Do they know it’s Christmas? Band Aid

I have a love hate relationship with this song.

On the one hand it raised 747s loads of money for African aid. On the other it doesn’t seem to have done any good.

It raised awareness of African poverty. Most of us couldn’t spell Ethiopia let alone find it on a map. Yet, the continent cycles through famine and war at an alarming rate.

The resilience of her people is astonishing. We in the West with our chipped nails, slow internet speeds and painfully long two minute long waits at the shops before driving home to air conditioned comfort and social media-ising the ordeal, ought to learn from them.

Be thankful.

Band Aid highlighted the astonishing advances in agriculture. Europe was found to be producing more food than it needed to feed itself. The image of bulldozers squashing tonnes of tomatoes because they were not needed by Europe is burned deep in my memory. Sure, Africa may have no need for tomatoes. But Live Aid highlighted how good we are at making stuff and how bad we are at sharing it. Equity and justice were and sadly remain foreign concepts.

On the one hand the song has some killer lines…

“Tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you…”

“At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade…”

Yet, there are some that are plainly stupid…

“And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time…

“And the Christmas bells that ring there…”

It shouldn’t surprise us that snow isn’t falling in A-fri-ca. Yes, I know it snows at Kilimanjaro. At-the-top.

And there aren’t too many bells in mosques, Rastafarianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and the myriad of African animistic faiths.

And this is why the refrain is daft. In response to “Do they know it’s Christmas?” many Africans would ask, “What’s Christmas?”

On the hand it’s an example of ego being set aside for three and half minutes. On the other it’s a musically terrible song. Fingernails dragging along a blackboard is better listening than the keyboard solo.

On the one hand it was high profilers raising the profile of those down low. On the other it helped cement compassion fatigue. As Bono said in the 90s, “People got tired of seeing musicians chaining themselves to a tree in a rainforest…”

(Is it any surprise that the musical form that took over the early 90s – grunge – made no claims to otherness? Nirvana were great but it was a decade as self-focused as the one before).

On the one hand it produced one heck of a concert. Watching Freddie Mercury lead 100, 000 people double clapping to “Radio Ga Ga” demonstrated consummate showmanship. On the other, the sound was terrible, some acts were instantly forgettable (Nik Kershaw, Adam Ant) and token (Howard Jones). Much like a lot of 80s music.

And to think Banarama are still miffed they weren’t asked to perform.

Just another reason to hate this song.

Okay, okay, it did some good...