OT: "We Are The World" Remake
Feb. 12th, 2010 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazypadawanSince there's no "Ghost Whisperer," I was stuck watching the Olympics before Clone Wars starts. They showed the remake of "We Are The World," recorded after the Grammys to raise money for the Haitian earthquake.
Ah, when good intentions go horribly wrong.
It's CRAP. I never liked the original song, despite its noble aspirations. Like its predecessor, "Do They Know It's Christmas," it suffered from cheesy lyrics and shameless mugging for the cameras. I remember some alt musician mocking the song: "We are the world/we are rich bastards/we drive fancy cars/and we don't pay taxes." The fights that occurred at the studio in 1985 are legendary: Bob Geldof complaining about the fancy spread (until he found out it was donated), Waylon Jennings leaving after Stevie Wonder proposed singing the song in Swahili (they don't speak Swahili in Ethiopia).
I don't know what happened with this revamp, but it makes the '85 original sound like the greatest song ever. Michael Jackson's old vocals. Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, and Josh Groban over here, a bunch of rappers over there. Wyclef Jean wailing away. Lil' Wayne throwing in his .02 before going off to jail. Isn't that Jordin Sparks? Isn't that Miley Cyrus? Look, there's Pink. What's Jeff Bridges doing there? Wrong awards show, dude, unless he's filling the Dan Ackroyd role. Sadly, I don't really recognize anyone else.
At least the original blended the different styles of performers. This just sounded like a mess.
Ah, when good intentions go horribly wrong.
It's CRAP. I never liked the original song, despite its noble aspirations. Like its predecessor, "Do They Know It's Christmas," it suffered from cheesy lyrics and shameless mugging for the cameras. I remember some alt musician mocking the song: "We are the world/we are rich bastards/we drive fancy cars/and we don't pay taxes." The fights that occurred at the studio in 1985 are legendary: Bob Geldof complaining about the fancy spread (until he found out it was donated), Waylon Jennings leaving after Stevie Wonder proposed singing the song in Swahili (they don't speak Swahili in Ethiopia).
I don't know what happened with this revamp, but it makes the '85 original sound like the greatest song ever. Michael Jackson's old vocals. Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, and Josh Groban over here, a bunch of rappers over there. Wyclef Jean wailing away. Lil' Wayne throwing in his .02 before going off to jail. Isn't that Jordin Sparks? Isn't that Miley Cyrus? Look, there's Pink. What's Jeff Bridges doing there? Wrong awards show, dude, unless he's filling the Dan Ackroyd role. Sadly, I don't really recognize anyone else.
At least the original blended the different styles of performers. This just sounded like a mess.
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Date: 2010-02-13 01:15 pm (UTC)I liked the song before but just barely. This version doesn't endear me at all.
Supposedly there's a longer version to be broadcast later.
It's too bad since the goal (to help Haiti) was noble.