Do They Know It's Christmas? A poll

Recording sounds like a riot.

Ure stated in his autobiography that he was constantly battling with Geldof, the song's lyricist but not renowned for his melody skills, and telling him to leave when he would come into the production booth and wrongly tell the artist behind the mic what to sing. Ure also had to shelve an attempt by the two members of Status Quo to record the "here's to you" harmonies because Parfitt couldn't hit the note. Rossi afterwards told Ure that Parfitt never sang in the studio, only onstage, and he should have kept him away from the mic.

"Once Status Quo produced their bag of cocaine and the booze started to flow – I brought six bottles of wine from my flat, which disappeared in a minute – it became a party."

I voted for the cocaine.

oh yeah, the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jEnTSQStGE

Sting's line: "the bitter sting of tears". lol.

Epic version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHHvm_PDw0

"Let them know that springtiiime is coooming. Springtime is coming!" Bono, twat of ages.

Spooky Geldof ventriloquism at the end.

Dizzee Rascal.

Boy George and Paul Young are the only ones who sound like human beings instead of Britishes trying to sound soulful. Can't fathom why some people prefer this to "We Are The World."

we are the world is mor crap (do they know is "new wave" cheese)

Where the hell is the Bono option?

WAAAAAL TONIGHT THANK ILE INSTEAD OF YOUUUUUUUUUU

Where the hell is the Bono option?

haha oops.

"If you're gonna cock it up you may as well do it with two billion people a handful of shut-in aspie rubes watching"

I always thought it was "aspie rube shut in"?

Anyway, Boy George, mainly for the story that he woke up in NYC on the day of the recording, hopped on Concorde, and nearly didn't make it there in time. George walks in the studio and asks for a brandy to help loosen up his voice, Geldof dismisses him with the words "there's a fucking pub across the road!"

haha I thought bono was left off on purpose

This possibly needs a follow-up poll in which we decide just how big a cunt Geldof is.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia.

I've always been annoyed that there's a song called "Do They Know It's Christmas" about a largely Christian nation, but maybe they were just confused by the Orthodox calendar putting it about a week into January. So the answer's not "yes," but rather "dude, you're early."

The answer is "Geldof wouldn't have had a clue whether Ethiopia was Christian, Muslim, Animist or Scientologist".

It's just so much more fun to imagine him wandering around toward the end of December looking confused

Always stuck by how un-Christmassy Bono's line was: "Well, tonight thank God it's them instead of you!" That's not very sporting, is it? I mean, shouldn't it be: "Well, tonight let's all tell God that's really uncool that ANYONE should be suffering" as opposed to his "better them than us" sentiment.

Yes, it's a silly bag of nonsense .... but it's still head, shoulders, torso, genitals and fucking kneecaps better than the indefensible crapola that is "We Are The World."

Two dudes singing "here's to you", help me out here

I want to say they're the non-blonde, non-singing members of Heaven 17.

I think Bono/Geldof is speaking to greedy yuppie 80s Thatcherscum who are less conciliatory and forgiving than Bono/Geldof and more likely to relate to thanking God that other people are starving to death rather than them.

Two dudes singing "here's to you", help me out here

One is definitely Glenn Gregory, yeah. Paul Weller is not shown around the mic -- he gets a solo shot -- but he's part of that chorus.

Isn't Weller having trouble with his headphones? I seem to remember that.

Yeah. He also sports the best hair.

No way

http://www.multinet.no/~jonarne/Hjemmesia/Favorittartister/paul_young/band_aid.jpg

no -- Paul WELLER.

No, I was saying the Paul Young mullet cannot be beaten.

Fran Healy - Wooo

George Michael

So does anyone know whether Boy George got his brandy at the fucking pub across the road?

Great choices. And a song that still gets played a lot here in the States. Even with that stupid, "Well Tonight thank God..." lyric. Two Dudes, Gary Kemp, Paul Weller with nary a smile or Paul Young and Phil Collins at the peak of their careers. The Dudes win for singing it out for charity.

I think the pathetic (but hilarious and extremely welcome) poll options speak volumes about how this song holds up against "We Are The World." And the video is a great lesson in the chasm separating Brit and USA pop music. Where USA For Africa are comfortable in the corn (or at least know how to fake it), Bananarama wants the world to open up and swallow them whole while Paul Weller's wondering how to prevent the headphones from fucking up his eternal hair. Nothing inherently wrong with that but it mixes like oil and water with the corn. And I actually prefer "Well tonight thank god it's them instead of you" to the presumptuous, haughty chorus. Or rather, I would have preferred it had it been sung by anyone else besides the presumptuous, haughty Bono (not Sting, though).

I'm going with Boy George according to whose autobiography, Take It Like a Man, "didn't dare throw a pop-star tantrum" at the session (256).

Oh yeah, forgot to add I voted for Boy George.

How many votes will there be for maracas.jpg?

According to Bono (in U2 On U2), the "thank God" line was Geldof getting too the heart of how most people would feel watching the famine footage but Bono took some persuading to sing it because he didn't think everyone would read it that way. Considering Geldof annoys the piss out of me, I respect the unsappy bluntness of the line, but I think Bono was right to be nervous.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

WWBV (Who Would Bimble Vote) for?

I'd still say Boy George, although maybe the other George...

I cast another vote for Boy in his honor.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fo0heRf6q8

This song is awesome the first couple times I hear it every year but by the time Christmas actually comes around I want to stab myself in the ears at the very first notes.

Where the hell is the Bono option?

― DJ Angoreinhardt (Billy Dods), Saturday, August 1, 2009 6:49 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Whenever I hear this part I always wonder if he stopped to think twice about his big line. If he was like welp alright TONIGHT THANK GOD IT'S THEM INSTEAD OF YOOOOOOOU without hesitation, I kinda have to wonder what else he doesn't think about when he's singing.

I am with my friend now and she brought up this song and how terrible it is and I showed her this post

Always stuck by how un-Christmassy Bono's line was: "Well, tonight thank God it's them instead of you!" That's not very sporting, is it? I mean, shouldn't it be: "Well, tonight let's all tell God that's really uncool that ANYONE should be suffering" as opposed to his "better them than us" sentiment.

Yes, it's a silly bag of nonsense .... but it's still head, shoulders, torso, genitals and fucking kneecaps better than the indefensible crapola that is "We Are The World."

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, August 1, 2009 10:32 AM bookmarkflaglink

This thread is timeless and otm

"Feed the people. Stay alive."

I love Alex but he is forever wrong for preferring the terrible white people on this piece of shit song and the awesome Black singers at their best on the piece of shit "We Are the World."