Submitted by ASecularBuddhist t3_zstawb in Music
“And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time. The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life. Where nothing ever grows; No rain nor rivers flow. Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?”
This morning my daughter looked at the cover art and said, “Daddy look! I can see the boy’s butt.” At first glance it looked like an alien hanging out with Rudolph and his friends, until I got a closer look at the picture.
It'd been ages since that song crossed my mind, and as I couldn't recall the cover art I looked it up and came across this article.
It's um... well, it's worth a read.
https://www.spin.com/2021/12/the-dark-legacy-of-do-they-know-its-christmas/
quick edit: here's the album art OP mentioned
Feeeeeeeeeeeddddd the Wooorrrllllldddddd....Let them know it's Christmas time again...
That album art is offensive to the eyes Jesus.
"Graphic design is my passion"
Dang, that's depressing. Here I thought I was being cynical by assuming these efforts didn't do a whole lot of good. Looks like I have to up my game.
I was cynical enough even then to know all this feel good crap gets used for the exact opposite purpose that you've been les to believe. People are so freaking gullible.
In the 80s, parts of Africa were going through a severe famine. Thea images of naked kids starving were everywhere to drum up awareness of that famine. The intent wasn’t offensive at all since they certainly weren’t making light of the situation.
I agree that their intentions were good. My friend just showed me a different original cover art version, which was equally as inappropriate.
I used to live in West Africa. If I showed a picture of a suffering, homeless man in downtown San Francisco to people in the village, they wouldn’t have believed that people don’t have homes in America.
And then, to seem to suggest that that is everybody in America.
Where nothing ever grows; No rain nor rivers flow.
I mean they were really trying and I’m sure they raised money. It just doesn’t seem right for some reason. The cover art in Apple Music is pretty bad. And the other original version that I saw was equally as horrible.
Yeah. Op sounds like another post-millennial snowflake looking for something to be offended about and call the PC Police to come and cancel it.
You realize the album and concert were a fundraiser for African famine relief, right? Right?
[removed]
It was written specifically about and to help Ethiopia...and he wanted to use Ethiopia in the song, but it just didn't flow so he went for the more general "Africa."
Plus you can't expect Americans to give money for a country they're not totally sure exists or not, better to use a word they know.
Feeeeeed theeeee woooooooorld.
You're right fuck this is offensive.
Oh, I totally get that. I think the intentions were good. I’m not sure how much it raised awareness of famine, but maybe some. Not sure how much good it did to be honest.
It’s just such a strange approach lyric-wise and the cover art is really unfortunate.
I would love to see the money trail. They probably spent more in car rentals for the photo op in Africa then they did actually helping the people in any meaningful way.
But I don’t know. They may have saved hundreds or thousands of lives.
They 'tried' but with zero follow through they ended up only feeding murderous armies in a civil war and strapping them with fresh weapons and ammunition... thereby extending the man-made famine.
A post-millennial with a daughter who has a copy of Do They Know It's Christmas? Seems unlikely mate.
Get over yourself.
“The album producers were surprisingly unaware [uninterested] that a majority of Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians who do very much know when it’s Christmas.”
[deleted]
“In contemporary times, the song has received criticism for what has been described as a colonial western-centric viewpoint and condescending stereotypical descriptions of Africa, notably the phrase sung by Bono: Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_They_Know_It%27s_Christmas%3F
It was a global event. Huge.
Huge event. Perpetuating the myth that Africa is filled with a bunch of starving helpless stick figures.
Live Aid was also when Phil Collins sat in with Led Zeppelin, but didn’t know any of the songs. Here is the cringiest post-show interview:
Were you even alive in 1984? It was a global charity event. If you could do better, do it and stop ripping on stuff you're obviously clueless about. Merry Christmas.
I live in an isolated West African village for two years, helping them with local health care delivery, but I don’t know if that would necessarily qualify as ‘doing it better.’
But I can definitely play drums better than Phil Collins did at that embarrassing performance without practicing. But if I got the gig, I would practice every single day until I had every single note exactly perfect.
Because it’s Led Zeppelin.
Merry Christmas ❄️
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=Z5bH5jGhN_I&feature=emb_logo
It was a goddamned fundraising effort, yah Scrooge.
Peace Corps? I think you need to consider that what we did in the 1980's, 40 years ago, with no internet, almost no cable tv, was an attempt to ease the suffering in Africa. If you can't find that in yourself, keep in mind that in 2062 some kid is going to shit all over your gen's good deeds.
They pulled it off. A very noble pursuit.
The cover art is horrendous.
I take that back. Bob Geldof was warned not to give money to a brutal dictator, and he did it anyway. A completely amazing story that I’ve never heard of before:
https://www.spin.com/2015/07/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/
It definitely raised awareness of the suffering in Africa. Maybe even inspired me in someway to eventually do it myself to try to help out.
I dare you to take a look at that cover art though.
I did. I don't know that I remember it from 1984, but my school had a fundraiser for it, and we watched it at home on our giant 24" console TV. It was eye-opening to me, and a decade later I studied eco development in Sub-Saharan Africa.
I hadn't made that connection until now. Huh. Thank you for that.
The artwork was meant to be confrontational. Extremely so. It was the ME decade, and it was far too easy to focus on the cola wars and peak Spielberg, and ignore the news about tens of millions of humans at risk of starvation. The artists behind the event and album weren't pulling punches.
It’s a mixed bag.
And Phil Collins should’ve practiced 🤨
What’s really horrible is the atrocities that occurred in what seemed like well intentioned spirit to aid Africa - but actually extended the war and famine and put money into the hands of the guerrillas.
You are not wrong. This was the start of something really bad and it had repercussions for decades.
“Western governments and humanitarian groups like Live Aid are fueling an operation that will be described with hindsight in a few years time as one of the greatest slaughters in the history of the twentieth century,” says Dr. Claude Malhuret, whose relief agency, Medicins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), has been kicked out of Ethiopia for speaking up against “the most massive violations of human rights we have seen in recent years.”
The reality of Live Aid is that it cannot accomplish what it set out to do for the starving in Ethiopia. It never stood a chance. And evidence indicates that it is actually hurting millions of people there.”
https://www.spin.com/2015/07/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/
Yeah that’s so messed up.
But they pulled it off to atrocious effect. And Geldoff walked away from it all, caring more about the global adulation.
The very definition of virtue signaling.
F that guy. BOOM BOOM, BOOM BOOM, BOOM BOOM, BOOM BOOM... BOOM, BOOM.
Learn, don't judge.
Humanitarian work is extremely complex, and it’s best to leave it to the professionals.
In the same wa that I wouldn’t want humanitarians necessarily producing music or concerts, because that’s not their specialized field.
It’s like being a piano player and being asked to play a Mozart piano concerto without knowing or looking at the music.
“I’m just gonna wing it. I mean how hard can Mozart be?”
Well, when they did a remake of the song, the producers made a judgment on this lyric, and got rid of it: “Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you.”
I cant believe the creators didnt have the foresight to think about your feelings. How offensive lol
Has nothing to do with my feelings. That cover art is objectively horrendous.
Not to mention that 2/3 of Ethiopia is Christian, so they definitely know what Christmas is 🤨
I totally agree: almost everyone will cringe looking at the artwork and the lyrics these days. The peril of simply judging it is that is usually the end of the thinking e.g. I am better than ‘those people’. Not ragging on you I do it too. Let’s take it a little further: very few batted an eye at this when it came out. Why is that? What has changed? Does that mean we really are better? Maybe so; and we should be. We potentially know everything they knew, plus everything that has happened since. Anyway thanks for pointing it out. Gave me an opportunity to think apout it. Cheers
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to point out something inappropriate without feeling like I am better than somebody
Wow, it turns out that Bob Geldof actually caused more suffering with live aid. He literally handed over a ton of money to a brutal dictator and wouldn’t listen to relief organizations telling him not to.
https://www.spin.com/2015/07/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/
I’m just finding out about Bob Geldof handing over ton of money to a brutal dictator who bought more Russian weapons and committed genocide 😳
https://www.spin.com/2015/07/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/
You sound, just, so tiring.
I’m not usually a fan of Bono but that line is meant to hold a mirror up to the majority’s attitude at the time. He’s not saying it as his own opinion/with any sincerity.
Take a peek at the album art and tell me that was a good idea 😄
TheRealDJLars t1_j19rgvm wrote
Are u tripping? 🍄🤪😵💫