of course, Lionel Richie, I get why he’s going to start the song.
JonYeah.
GeorgeBut look at how some of the people place themselves in areas that maybe weren’t
JonMm-hmm.
Georgethe most prominent, they are soloists, don’t get me wrong, but…
JonMm-hmm.
MoYes, yes, yes.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThe reason why Bob Dylan’s stuff is toward the end is because all of the other artists, especially Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, they knew Bob Dylan a little bit and they knew that he was incredibly self-conscious and they knew the short timeframe that they had to get this thing together because they were just putting this song in front of them, just like through mimeograph and faxes and whatnot.
MoYeah, which is weird, isn’t it?
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd they said, we’ve got to give Bob the most time
JonMaybe a graph.
Georgeto get ready for his little part, or he’s not going to be able to do it.
Mohmm. Yeah.
GeorgeSo that’s why they put him toward the end with Ray Charles, who of the Motown crowd, Ray Charles is like a godfather essentially to that entire group that you already mentioned.
MoThey knew it. Yeah.
Georgeits It’s just such a beautiful thing. And there’s people in there that you’re like, well, wait a minute, Al Jarreau, Motown again, Bruce Springsteen.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYeah. You know, I mean, super big at that time. Kenny Loggins coming off of the Top Gun soundtrack.
MoYeah. Yeah.
GeorgeI mean, incredible group.
MoOh, this crazy.
Jonyeah and They, I mean, this organization of voices wasn’t accidental. They actually like coordinated almost like like studio production. This was musical production going, what are these voices like?
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonLike, I want this coarse voice to go up against this smooth voice up against this powerhouse voice.
MoRight.
JonAnd I remember, I remember I’d listened to the song just yesterday. But I mean, when when I do listen to the song, when I have historically, I’m impressed with like, okay, who are you?
JonYou, you are a multi and platinum selling record label, you know, artist.
Mothe Yeah, most of them only had a line or two at both, yeah.
JonAnd you have like, you say soloist, some of them had like a sentence or two, a line or two.
GeorgeYeah, like just a few sentence.
JonAnd it’s just this, this, and this interweaving of like one voice would finish a phrase and the other would kind of like join them and then say the next phrase.
GeorgeYeah, just few words.
JonAnd it was like this, like these swirls of color, but auditorily, it’s just it’s a treat to listen to when you think about how the voices sometimes contrast or complement each other in ways you wouldn’t have expected.
MoMm-hmm.
Moyeah It was, I just thought the part in the documentary was just hilarious to me. was like, you know, so we pulled, ah you know, we pulled Quincy Jones’ Rolodex. and And they showed the roll, and the person carried that Rolodex around, his assistant carried this Rolodex with him in a like its own case because it was that big.
JonLet’s roll the decks, yeah.
Georgeyeah
JonMm-hmm.
MoBut he had the numbers to all these people. and you know we And we talked about, I mean, ah yeah.
GeorgeRight?
JonYeah. if If anybody would.
MoI mean, and look at the chorus, even on this. I mean, talk about, now these are chorus. These are people who don’t have any, no so no solos at all, right?
JonRight.
MoThey’re just background vocals. That’s all they were in this, right? Singing the chorus with a whole bunch of other people. And I don’t want to go through every single one because there’s so many people. But they also kind of, didn’t they just ask people at the awards too? Hey, we’re doing this thing. You want to join and you know be in the chorus on this? And they pull people in. But You’re talking people like, you know, like Smokey Robinson just sang chorus.
Jona
MoYou know, the Pointer Sisters, all of them, all three them just sang chorus on this. You know, I mean, Bette Midler just sang chorus and they were happy to do that.
MoYou know, and I think it says a lot for them, too, that they were like, yeah, I’ll just be in the crowd, just be part of this experience.
JonTo be a part of it. Yeah. know
MoYou know.
GeorgeI honestly, you’re right, Mo. There were, there were a lot of crazy names in just the chorus list, but then you think of some of the ones that are in there that who would have thought of these people being on a song of this magnitude with this group of people, Dan Aykroyd.
GeorgeNow granted, I know he’s a blues brother, but Jesus Christ, the fuck is Dan Aykroyd doing in this song?
JonIt’s a big, right.
Moyeah
MoI know, really.
Georgeum Of course, the man who so came up with the original idea, Harry Belafonte, he had to be in there.
MoYeah.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeWe had to hear that smooth voice, but we only got it in the chorus.
JonAnd of course, yeah.
Georgeah You got some other people. You had basically the entire Huey Lewis and the News background instrumentalists singing on this. And a lot of people don’t know. I’m a big Huey Lewis fan, so I do. But all of those guys are are like barbershop quartet musicians.
Georgelevel of blending voices. And so they brought them in specifically because they could bridge the chorus gaps of melodies with the song because they could make all the harmonies really come together.
MoOh, interesting.
GeorgeThey were almost Eagles level in their harmonies. Now I think the Eagles would have been incredible in this setting because
JonRight. Oh, sick.
GeorgeBut you’re not going to get them at this point because they hated each other.
JonYeah.
Georgeand They couldn’t be in the same room.
Moyeah
Jonno
GeorgeSo you get the next best thing with the Hugh and Luce people. You got Latoya Jackson and Jackie Jackson because, you know, I guess Marlon and all the, you know, Randy Jackson, not ah Jackson, but still anybody with the last name Jackson, Michael is going to get in this thing.
MoYeah, all the Jacksons.
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Georgeah Tito, ah John, one that I wondered how you felt about him because we have a little bit of history talking about him on this podcast was Waylon Jennings.
MoMm-hmm.
JonYeah.
Jonyeah Yeah. Yeah. It was really interesting. So it wasn’t Kenny Rogers clearly was a country music star and he was in there and we had, we just talked about Willie Nelson was there and Waylon Jennings was there.
JonAnd I honestly, I thought, I guess you say Kenny Rogers more of a crossover, but still representation from lots of different genres of music. And I, and Waylon Jennings being there initially ah being there initially, I’ll say I thought was a great
GeorgeMm-hmm.
Jonlike this olive branch, this reach out because traditionally, like grassroots country music comes out of America and is very inward Central America focus.
JonAnd to have these country music stars, especially going back, Waylon Jennings was, you know, 60s, long time, you know, um a Grand Ole Opry star to have him there.
MoYeah.
Moyeah
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonAnd then I was very disappointed to see that when they suggested we we’re going to change the chorus and put in, was like some Swahili words or something into the chorus?
Moyeah
GeorgeRight. Yeah.
Jonthat he just said that I’m out that I’m not going to sing these weird words and whatever. And, and I was as much as I enjoy, I know it was two in the morning.
Moyeah
JonI know he was out of his comfort zone, but you know what? It was two in the morning and it was out of all of their comfort zones.
MoYeah, exactly.
JonHe wasn’t alone. And he walked out of the chorus.
Georgeyeah
JonNow, I can’t help but think maybe his voice is in there still because they did many, many takes.
MoYeah. I’m sure they record it at some point, yeah.
JonIt’s possible. But i was I was disappointed in him, not as an artist. You know, we talk about separating the person from the art. I was disappointed in him personally to see that
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeSure.
JonHe wasn’t willing to stick it out, to stay out of his comfort zone. Like, is he afraid he’s going to lose cred with other artists or something? i don’t know what the reason now rationale was, but I thought it was quite odd.
JonYeah, it was quite odd.
MoYeah.
JonBut it it was it’s basically a wall of amazing voices, background to front front-facing soloists that were all amazing voices around them around the globe.
GeorgeYou know, the one that we skipped over going back and forth in that incredibly long list, you talk about, ah you know, backgrounds to famous artists. We didn’t mention John Oates. He always gets left out.
MoYeah, I know. i know. I feel bad.
GeorgeDaryl Hall was a soloist.
JonIt’s always.
MoPoor John.
Jona
GeorgePoor John Oates was just in the chorus. Poor guy. Right?
MoYeah.
JonAnd me. was there too.
MoI know. I should sell him wine in New York.
JonYeah.
MoI worked at a wine shop in the summer.
Jonah
Georgeright
JonGot to.
MoHe used to come in.
JonI know we have some ah professional musicians that listen to the show. You know, my buddy Marcus that has suggested a few episodes listens regularly. want to run through the musicians. ah Not huge names you might know. Now, living in the music world, you probably know them.
Jonah We had ah players like ah John Barnes, you know, David Paik, Ian Underwood, Steve Piccaro. ah There’s just… And these were all, again, people like Lewis Johnson and Michael Almaterin who’ve donated their time to be on this, just like all of the big names.
MoYeah.
JonAnd the other thing that I, from my background, that made me the most interested to kind of see was they also showcased some of the production people in the studio who were walking around with the cameras and lighting stuff.
MoYeah, that was cool, wasn’t it?
GeorgeRight.
JonAnd they just talk about this out of body experience where I’m standing here in front of Diana Ross.
Mohmm.
JonI’m looking at this, this shot of her face.
GeorgeRight.
JonAnd then I realized, wait, wait, I’m holding the camera. I’m the person here living this moment. This is unreal to be there. And that happens a lot to production personnel.
JonTheir name is not remembered, but they were as much responsible and a part of making it happen.
MoYeah.
JonYou said before, George, about all the money. Somebody’s got to turn the lights.
Moyeah
JonSomebody’s got to run the wires.
GeorgeRight.
JonSomebody’s got to plug the cameras in. Somebody’s got to make all that happen. And they also donated their time and effort.
MoI thought cute. Like the cameraman they had, I guess he was one of the few paid people that was there, but he’s sitting there. Like he said, he’s like, I can’t believe ah i’m sitting there for Diana Ross. I would have paid them to be doing this. You know, he’s like, Oh my God.
GeorgeRight.
Moi mean, I can’t, I can’t imagine being in the room ah in the eighties. Like if I was sat in that, if ah if you pop my eighties, me into that room, I would just lose my fricking mind.
JonYeah.
JonRight.
GeorgeYeah, I…
JonAnd you’re not a fan of every single person there, but you’re going to look around and go, oh my God, like three or four faces are going to pop and you’re going to just can’t believe you’re in the room with one of them.
MoNo.
GeorgeNo.
GeorgeYeah, i I pride myself on not being starstruck.
MoYeah.
GeorgeLike, I have met countless celebrities, A through D list, all over the place.
MoMm-hmm.
JonHmm.
GeorgeI’ve done interviews and everything. And John, this goes back to even when we were in the Star Trek club 30 years ago, right?
JonYeah.
MoYeah.
GeorgeI mean, long time meeting these people. I guarantee i would have lost my shit. Had been in that room, I would have absolutely gone catatonic and just started bubbling my lip over in the corner waiting for the ambulance to come pick me up because sheer volume
JonIt’s too much.
MoYeah. Mm-hmm.
Georgevolume
Jonyeah
Georgeof talent, not just the level, but the volume of talent in that room.
Moyeah
Mothe
GeorgeYou talked about the instrumentalists and I know we might not know their names. You know, they might be not, might not be household names, but
Jonyeah
GeorgeAnd those people, they had an incredible job do. Because think about they got to get that song recorded in that evening because all they were using in the headphones for the singers was the tracks that Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson had laid down on keyboards and things.
JonThat’s right.
JonThe scratch track.
MoMm-hmm.
JonThat’s right. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeSo those guys had to get their shit together at the same time that all this was going on with these vocalists.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd then Quincy Jones and his production crew had to put all that together all in one, like, 12-hour set.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeLike, okay, 12 hours seems like plenty of time to record a three-and-a-half-minute song.
MoSame.
JonNope.
MoNo, no.
GeorgeNo.
JonNope. Nope.
GeorgeMm-mm.
MoI thought it was pretty, don’t know if adorable right word, but like watching these artists like Sidney Lautner running around getting autographs.
GeorgeRight.
MoI mean, I mean, think of that.
JonRight.
MoLike, you know, you know, just like, I mean, just imagine she’s like a up and coming, right? She’s starting to hit her. She had a great album, had a lot of hits on it.
JonMm-hmm.
MoAnd for her, like Tina Turner, Billy Joel, and then they’ll run around and, you know, God, imagine how much that sheet music with the autographs on it would go for. um Because I’m sure it’s out there somewhere because they all a lot of them were doing that.
JonRight, right, right.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYou know, there’s 30 or 40 copies. Yeah, they were all getting autographs of each other, which is pretty.
MoYou know?
MoYeah.
JonWell, they were also like you, George. Many of those. There were probably a little Star Trek, too.
MoYeah.
GeorgeSure.
JonA little bit.
GeorgeYeah. I mean, yeah I’m sure you had the old heads who didn’t think twice about it, right?
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeBut you you had the young and up and coming people who were like, that’s Diana Ross standing next to Michael Jackson.
JonYeah.
MoLike Ray Charles.
MoYeah.
Jonah
MoYeah.
GeorgeWhen am I going to get to see those two perform in this kind of a setting ever?
MoYeah.
GeorgeI mean, that’s just nuts.
JonYeah.
MoIt was crazy.
JonYeah.
JonOkay. I think we’ll let that sit there. Yeah.
MoYeah, because we could talk about that thing for hours later.
GeorgeYeah. Do you want to say when we come back from the break, we’re…
JonWe had everything you need.
JonOh, I certainly can. Yeah. It’s easy enough.
GeorgeYeah.
JonWhat will I say? I haven’t done one of those yet. There we go. Okay. Yeah. I’ll do an insert here. Okay.
GeorgeYeah.
JonNow, when we get back from this quick break, we’re going to each select a specific, I’ll say a story or element or piece of the creation of We Are The World to talk about that kind of resonates both well kind of resonates most with us.
JonDamn it. That kind of resonates most with us. Stick around. There. That’ll sound great when I edit it.
Moas a Yeah, yeah youll you’ll make it work.
Jonah That’ll be a coherent thing I said. Okay. ah Somebody else get in and toss to me maybe? Yeah.
GeorgeSure, I’ll do it.
Jonor or Or move me down. Either one. I can do either one.
GeorgeYeah, I’ll get in and toss to you.
JonOkay. All right. Sure. Thank you.
GeorgeRecording Night Stories 5, 4, 3… four sorry As we often like to do, part of this podcast is about our experiences and our relationship to whatever the material is that we’re talking about in that particular podcast, and specifically the backtracks.
JonYeah.
Georgeyou know When we talked about all the kids’ machines, you know John told stories about flipping his go-kart, and you know Mo talks about you know having to leave his apartment just to go outside
JonSure.
JonAll of our injuries. Yeah.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeAll of this podcast is about our personal experiences. So I think it’s important that we take just a moment, as John said right before the break, to share a story that we learned either through this documentary or through our own experiences that resonated with us about the We Are the World song creation night or the song itself or even whatever was happening on in your lives that…
JonSure.
JonMm-hmm.
Georgebut made this such a seminal part of our culture and history. So John, think it’s good if we start with you, what one thing really stood out for you?
JonSure. And it segues really well off what we were just talking about in the last segment, how, you know, all these celebrities were together in one room. And at one point they were getting one of those autographs.
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
JonAnd something that they they kind of shine a light on, too, in in that film. Excuse me. Something kind of shine a light on, too, in that film is how these stars, whether they’re they’re up up and coming and whether they’re established or whatever, they have, when you get to a certain level of success, you have a certain, you can dictate what your comfort level is.
JonAnd you can, well, look, I have my people and I have my entourage and I have my manager who’s always with me and I have my bodyguard who’s with me or whatever.
MoAgents over here, yeah.
JonAnd in this studio, they were all stripped of that. This wasn’t
MoYeah.
GeorgeRight.
JonDiana Ross and her people, right? This wasn’t Dan Aykroyd and his friends.
MoMm-hmm.
GeorgeRight.
JonThis was the person we needed. Their voice was in the studio and they were in there alone. And they even, I think the narrator even calls out that some of them even were like off kilter and shy almost because they didn’t know how to be almost stripped down to look, you’re here because you are who you are.
GeorgeSure.
MoMm-hmm.
MoMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
JonBut when you are then stripped of all the, the, the stuff you’ve become accustomed to to help you cope with this celebrity. Now you’re just standing there by yourself, representing yourself with no one. Your hype man is not there or anything.
JonAnd it’s, it’s, it’s humbling to see, ah was probably humbling for them, but humbling for me to to see these people who I revere and go, well, these, you know, these are people I put on a pedestal. These are musical artists that the you created the soundtrack of the every day of my life that I heard on the radio and I played in the car. And,
JonAnd they are back to just being people who are not being paid to be there, who are out of their comfort zone, who are a little shy and awkward. And then, and then when it came time to do the thing they do,
Jonthey did it twice as good as they normally do it.
MoYeah.
JonYou know, I see these soloists that they’d been kind of talking in him and hymning and hawing and then they go, who ah they absolutely nailed the shit they’re doing.
MoYeah.
GeorgeRight. Right.
JonAnd I’m like, that’s why you’re there. You don’t need all that stuff around you.
Moyeah
JonYou don’t need all of the, the entourage. You got where you were because of who you are and what you can do and the talent you have, and the natural gifts you’ve got. And it was just so nice to see.
Jonand it was ah It’s hard to quantify, but I hear you guys just saying, yeah, yeah, you get what I’m saying. It’s seeing them in their rawest form and shining in that raw form.
JonIt was a unique way to see these artists in a way that I’d heard in the song, but not seen how they got there.
Georgeright
JonI just found that amazing.
MoI agree because it was like they weren’t like the big fish in the pond anymore you know, they were all big fish, you know, for the most part, maybe some medium fish, but, you know, all bigger fish, right?
JonThey were all the big fish in a little pond. yeah i Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. Yep, right.
MoAnd also, like I if their agents were there, you know, their agents would be going to Quincy Jones, like, hey, my guy’s solo wasn’t long as so-and-so solo.
JonRight.
MoLet me get them a longer solo.
JonNone of that garbage.
GeorgeRight. Yeah.
MoLet me, or, you know, oh, they’re in the back row of the chorus.
JonNone of that. Yeah.
MoWe need to move in the front. I mean, literally, that’d be the conversations that would be going on.
JonBullshit. That’s what people do. that that’s what you That’s what your representatives are paid for.
Georgeyeah
JonThey weren’t there.
MoRight.
JonYou’re just people. Yeah.
MoOh, that’s awesome.
JonTremendous. Yeah. So that’s my. All right. So, ah Mo, I don’t move along to you.
MoSure.
JonWhat is a single thing that you took away from this that most resonates with you?
MoI just thought this was the most adorable story of the whole of the documentary. This just it just tickled me so much was that, you Sidney Lopner was doing her part with Huey Lewis and Kim Carnes, I think was the two people she was singing with.
MoRight.
JonMm-hmm. City lover, right?
MoAnd they were singing, you know, again, belting out and they did a couple takes. And then the sound guy like, I’m picking up something whenever she sings, you know, something’s come up and they were trying to troubleshoot her mic. Is her mic bad?
MoThey turned off all the other mics to make sure they weren’t getting background noises.
Georgeright
Mothey They did all this stuff and they realized it was her jewelry. She had all these necklaces and bracelets on.
Jonbut she They come from the Grammys. She was in full Cyndi Lauper regalia.
MoYeah.
Georgeright right
MoShe was in fully set regalia.
JonRight.
Moand And she had to step up to the mic to sing because once she’s shorter than everybody else too.
JonYeah.
MoSo she had to step up. And when she stepped up, all the stuff was jangling and making, and it was just adorable because she’s sitting there like, they’re like chuckling everyone’s really good natures about it. And all of a sudden she’s like, she realized, you know, like the when the light came up, oh my God.
JonYeah.
GeorgeRight.
MoAnd she felt so embarrassed. She was like, oh my God, I’m so sorry. Like, cause she, know, I could see like she wasted all of these people’s time.
JonAnd she’s stripping off necklaces and jewelry.
MoLike, And she’s trying to get these necklaces off.
JonShe’s peeling it off.
GeorgeLike she’s throwing Captain Lou Albano’s rubber bands out of the way.
MoShe’s trying to get those.
JonIt’s like Mr. T. but we going right off the
MoYeah, exactly. You know she’s trying to pull up under her arms. It’s trying to get them off. And ah to me, it was just like, a again, it was like they were real people. Like, that’s what it showed me that they were just like, she made a human mistake.
JonRight.
GeorgeRight.
JonIt was normalizing. Yeah.
MoYeah, you know, and i said it was just adorable.
JonHumanizing. Sure.
MoI’m watching her because she’s just adorable, too, especially back then. like She was just a cute, small little thing. And she’s like, oh, my God, I’m so sorry. And then she pulls up. then, of course, like you said, John, she goes up there and belts out her phenomenal voice, you know.
GeorgeRight.
JonRight. Yeah. Yeah. ah Better than I’ve ever heard.
MoYeah.
JonYeah. It’s amazing.
MoSo that was my George, you pick what would have been my story because this is an amazing story.
Jonah
GeorgeSure.
MoGo for it, man.
Jonah
GeorgeYeah. I mean, i I went with this one because i have a, a connection to the artist involved both on both sides of the story.
MoYeah.
Georgeum And i I think I had heard the rumors that, before the documentary, but the documentary like just lays everything out on Front Street as to what happened. Now, one side of the story we’re never going to hear, unfortunately, because we can’t.
JonRight.
Moyeah
Georgeah That person is no longer with us. But, ah John, you talked earlier about how these artists, they just shined even though they didn’t have their entourages with them.
GeorgeWell, one guy who kind of got to bring his entourage with him a little bit was Huey Lewis.
JonYeah.
GeorgeHe brought his whole band
MoYeah, that’s true.
JonThat’s true.
GeorgeAs we talked about, they sang in the chorus.
JonYeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Georgeum And he did that because he kind of was a last minute call. He was not originally going to be one of the participants, certainly was not going to be a soloist because even though for me, he was incredibly big and popular at that time.
GeorgeThis is right around the time of the sports album, which was probably his most famous.
MoOh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
JonYes.
GeorgeAnd right before he released the album four, which was one of my favorite albums that he ever did.
Jona
Georgeso to me, he was everywhere. He was everything I listened to on pop radio, but compared to the people in the room, he was a baby in that fame, right?
MoBack to future.
JonLittle fish. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
MoJust starting, right?
GeorgeWell, it, yeah The reason why he got brought in last minute is because they did have somebody else who was slightly more well-known at the time, maybe a little bit.
MoYeah, a smidge.
Jonhe
Georgeah Mr. Purple himself, Prince, was supposed to be the soloist who sang the line that Huey Lewis did in We Are the World.
MoMm-hmm.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd the documentary goes on, and I’m not going to go into the entire story because I really want people to go watch this for themselves.
MoYeah, yeah, it definitely is.
JonIt’s worth it. Yeah.
GeorgeAnd ah yeah, it’s it there’s a lot of meat on this bone, but essentially Prince and the organizers couldn’t work out his participation. There was back and forth about, was he going to sing? Was he going to play?
GeorgeHe wanted to be in a separate room, all this kind of stuff that
MoYeah.
JonMm-hmm. It’s a guitar solo, right?
GeorgeYeah. And, and so you start to think when watching this documentary, you might get the impression that Prince was being spoiled a little bit.
MoYes. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeMaybe he was being a little egotistic. Um, I love Huey Lewis and I think Huey Lewis’s participation in the song is brilliant.
Moyes
GeorgeHis voice is unique and a standout. I don’t think people recognized it until the, a few years later, just how good of a singer he really is.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeUm, But I don’t take that view against Prince in my case.
Mono
GeorgeAnd I think it’s because I recognize Prince as being, other than maybe Stevie Wonder in this group, the only true musical genius. Now, Ray Charles, I’m not trying to take anything away from him.
GeorgeBut what we have discovered about Prince since his passing especially, the volume of his contributions to the music industry and to music in general, are probably never going to be fully ascertained.
JonMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
MoOh, sure.
GeorgeThat man, in my opinion, may have been one of the greatest musical talents of any time period, let alone this time period. So him wanting specific things, I don’t think it was because he had a big ego.
GeorgeI think it was because he maybe knew his process and maybe understood what he needed to give his best to something that was probably just as important to him as it was to anybody else in the room.
MoYeah, I get i get that.
JonMm-hmm. Okay.
Moyeah
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd I think it’s a shame that they couldn’t work it out. I don’t know if it would have done any more album sales or not.
MoWhy not?
GeorgeI’m happy that I got Huey Lewis, but I’m really, really fucking sad that I didn’t get Prince.
JonOh, yeah.
JonMm-hmm.
MoYeah, I agree with you, George, because it almost seems like as popular as pop stuff is, he is… very private person that always has been.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoAnd to throw him in a room with that many people just seems like he would just be so uncomfortable, you know, um I can see it.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
MoAnd he did contribute a song to the album. to the album
GeorgeRight, to the album, yes.
MoLike he he did a a separate song just for this album, which, you know, again, to his credit, because I think he just know knew himself, quite honestly, and he knew that he would not be able to perform well in that situation, you know?
GeorgeYeah.
JonDoes not play well with others, maybe?
MoYeah, I mean, he really does. And that’s a lot of geniuses like can’t, right?
GeorgeYeah, that’s kind of, I mean, that’s kind of the rap that we get from stories about Prince. You talk about Kevin Smith, you know, was brought to Prince’s house at one point to film and do documentary work.
GeorgeAnd that documentary will never be seen because Prince locked it away in the vault, you know, at Paisley Ranch or wherever, whatever it’s called.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYou’ll never see any of that. And Kevin Smith has gone on for years talking about how he was a musical genius, but he was difficult to work for.
MoYeah.
JonMm-hmm. Yeah.
Georgei I know that sometimes we give too much credit to geniuses in this world and let him get away with a little too much. I’ve never heard of stories of him being too abusive to people or anything like that.
MoNo.
GeorgeSo I think in this case, I’m okay with giving him ah the, you know, the shadow of doubt a little bit, just like, okay, I’m sorry we couldn’t get this worked out, but God damn, that would have been awesome.
MoA pass on this, right?
JonMm-hmm.
MoYeah. Yeah. I mean, it just really just amazed me, though, how they were able to blend all these voices, though, and have them sing their style.
JonSure. Yeah.
GeorgeWell, that’s Quincy Jones.
JonNo.
MoYeah, exactly. Which that, you know, the Do They Know Is Christmas one wasn’t them singing their own individual styles. It was all them singing together in a chorus.
Jonno
GeorgeRight. It was just a chorus, yeah.
MoYeah, this one, though, every you everyone was distinctive. Every single voice. And to meld those, just amazing to me.
JonYeah. And you know and in in defense of the whole situation with Prince, too, it’s worth pointing out that he’s not the only artist they approached who couldn’t or wouldn’t and was not able to attend.
GeorgeSure.
MoYeah. Right.
JonHe’s just the biggest profile and he was very close and then couldn’t finally make it happen.
Moright
GeorgeRight.
JonSo there are plenty of artists who did nothing, whereas Prince did contribute.
Moright
Jonah But all that being said, I wouldn’t want to I would not have wanted that part to be Prince now after hearing Huey Lewis do it because I like how it ended up, you know.
GeorgeI mean.
Moyeah
GeorgeSure. But we do have to at least give a little bit of a shout out and pour little bit beer out for John Denver not getting included. That’s bullshit.
Jonyeah
GeorgeJohn Denver should have been in this song.
MoYeah, that was a weird decision.
JonYeah, I’d agree.
MoThat was a weird decision.
GeorgeIf anybody deserved, had lived a life of giving John Denver.
JonYeah.
MoYeah.
GeorgeAnd you know who else that I was shocked didn’t get in it considering another person that was invited?
JonGood point.
JonWho’s that?
GeorgeHow in the fuck did they not invite Dolly Parton?
JonGood point. She would have been a tremendous, and you know, Kenny could have called her, right?
GeorgeKenny Rogers is there. Their song was super popular. How do you not put, I mean, the greatest human being on the planet, Dolly Parton’s not in this song.
MoCould she not make it, or…?
JonShe was busy helping someone else probably knowing Dolly.
GeorgeProbably. She was sending books to refugees in Uganda or some shit.
MoYeah.
JonRight. Right.
Moah She was already there and Ethiopia or something.
GeorgeI don’t know.
JonYeah. ah
GeorgeRight? Yeah.
MoYeah.
JonOnce that crazy night took place… We got the song put together. was broadcast all over the world simultaneously as close as they could.
MoYeah.
JonAnd we we were there in 85 and we heard it. um And want to talk about the things that came after, what it inspired. We talk a little bit about, you know, the farm aid and it’s not called farm aid.
JonWhat’s it called?
MoLive Aid.
JonIt was live aid.
GeorgeI mean, there was a farm eight, but yeah.
JonThank you.
MoIt was Live Aid 2.
JonThat was later. That was later. Live aid you talked about before.
GeorgeYeah. Mm-hmm.
JonGeorge talked a little bit before about Live Aid that came just on the heels of that, but inspired tons of other ah examples of activism in music. But before we get to that, ah Mo, I want you to share with us the success, how well this song performed after all this effort went into it.
MoOh, I mean, yeah besides the fact that it hit number one pretty much across the world for the most part, um…
Jonbut Instantly.
MoYeah, instantly. i mean, that’s just… that’s just you know Besides that…
Jonit didn’t climb the charts. It just was the charts.
MoYeah.
GeorgeRight.
MoThey sold… the first The first printing, they did 800,000 albums. That was the first printing. They sold out in three days.
JonOkay. Wow.
JonYeah. Sure.
MoTower Records at the time… don’t know you guys remember Tower Records, but they were like the huge…
Jonoh well
GeorgeRight.
MoThey said that they… like they said top albums would sell, they would sell like two or 300 copies a week, like with a brand new top album.
Jonokay
GeorgeRight.
MoThey sold a thousand a day of this album when it came out.
Jonwow
Moyou know, they just couldn’t believe how fast it was flying off the shelves.
Jonyou know
MoAnd overall, the i mean, the ultimate goal of this album was to raise money, right? And so they raised the equivalent of 80 million, which is like 230 million today for this cause, you know?
Jonsure
GeorgeSure.
JonA quarter of a billion dollars.
MoAnd
JonYeah.
MoYeah, and that, and it’s, I mean, it’s still raising, like, the proceeds would still go to that charity.
JonMm-hmm.
Moum So it’s still continuing to raise money, maybe not as fast as it did, obviously.
JonToday.
Georgesure
MoBut still, though, I mean, it it just broke so many records. It was like the fastest rising single that ever hit number one. I mean, it was just crazy. It’s just the amount of stuff this album did.
JonYeah. And why wouldn’t it? Yeah.
Jonhad Who wants to start grabbing?
Moyeah.
JonI’ll grab this first one. That’s fine.
GeorgeYeah, I’ll do the comic relief one.
MoOkay.
JonOkay, all right. Yeah, cool. Good to talk. And as we were saying a second ago, just how it continued to influence the success of We Are The World.
JonI don’t know that anything did as big. That was like the one, right? But people learned between that and Live Aid, what you could do. ah The next year in 1986, there was ah STARS, which is by, like we had, ah was it Africa for USA?
JonUSA for Africa was the name of the group they put together by HereNade, apostrophe N, like an N.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
GeorgeOh.
Jonah It was a heavy metal super group, a track called Stars that raised three million more dollars in 80s music and in 80s dollars for also for African famine relief, too.
Georgeah
GeorgeYou know, that same year, 86, John, that’s also the year that we got a thing started by a different group of entertainers. Comedians started the comic relief movements, both in the UK and in the USA.
MoOh, yeah.
JonRight.
Mohey Yeah, that’s huge.
GeorgeNow, in the UK, it was termed Red Nose Day, and they had a bunch of UK comedians in the USA.
JonYep.
MoYeah.
JonOh, yeah.
GeorgeIt was Comic Relief USA, and famously, it was always hosted on HBO for a long time,
JonRight?
Georgewith Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg.
JonThat’s right.
GeorgeI’ll never forget the joke that they told when the three of them are standing up there with Whoopi Goldberg in the middle.
JonI know it.
GeorgeAnd they go, I think it was Robin Williams goes, look, a reverse Oreo.
JonYep.
Mooh
GeorgeAnd Whoopi Goldberg off the cuff goes, anybody want to take a lick? I love
Georgethat made me donate right then. I swear to God, I called in and donated right after that joke.
JonYou win. You got me.
GeorgeOh, yeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeJust some brilliant stuff.
MoOh, man. Yeah. And a lot of artists did like singles and did individual efforts, too, to try to help. It’s like U2. Like they were monster huge in the late 80s, early 90s.
GeorgeRight.
MoThey did a whole charity single that promoted AIDS research back in 91.
Jonhe
MoI think it was called One was the album or the song that they did.
GeorgeRight. Why
JonRight.
JonI can get a candle.
Georgedon’t we just rotate?
JonSomebody.
GeorgeYou go next, John.
JonOh, go next. I grabbed a candle. Let’s do that.
GeorgeYeah.
JonTake that off. All right. I’ll do it.
JonIt was 91. and Three, two.
JonA little later in ah in the 90s, 95, Michael Jackson continued his his efforts in philanthropy.
Georgeo
Jonum He did a song called Heal the World. I was talking about his humanitarian goals ah through a song and a foundation called Heal the World that he set up. ah Yeah, just and he was he was pivotal in We Are the World.
JonAnd you got had to hope maybe that meant that either he already had it in him or it inspired him to continue to do more even after you know that effort was done.
GeorgeRight.
Jonhe had a good experience with it, I like to think.
Georgeah You know, and he’s not the only individual artist now. he This person wasn’t involved in We Are the World, but Elton John, he had had a seminal song come out called Candle in the Wind, which was all about, um you know, Marilyn Monroe and her legacy.
JonRight. Yeah.
GeorgeBut then he re-released it and changed the lyrics just a tiny bit and re-released it for the death of Princess Diana in 97.
JonYeah.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeAnd all of those proceeds from that version of the song…
JonRight.
Georgestill to this day, go to the charities that she helped found and run.
JonRight.
GeorgeAnd it’s just, it’s beautiful to see these artists taking something that is horribly tragic and trying to do something good out of it.
JonAwesome.
GeorgeIt epitomizes the best in the human spirit.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeWhen that happens, you take grief and you turn it into good.
MoYeah.
GeorgeAnd that’s, that’s just a wonderful thing for me.
JonYeah.
JonThat’s that silver lining. Like, find something good out of it if you can.
GeorgeYeah.
JonRight. Yeah.
MoYeah. I know nothing about perfect day. no but I was trying to even look it up while we were talking. I can’t find much about it. Be honest.
Jonah I’ll just, I know what says here, and I’ll just talk about it. And you’ll take, you take the We Are The World 25 in a second.
MoAll right. Yeah, actually, had that second one.
JonYeah.
MoSo, yeah, let me do that one.
JonThat’s fine. Yeah, I’ll do this first. so to do Also in 97, Perfect Day was another track put out. this was This was done in the BBC. was a charity thing.
JonIt was a charity single um that had a bunch of, like I guess, British, maybe British located stars, I guess. And they were putting they put out a track. We Are the Worldly for Children in Need was the name of the organization.
MoMm-hmm.
MoWell, you know, also there was a, they redid the We Are The World, don’t know you knew that, they did We Are The World 25, they did for the earthquakes in Haiti.
GeorgeRight.
MoYeah.
JonOh, yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
Moum And you like Seal and a lot of rap, you know, R&B artists were involved in that one. And it’s kind of funny because, you know, the real, think they were trying to recapture that same lightning in a bottle thing that they did for the first one.
MoAnd i mean, it’s unfortunately like most people probably never heard of it, you know?
JonHow do you? Right.
GeorgeIt’s kind of like the sequels to Woodstock, right? Like, it was good, but it’s not the magic.
MoYeah, it’s just not.
MoYou’re exactly.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeI really wanted to do the New York one.
JonSo George, you want this last one? Let me grab Ronan for you.
MoOkay.
JonAnd then you last one.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonOkay. Uh, uh,
JonI was about to say, and then recently, but 2012 is still a long ways back, over a decade back, but somewhat much more recently in 2012, Taylor Swift did a track called Ronin on one of her albums.
GeorgeOh.
Jonah There was a tribute to, ah she was inspired by a young cancer victim, and that proceeds from that song went to support cancer charities.
Georgeoh
JonSo it’s just more… Artists finding that, look, I can i can perform to make money. i can also perform to benefit others. And it doesn’t take anything away from me. It helps others. And I continue to do what I’m doing. I get mine and and and put something else out there. And it’s inspiring.
GeorgeYeah, I know um we’ve been taking this list chronologically, but I’m going to jump back even a decade before Ronan, John, and talk a little bit about 9-11.
JonOkay. Sure, sure. Mm-hmm.
GeorgeSo we all know the tragedy that was 9-11 in this country, and we remember it. I’m sure it’s one of those seminal moments. You know where you were, what everything was happening. But very shortly thereafter, and I mean very shortly thereafter, there’s Two different groups got together to do tribute songs and concerts for the relief efforts, not only for the people in New York, but also the first responders.
Georgeah One was called America, a tribute to heroes. And the other one was called the concert for New York city. And one of the reasons why i wanted to mention this, this effort is because
JonI remember, yeah.
GeorgeI remember a lot of artists wrote ah brand new original songs like the Eagles came out with hole in the world, which to this day still tears me up. Of course, Billy Joel at both concerts being Mr. New York musician um performed a New York state of mind at both of them.
JonYeah.
MoYeah.
Moyeah
JonYeah, beautiful.
GeorgeI, I mean, it’s it just was these things that they threw together hastily. We live in a different world, so it wasn’t everybody crammed in one room over 15 hours.
JonRight.
GeorgeThey did these almost telethon style, a little bit more like comic relief.
JonMm
GeorgeBut to this day, those charities still raise money for those incredible causes. And everything that we listed here is probably only 10% of what people have tried to do since the days of We Are The World.
MoYeah.
Jonhmm.
Georgethat really kind of, it wasn’t the first thing as we said, but I would say it was the thing that most got this charitable music movement moving.
JonYeah.
JonYeah. So um at this point, it’s been 40 years since We Are The World, since those few dozen artists, three, four, five dozen, I guess, artists piled into a room after the Grammys and put together something that led to prove that music can absolutely contribute positively to change in the world.
Moyeah
JonWe don’t have to rely on political leaders and government officials and you know who’s in charge You, and it’s not just a musician. Everybody can do something to contribute to positive change, just like this artist did. They just have a platform to get a little more visibility on it.
MoYeah.
JonBut everyone can. And like I said, just with some of these we talked about a minute ago, I think it’s inspiring just for a regular run-of-the-mill people like us. There are things that you can do that you might not think, but they absolutely contribute.
MoYeah, for sure. I mean, you could be cynical, I guess, on this and think like, oh, they’re doing it because they’re trying to improve their you know cachet in the world or trying to do this.
JonRight.
JonBut they still did it.
MoBut these aren’t you’re not talking about somebody whose career is failing you know and they’re trying to regurgitated or you know of regurgiate resuscitate that.
JonNo.
MoThese are people are all at the top. resuscitate it um or anything like that you know these are people who are all like at the top When they did this, you know, so they they didn’t need to do it.
JonWe’re on the way up. Yeah.
MoYou know, that maybe it is maybe trying to stay relevant, whatever, but regardless of the reasons, um they did something good, you know, or trying to. So I say, hey, if it helps people, then who really cares?
JonThey did.
JonIt did. And I’m going to go listen to We Are The World right after I finish recording this again.
Georgehe
JonAnd remember all those voices meshed together.
MoYeah.
JonWell said. Okay. Guys, this has been a delight. I love talking about this topic. You know, George, thanks for all your preparation on this. ah Very much appreciated.
MoYeah, very thanks, George.
JonBefore we leave, speaking of doing good, doing kindness, I want to thank a couple of… New and upgraded supporters over on Patreon. You know, if you head to patreon.com slash Gen X Grown Up, you can set up a regular monthly pledge for as little as a dollar a month to support Gen X Grown Up and our efforts here on the podcast and over on YouTube and on the website.
JonAnd I want to thank Major Cranky. Love the name.
MoThat’s not George.
JonJoined us recently. Is that you, George?
Georgeah Right.
JonIs this pseudonym? Is your alt?
GeorgeNo, I would be general cranky.
JonNo, he… General Cranky.
MoOh, that’s right. You’re right. You’re right.
GeorgeYes.
JonYeah, because he’s generally cranky. that’s Of course, it makes sense.
GeorgeThat’s right.
JonSo thank you, Major Cranky, George’s protege, as well as Josh. who Josh, you might remember, he joined us very recently. And then he gave us an upgrade recently.
MoOh, wow.
JonHe jumped to a higher tier.
MoThat’s awesome.
JonAnd I pinged him to thank him. And he said, yeah, I was a patron and I’ve just been binging the the podcast so much. I just wanted to help a little more and also get a little swag back because we don’t mention it very often.
JonBut at some of the tiers, you know, after a while, we send you out thank you gifts.
MoYeah. Yep.
Jonah So he’s like, i want to help more and I want to get some swag. So thank you, Josh, for that.
Moyeah
JonI’m always astounded when people… put out a pledge and then they up the pledge because they’re, they’re seeing the return for their investment. Josh, thank you. Major cranky. Thank you for that. Thank you to everyone who supports us over on Patreon. You are the best and we’re so grateful that you do.
JonThat then is going to wrap it up for this backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. If you are worried, though, don’t. Don’t worry, because we’ll be back in two weeks with another one.
JonNext week is a standard edition of our show. Until then, I am John. George, thank you so much for being here, man.
GeorgeYes, sir.
JonMo, you know I appreciate you.
MoAlways fun, man.
JonFourth listener, it’s you we all appreciate most of all, though, and we cannot wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye.
GeorgeSee you guys.
MoTake care, everybody.
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About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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