FEATURE:
Groovelines
Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
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THERE we are not many Christmas songs…
IN THIS PHOTO: The recording of Do They Know It’s Christmas? in 1984/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris/Band Aid
that are divisive in terms of the lyrics. Most stick quite close to the formulaic and traditional. The imagery is pretty standard and relatable. However, in 1984, a charity single was released that was vastly different to anything that was released before. Rather than focusing its attention on images of presents, snow and family, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? turned its attention to the famine in Africa. Written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, it was designed to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. Band Aid was a supergroup consisting of popular British and Irish musical acts. It Do They Know It’s Christmas? was recorded in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984. Released on 7th December, 1984, it went to number one in the U.K. and stayed at that position for five weeks. Selling a million copies in its first week, it was the biggest-selling U.K. singles of all time to that point. The single raised £8 million for Ethiopia within a year. All of this is commendable and to be applauded. Where does it rank in terms of the great Christmas songs? Most people would not include it in their top ten. Maybe because it is not as traditional and heart-warming as other Christmas songs, it has not caught on like other Christmas tracks. If the lyrics about those dying in famine unaware it was Christmas and unable to enjoy the time like those more fortunate were bellowed back in 1984, in years since, the lyrics are seen as more problematic. The imagery painted in the song causing offence and division. A new documentary is available on the BBC iPlayer that takes us inside the making of Do They Know It’s Christmas? Even if the single had noble intentions and the celebrities who sang on it were genuinely affected by images of famine in Ethiopia, maybe it was an odd choice of a Christmas song. Children in Africa knew about Christmas and were not shut off from the outside world. Perhaps the song has not aged too well. A new mix of the song has united those who were on the 1984 version and has cut them together with artists who appeared on previous versions. Before coming to an article about that, this is what Melody Maker said about Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? when it was originally released: "Inevitably, after such massive publicity, the record itself is something of an anti-climax, even though Geldof's sense of universal melodrama is perfectly suited to this kind of epic musical manifesto. Midge Ure's large-screen production and the emotional vocal deliveries of the various celebrities matches the demonstrative sweep of Geldof's lyric, which veers occasionally toward an uncomfortably generalised sentimentality which threatens to turn righteous pleading into pompous indignation. On the other hand, I'm sure it's impossible to write flippantly about something as fundamentally dreadful as the Ethiopia famine”.
Whereas most Christmas songs are judged in terms of whether they are as good as other Christmas songs, when it comes to Do They Know It’s Christmas?, the question is different. Is it doing more good than bad? Such is the weight of the track in terms of its meaning and lyrics, it has this complex history and legacy. The Guardian published a feature recently that explored some of the more damaging stereotypes the song perpetuated in 1984:
“Four decades on, however, is Band Aid doing harm as well as good? That was the suggestion of a statement made this week by Ed Sheeran, who sang on the version of the single released in 2014 and whose voice has been used in the new remix, along with other vocalists from across the decades.
He had not been asked permission, said Sheeran on Instagram, and would have declined if he had. Instead, he shared a post by the musician Fuse ODG, a longtime Band Aid critic, who argues such initiatives “perpetuate damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s economic growth, tourism and investment, ultimately … destroying its dignity, pride and identity”.
For all Band Aid’s popularity over the years, there are many in the development sector who share this view. Critics point to problematic lyrics – yes, they do know it is Christmas in Ethiopia, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world – and images of nameless, helpless victims.
The problem is “Africa always [being] portrayed as a place where children are perpetually in peril,” said Haseeb Shabbir, an associate professor at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at City St George’s, University of London. “Africa is [shown as] a barren civilisation in constant need of salvation, while it is portrayed as the moral obligation of essentially white donors to save a group of people who lack agency to resolve their own problems.”
Meanwhile, he said, “many initiatives from African people themselves go under the radar. Nobody hears about them in this country, [but] it’s those changes which are the bulk of what is taking place in Africa.”
Band Aid is far from alone in this, in Shabbir’s view – Comic Relief, which was inspired by it, has come in for similar criticism. “But the problem with Band Aid is that its message is so amplified and celebrated.” It is certainly remarkably enduring – alongside the countless radio plays and millions of streams of the original single each year, even Band Aid 30 a decade ago went to No 1 in 69 countries.
The international development sector has changed a lot in four decades, said Lena Bheeroo, head of anti-racism and equity at Bond, an umbrella body for development organisations, moving away from “images of poverty, disease, conflict and children who are malnourished with flies on them”, and the use of wording that reinforces recipients’ powerlessness.
“Band Aid was set up in a time where [using this imagery] was deemed the right thing to be doing. But we’re not any longer in 1984, we are in 2024, and the conversations around what it means to [work in this area] have changed.”
These are not new criticisms, as Geldof hit back tartly this week to the Conversation: “The same argument has been made many times over the years and elicits the same wearisome response.” Band Aid has made concessions to changing times in the past – the 2014 single had substantially changed lyrics, most strikingly changing Bono’s original line “Well tonight, thank God it’s them instead of you” to “ell tonight, we’re reaching out and touching you.” Emeli Sandé, who sang on that track, later apologised for it, however, saying other edits she made had not been included”.
Because there is a 2024 Mix of the Band Aid single, it is back in the spotlight. Although the new release has not been as big chart success, many are discussing Do They Know It’s Christmas? in a new light. Debating its intentions and whether the lyrics are offensive or not. It is a shame, as the single did raise millions and saved lives. However, as it will be played a lot through this month, it is worth exploring Do They Know It’s Christmas? Ed Sheeran, who was part of the 2014 version and has been spliced into the 2024 mix, has objected to being included in the new single because of the lyrics. For Billboard, Bob Geldof reflected on Band Aid’s smash at forty:
“That’s not us; that’s just people doing it…all out of this little pop song we made 40 years ago,” Geldof says. “And I thought, ‘Well, we should preface this year by bringing out the record,’ but instead of doing it again with this generation of (performers), why not take the three generations that made it happen and bang ’em on one single.”
“Do They Know It’s Christmas? (2024 Ultimate Mix)” — which debuted on Nov. 25 and will be released commercially on Friday, Nov. 29 — does just that, with Trevor Horn, who co-produced the original version with Midge Ure of Ultravox, mashing together performances from that and sequels recorded to commemorate the 20th anniversary in 2004 and the 30th during 2014. Accompanied by a new Oliver Murray-directed video fusing footage from all three (as well as the late David Bowie’s introduction for the original and footage from Michael Buerk’s BBC News report from October of 1984 that inspired Geldof to launch the project), the “2024 Ultimate Mix” offers a panoply of pop icons, primarily British but also Irish and American, blended into yet another interpretation of the song.
“I was very hands-off and, like (Geldof), gobsmacked at this opus (Horn) managed to come up with,” says Ure, who co-wrote the U.K. chart-topping song with Geldof four decades ago (the original also reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100). “It’s very clever. I can hear elements of the original recordings in there. It’s a bit of a miracle that he managed to pull together things that were recorded at different tempos, different speeds, maybe different pitches and integrate them into one track where you get vocalists who maybe weren’t born when the original was done harmonizing or singing alongside some of the original vocalists. It’s a bit of a masterpiece, I think.”
Geldof is equally effusive about the record — which, among other juxtapositions, features U2’s Bono’s parts (and footage) from all three recordings. “It is so beautiful, this production, properly beautiful,” he says. “It’s so moving.” But he adds that Horn balked a bit when Geldof first presented him with the “Ultimate Mix” idea.
“I said, ‘Trevor, you’re good. Can you take these thousands of people and bang ’em together?’ And he said, ‘No, I can’t, f–k off!'” Geldof recalls. “And I said, ‘There must be…’ ‘How can I possibly do it? Everybody’s singing the same words. They’re at different tempos. They’re different keys.’ I said, ‘Ehhh — you can do it!’ (laughs) He said, ‘I’m going to have to repeat the lines.’ I said repeat the lines! Who cares! Just get on with it!’ And he put together the voices, conceivably the greatest voices in British rock, together almost perfectly. It actually is in the producer’s art a work of genius. It really is one of the great records — I truly believe that. It’s nothing to do with our song, or Band Aid. I just went, ‘Omigod!’
“So billions of dollars of debt relief for the poorest people in the world came from this small song, (written) one damp October afternoon. The common thread is this tune. That’s the thing that alerts everyone, drives through constantly, coming out again with a different idea each time.”
British artist Peter Blake, 93, who designed the 1984 single cover for “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” returned to create a new image for the “Ultimate Mix.”
Forty years later Geldof and Ure have slightly divergent views of the song they’re both justifiably proud of. “I’ve decided it is a pretty good tune this year,” Geldof says. “Y’know, I remember when about three in the morning (in 1984) I said, ‘Leave it, that’ll do.’ We kept going ’til five, and ‘that’ll do’ was where we were at. And it did; ‘It’ll do,’ and it did.”
Ure, meanwhile, views “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” as “not that good. Both Bob and I have done better. If you forget who’s singing it, it sounds like an Ultravox track. I think it stands up better as a recording than a song. As an event, as a production, as a record, it excelled. It did more than any of us ever expected.”
That the song, and Band Aid, continues to thrive after four decades goes far beyond the intended one-off, what Geldof calls a “crap little Christmas song.”
“It was meant to be a six-month project spending the seven, eight million pounds it generated,” remembers Ure, who also serves as a Band Aid trustee. “Of course, within that six-month period it grew from a record into suddenly putting together Live Aid…and compounded by the fact that nobody thought for one nano second that if you make a Christmas record it might just get played every year. We could only focus on the Christmas of ’84 going into ’85; if we could get it to No. 1 over the Christmas period, great. But we never saw life beyond that. The last 39 years has proved that wrong.”
No good deed goes unpunished, of course — or free of controversy, which Band Aid and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” have faced over the years, and recently. Most notably Ed Sheeran publicly said he would not have allowed his performance from the 2014 recording to be used, saying that “my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed” — specifically citing the Ghanian-English artist Fuse ODG’s contention that the song “perpetuates damaging stereotypes” about Africa. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has dismissed the effort as “well-meaning at the time” but lamented that it’s “frustrating to see our nation’s ancient history, culture, diversity and beauty reduced to doom and gloom.” He also contends that Band Aid “has not evolved with the times (and) might end up doing more harm than good”.
I am going to finish with an article from the New Statesman. With a new documentary about the making of Do They Know It’s Christmas? on the BBC iPlayer, it is worth remembering what it was like for those alive in 1984. Around to witness a single that had such a host of famous voices on it. Nothing like this had come about. In terms of the news coverage and the amount it raised. It was a phenomenon! Only in years since was the song dissected and the lyrics questioned to the degree that they have been. At the time, there was so much focus on raising money and getting the messages out to the public. Whether you consider it a Christmas classic or a song that is problematic in the modern age, you cannot deny that it did make a big difference:
“The documentary isn’t retrospective – all the footage was filmed on the day, much of it unseen until now – and perhaps this accounts, in part, for its unexpected ghostliness. The feeling is of old family cine film, fetched down from the attic. But it also had to do with the sad fact that many of those in it are dead: Paula Yates, Geldof’s then wife; Annabel Giles, Midge Ure’s then girlfriend; Rick Parfitt, of Status Quo; and George Michael. The general mood is shy. Boy George says all of them were always slagging each other off in the press – and yet, they’d never met in person before. Simon Le Bon sits next to Bono, and it’s like the sixth form, the uncool kid laughing far too hard at the cooler kid’s jokes.
Putting aside the song’s agonising lyrics – all that crass stuff about snow in Africa: 40 years on, and it’s in danger of being cancelled – you’ll be struck by Band Aid’s want of an effective diversity and inclusion programme. Kool & the Gang are the only black guys; the only girls allowed are Bananarama, and Jody Watley of Shalimar. Talent, though, is not a prerequisite, and I suppose in that sense the time was in its own peculiar way highly meritocratic (again, I give you Hadley). We get to hear voices raw and unrehearsed, unaccompanied by guitars or even synthesisers. George Michael nails it, of course, and Boy George, when he can stop with the double entendres, is okay. But Bono, Paul Young and Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 are pretty awful and – how young they look! – must report after class to Mrs Quaver the music mistress for extra coaching.
On the day, however, the coaching is left to Geldof, Horn and Ure. “More expression!” says Geldof. “It’s slightly flat,” says Ure. Horn conducts the mass singalong at the song’s end in a manner that suggests he’s long since given up, his hands moving in time to the crowd, rather than the other way round.
It’s funny, but as a teenager, I thought Band Aid comprised dozens of people. Now, though, I understand what a small group Geldof had managed to gather, the kingpins (Bowie, Mercury, McCartney et al) either otherwise engaged, or far too trepidatious/sensible to consider putting their voices next to Foghorn Hadley’s. Bam, bam, ba-bam, ba-ba-bam! What was once such a big deal – oh, the mad excitement Band Aid brought to my generation – now dematerialises in a cloud of smoke to the sound of Phil Collins’ (admittedly excellent) drumming”.
Band Aid II re-recorded the song in 1989. Since, there has been Band Aid 20, 30 and the new 40 version. It has seen a host of artists lend their voices to a song whose messages have not changed. If the lyrics can be seen as offensive or misguided, the issue around quality remains. Diminishing returns in terms of the subsequent versions. Wealthy artists maybe paying lip service or jumping on a bandwagon. There is a lot to discuss and unpack. We still listen to Do They Know It’s Christmas? today. Although there is still famine across Africa, the landscape across Ethiopia has changed since the 1980s. Is the Band Aid single too problematic? Bob Geldof and Midge Ure have put distance between them and the song in years since its release. Claiming the song was secondary and it was about fundraising. Geldof highlighting how millions of lives were changed, but also claiming that he was not hugely proud of it. Ure having even less love towards the song. Critics claiming that Do They Know It’s Christmas? has a western-centric viewpoint. A song that has these condescending stereotypical descriptions of Africa, others see it as a Christmas classic. Whatever your viewpoint on Do They Know It’s Christmas? focuses on the lyrics and the politics of the song or how it compares to other Christmas songs, one cannot deny that Band Aid did a lot of good in 1984. As the single has been remixed this year, there are new eyes and ears on…
THIS divisive Christmas standard.