Posted on 07/09/2007 5:54:26 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Twenty-four hours, seven continents, 150 bands and 2 billion viewers.
Global warming is a big problem that needs big solutions. Live Earth was the big concert intended to raise awareness. But is pop music really a solution?
Skeptics doubt it. Said one: "Everybody's known about that problem for years. ... I would only organize this if I could get onstage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations. They haven't got those guarantees. So it's just an enormous pop concert."
The source of that quote: Bob Geldof, organizer of Live Aid and Live 8. Perhaps Sir Bob has realized the futility of big concerts solving the world's ills; millions are still starving in Africa, after all. But it's more likely he's just jealous.
The patron saint of Live Earth was Al Gore, whose frequent pleas for us to "answer the call" found him vying to be the new Geldof or, better yet, Bono -- though Gore may be willing to settle for a less important job. Pushed by Ann Curry for a simple "yes or no" answer during NBC's special coverage Saturday night, Gore was downright oily in refusing to say that he won't be running for president in 2008.
For fans with a sense of history, it was ironic to see Al and his wife Tipper presenting these shows. In the mid-'80s, the Gores were first catapulted to fame as forces behind the censorious Parents Music Resource Center. Back then, Tipper attacked rock and rap for "infecting the youth of the world with messages they cannot handle."
Live Earth was designed to spread a message kids can handle, but its effectiveness was debatable. Sure, there were short films and brief speeches about the environment peppered throughout, in between the regular commercials. But most acts just played their greatest hits or newest singles, viewing the concerts as just another promotional opportunity.
As a result, there weren't many truly memorable moments, even though I watched all 22 hours of the broadcast coverage on cable (and thanks to the folks who invented the 4x fast-forward on my DVR!). Here are some notes on what I saw.
• Playing London's Wembley Stadium, Genesis deflated this fan's hopes for their fall reunion tour by shunning their progressive-rock past and playing only lame pop tunes from the '80s and '90s. C'mon, fellas: "Watchers of the Sky" woulda been perfect!
• Both Madonna and Roger Waters trotted out children's choirs to add a sense of gravitas about the future. Madonna's kids were inexplicably dressed in Catholic school uniforms, while Waters' were upstaged by the famous Pink Floyd pig, marked on this occasion with "S.O.S. -- Save Our Sausages."
• The talentless Pussycat Dolls vamped like strippers, apparently believing that going without underwear somehow helps the environment.
• Nunatak, a band formed by five scientists at the Rothera Research Station in Antarctica, performed outside in the snow and 15-below-zero chill. They didn't seem to be lip-syncing, but there were no amps or P.A., and you couldn't hear their teeth chattering.
• Alicia Keys and Keith Urban duetted on the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" ("Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'/Our very street today"), while John Legend joined Corinne Bailey Rae for Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology)": ("Oil wasted on the ocean/And upon our seas, fish full of mercury").
• Nu-metal bozos Linkin Park dripped buckets of sweat, illustrating one effect of global warming, while past-their-prime gasbags Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Bon Jovi just spewed more CO2 into the atmosphere.
• Three Chicago superstar acts took part, but none was in top form. Fall Out Boy tried to catch the spirit, but the Smashing Pumpkins just played nostalgic alternative-era oldies, and Kanye West looked like a hyperactive idiot as he joined the Police and John Mayer to close the New Jersey concert with "Message in a Bottle."
• Finally, Spinal Tap -- yes, Spinal Tap -- confirmed the grandiose absurdity of it all by playing their immortal pomp-rock spoof, "Stonehenge," at Wembley.
Baby boomers like Gore and Geldof are fond of saying that the music of the '60s inspired a generation to end the war in Vietnam. But historians and sociologists who've studied the anti-war movement maintain that fewer youths were motivated by political conviction than joined the cause because it seemed like the "cool" thing to do, with groovy sounds and good times for all.
So, in the end, can pop music really save the world?
If I didn't believe that it could, I couldn't do this job. Great music can certainly change individuals' minds, prompting them to act for the betterment of society. But in order for that to happen with the environmental movement, we're going to need much, much better music than Live Earth gave us.
jimdero@jimdero.com
And everyone knows that rock concerts are the solutions to the world's woes.
2 billion viewers? Do that many poor people in the third world have TVs? I never heard of it.
Just wondering..... how much CO2 was emitted pouring all those beers.
***
LOL Probably not much, since apparently people weren’t willing to pay for them.
Once at some concert, I was charged $4.00 for a lemonade, and I thought that was expensive.
Big difference between Europeans and most other nations — people would walk out if they were being charged $50 a beer. Where I live, there would be a full riot.
Just like his son, algore Bombed!
Pray for W and Our Troops
2 billion viewers? 1/3 of the population of Earth! B.S.! Nobody watched that thing. They'd be lucky to have 5 million even know what it is/was!
“Concerts to “raise awareness” only raise the awareness that concerts solve nothing.”
When a group gets into “raising awareness”, it says to me, they got nuthin’.
All this was, was a chance for musicians to get some BADLY needed exposure (the music industry is crashing on the reef), and for old acts to get one more chance in the sun. As much as I love Genesis, their performance was sub-par, they opened with one of my favorite songs from Duke, and...meh. Compared to performances I’ve seen of that material in the past, they phoned it in.
I watched the highlights on YouTube. Not much worth getting excited about, the same old same old that everyone pulls out for these “events”. The Pink Floyd reunion last year will go down as the high point for these mega-shows, all else now will pale in comparison. The Freddy Mercury event blows this farc away - that one COMPELLED people to buy the dvd, the performances were that good - this show? Whatever. It won’t sell.
And I’m always pissed and amused to see Metallica involved with the Gores, seeing as how Gore’s wife used Metallica specifically to try and muzzle, censor and shut down the music industry. I still despise Tipper and her air-headed attempt to be the biggest fascist in the country, ever, and her husbands support of it, all the while passing a blank tape tax for the record labels while the travesty of the PMRC was making criminals out of musicians. You go Metallica, you rebels you, suck up to the people that want to destroy you. You’re playing “Enter Sandman” AGAIN? Pass. I used to repect those guys. No more.
Any musician with a spine should have responded to the organizers of this event with a hearty “#@#$ you, as long as it’s Al Gore and his airhead wife, no effing way, mates”.
But, the music industry has just as many whores as politics. Thus, “Live Earth”.
http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/article.cfm?artId=20873
I heard Lord Monckton being interviewed on radio - he is amazing! He was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher, and calls Algore stupid - in a lovely kindof British way, of course. He has been taking ads out in the NYT challenging Algore to a live debate.
Great story, Eric. You were lucky — these days, if you’re caught with a knife, you are arrested, or at the very least, thrown out of the venue.
Back in 1999, VH-1 aired a brand-new "Behind the Music" segment which spotlighted AC/DC. It originally contained a mildly derisive comment aimed at Tipper Gore (by lead singer Brian Johnson, IIRC). Someone must've complained, because VH-1 edited it out before the first replay. I remember it because the insult made laugh and I immediately set the VCR to catch the episode at its next airing.
The music industry was quick to run interference for Gore during that election year and has tried to sweep the censorship movement under the rug ever since.
fatnotlazy:
Lets see in Johannesburg it SNOWED for the first time in 25 years?? Global Warming??
Maybe the poor turn out was based on a few other things - musical acts that are NOT TALENTED, South Africa’s poor economy and people had better things to do with their weekend.
I didn’t go because I am going to a better concert - Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concert July 10th in Atlanta. Better musical talent will be there.
fatnotlazy:
I heard somewhere this morning that patrons at the Johannesburg show walked out — story is that they were upset at being charged $50 a beer. Global warming is not as important as cheap beer. :)
I heard the people was leaving the Sydney concert over the $50 beer.
The one that really irritates me is Bono - he thinks he's just absolutely the greatest thing that ever hit the world.
Carolyn
Got a problem? Organize a rock concert!
Any worse than Dan Aykroyd performing on "We Are The World" because of his role as Elwood Blues?
Dave was just doing a public service. His tour bus dumps the group’s sh*t in the water:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20050511/ai_n14628915
Thanks for the correction. :)
To think we could of avoided WWI and WWII if we had only organized rock concerts before they started!
Yeah, the band will never live that one down....no matter how hard they try (running the buses on biodiesel, playing at sham concerts for global warming, etc.).
Yep, snow in Johnannesburg. That is why apparently, the term “global warming” is now out of favor. The (politically) correct phrase now is “climate change.” LOL
By the way, have fun at the Hannity concert. You’re right...should actually be a lot better than this past weekend’s nonsense. Hopefully, the beer is a lot cheaper. :)
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