I was just in the car listening to the song, written by Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats) and Midge Ure (Misfits, Ultravox, and others), for Band Aid, a conglomeration of British musicians in 1984 with the purpose of raising money to help the people of Ethiopia, who were suffering famine at that time.
And as I listened to this Christmas song of my youth — this feel-goody, do-goody, late-middle-20th-Century, holiday ditty — my early 21st Century, late-middle-aged brain was horror struck. To explain why, I shall now parse the lyrics of this modern Christmas classic, giving you my line by line reaction.
It's Christmas time, and there's no need to be afraid.
Indeed, there should not be, Paul Young.
At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade.
Yes. Good things. Good thoughts.
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy.
Yes, Boy George, let us share our bounty with those less fortunate. I am with you and for you.
Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time.
Joy to the World!
But say a prayer and pray for the other ones.
The other ones? That phrase hits my ear wrong in 2017. Like setting them apart, over there — They are “the other,” they are not us. Hmm. Maybe through the lens of time, this construction “the other ones” to describe people literally starving to death on another continent was an okay construction. In its time. You know. Bob Geldof had his heart in the right place. And this is George Michael’s voice at its most pure. Letting it go. For now . . . .
At Christmas time, it's hard but while you're having fun,
Hard to think about other people’s pain when you’re having fun. This is true, Simon LeBon. Humans are selfish creatures.
There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear,
Also true, Simon, true both then and now. And the dread and fear seems a lot more local in 2017 than it did in 1984 when it was waaaay far away in Africa.
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears.
Did they intend all along to have Sting sing the word “sting”? Or is it a happy accident?
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom.
I don’t know. Maybe they bring hope, the church bells, a reminder of faith in a God that saves to the people of this majority Christian country.
Well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you!
Holy shit, Bono (and Bob and Midge)! Is “better you than me” really the sentiment we’re going for here? (Here’s where I was literally horror struck.) I mean, Bono really belts it out here, and I’ve always really liked this part. But the line! The painful awkwardness of that line! Clang.
And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time.
It doesn’t snow in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is north of the Equator, between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer. It does rain, though, and they do have rivers, including the Nile (see later verse below). Also — side note — you know where else it won’t snow this Christmas time? Australia. Do the Australians know it’s Christmas time at all?
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life (Oooh).
Ummmm, I can’t dispute this for them then, for me then, for us now.
Where nothing ever grows, No rain or rivers flow.
The famine in Ethiopia occurred in the midst of a Civil War. Human Rights Watch and Oxfam UK have concluded that the 1983-85 famine in Ethiopia was “in large part created by government policies, specifically a set of so-called counter-insurgency strategies and ‘social transformation’ in non-insurgent areas.” In other words, the Ethiopian government did it in order to put down a rebellion. It wasn’t caused by drought. It was caused by politics and corruption. Also, plenty of rivers in Ethiopia, see above, so rivers do flow . . . .
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?
Probably, they do/did. It’s 62% (roughly) Christian. But I’m guessing their Christmas traditions were/are vastly different from those of the UK (or the good ol’ US of A), but I’m also guessing they celebrate(d).
Here's to you! Raise a glass for everyone!
“You should feel good about yourself for caring about the benighted people of Africa.”
Here's to them! Underneath that burning sun!
“Yay, them, in their uncomfortable living conditions!” (Actually, parts of Ethiopia are quite temperate, despite its location in the tropics.)
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?
Yes, probably.
Feed the world, Feed the world, Feed the world.
Yes. Good.
Let them know it's Christmas time again.
Assuming they knew and then forgot . . . .
[Repeat and Fade]
So, okay, yeah. The song is of its time. It’s a bit tone deaf by today’s standards, but so is Bugs Bunny and we still love him (mostly).
Still, there’s this overarching paternalistic theme. I’d never noticed it until today when I was, for some reason, really listening to the song and not doing as I usually do, which is to allow it to sweep over me in waves of nostalgia. It smacks of the benevolent white man coming to save the savages: “We will give you life. We will show you Christmas. We will save you with westernization.”
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure didn’t mean to sound like English missionaries going into the wilderness. They had every good intention, I am sure. But that attitude was kind of baked into mid-20th century culture: White people must save the brown people from themselves. It never rains in Africa. There is no groundwater in Africa. It’s always scorching hot in Africa. There are no plants in Africa. People in Africa live in dirt with flies on their eyelids. (Damn you, Sally Struthers.) The northern European/American experience of a snowy Christmas is the only positive experience of Christmas. (Sucks for you, Australia.)
Today, we don’t think that way — or we shouldn’t — and we are shocked when we find someone who does. And so this decades old song’s very Western view of the world (and especially the, “Oh Lord, thank goodness it’s not me!”) clangs louder in contemporary ears than it did 33 years ago.
And, apparently, I’m not the only person who has been struck by the tone of the 30-year-old lyrics this century. Apparently, those lyrics rattled the ears of the Band Aid 30 crowd too. (Band Aid 30 raised money for the Ebola epidemic victims.)
In my googling lyrics for this post, I found that the lyrics had been changed when they remade the song for a new era and a new crisis three years ago.
Here are the new lyrics, which replace the bit starting with Sting’s line, “Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears”:
Where a kiss of love can kill you, and there's death in every tear.
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom.
Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you.
Bring peace and joy this Christmas to West Africa.
A song of hope they'll have is being alive.
Why is comfort deadly fear? Why is to touch to be scared?
How can they know it's Christmas time at all?
Here's to you! Raise a glass to everyone.
Here's to them! And all their years to come.
Can they know it's Christmas time at all?
Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time again.
Heal the world, let them know it's Christmas time again.
[Repeat and Fade]
No more better them than us lyric, see? And it’s just a little less us/them than the 80s version. A tiny bit of growth and change over three decades. Good things.
Merry Christmas.
