It may be dickish, but I find it kind of amusing. Waylon probably found the whole thing to be a bit ludicrous.

John Lennon reported a story about how Waylon Jennings once brought a pistol to a recording session and threatened to put a hole in any session musician who played a pick up note.

The man had standards.

Love this, Schwah. Genius.

I was 12 when this came out, so it also made quite an impact on me. I have 45s of both "Do They Know It's Christmas" and "We Are the World" tucked away somewhere.

Hard to top your brutally thorough analysis, but I'll give my 2 bits:

Lionel Richie: I thought Lionel's gentle intro was perfect, actually, and hey, someone has to go first and it would seem out of place to have all the bombast come out from the beginning. Grade: A

Stevie Wonder: Not much I can add. Grade: A

Paul Simon: agree...Simon's a bit weak here, though I have to say, in reviewing the lyrics he's a bit stuck. You want to start ramping this thing up as you build toward "The greatest gift of all", which seems like it ought to be following by a chorus, but it's not. So what do you do? Well, he seems to choose not to build up any tension because they've got too far to go before the first chorus, and really, "it's time to lend a hand" just isn't going to be a power line anyway. So I'll give him a break because he's a bit handicapped in this position. Grade: C+

Kenny Rogers: A bit of a rough start to the second stanza on "We can't go on", but totally redeems himself by punctuating the "by". Grade: B

James Ingram: So I just noticed that both the country soloists hand off to R&B crooners. And this worked for me. I liked the little bit of desperation in Ingram's voice. Grade: B+

Tina Turner: Didn't like Turner's contribution, though admittedly I was not a fan then or now. She also seems to be running to get away from the mike before she even finishes. Grade: D

Billy Joel: And the complete opposite of Tina Turner, I love Billy Joel. I've always thought he had a very honest quality to his vocals, so it seems appropriate to me that he gets to sing "And the truth". I liked it, though I'm biased. Grade: B+

Michael Jackson: I completely agree with what you said...Jackson's voice is like a little happy feather floating around above the serious, yet optimistic heavy weights in the room. But, he did co-write the song, so I have to give him some points there. Grade: B-

Diana Ross: She's just kind of phoning it in. No room for that, we're saving lives here people! Grade: D-

Dionne Warwick: Something seems out of place here, but I can't put my finger on it. Still, she's clearly passionate about what she's singing, so I can't ding her too badly. Grade: C+

Willie Nelson: With probably the least straightforward delivery of any soloist (in a good way), Nelson does a bang-up job, and handing the Bible reference to the country legend seems like a genius move. Grade: A-

Al Jarreau: Country-to-R&B baton pass number 2, check. I kind of think of the last lines before the chorus as the anchor legs of a relay, and you want a strong guy in that slot. Jarreau is out of place (I assume not his fault), both by resume (this was well before the Moonlighting Theme made him a household name) and by strength of voice. If we keep him in the lineup, perhaps he's better off swapping with Kenny Rogers. Paul Simon: "Nice to meet you Mr. Jarreau". Al Jarreau: "Thanks, you can call me Al." FTW!! Grade: D

Da Boss: Springsteen owns this. He's clearly in another league in terms of inspiring imitations, both vocally and facially. I'm not going to downgrade him because the song drags out just a little too long. Grade: A+

Kenny Loggins: I didn't think this was terrible, and he put more emotion in than Simon or Ross. He's outclassed vocally coming and going, and so probably has the hardest slot in terms of being sandwiched between a legend and, if not a legend, at least a legendary voice (Perry). Grade: C

Steve Perry: Perry enlivens the second chorus, and makes up for a bit of a weak spot, what with Loggins following Springsteen. I liked trying to do the Perry voice as well. Oh Perry. Grade: A-

Daryl Hall: I liked what Hall did here...he couldn't really take it up a notch from Perry, and the line doesn't warrant that anyway, so I though the way he trailed off on "just you and me" worked just fine. He also brings down the tension just a bit, so MJ doesn't have to start at quite so high a point as he starts building the bridge. Grade: B+

Huey Lewis: Lewis wasn't that much of a newcomer...he'd already scored 8 hit singles, including 5 top 10s, like "Do You Believe in Love" and "The Heart of Rock and Roll". Lewis was the perfect choice for another of the song's statements of optimism. This blends perfectly with his bubbly pop image, and remember, HL and the News went on to own the summer of 85 with "The Power of Love" from "Back to the Future". Prince, MJ and Madonna were definitely THE pop royalty in 1985, but Huey Lewis was at the top of his game, and right at the top of that next tier of artists. Anyway, back to the song...good emotion and blends nicely into Lauper. Grade: B+

Cyndi Lauper: Lauper was coming off a phenomenal breakout year, and she put to shame most of her far-more experienced colleagues. Lauper was certainly well-known worldwide at this point, but still had just one album to her credit. She blows the lid off, both vocally and with the spirited visual of her jumping up and down just to give the notes that last little bit of pep they need. Grade: A+

Kim Carnes: I'm pretty sure I know why she was here. In 1984, Kim Carnes, Kenny Rogers, and James Ingram (yes, you read those names correctly) scored a modest Top 20 hit with the song "What About Me", and somehow she managed an invite based on those friendships. This is speculation, but makes sense because James Ingram doesn't really belong in this group either. Side note: originally the three singers were going to be Rogers, Richie, and Barbara Streisand!! Can you imagine Babs with a line in this song??? I actually like Kim "Crazy in the Night" Carnes, but with only two words, I feel like I can't even give her a grade. Grade: Incomplete

Dylan and Charles were good additions that kept the end of the song from being quite so laborious. Still, seems a bit disrespectful to tack them on in the end, almost as an afterthought. Dylan: B- Charles: A

Favorites: Lewis, Lauper, Perry, Springsteen
Throwaways: Carnes, Ross, Turner, Jarreau

Bette Midler: In Schwah's pantheon of horrendous artists, three stand at the top -- Jimmy Buffett, Kiss, and the "Divine Miss M." This is a little known fact, but Midler is so awful, her performance on Johnny Carson's last night ruined not just his final Tonight Show, but his entire thirty year run as host. Somehow this woman bullied her way into the studio. But we can be thankful about one thing... if the song had been recorded a few years later, after "Wind Beneath My Wings," she would have been given a solo and the whole recording would have, ipso facto, sucked. Let's just pretend she wasn't there at all, shall we?

I love "the Rose." That was an incredibly well written song and she sang it really passionately. I'll always appreciate an artist that can actually sing over a songwriter who can't even if he has a massive indie following. If you write a good song you better be able to sing it well especially if it's accoustic or lo-fi.

Schwah: Grade: A+
Excellent, excellent, excellent, Schwah. I love this kind of extensive and detailed analysis. Probably the only thing that lacked was this:



Can I add some comments?: I wasn’t 11 or 12 years old when this song came out, I was 19 years old then and I immediately hated it. I kinda liked the Geldof song that went before and me, full of European arrogance, I despised the American version for being banal, bland, tasteless, kitsch and show-off. Time has tempered my hate (time has tempered so many things) but I still don’t like the silly song-writing and the glossy mid-80s arrangements.
But even then, since that song was ubiquitous and you can’t help listening to it everywhere, I began to extract some (guilty) pleasure from it. In my case the main appeal was the way that every singer transformed a simple melody (in fact the simplest melody ever, C#-B-A-F#) to create his own melody. It was particularly impressive how Stevie Wonder wonderized completely the song (listen at 5:25 how he sang F#-F#-E-D, a much better melody than the original). And how the Boss springsteenized it too (during the duet-duel with Wonder the line “we’re saving our own lives” at 5:36 was pure “The River” ). And Dylan, of course, the line “it’s true to make a better day” at 3:51 came directly from the Highway 61.
And yes, Schwah, I agree with you. Cindy Lauper was the best of them all. That single line (and that yeah yeah yeahs) were the highest point of her career. She nailed it.

Schwah, I can't wait for your comments on We Are the World 25 for Haïti with Justin Bieber, vocoders, a rapped verse and a candidat for Haiti presidency cracking his pants.

Thanks all. I realize my post is more than a little silly and even more than little self-indulgent. Nor do I think that We Are the World is a reording particularly worthy of aesthetic acclaim. I turned to it because of its cultural ubiquity and the unique opportunity to compare and contrast different artists in a specific setting. And because I had fun with the whole thing.

I suppose I should explain that my disdain for Midler is first and foremost about her voice, secondarily about her grating personality. My overriding impression of Midler's singing is that she frequently swings within a song between lazily boring and soullessly annoying. She either is trying to sing pretty and winds up sounding flat (not in her pitch but dynamically) or is trying to inject attitude and winds up sounding embarrasing. But that is totally a subjective opinion, and I'm glad to hear from someone who likes her most famous recording.

I don't have the music analysis knowledge to pick apart each of the melodic variations in the solos. I just know that some I found very pleasing to the ear, and many of those were courtesy of Stevie. So thanks, Honorio, for that prime example, complete with the specific notes.

I'd certainly love to hear if anyone else disagrees with my assessments. Or who wants to exapin why the whole thing is totally unworthy of such detailed analysis.