Oh dear, Geldof’s Band Aid hit is in danger of being cancelled
This was the 1980s after all.
That day, Sunday, November 25, 1984, the greatest array of Irish and British musical talent ever assembled in one place was recording a song that would change the world of music, and indeed, in its own way, change the world.
It was called Do They Know It’s Christmas?, and the charity single ended up being the biggest-selling record of all time, as well as raising millions to help relieve a horrific ongoing famine in Ethiopia.
I was a highly impressionable 15-year-old at the time, and anyone who was young in the 1980s will remember the impact that song had on the world of music and culture.
They had been assembled, under the collective name Band Aid, by a mouthy Irish punk rocker called Bob Geldof - he had penned the words for Do They Know The Christmas?
Among the most stellar names in that galaxy of stars on the record was Bono of U2, who was handed the task of belting out the song’s most rousing line - “Well, tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you.”
Performers who gave their time that day also included Sting, Simon Le Bon, George Michael, and Boy George. The record was a Christmas No.1, raising £8million for Ethiopia in its first year alone, and more than £200million overall.
In the years since, there have been several reiterations of the song, all raising money for famine charities.
Indeed, a new ‘ultimate mix’ version will premiere on British radio stations on Monday morning, to mark the 40th anniversary of the original song being recorded.
Depressingly, it seems that all this time, Do They Know It’s Christmas? - a song that saved countless lives, raised awareness of a disaster of vast proportions, and is credited with changing the very way we view fund-raising - was actually not a good thing at all.
In fact, the song appears to be on the verge of being cancelled.
Yes, first they came for Fairytale Of New York because of an offensive word, and now they want to take out Do They Know It’s Christmas? too!
I first got wind of this bizarre scenario when I heard the usually easy-to-please and rather vapid songster Ed Sheeran had objected to his vocals being used in the 40th anniversary remix.
He explained that his “understanding of the narrative” associated with Do They Know It’s Christmas? had changed, thanks to his friendship with a Ghanaian-English rapper called Fuse ODG.
Their counter argument goes that, while recognising that Band Aid helped get sympathy and donations, such campaigns also “perpetuated damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s economic growth”.
There was a need to “reclaim the narrative, empowering Africans to tell their own stories... proving that Africa’s solutions and progress lie in its own hands”.
These are legitimate, understandable concerns for a modern African to have, but surely it doesn’t mean we have to cast aside the support shown to African people when they really needed it, by generations of pop stars and their fans, through the original Band Aid single?
The song has become a staple of Christmas parties for four decades, and those who were young in the 1980s sing it with gusto, aware of the difference our generation had helped to make in a part of the world that was suffering a cataclysmic tragedy.
Drill a little deeper into the criticism of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, and you discover the lyrics are, in the favourite word of modern commentators, problematic.
Poor old Bob Geldof, when he was re-writing an unused Boomtown Rats song, in a quest to be altruistic and inspirational, could never have known the fuss it would cause 40 years later!
The fact he and Midge Ure turned the song around so quickly - the recording studio gave Band Aid no more than 24 free hours to record and mix it - and came up with such a memorable banger should be to their eternal credit. But in a world of revisionism, nothing is eternal, and no good deed goes unpunished.
Colin Alexander, senior lecturer in political communications at Nottingham Trent University, quoted the line ‘Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow’ and said: “The lyrics recycled many of the old colonial tropes of Africa as a barren land requiring Western salvation.
“These inaccuracies didn’t seem to matter to the many politicians, musicians, journalists and members of the public who got on the Band Aid wagon.” Dearie me.
In the famine-hit Ethiopia of 1984, nothing did grow and no rains did flow. Geldof was desperately pulling on our heart-strings to raise money for dying people, was he supposed to paint a happy picture of a fertile land for over-thinkers 40 years hence?
Thankfully, Geldof, as gobby and outspoken as ever, has strongly refuted the criticism: “It’s a pop song ffs,” he railed. “This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive.”
The lyrics of his “miraculous little record”, he insisted, were actually empirical facts. “Colonial tropes, my arse,” he added.
What critics and supporters of Band Aid do agree on is that the song changed the face of charity work forever. It was followed a year later by the mammoth Live Aid concert, and by a U.S version of the song and concert. Fundraising became more of a spectacle, and celebrities were keen to endorse various projects.
In Ireland, we had Self Aid, a benefit concert for the unemployed, in 1986, and in the UK, Comic Relief was founded in 1985. Like Band Aid, these were mass movements where the world of culture and ordinary people could unite and raise awareness and money for good causes.
However, lecturer Mr Alexander said such developments were “highly problematic because they may reduce the likelihood of charities offering genuine solutions to societal or ecological problems.
“On account of the Band Aid format, we are now arguably less knowledgeable about why some people suffer terribly around the world – and in no better a position to put an end to it,” he said.
Well, it’s one way of looking at it, I suppose.
I prefer to think Do They Know It’s Christmas? is a 3 minute 55 second song that had its heart in the right place, and changed the world for the better.
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