Do they know it's Christmas?
Band-Aid's 1986 single was of course an attempt to ease the suffering of the starving in Ethiopia, who are referred to in the lyrics only as 'them', 'they', or 'the other ones' because, it has been rumoured, they did not wish to be associated with this 'dire abortion' of a record ('They'd rather starve', sources close to them have said).
The misheard lyrics archive at kissthisguy.com has the following entry for this song: 'The greatest gift they'll get this year is flies.' Many will think that this is more incisive than the real lyric, in which the greatest gift is life. After all - life! That is a pretty great gift: almost the best you could get. Most sensible people, given the choice between, say, a smoothie maker and not being dead, will opt for the latter.
The difficulty of incorporating within one song two distinctly different experiences - eating Christmas dinner with a conventionally 'happy' family, and starving to death under the African sun - has, it's fair to say, led to some wayward lyrics. It is as though lines have been contributed by various people at various times and then assembled by a committee (which was, I understand, more or less the case). So in addition to a tendency to opt for safe statements with which few would care to disagree ('There's a world outside your window', or: 'There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime'*) there is the odd mad Gothic extravagance like: 'The Christmas bells that ring there/Are the clanging chimes of doom'.
The phrase 'the bitter sting of tears' is all that remains of Sir Bob Godfrey's original concept, in which stars would 'buy' a mention of their name in the song's lyrics, a concept abandoned due to the difficulty of introducing terms such as 'Spandau Ballet' and 'Bananarama' into the song in an unforced way. Nevertheless, as almost everybody knows, Sting refused to participate unless his name was included, and even wanted to change the line to the (arguably superior) 'the only water flowing is the bitter tears of Sting.' This apparently so enraged Bono that on some versions he can be heard to shout his own name over the 'Know' of the title in a kind of frenzied yelp.
Despite being the least Christmassy Christmas song of all time, it is, curiously, one of the few to embrace Christianity on more than a merely cosmetic level, though even here the message is rather mixed. So the listener is urged to 'pray' for these poor unfortunates in the desert, but shortly afterwards is being exhorted to 'thank God it's them instead of you'. 'Well, thank God it's them instead of me', muses the reassured listener, returning to their dinner.
But at least you can say that this song that returns us to 'the true meaning of Christmas' - the celebration of total unfettered capitalism. 'Feed the world!', cry the assembled stars (or, as kissthisguy.com would have it: 'Fever - woah!'). But how is this miracle to be accomplished? Not by parcelling up your Christmas dinner and sending it to Ethiopia. No: by buying the record. Hence, when Band-Aid tell us to 'let them know it's Christmastime', the message they are sending the starving millions is: your problems can be solved by capitalism. It's an ad for globalization.
Which has solved all their problems. I expect. Nevertheless, one question remains unanswered: do they know it's Christmas? There is clearly a need for some kind of survey so that we can settle this matter once and for all. Then we need never listen to this song again. Merry Christmas, everyone.
*Except possibly on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro
The misheard lyrics archive at kissthisguy.com has the following entry for this song: 'The greatest gift they'll get this year is flies.' Many will think that this is more incisive than the real lyric, in which the greatest gift is life. After all - life! That is a pretty great gift: almost the best you could get. Most sensible people, given the choice between, say, a smoothie maker and not being dead, will opt for the latter.
The difficulty of incorporating within one song two distinctly different experiences - eating Christmas dinner with a conventionally 'happy' family, and starving to death under the African sun - has, it's fair to say, led to some wayward lyrics. It is as though lines have been contributed by various people at various times and then assembled by a committee (which was, I understand, more or less the case). So in addition to a tendency to opt for safe statements with which few would care to disagree ('There's a world outside your window', or: 'There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime'*) there is the odd mad Gothic extravagance like: 'The Christmas bells that ring there/Are the clanging chimes of doom'.
The phrase 'the bitter sting of tears' is all that remains of Sir Bob Godfrey's original concept, in which stars would 'buy' a mention of their name in the song's lyrics, a concept abandoned due to the difficulty of introducing terms such as 'Spandau Ballet' and 'Bananarama' into the song in an unforced way. Nevertheless, as almost everybody knows, Sting refused to participate unless his name was included, and even wanted to change the line to the (arguably superior) 'the only water flowing is the bitter tears of Sting.' This apparently so enraged Bono that on some versions he can be heard to shout his own name over the 'Know' of the title in a kind of frenzied yelp.
Despite being the least Christmassy Christmas song of all time, it is, curiously, one of the few to embrace Christianity on more than a merely cosmetic level, though even here the message is rather mixed. So the listener is urged to 'pray' for these poor unfortunates in the desert, but shortly afterwards is being exhorted to 'thank God it's them instead of you'. 'Well, thank God it's them instead of me', muses the reassured listener, returning to their dinner.
But at least you can say that this song that returns us to 'the true meaning of Christmas' - the celebration of total unfettered capitalism. 'Feed the world!', cry the assembled stars (or, as kissthisguy.com would have it: 'Fever - woah!'). But how is this miracle to be accomplished? Not by parcelling up your Christmas dinner and sending it to Ethiopia. No: by buying the record. Hence, when Band-Aid tell us to 'let them know it's Christmastime', the message they are sending the starving millions is: your problems can be solved by capitalism. It's an ad for globalization.
Which has solved all their problems. I expect. Nevertheless, one question remains unanswered: do they know it's Christmas? There is clearly a need for some kind of survey so that we can settle this matter once and for all. Then we need never listen to this song again. Merry Christmas, everyone.
*Except possibly on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro
posted by martin @ 1:27 PM
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