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40 YEARS ON: Bob Geldof defends Band Aid single: This pop song has kept millions alive
AOL ^ | Nov 25 | AOL

Posted on 11/25/2024 6:02:11 AM PST by RandFan

Bob Geldof has said his Band Aid charity single has “kept millions of people alive” after a new 40th anniversary version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? faced criticism.

To mark the song’s milestone, a remix has been created which blends the voices of artists who have featured on previous editions including Harry Styles, George Michael and Bono.

Ed Sheeran said last week that they did not ask for permission to re-use his vocals from when he sang on Band Aid 30 in 2014, and that he would have “respectfully” declined the request.

The singer-songwriter said in a social media post that “a decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed”, citing a post by British-Ghanaian rapper Fuse ODG that criticised foreign aid in Africa.

(Excerpt) Read more at aol.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: africa; bandaid; christmas; geldof; music
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To: RandFan

Do Muslims and Animists know it’s Christmas? Probably not. Did feeding them help fuel a population explosion that was later unleashed into Europe? Probably yes


21 posted on 11/25/2024 6:26:44 AM PST by montag813
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To: SamAdams76

What was even worse was the American artistes responded with We Are The World.


22 posted on 11/25/2024 6:27:07 AM PST by xp38
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To: SamAdams76
I always think about the federal government paying some farmers to keep their land fallow. Most of the time, the idea is to keep them from overproducing and, therefore, lowering food prices to the point that farmers can't stay in business.

I'm not for the government monkeying with the free market of any industry, including agriculture. But if it's a given that I lose that part of the argument, instead of paying farms to keep land fallow can the government money be used to buy that food and feed the poor here, and perhaps abroad?

Government money is used to artificially inflate food prices. And more government money is needed, therefore, to help the poor buy food. This is a prime example for Elon's and Vivek's DOGE to tackle.

23 posted on 11/25/2024 6:29:49 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: xp38

Don’t forget Hearin Aid.

But in the end they tried. Sure they made some really bad songs, and most of the aid they tried to generate accomplished nothing. But they tried. That’s not a bad thing.


24 posted on 11/25/2024 6:36:24 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: RandFan

He helped save millions of Africans, and now they are all moving to Europe.


25 posted on 11/25/2024 6:41:24 AM PST by CtBigPat
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To: discostu

“But they tried.”

Never mistake activity for accomplishment.

L


26 posted on 11/25/2024 6:43:47 AM PST by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: HYPOCRACY

Both of his “hits” dealt with pain suffered by others.

Just a coincidence. He’s so creative!

/s


27 posted on 11/25/2024 6:50:06 AM PST by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

“Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to call the song “Do They Know It’s Kwanzaa?” I don’t see what Christmas has to do with it unless they are after whitey’s money.”

Oh man. :-)


28 posted on 11/25/2024 6:53:07 AM PST by plain talk
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To: Lurker

Never mistake failure with lack of effort.


29 posted on 11/25/2024 6:56:09 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: RandFan

Band Aid was a tiny - people patting themselves on the back - band aid on a 11,724,000 square mile wound.


30 posted on 11/25/2024 6:57:27 AM PST by Wuli
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To: discostu; xp38; SamAdams76

What follows is not directed at discostu; xp38; samadams76…

Full disclosure: I went to Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985. It was great, though Zeppelin was awful.

Further full disclosure: as a human, Geldoff is borderline scum. His handling of his personal affairs with the late Michael Hutchence and late Paula Yates is detestable.

Ok….this guy sees a tragedy in TV, and rather than demand that the GOVERNMENT fix it, he brandished CAPITALISM to fix it.

He recorded a single with a ton of other “stars” who also did this gratis. It made money.

It caught fire.

It elevated the famine problem, and sparked spirited debate in the cause (the verdict that it was communist governments and not global warming etc is a Good Thing).

It spawned one of the greatest “concerts” ever, which was all the Private Sector and not some filthy government.

It resulted in other Capitalist approaches to problems, like Farm Aid.

Geldof did more to promote capitalist, private sector approaches to tackling problems than any other contemporary human. Yeah, he’s scum, and made money (I didn’t know that was a bad thing nowadays) but in 1984/1985, he Did Something Meaningful.

And yet, a bunch of keyboard warriors on this thread type bravely about how Geldof is a loser. When was the last time any of this lot did anything of this magnitude, marshaling the private sector, to help alleviate suffering? Would you like more cheese with your whine?

Parenthetically, Do They Know It’s Christmas is a zillion times better than We Are The World.


31 posted on 11/25/2024 7:01:56 AM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s² )
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To: HYPOCRACY
I always wondered why this guy was suddenly in the limelight so much. I knew about his role in the Wall but besides that bit part in a video he didn't appear to have done that much of which I was aware.

The guy is worth $150M. One article states "Bob Geldof first became famous on a worldwide scale as the lead singer of the popular rock band The Boomtown Rats. He then went on to have a popular solo singing career. He also founded several highly successful production companies."

Wow. $150M for that.

Feed the world? Or feed me Seymour.

32 posted on 11/25/2024 7:05:50 AM PST by plain talk
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To: DoodleBob

Exactly. I’ll always give points to anybody that says “hey this is bad, I wonder if there’s anything I can do” over “this is bad, why isn’t the government doing something”. Of course in the end the problem was corrupt African “governments” using famine as a weapon against uprising, and there really isn’t much a bunch of rock stars can do about that. But we did get a pretty epic concert out of the deal.


33 posted on 11/25/2024 7:08:30 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: DoodleBob
Nice observations. The 1985 Live Aid concert (in both London and Philly) was definitely something. I remember Phil Collins traveling between the London and Philly shows on a Concorde. This was when Collins was at the height of his fame and it seemed like one out of every three songs you heard on the radio that summer had Phil Collins in it.

Lot of great performances that day you can still catch on YouTube such as U2, Bowie, Tom Petty, just to name a very few.

Queen gets all the accolades as giving the "best performance ever" at that show but I was never a big Queen fan.

Led Zeppelin sucked! So badly, even with the ever-present Phil Collins filling in for the deceased Bonzo on drums, that to this day, they refuse to have any footage from that event officially released. But you can still see it on YouTube if you really want to.

34 posted on 11/25/2024 7:18:56 AM PST by SamAdams76
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To: HYPOCRACY

ha!


35 posted on 11/25/2024 7:23:54 AM PST by ronniesgal ( he's back, baby!)
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To: HYPOCRACY

I Don’t Like Mondays...


36 posted on 11/25/2024 8:41:33 AM PST by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: SamAdams76

Yeah its a song of smug, elite, conceited liberals imposing their western values and traditions on “poor, helpless, ignorant” Africans.

Exactly what they rail at others doing, except they turned their time doing it into a musical. And made quite a bit of money off their “selflessness”.


37 posted on 11/25/2024 9:11:30 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: montag813; lightman

Ethiopia is a Christian country, and their Christmas is Jan 7!

But Ethiopia has many muslims and animists in its population!


38 posted on 11/25/2024 9:20:46 AM PST by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: Secret Agent Man

You are right. It IS a racist sng. Like ALL Africans are living in huts.🤣


39 posted on 11/25/2024 9:26:51 AM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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To: Secret Agent Man

” Where nothing ever grows”. Shut up.


40 posted on 11/25/2024 9:27:53 AM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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