Last night I was having a discussion with my friend about the big ‘benefit’ songs that used to air in the 80’s. Band Aid, USA for Africa, Hear N’ Aid and Northern Lights…HUGE songs featuring HUGE stars created to benefit the people in Ethiopia at a time when they were literally starving to death. Where are these songs now? I’m not sure where we veered away from these songs, and away from gathering people together (literally together, not digitally) in order to make things happen, but I know I miss them. Every time I hear one of these songs, it brings a tear to my eye and takes me right back to seeing the videos and hearing them for the first time. When we played ‘Tears Are Not Enough’ from the Canadian group Northern Lights today it reminded me of a funny clip that I had seen involving Neil Young, so I went searching for it. I found this great two part ‘Making Of’ video that I remember watching on TV as a kid and I thought I would share it here with you as well. It’s a pretty great trip down memory lane, the people, the fashion and the spirit of giving that was present during these sessions.
The song says ‘tears are not enough’ and I think that it’s still relevant today, though I dare say that to modernize it they should include ‘thoughts and prayers’ are not enough…
In any case, here’s the original video for the song (Paul Shaffer with HAIR!) followed by the making of videos. See if you can see the moment in the original video when someone hits a bum note…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExV9jA8ADh8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhfDW2pqr0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9XBr3OxTuE
