Take a peek at the album art and tell me that was a good idea 😄

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/

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 think it’s perfectly reasonable to point out something inappropriate without feeling like I am better than somebody

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 🤨

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.”

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?”

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 a mixed bag.

And Phil Collins should’ve practiced 🤨

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.

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/

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

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:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxwtp4FB1kM

“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

“The album producers were surprisingly unaware [uninterested] that a majority of Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians who do very much know when it’s Christmas.”

https://slate.com/technology/2014/04/live-aid-band-aid-usa-for-africa-did-pop-stars-and-hit-songs-help-ethiopia-famine-victims.html

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.

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 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.