Brian Mansfield, for USA Today:
The all-star recording session for We Are the World, the biggest charity single of all time, took place 30 years ago Wednesday.
“A great song lasts for eternity,” says Quincy Jones, who produced the track. “I guarantee you that if you travel anywhere on the planet today and start humming the first few bars of that tune, people will immediately know that song.”
This is great. I remember the first time I watched Live Aid 1985. It was amazing. Selfishly, as a teenager in the 90’s watching retrospectively, videos like this were amazing more because of the musical prowess and collaboration than helping actual people. I feel differently about it now, obviously. But every time I watch this documentary, or this one, I am still in awe.
Consider this: everyone there was at the top of their game, more or less. Michael. Stevie. James Ingram. The Boss. Dylan. Diana. Huey Lewis. Billy Joel. Quincy conducting. The list goes on. Imagine being one of the contributing artists (so awesome right?). As the video shows, everyone is literally getting to watch their peers do their thing during the ‘solo’ section. It’s like playing a gig full of musicians who are 10x better than you. Intimidating, yes. But the reward? Oh so sweet in the end.
If you consider yourself a musician, or if you are a rabid fan of pop music, or even if you just like music a little bit, this is a great watch. Insta-Instapaper for sure.
(From The Loop)