I met FriendPaul 14 years ago when he was still the brother-in-law of the manager where I worked. He used to kick the troublesome elements out of our store for us, and explain ice cream. This is my one and only Transportation Friendship, because after I changed stores, I would still run into him on the bus going to my new store; then we returned to school at the same time, so I'd run into him on the commuter train. It was the weirdest thing.
In the beginning I enjoyed talking about music with him, cause he's a musician and that's what he studied. But then he went into history, and a lot of what he specialized in were things like critiquing development aid groups. He felt like a jerk doing it, but honestly somebody has to do it--no free passes (as those people who tried kidnapping Haitian maybe-orphans discovered.)
I think one of his specific projects (his MA?) was studying BBC radio broadcasts during all the 1980s "Ethiopian famine" time. So "We Are the World" and all those charity singles, and how they represented Africa and African people, is something he's thought a lot about.
All this to say... while Optimism Moi and Cynical World-Weary He will never quite see eye to eye, I can understand why he'll hate a song before he's even heard it. Or maybe he just musically hates the song. Or maybe he was just tired of hearing about the making of it, and I'm reading too much into his choice. ;-)
I actually think they did a better job with this Haiti version than the original, and I like it better than the Haiti "Hold On" video (also below.) 1st: Sometimes these charity singles purposely don't show the people singing, I suppose to downplay the importance of the artists. But it just annoys me cause the whole time I'm like "who's singing now? Who's that now??" For heaven's sake, you're trying to leverage star power, so might as well show them.
2nd: The images they have of Haiti aren't pitiful. I like the dancing kids. And they seemed to have filmed some portions on Haiti, though I can't find an article about that. There's one shot in the "Hold On" video where this one guy is looking at the camera like "Can I have one fucking moment alone? Ease!"
3rd: I can't help but think it's (for lack of a better word) "nice" that the song was written and produced by African-Americans (Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie & Quincy Jones) with a ton of African-American artists, and the latter is a repeat of that.
4th: There's a lot of debate over the role (if any) of celebrities in aid; but lately I'm starting to feel... if we're going to (rightly I think) criticize them for playing the role of experts and diplomats, need we also criticize the singers when they sing? I mean, that's what they do.
5th: It's gotta be a fun experience for a bunch of diverse artists to get together for one day and chat and sing together. --> "I'm standing there between Tony Bennett and Bizzy," Josh Groban said, referring to the jazz icon and the member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. "That's not ever really going to happen again." Groban said the small talk between takes was especially riveting. "Everyone is talking about what they're working on next. It's fascinating." <-- LA Times
6th: I like the "let's leave in Michael" bit. I think he would have been pretty heart broken by what Haitians are going through.
7th: Jamie Fox's Ray Charles bit was funny.
8th: Some people are criticizing the lack of star power. ...Are you telling me you still listen to Kim Carnes and Kenny Loggins? Please. And this one music reviewer says he doesn't recognize half the people. I'm going to assume he's a jazz critic.
9th: Finally... I LOVE the rapper's bit in the middle. I was blasé til we hit that part. My prediction: If someone makes an aces remix, built off that section, then we'll have a kickass song on our hands.
(Look, even Snoop is there!)
Now here you go--a song to be sick of.
Side by side with the old version:
The Haiti "Everybody Hurts"
8 comments:
Stay tuned for K'naan's effort:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/musicians-meet-secretly-in-vancouver-for-haiti-benefit-single/article1473356/
I had mixed feelings about this as well, but I too was pleasantly surprised that they didn't represent Haitians as pitiful. It's probably equally dishonest to represent them as universally happy and upbeat(as seems to be the trend in this video), but I was extremely relieved not to see a bunch of little kids with flies on their faces just crying out for someone to become their First World Sponsor. I was also pleased to see that Wyclef Jean had a pretty central role in the whole thing (Whatever is going on with his Yele Foundation, his involvement has been refreshing.).
In terms of the lack of "star power" or whatever: I really really wish they hadn't used that annoying little twit, Justin Bieber, to start things off. And no one could say that Miley Cyrus isn't a big enough star, but...ugh. But those are kind of minor gripes. Mostly, I was pleased to see more indie/non-mainstream artists among the ranks of the chorus than I'd expected. I'm not sure how the fuck Vince Vaughan got into the whole thing, but oh well...
Like Paul, I am highly critical of the aid industry and of the roll of celebrity in it. Can I at least say, though, that I'm glad that they had the good sense not to have Madonna involved in this one given that she kidnapped her son from Tanzania and is currently in the middle of a scandal over the fact that her new girl's school is displacing Tanzanians? Well, probably, she just couldn't fit it into her schedule, but I guess I'll take what I can get these days.
Like you, I was also a fan of the rapped portion of the song. It's being sort of universally panned for the use of autotune, but I thought the rapped segment made the song a little more current.
I have always hated this song, for what it's worth, but even I got a little teary-eyed when I saw Janet Jackson singing beside her brother. I think the song in general is...annoying. And I hate the line "we're saving our own lives" because it makes Africans--and now Haitians--the objects of Hollywood's collective redemption or something. And anything that reeks of Third World Objectification kind of makes me nauseous. I hope they raise lots of money for Haiti, but I'm also critical of a global system that relies on pushing the heartstrings of individuals in order to get basic services and needs to a country.
Optimist you and I will probably never see completely eye to eye on many things either. :) Whatever one may think of this, at least it wasn't as heinous as, say, Idol Gives Back. I mean, there's always that.
And only about thirty seconds in, I definitely prefer We are the World to this version of Everybody Hurts. What an inappropriate and offensive song to use over something like this. Ugh.
I actually like "Everybody Hurts" and I think it's a more powerful representation of the disaster than the others. "We Are the World" is a "nice" intellectually-true song but I think it's mainly a head-song.
In contrast, the "Everybody Hurts" makes it extremely personal. If you can't wake up your compassion or feel the pain and connect it to those moments in your own life when you HURT! - I mean really HURT and felt that you'd reached the "I just want to die" stage, then you don't quite get it yet
I especially like that the "Hurts" video moved from the tragedy to the recovery - that first shot of the man chipping away at the concrete wall with a sledge hammer was almost a shock and marked the turning point when the people start breaking out of the shock and start rescuing one another.
I see the songs as comlementary.
1. Name the Pain - I would say someone first needs to see and "get" Everybody Hurts to fully realize the moments of terror we all face when life takes those unwanted zags - a pet dies; a tsunami strikes; the earth shakes; a friend suddenly abandons us; an innocent life is shattered; ... (name your own tragedy, large or small..). Once the pain of that common human experience is rekindled, then
2. Remember the only Solution - "We Are the World" is a good follow up to emphasize the solution. We are all in this together.
p.s. I'm with Kristin in the feeling that having to "celebratize" disasters in order to mobilize relief is a sad commentary on who we are as a society. Too bad our disasters and wars etc. have to have catchy tunes and six o'clock newscasts to get the message across. But I suppose it was ever thus.
I just don't like how "Everybody Hurts" portrays Haitians as universally pitiful, but that could be because I didn't watch until the very end (when you say they start showing recovery). And, I mean, did they get permission from the individuals they took all of those images of? To me, that feels like worse exploitation than We Are the World, but I understand your perspective too. I also think this version of Everybody Hurts is too white.
I also think--and I'm going to assume you're in the First World as well? I think we in the rich countries should generally refrain from pretending that we understand. Yeah, a lot of us have seen a lot of terror, indeed, but it's not like this. It's not even close to this. And we shouldn't lose sight of our privilege here.
Ya my first instinct on "Everybody Hurts" was "sure everybody hurts sometime... but hurts à la earthquake in poor country? Not everybody experiences that!"
But I suppose they chose it more for the "hold on hold on hold on" part.
I'm looking forward to the group recording of K'naan's "Waving Flag" (so far I only know from Twitter that it will include Fefe Dobson, Drake, and the Bieber boy.) Lyrically it's perfect.
I feel bad for little Bieber, though. Everyone's trashing his inclusion/slot on We Are the World, and it's not like it was his choice! lol
FriendPaul says;
Wow there's a lot here. Thanks for the shout-out, first of all. I think the new WATW has its flaws--some serious ones, but musically and visually, it's miles beyond the original.
Musically because it does a way better job drawing on a broader and hipper field of African-American musicians and, more importantly, it points to important and interesting links between African-American and Caribbean musics. That being said, I'd love to have seen that be an even bigger thing. How 'bout a Wayne Shorter solo or some Ernest Ranglin riffs instead of Celine's atrocious caterwauling? Hey, if "Sun City" could kick off with Miles Davis, why not think about bridging the gap between serious jazz and pop music in such a public setting?
Visually, whoever mentioned that it was good to see Haitian kids smiling and being kids instead of wandering in the sand with distended bellies is right on the money--but hey, let's go all out and show kids in math class, too--or, more importantly, NOT in math class, but scrambling to help their families make a living. And there's the big problem that's inherent in a project like this--the way in which a four minute pop video can't really work to shake up people's understandings that what happened in Haiti, like what happened in Ethiopia, or anywhere else for that matter, wasn't a natural disaster, it was a political crisis. I don't know how a project like this could do such a thing, and I don't know if it should even try to--do you want to get a lesson in politics from Tony Bennett?--but if ten thousand times as many people are going to listen to this song than are going to read Trouillot's *From Dessalines to Duvalier* or a dozen other books on why Haiti is what Haiti is, then I think it's still fair to talk about the effects of these sorts of projects and the role they play in reproducing the idea of country-as-charity-basket-case with zero explanation of the politics and histories behind that. A quarter century after the original Band Aid/WATW, most people I talk to about my MA project still think the Ethiopian famine was caused by a drought.
Still, the new WATA is probably about the best we can expect to come out of the corporate entertainment machine, its heart is in the right place, it makes good moves towards making the tent bigger and leaving its audience with a more positive, hopeful idea about the people it's trying to help, and it'll prolly raise a boatload of money for food and shelter. I can't do too much to crap all over that.
-p.
Well said. "Sun City"'s lyrics were much more political, but then... it didn't chart very well in the US and (if Wiki is right) wasn't played on half the US radio stations. So ya... you end up with weighing "artistically and politically intelligent" vs "high profile raise money."
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