Feed the World

One of the coolest Christmas songs to come along in my lifetime was not so much a song as an event.  I still remember the first time I heard those opening chimes and those big, fat drums.  I knew it was going to be something different.  Then, I heard Paul Young.  Then, I heard Boy George.  Then, I heard Simon LeBon…and George Michael…and Sting…and Bono…and I probably blacked out after that.  Nowadays, all-star collaborations are common, but it just didn’t happen back then.  In fact, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was the catalyst for that kind of thing going forward.  It led to charity singles like “We are the World” & “That’s What Friends are For” and events like Live Aid & Farm Aid.  What’s ironic is that many of the singers involved in the song thought they were going to be the featured vocalist or that it would be a duet between them and another artist.  Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, who conceived and organized the recording session (AND the Live Aid concert), implemented some masterful sleight-of-hand to make the project materialize.

Along the way, there were also a handful of humorous obstacles such as Sting not wanting to sing a line that included the word “sting” in it or Bono being uncomfortable singing “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you”, which he thought sounded more than a little unsympathetic.  That’s not to mention the fact that Boy George overslept after playing Madison Square Garden the night before and barely made it to the session.

The Making of Band Aid

In the end, the song became a worldwide hit and raised millions of dollars for famine relief in Africa while being updated several times over the years by younger generations of pop stars singing for charity.  It also provided a template for rock-n-roll benefits going forward.  Bob Geldof may not have fed the world with his vision, but he certainly put bread on a lot of tables that would, otherwise, have been bare…and if that ain’t Christmas, then I don’t know what is.