Monday, February 15, 2010

What Went Wrong?

Lionel Richie (yes, Nicole Richie's adopted father) and Michael Jackson (that recently passed star) teamed up in the mid '80s to write an instant classic tune to help fight world hunger.  Proceeds from sales of the single We Are The World were given to assist Farm Aid in its time of desperation and famines. 


     This beautiful song was broadcast far and wide.  It was also seen on all televisions stations and played in heavy rotation on MTV, which was at that time, still playing music videos.  It featured a varied cast of wonderfully talented singers in a time before auto-tune.

     The world watched in horror as Haiti suffered from one earthquake, then others. Buildings collapsed, people died.  Rescue efforts began immediately as neighbor, injured and scared, helped neighbor.  Rescue workers poured in.  People gave what they could, did what they could to help out those unfortunate souls.  Someone had the bright idea to recreate that once famous song.

    Offers to help poured in.  A cadre of musicians gathered and created what can only be described as the worst produced relief single ever created.  The sound engineer either did a ridiculous job of recording these artists, the artists were singing horribly because of the hurried job necessary to hold that much star power together for even a small amount of time, or T-Pain was brought in to AutoTune everyone except Macy Gray.  

   I was looking forward to the talent that would be showcased in what was to be a tremendous outpouring of love and affection in a collaborative work.  I couldn't even finish watching/listening to the video.  How does this help?   You would think they would have at least practiced the song on the way over.  I'm sure a few of them did... I HOPE they did.