Band Aid - Do They Know It's Xmas

[Avondklok]

Everyone loves to hate this now, but it's not so far off 40 years old!!!! And everyone meant well. I was a teenager back then and to see everyone join together in a way never seen before at that point was just marvellous. Ditto Bandaid that followed. I hate that it gets so slagged off these days, though I do understand the arguments.

@tinseltart

If you want to be critical of the song then first watch the video of Michael buerk in Ethiopia and see what was going on there at the time. Then think what that song achieved.

Some of the lyrics are dubious but that's the case with many songs that do fuck all to help with poverty.

Absolutely. It's easy nowadays with every Ed Sheeran on the block getting in on the poverty porn, but back then there had been nothing like it since George Harrison's concert for Bangladesh.

People younger than us old fogies need to remember that that news report by Michael Buerk followed by what BG and MU did, in the space of a couple of weeks, DID change lives.

Hmm let me think: would I rather listen to Band Aid which raised millions for charity ? or someone singing about her fat ass and how she likes anal sex ( many thanks Cardi B )? gosh, it's a tough choice.

What a VERY strange and a disturbing comparison..

It raised awareness and it raised money. I was a child and bought the record - so that was £1.50 of my pocket money that went to a good cause, instead of on whatever rubbish I was into buying myself at the time. Multiply that by thousands of people and it's a good result.

*and disturbing

It was well intentioned and none of the singers were doing it for publicity, like many do now, they genuinely hoped they were helping. Apart from Marylin who turned up uninvited. 😁

Where does the money raised from radio and such go to nowadays?

'I don't like Mondays' is definitely Bob Geldofs best song.

No wonder so many mumsnet threads end up in the daily Mail. Who can be bothered to try to be offended by a song which was written years ago, with great spirit behind it which helped raise a lot of money.

I thought the negative portrayal of the place was the issue?

“ Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow”

Is that even true? (I don’t have an issue with the song, just trying to remember why people find it offensive)

Christmas in the Coptic church is January the seventh.
It's not so much that they "don't know it's Christmas" more that they know it definatly isnt (yet).

Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow

It was true of that place in that year. The BBC report was truly shocking

Ethiopia: The famine report that shocked the world

@Ahorsecalledseptember

I like it and I think people take it at face value far too much.

‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ isn’t literal. But when you are starving to death, Christmas might sort of slip by the wayside

This!

It was written very quickly, in order to get recorded. It was never meant to be a masterpiece but to stir at people's emotions, which it clearly did at the time as it rose a lot of money.

@BakedTattie

I love it! My favourite Christmas song

Mine too. Sick of all this superior sneering about something that had nothing but the very best of intentions.

Hopefully Geldof will be dead by the time I'm 50

And there we have it, Christmas spirit at its finest 🙄

I think I was a baby when it came out but growing up I was fully aware it was about Ethiopia & not Africa.

And everyone meant well. I was a teenager back then and to see everyone join together in a way never seen before at that point was just marvellous.

So it’s fine to patronise an entire continent because it ‘brought us all together’?

And who did it bring together, outside of celebs?

It’s a moderately catchy song with slightly naff lyrics which was recorded at breakneck speed in response to a horrific humanitarian crisis. I remember the images on the news, they were almost unbearable.
Give over with your silly woke nonsense and pick on something actually malign.

Ds was reading this at school the other day, & came home to ask me about it as I was a young teenager in the 80s. He's doing Global Politics at IB.

Don't know how accurate it is (their Xmas holiday work is to read & evaluate it for bias etc), but definitely thought provoking https://www.spin.com/featured/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/ .

I think it’s pathetic that people need a song to get them to do the right thing.

Hope those of you defending the song are digging deep in your pockets for Syria.

Give us the fucking money is not patronising anybody

The whole movement was showing the west how selfish they were

The movement was about helping people who were not in a position to help the,selves

If someone now who didn't benefit from it wants to find it patronising it shows an eagerness to find offence

While you are at it, can you please also ban Shakespeare, especially the merchant of Venice with its hatred of Jews. The taming of the show with its misogyny. And I think it's Midsummer nights dream that has a go at people who have limited mental capability

Oh and go through the current charts and recent music and pick up every insult to women please

Don't forget the fairytale of New York which calls the woman a slut

@switswooo

I think it’s pathetic that people need a song to get them to do the right thing.

Hope those of you defending the song are digging deep in your pockets for Syria.

Which just shows you have no idea of the time, how people really didn't see or know about what was happening elsewhere. How many people then thought of Africans as subhuman or agents of their own misfortune and not worthy of help or support

I always took the ‘do they know it’s Christmas’ line as look at everyone here celebrating, partying, buying gifts whilst they are starving to death and suffering.

@TomasinaTiers

I thought the negative portrayal of the place was the issue?

“ Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow”

Is that even true? (I don’t have an issue with the song, just trying to remember why people find it offensive)

It was true of Ethiopia at the time - the country was in famine due to drought. That's literally what the song was about - to raise money to stop people starving to death.

@switswooo

I think it’s pathetic that people need a song to get them to do the right thing.

Hope those of you defending the song are digging deep in your pockets for Syria.

You need to consider the era when it came out - no internet to raise awareness of those in need. We saw only what the four available television channels and the national newspapers chose to show us - and if you were a child, that would be what your parents chose to put on the TV and the papers they chose to buy, because people didn't usually have more than one TV in their house back then.

In that era, a song was an excellent way of reaching people and raising awareness.

I think it’s pathetic that people need a song to get them to do the right thing.

How old are you?

As santa said accessing information was very different to now.

Of course it’s bloody awful! 😂
Therein lies the beauty; if you stick your hands over your ears and shout ‘lalala nope, it raised money for Africa, you’re welcome Africans, enjoy our CHARITY and beautiful lyrics’ then you are a problem, if you accept that it was a nice (if poorly executed) gesture and can see the issue then that is ok.

1. the song is addressed to / about Africa, which is a continent, I’m sure not EVERY African country was in dire straits in December 1984.

2. ‘do they know it’s Christmas’ well, if they are Muslim or any other religion which is common in Africa then they probably don’t give a shit, if they are Christian, then yeah, they probably do know it’s Christmas.

3. ‘the only bells which ring there are the clanging chimes of doom’ ?!?! Bleak.

4. ‘the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears’ again, the song was to raise awareness/ money for the drought in Ethiopia, I’m pretty sure that plenty of water flowed down the Nile and waves still crashed onto the coastline of Madagascar. The whole ‘bitter sting of tears’ thing is just - dehumanising maybe?

Now, when can we discuss Fairytale of Newyork?

It was well intentioned, written in a very short space of time, but is of its time, and I have no wish to listen to it now.

Agree with the person who thought Sir Bob's best song was "I don't like Mondays'.