Bob Schwartz

In 1984, Bob Geldof organized an all-star recording to raise consciousness about famine in Ethiopia and raise money to help alleviate it. Now an ultimate mix has been released, combining the original recording with later anniversary versions created in 2004 and 2014. The Guardian reports:

For 40 years, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been praised by some as a triumph of charitable fundraising and festive songwriting – and condemned by others as the most high-profile example of white saviourhood in pop.

Now, to mark its latest anniversary, the song is coming back around for a fourth time, in the form of an all-star splicing of the three previous official versions.

Announcing the new version, Bob Geldof, who masterminded the 1984 original, says Do They Know It’s Christmas? “tells the story not just of unbelievably great generational British talent, but still stands as a rebuke to that period in which it was first heard. The 80s proclaimed that ‘greed is good’. This song says it isn’t. It says it’s stupid.” Proceeds will benefit the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which supports health and anti-poverty initiatives across Africa.

Criticism from artists and activists have increased over the years. They say: It is an example of paternalism. It is an example of otherness. It leaves the wrong impression about Africa. Artists also complain that it is not a very good piece of music.

My thoughts:

If it wasn’t for charities, or in this case a song, pleading with people to donate, there would not be broader recognition of how widespread food insecurity and starvation is, not just in Africa and other places of crisis, but right here in America.

Ideology has its place, though it often goes places it shouldn’t. If people are hungry or starving, feed them. Since it is Christmas time, I am bound to mention that the main figure of that holiday told us all, whatever our tradition, to do just that.

If a catchy recording featuring mega-stars brings attention to this, I would rather listen to it a thousand times rather than being reminded incessantly about how buying stuff and giving stuff is the reason for the season. It isn’t.

Final thought: To those who are younger, it may seem that all this fuss about Band Aid is “nostalgia” for a long-gone time, featuring some “really old” artists. Unfortunately, starvation never goes out of style, but fortunately neither does helping.