Artists For Africa – We Are The World

Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote this 1985 supergroup song which sold about 20 million copies. It won four Grammy awards in 1986. People of all ages liked it. The song was sung by a racially diverse mix of artists and celebrities. It was saccharine but hummable. The proceeds went to charity: for hunger in Africa, birth control and other programs – more than $50 million bucks.

We Are The World is so very impressive on so many counts. What more could Africa want?

There are critiques of foreign aid provoked by We Are The World.

Maybe these Artists for Africa were self-serving, singing how much they care. The money raised is pocket change considering the poverty and famine in places like Ethiopia, even at the time. The support may have helped for disaster relief, but some feel longer term assistance needs to be provided and encouraged to prevent future famines. This line of critique of foreign aid is about teaching governance, which was a focus after decolonization and African independence. Still others such as Dambiso Moyo and Hernando de Soto look not to aid but to trade and capitalism and private property as more longer term solutions. And yet this can be called out for being “western” or “imperialistic.”

There are more arguments. In short, poverty alleviation is a serious and complicated business. However, the scope of We Are The World was narrower. While poverty has not decreased in many African countries since 1985, we shouldn’t expect too much from a pop song. It was a watershed moment in putting the needs of developing countries on the collective radar of the developed world, which was something probably only celebrities could have done to such a degree.

The Artists For Africa:

Singing solos: Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles

Singing in the choruses: Dan Aykroyd, Harry Belafonte, Lindsey Buckingham, Mario Cipollina, Johnny Colla, Sheila E., Bob Geldof, Bill Gibson, Chris Hayes,Sean Hopper, Jackie Jackson, La Toya Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson, Waylon Jennings,Bette Midler, John Oates, Jeffrey Osborne, Anita Pointer, June Pointer, Ruth Pointer, Smokey Robinson

Van Halen – Right Now

American politicians like Senator John McCain and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin have used this song to campaign with. This continues a pattern of elected officials not getting permission from the artists, and these artists typically not supportive of those politicians. Except singer Sammy Hagar has financially supported George W. Bush.

The 1992 lyrics, which focus on taking action to achieve your goals, charitably, are quite inspiring and motivational when combined with the upbeat music. Cynically, the rhythms of the song are quite complex, covering for the words which are hackneyed; they could be copped by a motivational speaker or cribbed for a self-help or leadership book many will read but few will act upon?

Kim Wilde – Kids In America

Like Nena with her red balloons, 80s artist Kim Wilde has reheated her top hit a few times over.

The narrator seems to be watching city life from a window above, and assumes the action below is change happening. The change could be nothing more than new wave music as this was 1982. Or the change may be about youth bringing new ideas. In a world with the vapidity of “suburbia’s sprawling,” there’s a young, down town energy needing to be harnessed. And Kim Wilde is ready to do it.

Of course, politicians love to say that children are our future. And young people imagine they can shake things up. While there are wonderful examples of the power of youth, history also shows many conform more than they planned. The flower power hippies supposedly became the Gordon Gecko capitalists or yuppies of the 1980s, for example. This is not to say everyone sells out! Having bills to pay and kids to feed can make for a very satisfying life. But such responsibility can damper the enthusiasm of 80s tunes with the potential of more revolutionary, less conservative intent.

What might be most interesting, politically, about this song, is whether any 40-somethings today that rocked to the spirit of this song back in the day, still get that energy boost for activism from it… in between minding their retirement portfolios and paying for their children’s college educations.

Roger Miller – Burma Shave

Burma-Shave was brushless shaving cream from the 1920s. Burma-shave advertising signs may have been early billboards. How it worked was successive signs conveyed the advertising message:

In politics, the concept has been widely used in campaigning:

Roger Miller (King of the Road), known for his country honk novelty songs, also had a silly tune about this whole business called Burma Shave. YouTube at present only has a version by the Everly Brothers:

Phil and Don have another song reviewed here, too: Man With Money.

Harry McClintock – Hallelujah, I’m A Bum

This folk song is a gospel parody or response to pious finger pointing at the indigent. Like many folk songs, it’s not clear who actually composed this 1920s number. Given that one can find different versions with different verses, performed by different artists, it’s more like a song that is shared and adapted – the essence of a folk song.

The welfare state is a collection of government services and programs intending to assist people that need help getting by. While its roots can probably be traced back to the English Poor Laws of the 16th century, it wasn’t until the Great Depression that the ideological climate widely shifted toward some acceptance of public assistance for those out of work. Since this shift, the welfare state has become part of how most citizens understand to be the best way to support each other through sharing of their resources through taxation. The welfare state still bears all manner of criticisms, including that it costs too much, does not achieve its intended results and even creates “bums,” to the extent that people may become dependent on government “handouts.”

Love – Live and Let Live

Love probably has the best name possible for a 1960s flower power era group, though they were more than incense and peppermints. Racially mixed, and socially concerned, this song from their seminal album Forever Changes, seems to mostly look at the stupidity of war, in their view. The multi-section 1967 tune may also cover off land seizures from American Indians.

Any lyrics mentioning “snot” can be hard to hear in a popular song!

The title generally refers to freedom, letting people do as they wish. But Live and Let Live has also referred to, in the First World War, temporary truces in trench warfare. Several other rock artists have been inspired by this halting of fighting. Two thus far are covered here:

Paul McCartney, The Pipes of Peace
Royal Guardsmen, Snoopy’s Christmas

‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

Singer Aimee Mann went on to become somewhat of an indie darling after her time with this 1980s new wave group. This 1985 song had a video in regular MTV rotation, and is basically about the narrator’s love life given a series of failed relationships.

The notion in politics that voices can carry – and make a change, brings up the notion of pluralism.

The pluralist view sees public policy as the outcome of a competition between organized groups, each trying to get what their group wants. Let’s say a neighbourhood group mobilizes to save a local park from commercial development. Or a women’s group advocates for stiffer sentences for those that commit violence against women. A Christian group wanting evolution out of public school curriculum… And so it goes. These are all groups, all trying to get their demands made into public policy.

Society is viewed as a bunch of complex groups, and sure, they can bash each other with their protest signs in a competitive and open environment. But pluralism is not necessarily no-holds barred, ultimate fighting. This is because disputes among the competing groups for their views of the world are sometimes reconciled given the overlapping membership of people in various groups. For example, a group sets up to protest cuts to Medicaid, the U.S. public health program for the poor. And a member of that group may also be an employee of a medical insurance company that otherwise may stand to gain from more people needing private health insurance absent Medicaid. Both individuals in the group will at least learn both sides of the debate.

The major work and explanation on pluralism is “Who Governs?” by Robert A. Dahl. U.S. President James Madison also wrote in the Federalist Papers (No. 10) that such groups in society can be factions:

By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

Madison worried that factions in pluralism would be up to mischief for thinking of their own, perhaps narrow interests. That their voices would carry us too far. He argued we mustn’t restrict their activities as this would violate liberty. But that the will of the majority could vote down narrow faction demands, and that a Constitution must be overarching as a safeguard against any majority tyranny.