Earlier today, I was sure I was going to pick this, but as a double-shot of Broken/Head Over Heels as I'd nearly insist that both should go together. But what do I know, and a quick relisten of the album reminded me of why I still love that "forgotten" 2nd track buried between the two blockbusters.
I do know that putting in a full day of work can lose you 3 songs from this year chosen today, and one from next year I was about to write up for this weekend, but I suppose that's just all Talk (Talk) now. Probably best that BB got it anyways and knowing the "EU" single release prior year poaching was always possible.
Ah-hey-ma-ma-ma, it shows there's some good tracks already here, so all you people in the street, some days the world drags me down... but there's always more...
Senior Prom was great and that also led into "the longest summer" of 1985 from late May until mid-September when the "fall quarter" would start. When I hear of attending Live Aid or not, that meant something entirely different from my vantage point. I was about an hour away distance-wise from JFK Stadium in Philly, but in saving up for college, sitting in the roasting July 15 95F/35C heat was not something that was ever going to happen funds wise. It might as well have been a world away.
A few friends I know who went were not exaggerating when they called conditions inside the concrete stadium with 100K people "boiling hot" and "sweltering". The Philadelphia Fire Department even set up open-air showers and hosed down the crowd to help people cool off. Meanwhile, I was camped out at home with our new family VCR and getting the best of all the bands in both London and Philly on my 3 VHS tapes which I would later play into the ground. Do I regret not going? Not really, despite my proximity as those I know who went missed out on the UK acts back then, of which I got to see the Best of Both Worlds.
Anyways, one of the songs that helped inspire the concert in addition to "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was this. I still vividly remember the simultaneous broadcast of this single by over 8,000 radio stations on April 5. On that day at 10:25 am ET, radio stations across the globe aired the song to support USA for Africa's famine relief efforts in Ethiopia. I know where I was that day. It was driving down to the beach over a long Easter weekend with my then emerging high school senior girlfriend where weeks and months of signals would no longer be ignored that weekend. Hard to believe that was over 40 years ago, but unlike many memories over time, that one still remains pretty vivid.
"We Are The World" - U.S.A. For Africa
(I highly recommend the 2024 Netflix documentary, "The Greatest Night in Pop" if you haven't seen that too as it was a fascinating story of how it all came together)
