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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to Too Much Information, the show that brings

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Speaker 1: you the secret history and little known facts behind your

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Speaker 1: favorite movies, music, TV shows and more. We are your

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Speaker 1: supergroup of scintillating details. You're Quincy Jones of quite interesting facts,

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Speaker 1: and for the next two hours, we are your world.

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Speaker 2: My name's Jordan run Togg and I'm Alex Igel.

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Speaker 1: And today we are talking about one of the best

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Speaker 1: selling songs of all time, a song that boasts more

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Speaker 1: top tier talent than perhaps any other, a song that

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Speaker 1: brings new meeting to the phrase well it's the thought

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Speaker 1: that counts. A song that I have definitely never sat

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Speaker 1: down and listened to. Start to finish, we are talking

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Speaker 1: about We Are the World, by the one off supergroup

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Speaker 1: calling themselves USA for Africa. Say Yeah, it's not as

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Speaker 1: pithy as a name as the UK counterparts bandid I

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Speaker 1: know It's not the first overstuffed charity record to come

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Speaker 1: onto the scene again, the honor belongs to Don't They

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Speaker 1: Know It's Christmas Time by band Aid. But this one

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Speaker 1: has never been topped in terms of scope. Everything about

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Speaker 1: it is so huge, some might say overblown, and bloated.

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Speaker 1: In fact, I will some forty five by my account,

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Speaker 1: of the biggest names in music crammed into a single studio,

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Speaker 1: setting aside their musical and sometimes personal differences, for a

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Speaker 1: greater cause. Together they work till sunrise to make a

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Speaker 1: seven minute musical message of hope for a brighter day

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Speaker 1: for an Africa ravaged by famine. And though the song

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Speaker 1: itself has been described by Stereogum writer Tom Bryan as

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Speaker 1: a quote tranquilizing musical irritant, it is raised over eighty

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Speaker 1: million dollars for charitable causes, which done more for the

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Speaker 1: world than Hey yeah, Brohemian Rhapsody ever did so hard

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Speaker 1: to knock it, but it's hard to remember now, but

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Speaker 1: We Are the World is really the first of its kind,

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Speaker 1: or at least in the first wave, alongside the band song.

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Speaker 1: We take it for granted now that there are all

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Speaker 1: these celebrity charitable projects, but this is really the first

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Speaker 1: time that a big group of stars mobilized behind a

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Speaker 1: single project. It was so obscure that when they were

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Speaker 1: recruiting artists to sing on it, the organizers had to

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Speaker 1: go out of their way to even explain what this was.

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Speaker 1: It was pitched as a space age woodstock for a

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Speaker 1: new generation, which is a great quote and sort of

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Speaker 1: a gathering of a new kind of tribe to look

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Speaker 1: out for their fellow man. That was the optimistic pitch.

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Speaker 2: At least.

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Speaker 1: Sinex have said that even more money would have been

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Speaker 1: raised if the artists and their label bosses had merely

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Speaker 1: donated a few percentage points of their income instead of

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Speaker 1: staging a big, splashy display.

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Speaker 2: But eighty million is like what Clive Davis's annual bonus

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Speaker 2: at this time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't really have a follow up to that.

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Speaker 1: I do feel that raising awareness was key, and we

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Speaker 1: Owe the World really helped shine a global spotlight on

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Speaker 1: Africa and its issues, making it really top of mind

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Speaker 1: in American homes for the first time. Musically, it's pretty inexcusable, right,

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Speaker 1: it's fine, just off of the case. It's fine as

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Speaker 1: is off in the case. The more stars you throw

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Speaker 1: on a song, the worse it gets. I call it

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Speaker 1: housemates syndrome, you know how like in the common area

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Speaker 1: of your house or apartment, like the little entry away

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Speaker 1: or whatever, the part that no one person actually owns,

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Speaker 1: it just kind of goes the hell because no one

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Speaker 1: takes ownership of it.

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Speaker 2: That's what happens with supergroups.

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Speaker 1: It's all just like responsibility gets spread too thin and

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Speaker 1: then as a result, so does the blame. And that's

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Speaker 1: why supergroups don't work in my opinion anyway, Heigel, what

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Speaker 1: do you think about We of the World.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's dogship, but it's it's just so fascinating. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I think earlier we called it. I called it the

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Speaker 2: highest talent to lowest quality ratio of all time. Yep.

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Speaker 2: I can't think of anything any other single artistic achievement.

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Speaker 2: It's like if every Renaissance master the Ninja Turtles were

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Speaker 2: named after, got together to paint the Sistine chain apple

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Speaker 2: and came up with like dogs playing poker. Yeah. My

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Speaker 2: personal obsession with this with charity singles extends furthest to

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Speaker 2: stars by here in aide Oh yeah, oh, which is

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Speaker 2: the the Ronnie James Dio led charity project. Yes, with

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Speaker 2: twelve guitar solos and like six vocalists all just doing

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Speaker 2: their doing their damnedst.

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Speaker 1: How long is this? Is it a long song? With

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Speaker 1: all those solos? There are all the solos like four seconds apiece?

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Speaker 2: Uh? I think they get like four bars I've only

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Speaker 2: I've never again, nothing I've ever I've never actually heard

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Speaker 2: this song. I've only seen the full length YouTube documentary

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Speaker 2: about it, which is hilarious because it is like every

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Speaker 2: single la hair metal guitarist coming in, uh and just

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Speaker 2: wanking it. Apparently I was just looking it up. Ronnie James,

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Speaker 2: Dio's widow, said that it has raised over three million

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Speaker 2: dollars three billion.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not very dight.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I know, But but counterpoint, did we

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Speaker 2: are the world have Dio?

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Speaker 1: Did it have any guitar solos?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Exactly how many guitar solos did they have? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I think Bono was wrong when he

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Speaker 2: said rock and roll can change the world, but it

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Speaker 2: can raise money. And that's kind of what I've always

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Speaker 2: tried to do. I have no interest in anyone writing

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Speaker 2: protest songs anymore. But I can cut a check and

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Speaker 2: I can throw shows that I did. I don't do

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Speaker 2: it anymore, but I threw that then cut checks. So

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Speaker 2: that's what I believe in. And yeah, man, I just

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Speaker 2: the assemblage of ego and personality. I mean, I don't

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Speaker 2: I guess I don't want to call it ego personality

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Speaker 2: because it seems like they are the egos were actually

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Speaker 2: checked at the proverbial door mostly, but man, just the

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Speaker 2: where else you can see Dean Warwick help Willie Nelson

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Speaker 2: find his place on a piece of sheet music as

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Speaker 2: he comes in a half beat late.

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Speaker 1: I urge all of you to watch the documentary on

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Speaker 1: the making of We Are the World on YouTube. It

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Speaker 1: is It's like the way that like I'm a celebrity,

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Speaker 1: get me out of here should have been. It's the

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Speaker 1: weirdest thing in the world to see these forty something

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Speaker 1: celebrities in this not very big space just awkwardly interacting

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Speaker 1: with each other all night. They're like kept awake for

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Speaker 1: like twelve hours. It's great.

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Speaker 2: Yeah you think they You think they did that naturally

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Speaker 2: it was nineteen eighty five, so no, draw your own conclusion. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So, while I might not be able to speak to

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Speaker 1: the song's musical merits, I am endlessly fascinated as you

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Speaker 1: are by We Are the World, both as a relic

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Speaker 1: of a very specific era, kind of the last hurrah

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Speaker 1: of the monoculture, and also just the truly bizarre circumstances

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Speaker 1: under which it was made. You know, as you mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: with so many personalities and ego neuroses, you better believe

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Speaker 1: we have some incredible stories.

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Speaker 2: I'm just so excited.

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Speaker 1: This is probably the most anecdote rich episode we've ever had.

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Speaker 1: I'm just thrilled the dive in from Michael Jackson hiding

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Speaker 1: in the bathroom in terror just ravigate to Lionel Richie

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Speaker 1: getting spooked by MJ's missing snake, to Prince blowing off

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Speaker 1: the session and bailing his bodyguards out of jail, to

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Speaker 1: Cyndi Lauper's wardrobe difficulties, Bob Dylan's intense stage fright, to

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Speaker 1: the surprising reason why Huey Lewis was given a solo

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Speaker 1: when Smokey Robinson was not, Plus all the reasons why

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Speaker 1: everyone loved Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen. Besides the obvious,

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Speaker 1: here is everything you didn't know about We Are the World.

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Speaker 1: So when you talk about we Are the World, the

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Speaker 1: first person everyone usually thinks of is Quincy Jones. He's

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Speaker 1: traditionally viewed as the mastermind behind this the Apex of

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Speaker 1: all charity singles, but it was actually the recently departed

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Speaker 1: Harry Belafonte who jumps started the project. He was watching

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Speaker 1: a news report of the Ethiopian famine one night shortly

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Speaker 1: before Christmas in nineteen eighty four, and this report included

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Speaker 1: footage of a volunteer doctor being interviewed as a line

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Speaker 1: of sick, malnourished children stretched beyond his tent, and this

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Speaker 1: doctor was asked, how can you handle working in these

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Speaker 1: conditions when the problem seems so massive, almost irreversible? How

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Speaker 1: can you get up every day to face such an

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Speaker 1: awesome task? And the doctor replied, I take them one

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Speaker 1: at a time. And this simple answer is essentially what

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Speaker 1: spurred Harry Belafonte to action. Also, obviously it's important to

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Speaker 1: note that We Are the World was done in the

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Speaker 1: wake of band aids Do they Know It's Christmas? The

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four charity single organized by Bob Geldoff of

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Speaker 1: the Boomtown Rats fame and star of Pink Floyd's.

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Speaker 2: The Wall, and also me juror the other guy who

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Speaker 2: did Do they Know It's Christmas Time? Remember him?

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Speaker 1: That's in the UK band Ultravox, Okay, moving on and

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Speaker 1: band aid The original British charity supergroup featured members of

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Speaker 1: U two, Wham Culture Club, Duran, Duran, Phil Collins, Paul Weller, Sting,

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Speaker 1: and the rest other stars from the UK, and for

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Speaker 1: years it was the biggest selling single in British history.

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Speaker 1: So I Hard Belafonte was seeking to make a star

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Speaker 1: studied Yankee equivalent to help alleviate the Ethiopian famine, which

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Speaker 1: at this point had killed nearly a million people in

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Speaker 1: just under two years. And so the first thing Harry

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Speaker 1: Belafonte did was contact a very influential entertainment manager and

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Speaker 1: fellow activist named Ken Cragan, and Ken Craigan is probably

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Speaker 1: the least famous name involved with the star studded spectacle,

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Speaker 1: but he's the secret MVP if we are the World.

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Speaker 1: His first move, Ken Craigan was to draft his client's

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Speaker 1: Lionel Richie, who volunteered his writing services for the song,

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Speaker 1: and Kenny Rogers. And he also got Stevie Wonder involved

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Speaker 1: through Lionel Richie. He was his old Motown label mate

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Speaker 1: and I love this. Lionel Richie spent days trying to

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Speaker 1: find Stevie Wonder and as we discussed in our songs

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Speaker 1: in the Key of Life episode.

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Speaker 2: Stevie's quite the independent spirit.

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Speaker 1: To track down and getting him to return phone calls

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Speaker 1: was next to impossible, but thankfully they had some help

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Speaker 1: from a holiday miracle. On Christmas Eve, Lionel Richie's wife

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Speaker 1: was at a fancy la jewelry store doing some last

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Speaker 1: minute Christmas shopping.

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Speaker 2: Well, who should walk in but Stevie.

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Speaker 1: Wonder and he asked her for some help picking out

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Speaker 1: some gifts. And he said, I will if you call

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Speaker 1: my husband immediately, and he did and he agreed to

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Speaker 1: sign on. Does that count as blackmailing?

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Speaker 2: Extortion? Please? Extortion? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: So now, this project was initially envisioned by Harry Belafonte

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Speaker 1: as a benefit concert rather than just a recording, but

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Speaker 1: Ken Craigan he wasn't so hot on this concert idea.

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Speaker 1: He'd been the manager for the late folk singer Harry Chapin,

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Speaker 1: the guy Who's sang you know Kat's in the Cradle

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Speaker 1: with the bad Dad anthem Taxi. That's a great song,

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Speaker 1: not the theme song to the show Taxi, but past

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Speaker 1: the other one. He was very active Harry Chapin in

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Speaker 1: fighting hunger and homelessness and did a lot of fundraising.

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Speaker 1: And Following Harry Chapin's death in a freak car accident

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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, Ken Craigan had been working for

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Speaker 1: years to try to put a benefit show together in

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Speaker 1: his honor, and he quickly discovered that charity concerts are

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Speaker 1: a gigantic pain in the ass. He also remembered what

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Speaker 1: a relative financial disaster events like George Harrison's concert for

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Speaker 1: Bangladesh was, and also the No Nukes concerts in the

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Speaker 1: late seventies. Just charity concerts really tough. Money rarely goes

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Speaker 1: to the right place, bad idea. So instead, Ken Craigan

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Speaker 1: suggested a recording session instead to do a charity single,

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Speaker 1: although I guess in Quincy jones retelling of the story,

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Speaker 1: he says that when they first brought him on to

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Speaker 1: the whole USA for Africa project, it was meant to

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Speaker 1: be a tour, which sounds like a nightmare, and he

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Speaker 1: said that would have never worked with all those artists.

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Speaker 1: It would have been the shortest tour in the history

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Speaker 1: of music. But this was also in the same spate

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Speaker 1: of interviews when Quincy was talking about like knowing who

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Speaker 1: killed JFK and dating Avanka Trump and stuff.

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Speaker 2: So grain of salt.

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Speaker 1: So I've heard conflicting versions on how much Michael Jackson

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Speaker 1: and Quincy Jones were brought into the mix for We

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Speaker 1: Have the World. One version is that Lionel Richie asked

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Speaker 1: Michael Jackson to come aboard, and Michael said he wanted

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Speaker 1: to bring his Thriller collaborator, Quincy Jones.

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Speaker 2: Two.

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Speaker 1: I question this because despite their motown connection, Lionel Richie

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Speaker 1: and Michael Jackson really barely knew each other. Their last

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Speaker 1: big connection was in nineteen seventy one, when Lionel's band,

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Speaker 1: the then unknown Commodores opened for thirteen year old Michael

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Speaker 1: when he was in the Jackson Five, which must have

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Speaker 1: been galling for Lionel opening for a thirteen year old.

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Speaker 1: Lionel even told him soon after they met to start

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Speaker 1: discussing this charity single. The idea of me and you

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Speaker 1: even being in the same city at the same time

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Speaker 1: is pretty ridiculous, So I guess they were kind of

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Speaker 1: miles apart socially didn't really know each other. The other

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Speaker 1: more plausible version of how Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones

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Speaker 1: came into the mix is that Ken Craigan called in

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Speaker 1: Quincy Jones, who again was super producer extraordinary produced Thriller,

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Speaker 1: the biggest album in the world.

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Speaker 2: What more do you need?

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Speaker 1: Worked with everybody, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington and the rest

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Speaker 1: and the rest. So when Ken Craigan called Quincy, Quincy

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Speaker 1: was like, well, what if I try to get Michael,

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Speaker 1: And within thirty minutes Michael signed on and agreed to

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Speaker 1: help co write the song too. So Quincy decided to

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Speaker 1: take some time off from doing music for his film

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Speaker 1: production debut, The Color Purple, which also won everything. This

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Speaker 1: Guy's touch is won a boatload of awards, won a

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Speaker 1: bunch of Oscars or nominated for I think eleven Oscars

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Speaker 1: to lend a hand of the project that would become

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Speaker 1: We Are the World, and he talked about how he

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Speaker 1: got the gig in an interview with Yahoo Music. He said, quote,

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Speaker 1: I think I was chosen to produce We Are the

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Speaker 1: World because I'd produced an album for Donna Summer a

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Speaker 1: couple of years earlier. On that album, we had a

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Speaker 1: track called State of Independence that needed a choir. I

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Speaker 1: wanted the best choir I could get, so about a

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Speaker 1: third of the artists on We Are the World were

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Speaker 1: on that.

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Speaker 2: Track, so I was on familiar ground.

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Speaker 1: If I hadn't worked individually with over half these singers before,

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Speaker 1: there's no way I would have signed on that Donna

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Speaker 1: Summer song is wild? Do you know it State of Independence.

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Speaker 2: No, but I love the idea of Jim Vangelis being

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Speaker 2: involved and we are the world and I have revision,

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Speaker 2: I've red conded in my head so that now he

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Speaker 2: did all the synth programming to it, which is not true.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Vangelis the composer who wrote the Chariots of Fire theme.

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Speaker 2: Can you hum that? Hum that please? Bum bum bum

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Speaker 2: bum bum. Also Blade Runner, I mean, like the guy

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Speaker 2: who's just a synth a true synth wizard.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so that song was written by Vangelis. And the

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Speaker 1: chorus that Quincy's talking about. It features Lionel, Ritchie Diale Warwick,

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Speaker 1: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Brenda Russell, Christopher Cross, Diane Cannon,

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Speaker 1: James Ingram, Kenny Loggins, Peggy Lipton.

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Speaker 2: Who Quincy Jones was married to at the time. The

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Speaker 2: actors helped Old Twin.

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Speaker 1: Peaks, Yeah, Patty Austin, Michael McDonald, and Stevie Wonder, and

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Speaker 1: the song Ranks is one of Brian ENO's favorite recordings.

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Speaker 1: Since I didn't State of Independence, Yeah, didn't.

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Speaker 2: I'd never heard this song before researching this episode. You know,

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Speaker 2: I just I I'm fully I know there's like a

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Speaker 2: whole strain of when I am trying to call non

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Speaker 2: racistly like middle class black R and B that I

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Speaker 2: really am not super familiar with, like Luther Van Dross

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Speaker 2: and some of the stuff in the eighties. I don't

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Speaker 2: know who James Ingram is other than the guy who

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Speaker 2: did Somewhere out There with Linda Ronstadt from an American Tale.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but he had hits Like.

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Speaker 2: I wickied him because I was one of the names

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Speaker 2: I didn't recognize, and then I looked him up and

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Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this guy big deal. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I also forgot who Kim Carnes was. Oh, Bendy Davis, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: ng whips Yeah, great song. Songs written by Jackie DeShannon's

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Speaker 2: you know that I didn't. I didn't.

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Speaker 1: Her original version is weird. It's like a Dixie Land thing.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but it's Jackie DeShannon.

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Speaker 2: She's cool.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it's done a summer song with this insane chorus.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of a waste of talent because on the record,

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Speaker 1: this chorus of all those huge names I just mentioned,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like a MIDI chorus, Like it sounds like

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Speaker 1: it could be anybody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't understand why they went through all that trouble.

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Speaker 1: During a spate of Insane twenty eighteen interviews, Quincy Jones

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Speaker 1: accused Michael Jackson of jacking the baseline from the song

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Speaker 1: State of Independence for Billy gen Interesting, which I can

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Speaker 1: kind of hear amusingly. During the sessions for We Are

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Speaker 1: the World, Darryl Hall of Hall and Oates bumped into

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Speaker 1: Michael Jackson when he was hiding in the bathroom, which

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Speaker 1: we will get to later, and according to Darryl, Michael

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Speaker 1: immediately apologized to him for ripping off the I can't

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Speaker 1: go for that, no can do bassline for Billy Jean,

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Speaker 1: and according to our Hall, Michael said, I hope you

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Speaker 1: don't mind that I stole that, And I was like, what,

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Speaker 1: you did a good job of stealing it, because I

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Speaker 1: didn't even notice. I guess he was referring to the

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Speaker 1: intro kind of a pumping bassline that was in the bathroom.

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Speaker 1: There weren't many places to go.

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Speaker 2: I can kind of hear that, actually, yeah, or it's

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Speaker 2: just like the default sequencer preset that came on every

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Speaker 2: synthesizer from the eighties, Like you know, every time you

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Speaker 2: talk about Michael Jackson hiding in the bathroom. I'm reminded

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Speaker 2: of one of my other favorite musical anecdotes of all time,

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Speaker 2: which is that one time Steve Perry was visiting Van

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Speaker 2: Halen and at backstage and a food fight broke out,

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Speaker 2: and the debauchery and the severity of the food fight

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Speaker 2: was such that Steve Perry retreated to the bathroom in tears.

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Speaker 2: And I think it was in Rolling Stone, but the

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Speaker 2: line that forever has haunted me is a food fight

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Speaker 2: erupted that left Steve Perry in the bathroom covered in guacamole, crying, crying, crying,

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Speaker 2: crying softly to himself in the bathroom, Comma covered in guacamole.

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Speaker 2: It's funniest mental image. He's such a sweet boy in

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Speaker 2: any of it. The whole production was ramped up once

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Speaker 2: Quincy Jones and his impressive Rolodex were brought into the mix,

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Speaker 2: so to speak, commercial brand masterful. After news broke throughout. Uh,

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Speaker 2: I don't know whatever be in this warren of rat

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Speaker 2: tunnels was the nineteen eighties music industry. Irving azof ascended

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Speaker 2: from hell to tell everyone. Ken Craigan did most of this. Actually,

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Speaker 2: Harry Belafonte called him a day or two after their

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Speaker 2: first talk and said, have you thought about this thing

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Speaker 2: that I pitched? And Ken told him in an all

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Speaker 2: time rejoinder, well, I have a song written by Michael Jackson, Liono,

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Speaker 2: Richie and Stevie Wonder. Quincy Jones is producing, and Kenny Rodgers,

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Speaker 2: Kim Carnes and Lindsey Buckingham have all agreed to be

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Speaker 2: on it, to which Harry Belfonti presumably said, oh, you

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Speaker 2: have it handled them. So Ken is cooking, as he wrote,

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Speaker 2: hold on, hold up, let him cook. Ken later told

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Speaker 2: the Mirror on the second of January, less than four

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Speaker 2: weeks before the session, I decided I'm going to get

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Speaker 2: two artists a day, and I'm going to work from

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Speaker 2: the top of the record charts. I already had Michael,

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Speaker 2: who was number one, Lionel was maybe number three, Prince

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Speaker 2: was number two. My idea was, by the time I

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Speaker 2: got into bed, I would add two artists until I

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Speaker 2: got to fifteen to eighteen artists, and once he got

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Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen, he didn't need to make any more calls

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Speaker 2: because the word was out and people were calling him

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Speaker 2: task to be on this song. Craign continued to the Mirror,

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Speaker 2: Lionel Richie has a great line. He says, you are

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Speaker 2: who you hug. Oh yeah, everybody wanted to hug Bruce Springsteen.

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Speaker 2: What is he? Andrew Cuomo too soon? Everybody wanted to

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Speaker 2: hug Bruce Springsteen. True, everybody wanted to stand next to

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Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen. Bruce was the boss, and certainly with the Rockers,

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Speaker 2: if Bruce is there, they want to be there. One

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Speaker 2: person who did not want to hug Bruce Barbara Streisand no,

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Speaker 2: there were a number of people who did turn this down.

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Speaker 2: Barbar Streisen chief among them. She supposedly agreed, but her

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Speaker 2: team talked her out of it, and she made amends

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Speaker 2: years later by signing on for the twenty ten remake

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Speaker 2: of We Are the World to benefit victims of the

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Speaker 2: Haitian earthquake? Was that the same Haitian earthquake that y

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Speaker 2: Cleft Jean defrauded in an attempt to defraud I believe so, Yes,

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Speaker 2: great legacy. Eddie Murphy supposedly turned them down because he

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Speaker 2: was busy recording Party all the time, which Eddie Murphy

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Speaker 2: man made a lot of bad choices in his career.

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Speaker 2: Vampire in Brooklyn, What did we just Yeah, Pluto Nash

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Speaker 2: what did we just talk about that? He turned down

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Speaker 2: Oh to make Holy Man? Rush Hour? He turned down

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Speaker 2: Rush Hour, He turned down We Are the World. Murphy

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Speaker 2: later said that when he realized what he'd done, he

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Speaker 2: quote felt like an idiot. Agreed. Linda Ronstadt was supposed

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Speaker 2: to come, but she had the flu and her doctor

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Speaker 2: wouldn't let her fly. In her place, they got Dion Warwick,

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Speaker 2: who was able to get the night off of her

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Speaker 2: gig in Vegas courtesy of Hotel impresario Steve Wynn. David Byrne.

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Speaker 2: Can you imagine David Byrne on this song? David's bit

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Speaker 2: like mouth noises? Yeah. David Lee Roth and James Brown

393
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Speaker 2: were desired guests but apparently couldn't be reached. David Lee

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Speaker 2: Roth on this song would have been hilarious. Oh damn,

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Speaker 2: it is the open show that I'm only gonna give

396
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:08,240
Speaker 2: it to you one more time, just strutting around with

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Speaker 2: like a ball of Jack Daniels. That would have sent

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Speaker 2: Michael Jackson to the bathroom and terror. Perhaps the most famously,

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Speaker 2: Madonna was not included. And We Are All the World.

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Speaker 2: There are many different accounts for why this is, depending

401
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,840
Speaker 2: on which PR team is being interviewed at any given time.

402
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Speaker 2: The most familiar is that Madonna had just had her

403
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Speaker 2: first number one with Like a Virgin, and that the

404
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 2: session would have conflicted with dates on her Virgin Tour phrasing.

405
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:43,679
Speaker 2: Because of this, her management wanted to strike while the

406
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:46,639
Speaker 2: iron was hot and told her to turn down the

407
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Speaker 2: opportunity to sing on it. But in twenty twenty, Now Rogers,

408
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Speaker 2: who produced all of her best albums in the early

409
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Speaker 2: early stages and who was close to her, said on

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Speaker 2: Serious XM that she was intentionally snubbed, never asked to

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Speaker 2: participate in USA for Africa. He said, Madonna wasn't invited

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Speaker 2: to sing on the recording, and it was a slap

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Speaker 2: in the face because everybody was in Los Angeles for

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Speaker 2: the American Music Awards, and it was really sort of

415
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:18,199
Speaker 2: not nice. Does he write the lyrics for Chic? I

416
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 2: know she felt bad, But when Madonna performed at Live Aid,

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Speaker 2: she didn't participate in the live version of We Are

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Speaker 2: the World, which featured That live performance featured many people

419
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 2: who hadn't been on the original recording, so maybe there

420
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,800
Speaker 2: was some intentional snubbing there. She was just like, well,

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Speaker 2: if you don't want me, then you don't want me now,

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Speaker 2: like I don't want to do this, I think she Nope,

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Speaker 2: what do you think about Madonna? You know what I

424
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,720
Speaker 2: think about Madonna? I mean look. She later tried to

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Speaker 2: compensate by adopting a number of children from the country

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Speaker 2: and then using, you know, racial slurs on social media,

427
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:58,560
Speaker 2: addressing like a sub Saharan tribeswoman for awards shows, giving

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Speaker 2: meandering remnists, this is about her own life. At a

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Speaker 2: tribute for Aretha Franklin, She's an ally. What can I say?

430
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 2: Change begins at home anyway. Ken Craigan reportedly turned down

431
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 2: fifty people thereabouts who wanted to be part of it,

432
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:20,639
Speaker 2: most notably John Denver. Oh it's like shooting a puppy now.

433
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 2: You turned down old Johnny D with a suitcase full

434
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 2: of muppets with him. Yeah, man, Ken told The Mirror

435
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 2: John Denver had been a client of mine. I knew

436
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 2: him well, and he was a tremendous activist for hunger

437
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 2: and poverty in America, presumably anti not force. Quincy felt

438
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,879
Speaker 2: that he would skew the song too far towards the

439
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 2: commercial pop area. Yeah, but not. Kim Carnes, the biggest

440
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 2: one hit wonder on that, and he wasn't that hot

441
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 2: at the time. His heyday was in the seventies. Yeah,

442
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 2: that's the real answer. He was right, Quincy was right,

443
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 2: but I felt really bad about it. If I had

444
00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:57,119
Speaker 2: to do it again, I certainly would have seen that

445
00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 2: John would be a part of it. Kim Carnes so

446
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:05,440
Speaker 2: hot right now. Ken also regrets not booking Joan Biaz,

447
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,120
Speaker 2: who he felt, along with Bob Dylan, had in fact

448
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 2: birthed the very notion of the charity single with her

449
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 2: music related activism in the sixties, which is correct considering

450
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,919
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan abandoned that scene as soon as it sprang,

451
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 2: board him to fame, while Joan Bias continued her legacy

452
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 2: of activism. So forty five musical icons on this but

453
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 2: not Prince, which we will get to. And Huey Lewis.

454
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 2: Huey Lewis is there too, and his bat and his

455
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:37,719
Speaker 2: bat is this whole group? Was it Clover? Was it

456
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 2: the same guys who became who backed Elvis Costello or

457
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:46,160
Speaker 2: Miam Is true? I think some of them, not all. Yeah,

458
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 2: we love Huey Lewis here at TMI, friend of the

459
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 2: po Huey Lewis, Well, we do.

460
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:53,280
Speaker 1: But I still although he does nail his solo, the

461
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 1: fact that he got it over Smokey Robinson really Bett

462
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:01,160
Speaker 1: Mittler and Uh, I guess those are the two most

463
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:02,000
Speaker 1: deserving of solo.

464
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 2: Can you imagine eighties lou Reid on this? Huh? Whoa

465
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 2: cook it on my gym? Can't be any worse than

466
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 2: eighties era Bob Dylan. True, I'm kind of surprised Clapton

467
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:17,639
Speaker 2: wasn't on this is it because of the whole openly

468
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:18,960
Speaker 2: racist thing in the eighties.

469
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: No, it's America's you say for Africa?

470
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:22,640
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, yeah, I guess that's true.

471
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,639
Speaker 1: The only brit On here is Bob Geldoff, and they

472
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: invited him because I think they kind of felt like,

473
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 1: I don't. I think they invited him at the last minute.

474
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 1: They invited him to come and address the crowd, and

475
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:32,680
Speaker 1: once he was there was like, do you want to sing?

476
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 1: That's I believe that's how it went down.

477
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 2: But anyway, so they have they have a cast list,

478
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 2: if you will, but they don't have a song. The

479
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 2: official story was that Stevie Wonder was supposed to help

480
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 2: write it with Michael and Lionel, but this didn't happen,

481
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 2: supposedly because Stevie had to do stuff like Lady in

482
00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 2: Red the soundtrack to that, but probably most likely due

483
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 2: to the fact that Stevie has no concept of time

484
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 2: and does things on his own internal schedule and logic,

485
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 2: which can be summed up as whenever he feels like it. Yeah.

486
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,359
Speaker 2: There was a twenty twenty article on ARP dot com

487
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 2: that said Stevie left town right before they were supposed

488
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 2: to begin writing and didn't come back until the day

489
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 2: before recording sessions where it's supposed to start, which, in

490
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 2: his defense, is actually pretty generous timeline on Stevie time,

491
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,199
Speaker 2: because it wasn't like it was an after yeah, or

492
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 2: he called and he he called that one dude and

493
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 2: was like, you have ten minutes to write me another

494
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 2: verse for was it pastime Paradise on sid Yeah.

495
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: Also, I mean, this is the same guy who called

496
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: his manager thirty minutes before he's supposed to be on

497
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,919
Speaker 1: stage in Seattle, was like, I'm leaving my house in

498
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 1: LA right now.

499
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 2: So Stevie was out. Michael and Lionel instead went to

500
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 2: the the Jackson Family Estate, INCA know a cursed place,

501
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 2: no doubt. Sorry, I'm editorializing and this is so funny

502
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,439
Speaker 2: to me. Imagine if you will, and I hope they

503
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,439
Speaker 2: were sitting on the floor cross legged for this, Lionel

504
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 2: Richie and Michael Jackson listening to a bunch of assorted

505
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: national anthems from across the world. Yeah what deutsch landou

506
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 2: bar ales rub Tanya Russia national anthem? Yeah? Whatever that

507
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 2: I say, the Tetris theme song, that's a more Uh.

508
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,520
Speaker 2: What is the Australian national anthem? Oh, We've got Big

509
00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 2: Balls by c DC. Uh, what's the what's uh?

510
00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 3: Oh?

511
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 2: I think it's y y Z by Rush? Is the

512
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 2: Canadian national anthem? This is gonna get playfully racist, uh,

513
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 2: Richie said. We put all of that into a heads

514
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 2: and came up with a rhythm that sounded familiar, like

515
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,640
Speaker 2: a world anthem. We didn't want a normal sounding song.

516
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 2: We wanted bombastic, the biggest thing you got. They worked

517
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 2: on this song every night for a week in Michael's bedroom,

518
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 2: kept company by Michael's albino python, which unsurprisingly scared the

519
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 2: shut of sweet Lionel Richie. He kept hearing the sounds

520
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 2: of I don't know what does a python sound like

521
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 2: as it slithers around the room. Well, I guess hissing, yeah,

522
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 2: he told The Independent later. I'm on the floor in

523
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 2: Michael's bedroom. I don't think he had a bed. He

524
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 2: just slept on the floor. There's a bunch of albums

525
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 2: around the wall, and I hear over my shoulder there

526
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 2: was a damn python, a Boa constrictor, a python. Who

527
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 2: cares what the hell it was. It was a big ass,

528
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 2: ugly ass snake. I was screaming, and Michael saying, there

529
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 2: he is Lionel. We found him. He was hiding behind

530
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 2: the albums. I said, you're at a your freaking mind.

531
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,080
Speaker 2: It took me about two hours to calm my ass

532
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 2: back down. You found Barry, you found Aunt Diana. What

533
00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 2: was his python? His pet python's name? You found your name.

534
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: You found Marlon Lionel.

535
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 2: You found Little Janet. But the writing sessions were marred contentious.

536
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 2: I guess they just had different working schedules. Lionel's writing method, amazingly,

537
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 2: it was to drive around LA's empty freeways in the

538
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 2: middle of the night at like four am and right,

539
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 2: whereas Michael liked to wake up at five thirty am

540
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:37,479
Speaker 2: to daydream in the studio. But they bonded. I shouldn't

541
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 2: have said contentious. They got along, they sang, they danced,

542
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 2: and they dicked around, and Quincy Jones sit there tapping

543
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 2: his watch. He wrote in his memoir, Michael and Lionel

544
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 2: were there hanging, sitting around, talking about motown and old times.

545
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 2: I said, my dear brothers, we have forty six stars

546
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 2: coming in less than three weeks, and we need a

547
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 2: damn song. The initial kernel of the song came for

548
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 2: Michael stepping from a rhythm that he used to sing

549
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 2: to his sister Janet in his autobiography Moonwalk. He writes, Janet,

550
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 2: what do you see when you hear this song? She said,

551
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 2: dying children in Africa? He said, you're right, That's what

552
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,480
Speaker 2: I was dictating from my soul. That is a world

553
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:23,960
Speaker 2: that is a new high in celebrity hagiography. Janet, what

554
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 2: do you think when I sing you this rhythm dying

555
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:31,200
Speaker 2: children in Africa? You're right, my god, incredible all time quote.

556
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 2: Then he recorded as classic. Michael Jackson and I urge

557
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 2: anyone to go check these out recorded a demo all

558
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 2: by himself. You gotta go listen to the beat it

559
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 2: demos that have you heard? You've heard those right where

560
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 2: he's just like beat boxing and has like singing every

561
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 2: single individual note of chords and harmonies. Incredible. So he

562
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,240
Speaker 2: surprised Quincy and Lionel with a demo that he did

563
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:57,719
Speaker 2: in a single night, and then they had to come

564
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 2: up with the lyrics. They were aiming for simple, easy

565
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 2: to sing and memorable. They snuck in a Beatles reference

566
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,200
Speaker 2: with the nod love is all We Need, which I

567
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:08,479
Speaker 2: believe Billy Joel sings.

568
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: He hated he hated that line. He hated most of

569
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 1: the things about this song. He hated the key, he

570
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: hated the line. I thought he's a tough key. He's

571
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 1: a tough key. I mean, we'll get to that later,

572
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 1: but again, just pitch perfect. Gotta go watch the video.

573
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 2: Billy Joel looks like he had a can of Schlitz

574
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 2: in his hand and a shiner. He's got like a

575
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 2: five o'clock shadow. He does not look like he can

576
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 2: be seen folding up his lyrics sheets in like in

577
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 2: in the background of someone else singing, just kind of

578
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 2: staring around, by his own admission, eating sandwiches and drinking beard.

579
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 2: During these sessions.

580
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 1: He has the flu he's jet lagged, that he's flown

581
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: in from New York especially for it. He still has

582
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 1: a scarf on Christy Brinkley's in the other room with

583
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 1: a bunch of much more famous, much more attractive.

584
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, not that it ever mattered to him, because

585
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 2: he bounced right from her to another model light years

586
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 2: out of his league. They were the ill finalizing the

587
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,760
Speaker 2: words for what would ultimately become the lyrics to We

588
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 2: Are the World the night before the first sessions began,

589
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 2: finishing it in one two and a half hour burst.

590
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 2: They changed We're taking our own lives to We're saving

591
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 2: our own lives, which good choice, guys, and they changed

592
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 2: there's a chance we're taking to there's a choice we're

593
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 2: making so that they wouldn't be making it about them.

594
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a weird line in the documentary that accompanied

595
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: We Are the World. Jane Fonda, who hosts the documentary,

596
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: likens that line or saving our own lives so quote

597
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 1: from John Dunn, any Man's death diminishes me because I'm

598
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: involved in mankind, sure man.

599
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 2: Okay man.

600
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: Famously, the recording date for We Are the World was

601
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: immediately after the American Music Awards on January twenty eighth,

602
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five. Lionel Richie was hosting that awards show,

603
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 1: so it was a long day for him. Quincy Jones

604
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 1: figured that scheduling it on the day of a big,

605
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: glitzy show award show, was the only time he could

606
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,280
Speaker 1: get three dozen rock stars together in the same place

607
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:10,800
Speaker 1: in the same night, not for charity, but on a

608
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:12,640
Speaker 1: night when we all got together to pat each other

609
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 1: on the back. Cool, but at least it's better karma

610
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 1: than a regular board show after party. The location of

611
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 1: the session was a closely guarded secret, as ken Craigan

612
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 1: later said, if that address shows up anywhere, we've got

613
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: a chaotic situation that could totally destroy the project. The

614
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,640
Speaker 1: moment a Prince Michael Jackson, a Bob Dylan drives up

615
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 1: and sees a mob around that studio, he will never

616
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 1: come in. And so as a result, not even the

617
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 1: artists were told until the very last minute. On the

618
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 1: day of the session. The address that was on the

619
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: official invite that each of the artists received from Quincy

620
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 1: was blacked out at ken craig It's request. It's just

621
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: worth noting that obviously they would never get away with.

622
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,399
Speaker 2: This in the social media smartphone age. I just think

623
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:57,280
Speaker 2: it's so interesting that they could pull us off.

624
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: Just in case the word got out, several dozen security

625
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:05,279
Speaker 1: guards swarmed around the perimeter of Hollywood's A and M Studios,

626
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: which was a former film studio built by Charlie Chaplin

627
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 1: and now it's the Jim Henson Studios, with a statue

628
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,799
Speaker 1: of Kermit the Frog out front, dresses Charlie Chaplin's character.

629
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:15,080
Speaker 2: At the tramp.

630
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 1: Over one hundred and fifty audio technicians spent the afternoon

631
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 1: setting up a complex av system, and you know, the

632
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:24,840
Speaker 1: star power for the song ensured that it would be

633
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 1: the most well documented occasion and show based history at

634
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,959
Speaker 1: this point. And just before nine pm, the stars began

635
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 1: to arrive from across town at the Ames and it's

636
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: sweet artists who were competitors over there at the awards

637
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 1: show were now compatriots. At least that's how they tried

638
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 1: to spin it in the documentary, aware that doing a

639
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: charity record in black tie kind of sent the wrong

640
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: kind of message. Quincy Jones urged casual attire, saying after

641
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 1: the American Music Awards, we all change out of our

642
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,240
Speaker 1: clothes because we don't want to make a Hunger record

643
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:59,919
Speaker 1: in tuxedos. A man is away with words, also very good,

644
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,280
Speaker 1: very good point. And he also famously issued a friendly

645
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,239
Speaker 1: warning to all concerns with a sign hung above the

646
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: studio entrance reading check your egos at the door. And

647
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,720
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder was on hand to act as a greeter,

648
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,439
Speaker 1: joking to each new arrival that if the song wasn't

649
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,920
Speaker 1: recorded in one take, he and Ray Charles would personally

650
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 1: drive everyone home.

651
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:24,919
Speaker 2: He loves that, he loves that. Yeah, oh, Stevie.

652
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,240
Speaker 1: And parking was such a tricky situation, and just space

653
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 1: in the studio was such a premium that one high

654
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:33,839
Speaker 1: ranking music executive acted as valet out front just so

655
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 1: he could hang out.

656
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 2: Who was it?

657
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 1: A guy named Ron Oberman who was the guy who

658
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:43,400
Speaker 1: brought David Bowie to America for the first time. David

659
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,319
Speaker 1: Bowie spent the night at his parents' suburban house in

660
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: Silver Spring, Maryland. I interviewed his brother from My David

661
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 1: Bowie podcast. Huh, Yeah, he was a big deal, an

662
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:54,400
Speaker 1: R guy at Mercury Records, and I don't know what

663
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:57,680
Speaker 1: he was doing around we of the world time. But yeah,

664
00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:00,719
Speaker 1: speaking of cars, is a great story about Bruce. So

665
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 1: many great Bruce Springsteen's stories involving cars, one of many

666
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 1: great Bruce stories we'll touch on in this episode. On

667
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,240
Speaker 1: none of the recording, many stars arrived at the studio

668
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 1: and stretched limos. Bruce arrived solo, pushing his way through

669
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: the crowd and a leather jacket with cut off gloves,

670
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,280
Speaker 1: and he proudly tells ken Craigan and some of the producers,

671
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: I got a great parking space over by Librea. He's

672
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: parked his rental car in a supermarket parking lot and

673
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 1: walked over. Love that Keny Craven later marveled in the mirror.

674
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,840
Speaker 1: Everybody else came by Limo, Bruce drove himself, parked across

675
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:35,919
Speaker 1: the street and walked through the crowd, and they didn't

676
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:37,520
Speaker 1: even realize it was Bruce coming through.

677
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 2: I love that. It's so good now.

678
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 1: Other versions of the story have him driving his own

679
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,760
Speaker 1: pickup truck, but I think that was actually Kenny Rodgers,

680
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 1: who did in fact drive his own Dodge pickup truck

681
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 1: to the sessions, which.

682
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:51,880
Speaker 2: Is also very good. Straight from his chicken, his local

683
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,919
Speaker 2: after where he was checking the franchise, the local Kenny

684
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 2: Rogers roaster's franchise.

685
00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: But this Bruce springsy thing is all the more endearing

686
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: considering that he just finished the latest leg of Was

687
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:04,839
Speaker 1: Born in the USA tour the night before in Syracuse,

688
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,920
Speaker 1: his fifteenth gig that month, and he had flown in

689
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 1: especially for this. So the man's got stamina and he

690
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,800
Speaker 1: did not disappoint. It is exhaustive. Liner notes of the session,

691
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,360
Speaker 1: writer David Breskin describes Bruce Springsteen thus, everyone looks like

692
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:24,320
Speaker 1: himself at the session, but Springsteen somehow more so. Blue

693
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,760
Speaker 1: shirt hanging out of his black jeans, open black leather jacket,

694
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: black high top boots with green canvas trim and laces

695
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,880
Speaker 1: cinched four islets from the top, black leather fingerless gloves

696
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: which you won't take off all night, and a face

697
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:41,200
Speaker 1: of five o'clock shadow and Bruce's vocal part. I think

698
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:42,799
Speaker 1: it's one of the best of the bunch. I've seen

699
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 1: a lot of people say that it's terrible online. I'm

700
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: never gonna go on record saying anything that Bruce Springsteen

701
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:48,240
Speaker 1: does is terrible.

702
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,680
Speaker 2: But I thought, I thought he's got the soil. Yeah,

703
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 2: he brings a different energy to it, says the part

704
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 2: of it is the tour I never knew when I

705
00:38:57,480 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 2: was watching, like hearing about this before that he had

706
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,760
Speaker 2: come off of a heroic tour. But yeahteen gigs that month, Yeah,

707
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:07,680
Speaker 2: that's wild. And also fifteen Bruce Springsteen gigs is like

708
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,719
Speaker 2: six months of regular person games. Yes, so to show

709
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,839
Speaker 2: up and then just hunger dunger, dang your way through

710
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 2: a song about dying Africans like God love him well.

711
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,319
Speaker 1: He asked Quincy Jones for some direction, and Quincy said

712
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: that I want you to be like the cheerleader of

713
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 1: this chorus, which, of course that's the role Bruce Springsteen

714
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: was born to play. And he literally worked up a

715
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: sweat doing this chorus. You can hear it on the take.

716
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 1: I swear he did. That was one take too that

717
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 1: he nailed it of course.

718
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:35,560
Speaker 2: Going back, oh.

719
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, and going back to Breskins piece, Springsteen rolls up

720
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 1: his sheet music and sticks it in the back pocket

721
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:44,720
Speaker 1: of his jeans. His voice is rough, pained, gone, reduced

722
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: to essence, perfect for this part. When he sings his

723
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: veins jump out of his hands. Two character lines cut

724
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 1: across the bridge of his nose, and he exhales twice

725
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 1: hard after each phrase. After a nearly flawless first take,

726
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:01,439
Speaker 1: he humbly asked Quincy something like that. Quincy can only

727
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 1: laugh exactly like that.

728
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,800
Speaker 2: Yes, there's so many great Springsteen in the studio stories.

729
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 2: One of my favorites is he was on one of

730
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:11,920
Speaker 2: the many people who's on Warren Yvon's last record, and

731
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,520
Speaker 2: he plays, Yeah, he plays a solo, a guitar solo

732
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 2: on a song, and when he got done playing the

733
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:24,720
Speaker 2: guitar solo, the amp died. The amp like caught fire

734
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:26,600
Speaker 2: and died, and it was like, I can go to

735
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 2: Valhilo now.

736
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 1: After his verse in the session for Real the world,

737
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:37,800
Speaker 1: I guess, the entire crowd of musical dignitaries burst in

738
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:39,880
Speaker 1: the spontaneous applause, which.

739
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,760
Speaker 2: Was not something they did easily, especially Darrin Ross. Yeah.

740
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 1: Quincy Jones later described Bruce as quote one of the

741
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: hardest working cats I've ever met in my life. I

742
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:51,759
Speaker 1: kept waiting for him to get tired and sit down

743
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: and rest, but he kept saying, want me to do

744
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,720
Speaker 1: it again. So inclosing, Bruce Springsteen is the best. Prince,

745
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,360
Speaker 1: on the other hand, was less of a team player.

746
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:03,920
Speaker 1: He performed at the Animas that night, delivering an iconic

747
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,279
Speaker 1: version of Purple Rain that's gone on to become one

748
00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: of the most legendary performances of that Awards show ever,

749
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 1: but he, to use the British phrase, couldn't be arsed

750
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: to do we are the World. He declined to participate

751
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: in the project for reasons that are disputed, though widely

752
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,280
Speaker 1: assumed to be part of his ongoing rivalry slash feud

753
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 1: with Michael Jackson, which rage throughout the decade.

754
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:30,200
Speaker 2: I feel like you gotta take this, Yeah, I mean,

755
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 2: you positive that they were too alike in certain ways.

756
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:36,800
Speaker 2: You know, they were born in the Midwest to devout

757
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 2: religious families. They're incredibly disciplined men in their pursuit of

758
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:47,799
Speaker 2: art and music, and devolved into drug addicted reclusivism in

759
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 2: their stately Xanadu's Prince plays much better bas though, Yeah,

760
00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 2: I mean Prince. Prince's first record is for You in

761
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,440
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight, which is just a year before mj

762
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 2: comes out into his own with Off the Wall, and

763
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 2: Prince's animalsity can probably be traced to the end of

764
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:13,600
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two, when Thriller came out in December, just

765
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 2: two months after Prince's nineteen ninety nine came out, and

766
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:20,440
Speaker 2: Prince probably should have taken that personally because Thriller crushed

767
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 2: everything under its boothill. But yeah, Michael Jordan Gift and

768
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 2: I took that personally. There was another incident that they

769
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 2: were There's James Brown concert in nineteen eighty three, and

770
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 2: James called Michael Jackson on stage and Michael did his

771
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,799
Speaker 2: whole James Brown dance routine that had been beaten into

772
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 2: him by his father since childhood. And and then Michael

773
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 2: calls Prince up on stage and cruelly someone hands him

774
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:51,760
Speaker 2: a left handed guitar, which is just you know, setting yourself,

775
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:54,759
Speaker 2: setting up for failure, and then kind of does some

776
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 2: dancing and knocks or something on stage.

777
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: Oh he knocks over this ghy Ants street lamp prop

778
00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 1: like overside. Have you ever seen this clip?

779
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:03,239
Speaker 3: No?

780
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 2: I haven't. Oh please pull it up right, I can't.

781
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 2: How have you never seen this? I don't want to

782
00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 2: say Prince sad you mean something. He's not even sad.

783
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 2: He just looks like he doesn't care. He's just like

784
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 2: all right, fine, like but then he would then he

785
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:22,880
Speaker 2: would seethe later. There's a great Quincy Jones line in it.

786
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 2: Quincy claimed that Prince was so mad about this that

787
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:27,920
Speaker 2: he then tried to run over Michael in the parking

788
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:30,479
Speaker 2: lot with his limo, which is funny to me because

789
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,280
Speaker 2: it presupposes Prince was either driving or had a driver

790
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 2: who would commit vehicular manslaughter of the biggest star in

791
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:38,920
Speaker 2: the world at Prince's behest. I don't know which of

792
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 2: those two are funnier, but yeah.

793
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,359
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson loved this clip so much that he had

794
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 1: it on film and he would watch it at screenings

795
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 1: at his home when guests came over, and he would

796
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 1: laugh and just cackle about, to use his words, what

797
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:55,800
Speaker 1: an ass Prince had made of himself.

798
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:58,360
Speaker 2: I can't believe you've never seen this. So that was

799
00:43:58,400 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 2: the background, that was the content.

800
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: Yes, anyway, it would stand to reason that Prince maybe

801
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to work with Michael, but Ken Craigan claimed

802
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:09,560
Speaker 1: that Prince didn't come to the Wee of the World

803
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 1: session because he was nervous to work with other people.

804
00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 1: Speaking to the Mirror, ken Craigan said, one of the

805
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,360
Speaker 1: reasons Prince didn't turn up is because he always recorded

806
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,239
Speaker 1: alone and not with an engineer. He would go into

807
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: the studio do his own engineering and record every instrument

808
00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: and sing, and no one else would be there and

809
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 1: Lionel Richie said something similar during his appearance on Watch

810
00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:31,040
Speaker 1: What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. He claimed that Prince

811
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:33,280
Speaker 1: would only sing on the track if he was alone

812
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 1: in a separate room, and that just wasn't in the

813
00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 1: spirit of the event. However, Princess protege Wendy melvoyne, Are

814
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:42,919
Speaker 1: you familiar with her?

815
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:48,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's the guitarist who did the Purple Rain intro live.

816
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 2: It was like her some inordinately short amount of time

817
00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 2: in the band that she nailed that well.

818
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:58,239
Speaker 1: She offered a different reason. She told author Alan Light,

819
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 1: good guy friend of mine, for his book Let's Go

820
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: Crazy Prince in the making of Purple Rain, Prince felt

821
00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:06,800
Speaker 1: like that song was horrible and he didn't want to

822
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:12,400
Speaker 1: be around all those mothers. It supposedly Prince sent his

823
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 1: manager to tell Quincy Jones that he wouldn't sing on

824
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:18,880
Speaker 1: the song, but he'd play guitar, and Quincy's response, I

825
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 1: don't need him to play guitar, And in another retelling,

826
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 1: Prince himself called during the middle of the session from

827
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 1: whatever nightclub he was at, which I love, and was like, ouh,

828
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:32,839
Speaker 1: play guitar if you want, and Quincy said the same thing.

829
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,680
Speaker 1: I don't need you to do that. And yet another

830
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 1: petty story. There's a legend that Prince bailed on the

831
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 1: Wheel the World session because Bob Geldoff, who will see

832
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,279
Speaker 1: is not especially chill, called him a creep and hurt

833
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: Prince's feelings Geldof.

834
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:52,600
Speaker 2: That's rich coming from a guy like Geldoff who looks

835
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:56,600
Speaker 2: like a poster child for sleep deprivation. And inbreading what

836
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 2: was the.

837
00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 1: Russell brand joke? It makes sense that Gellup knows so

838
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:03,919
Speaker 1: much about famines. He's been dining out on live aid

839
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:05,239
Speaker 1: for thirty five years.

840
00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 2: It's pretty good.

841
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the world may ever know the truth of

842
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 1: why Prince didn't turn up at the Weird of the

843
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:14,720
Speaker 1: World session. He never told his side of the story publicly. However,

844
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:16,799
Speaker 1: we do know what he got up to that night

845
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: instead of singing on a charity record.

846
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:20,719
Speaker 2: I love this.

847
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:23,759
Speaker 1: Prince's managers very wary of the bad press once it

848
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: got out that Prince refused to do this charity single,

849
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:29,600
Speaker 1: so he started a rumor in the middle of the AMAS,

850
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:32,279
Speaker 1: where he'd just given an amazing performance.

851
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 2: Mind you, that Prince was starting to come down with

852
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 2: something he was feeling sick.

853
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:40,319
Speaker 1: Instead of going home, Prince went to a nightclub on

854
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 1: Sunset Strip called Carlos and Charlie's and while there, two

855
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,839
Speaker 1: of the twenty bodyguards that accompanied him that night took

856
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:50,640
Speaker 1: a swipe at a photographer and they were arrested in

857
00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:54,160
Speaker 1: the resulting scuffle. So instead of singing about feeding Africa,

858
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 1: Prince supposedly was busy bailing his two over zealous bodyguards

859
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:01,160
Speaker 1: out of jail that night, and this incident was later

860
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: parodied on Saturday Night Live and a sketch featuring Hulk

861
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:08,359
Speaker 1: Hogan and Mister T as bodyguards and Billy Crystal as

862
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,720
Speaker 1: Prince Ooh singing a song called I Am the World,

863
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:15,520
Speaker 1: which is that's medium funny?

864
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,880
Speaker 2: Was it Crystal and blackface like he loved doing? I

865
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 2: would assume so yes.

866
00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:23,839
Speaker 1: In the end, Prince contributed the track to the full

867
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,840
Speaker 1: length USA for Africa album that accompanied the release of

868
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 1: the We Are the World single, and so that was

869
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 1: kind of his way of doing something, and Huey Lewis

870
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,399
Speaker 1: took his solo on We Are the World, which, as

871
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 1: we'll get to, I have thoughts about. My favorite anecdote

872
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:46,040
Speaker 1: from the Michael Jackson Prince feud was from the rehearsals

873
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 1: for the This Is It tour in two thousand and nine,

874
00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 1: the tour that Michael died in the middle of rehearsals

875
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,880
Speaker 1: of the tour. Director Kenny Artaga was worried about Michael

876
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 1: because he wasn't sleeping, and Michael informed him that God

877
00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 1: channel's ideas through him at night, which is why he

878
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 1: says awake and our Taga told him, you know that's cool, Michael,

879
00:48:03,160 --> 00:48:05,080
Speaker 1: but you really need the rest, and without missing a beat,

880
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 1: Michael replied, you'd understand if I'm not there to receive

881
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: these ideas, God might give them to Prince, so.

882
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 2: To speed clearly or whatever you want to call it.

883
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:18,600
Speaker 1: Continued until Michael's dying day, but there was obviously a

884
00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of respect between these two men too. Before

885
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:24,280
Speaker 1: the Purple Rain Tour, Prince went to see Michael Jackson

886
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 1: on the Victory tour with his brothers just to sort

887
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 1: of scope him out, and Michael Jackson went to all

888
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,040
Speaker 1: four of Prince's shows at the Forum on the Purple

889
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 1: Rain tour, so clearly they were interested in what the

890
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,120
Speaker 1: other were doing. And while we're here, we have to

891
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:40,120
Speaker 1: talk about the Ping Pong incident. I know you love

892
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: the ping pong incident.

893
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:44,959
Speaker 2: Yeah, they found themselves at the same recording studio. Prince

894
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:47,920
Speaker 2: was working on his miss somewhat misbegotten follow up to

895
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 2: Purple Rain Under the Cherry Moon, Jackson on his perhaps

896
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:57,120
Speaker 2: even more misbegotten film Captain EO. And there they started

897
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:02,560
Speaker 2: playing ping pong and Prince, you know, Michael tremendous dancer,

898
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:08,319
Speaker 2: tremendous physical person, physical singer and everything. But Prince was

899
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:12,160
Speaker 2: like a high school basketball star yea, and apparently also

900
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 2: a vicious ping pong player. Jackson fumbled his paddle while

901
00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:22,520
Speaker 2: Prince was you know, going hard, and Prince supposedly yelled.

902
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 2: Did you see that he played like Helen Keller. I

903
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:30,400
Speaker 2: would cry if Prince compared my ping pong playing to

904
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 2: the most famous blind person in American culture non Stevie

905
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:35,760
Speaker 2: Wonder or Ray Charles Category.

906
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:40,840
Speaker 1: Oh there's also the aggressive slap based story, which.

907
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 2: I believe you have you have recounted on this podcast. No,

908
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:47,640
Speaker 2: I've never on here. You know this story. You've told

909
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:49,880
Speaker 2: you have told me this story. But that's why I

910
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:51,800
Speaker 2: think it's It was on this podcast, but might have

911
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 2: just been on Twitter. I think it was just Yeah,

912
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 2: it was just you and I.

913
00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, will I Am was in Las Vegas and New

914
00:49:57,600 --> 00:49:59,439
Speaker 1: Michael was out there. I was like, Hey, I'm gonna

915
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:01,360
Speaker 1: go see Prince night. Do you want to come? I

916
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: got good seats, like right in the front, and Michael's like,

917
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 1: oh okay, sure. And then Prince from the stage sees

918
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:10,920
Speaker 1: that Michael is sitting right there in front, and he

919
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:13,400
Speaker 1: walks off the stage, just gets right in his face

920
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:16,839
Speaker 1: and plays what will I Am is described as aggressive

921
00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:20,719
Speaker 1: slat bass right in Michael's face. And the next day

922
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:23,239
Speaker 1: at breakfast, Michael was talking with will Aam and he's like,

923
00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:27,120
Speaker 1: you see Prince, that Prince, he's always been a meanie

924
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:28,680
Speaker 1: is the phrase he used.

925
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 2: Oh boy, Yeah, there's something so sad and Dekenzie and

926
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 2: about their respective ends, just like propped up by drugs

927
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 2: so that they could go out and keep doing this

928
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 2: thing that they'd been driven to by their distant fathers.

929
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 2: How much was Prince driven because obviously with Michael, with

930
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 2: Joe all the abuse as a kid that then I

931
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 2: don't think he was as bad. But I think Prince's

932
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:55,720
Speaker 2: dad wasn't not confusing him with Billy Corgan or Billy Joel.

933
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:58,359
Speaker 2: No Somebody's dad was like, you'll never be as good

934
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:04,360
Speaker 2: a guitarist as me was I Mariah Carey's mom was, well, yes, Toler,

935
00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:08,399
Speaker 2: you will never be the singer that I will. Oh yes,

936
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 2: I was wrong. Prince's father said in nineteen ninety one

937
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:13,600
Speaker 2: that he named his son Prince because he wanted Prince

938
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:17,360
Speaker 2: to do everything I wanted to do. Prince was not

939
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:19,640
Speaker 2: fond of his name and wanted people to instead call

940
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:20,320
Speaker 2: him Skipper.

941
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 1: You're kidding me as a kid or as a kid.

942
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:25,160
Speaker 1: I don't know which is okay.

943
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:30,120
Speaker 2: Three separate citations of that on Wikipedia Skipper Big Gilligan's

944
00:51:30,120 --> 00:51:35,200
Speaker 2: Island fan or apparently oh yeah, his father threw him out.

945
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 2: I forgot about that, right, yes, yes, yeah, oh boy.

946
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:44,920
Speaker 2: But again there was mutual respect between Prince and Michael.

947
00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:47,960
Speaker 2: Following Michael Jackson's death in two thousand and nine, Prince

948
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:51,880
Speaker 2: told the French newspaper Lemonde, We're always sad to lose

949
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 2: someone we love. As you meditate on that, we'll be

950
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,920
Speaker 2: right back with more too much information after these messages.

951
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 2: If Prince really did have stage fright, though, he wouldn't

952
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:18,759
Speaker 2: have been the only person who did. Bob Dylan, Uh

953
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:25,360
Speaker 2: famously an interesting presence on stage, as an interesting presence

954
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:28,400
Speaker 2: in the Weird of the World video, would you describe

955
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:36,400
Speaker 2: him as looking confused, disassociating. Yeah, yeah, he was weirdly.

956
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:39,120
Speaker 2: I want to say weirdly, but I guess maybe not.

957
00:52:39,239 --> 00:52:41,400
Speaker 2: It makes sense, but he was the person that everyone

958
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:46,160
Speaker 2: else was like extremely jazz to see him, him and

959
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 2: Bruce and Ray, Yeah and Ray.

960
00:52:49,920 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 3: Uh.

961
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:53,040
Speaker 2: Diana Ross saw him and jumped into his lap, which

962
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,040
Speaker 2: is which could not have gone well.

963
00:52:55,600 --> 00:52:55,960
Speaker 3: Uh.

964
00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:58,960
Speaker 2: Dina Ross also greeted Stevie Wonder by approaching him and

965
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 2: stroking his braids. So she doesn't have boundaries except with

966
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:05,440
Speaker 2: people under her who are not allowed to make eye

967
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 2: contact with her. Willie Nelson and Huey Lewis back to

968
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:12,480
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan into a corner, both talking to him about golf.

969
00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:19,719
Speaker 2: What do we think about that Bob Dylan could not

970
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:23,640
Speaker 2: give less of a shit, Huey Liwis.

971
00:53:23,680 --> 00:53:25,600
Speaker 1: You can see it in the documentary. I think it

972
00:53:25,719 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 1: was in David Breskin's liner notes for this too. Huey

973
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:32,880
Speaker 1: Lewis says to Bob, Wow, it's like you are the ball.

974
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:36,719
Speaker 1: It's really true. Some shots man, you can just see them.

975
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:39,200
Speaker 1: They happened for you and some in the middle of

976
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:42,600
Speaker 1: the swing, you know it won't work, and they're talking like, Bob,

977
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 1: do you play golf, and Bob says, I heard you

978
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:49,719
Speaker 1: have to study it, so no, wait, Bob, he looks

979
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 1: like he just wants to get out of the session

980
00:53:51,719 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 1: from the moment he steps in ALGIAU Yeah.

981
00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:56,920
Speaker 2: Went up to him and said, Bobby, in my own

982
00:53:56,960 --> 00:53:58,600
Speaker 2: stupid way, I just want to tell you that I

983
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:03,000
Speaker 2: love you, and Bob Dylan just walked away from him,

984
00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:08,040
Speaker 2: prompting Algero to burst into tears and cry my idol

985
00:54:09,640 --> 00:54:13,480
Speaker 2: at a retreating Bob Dylan. Kim carn said he was

986
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:19,279
Speaker 2: easy to talk to, though Bruce Springsteen, another super fan,

987
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:21,440
Speaker 2: wrote in his memoir that Bob was the father of

988
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:25,879
Speaker 2: my country. Uh, but you know, Bruce Springsteen's a chill guy.

989
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:29,480
Speaker 2: He probably didn't lose it too publicly about that. In

990
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:34,280
Speaker 2: the documentary, there's a ten minute clip of Stevie Wonder

991
00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:37,719
Speaker 2: at the piano trying to teach him his part because

992
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,720
Speaker 2: Quincy had to clear the studio for Dylan to record

993
00:54:41,719 --> 00:54:46,959
Speaker 2: his part, and Stevie's at the piano trying to teach

994
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:49,960
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan his part. Doing a Bob Dylan impression to

995
00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan, uh, and then he goes up to the

996
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:55,799
Speaker 2: mic to try and record it. Quincy Jones and Lionel

997
00:54:55,880 --> 00:54:57,759
Speaker 2: rich You are looking him on, and Quincy says, just

998
00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:00,640
Speaker 2: do your thing, man, that's something nobody can do better

999
00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:01,000
Speaker 2: than you.

1000
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 1: Well, that's what they were saying, because Bob apparently like

1001
00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:07,239
Speaker 1: he was trying to be like a real singer with

1002
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:09,279
Speaker 1: when he was surrounded by all these other singers and

1003
00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 1: they're like, no, you don't say anything like Bob Dylan.

1004
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:14,080
Speaker 1: We want you to just sound like you. And that's

1005
00:55:14,120 --> 00:55:16,960
Speaker 1: why they were all And there's just this incredible ten

1006
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:19,840
Speaker 1: minute clip. So this this We have the World documentary.

1007
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,000
Speaker 1: It's like an hour long. Ten minutes of that hour

1008
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:27,000
Speaker 1: our Bob Dylan failing to nail the one line he's

1009
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:30,200
Speaker 1: supposed to sing, and it's just him at the piano

1010
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:33,320
Speaker 1: with Quincy Jones and Stevie Wondering. Stevie Wonder Quincy Jones

1011
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:38,440
Speaker 1: are increasingly frantically singing their Bob Dylan impressions to him, trying.

1012
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:40,000
Speaker 2: To get him to mimic his own voice.

1013
00:55:40,040 --> 00:55:42,799
Speaker 1: It's incredible, it's it's really sad, like you can see

1014
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:43,520
Speaker 1: him struggling.

1015
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:46,560
Speaker 2: It's like the most human I've ever seen Bob Dylan. Yeah,

1016
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 2: except forking himself about the last Waltz too, he like revoked. Yeah,

1017
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 2: I thought the thing with the last Waltz he like revoked.

1018
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:57,600
Speaker 2: He said that it was okay to film, uh, and

1019
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:00,840
Speaker 2: then at the tail end end of it he was

1020
00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:03,040
Speaker 2: like no, Like right before he went on stage, he

1021
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,279
Speaker 2: was like, don't film me, and they were like, I

1022
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:09,280
Speaker 2: think Scorsese or somebody was like, just do it anyway,

1023
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 2: And it wasn't like when he got out on stage

1024
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:13,719
Speaker 2: he saw the cameras, it wasn't gonna stop. But I

1025
00:56:13,719 --> 00:56:16,120
Speaker 2: think that's why he looks awkward in that. I mean,

1026
00:56:16,160 --> 00:56:18,080
Speaker 2: other than the fact that he's Bob Dyla, he's a

1027
00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:19,560
Speaker 2: incredibly weird dude.

1028
00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:23,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, he looks really self conscious, which you know makes

1029
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:27,759
Speaker 1: sense considering that there are four video cameras filming him

1030
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:31,239
Speaker 1: as he's trying to sing and three still photographers.

1031
00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:33,319
Speaker 2: He says, I don't think that's any good at all.

1032
00:56:33,360 --> 00:56:37,080
Speaker 2: You can erase that, and then he says he asked Quincy,

1033
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:38,799
Speaker 2: is that sort of it? Sort of like that, and

1034
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:42,480
Speaker 2: Quincy hugs him and says it's great, and Bob says, well,

1035
00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:44,399
Speaker 2: if you say so, And.

1036
00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 1: For the first time, we're making we're saving our own lives.

1037
00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:53,360
Speaker 2: It's jewe we make a life way just you and me.

1038
00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:55,239
Speaker 1: That's more buckwheat than they.

1039
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:59,640
Speaker 2: Should have given a harmonica solo. Actually, yeah, that's cool.

1040
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:05,000
Speaker 2: And upon receiving that compliment from Quincy Jones, Bob Dylan

1041
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:09,279
Speaker 2: smiled for the first time that night, and Springsteen, ever

1042
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:12,600
Speaker 2: the cheerleader, gets on the mic and says, you sounded fantastic.

1043
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 2: Dylan later first thing he said when he got up

1044
00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:17,840
Speaker 2: to the mic. Bob later said in an interview on

1045
00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:20,640
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, people buying a song and the money going

1046
00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:23,600
Speaker 2: to starving people in Africa, is you know, a worthwhile idea.

1047
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:26,240
Speaker 2: But I wasn't so convinced about the message of the song.

1048
00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:28,320
Speaker 2: To tell you the truth, I don't think people can

1049
00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:29,840
Speaker 2: save themselves. You know.

1050
00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:33,479
Speaker 1: Was this in his Christian phase eighty five? That would

1051
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:36,960
Speaker 1: have been probably like right in transition, I oh yeah.

1052
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:39,560
Speaker 2: Lionel said that Bob Dylan was the one he was

1053
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:43,400
Speaker 2: most nervous about actually showing up. He said, when Bob

1054
00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:45,160
Speaker 2: says I'll be there, you have to say to yourself,

1055
00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:49,000
Speaker 2: did he get the right day? The right time, but

1056
00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:52,400
Speaker 2: Bob was one of the first people there. Steve Perry

1057
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:56,200
Speaker 2: of Journey was the first, which if there's anything Steve

1058
00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 2: Perry has, it's wanting to please energy and a tremendous one.

1059
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:05,520
Speaker 2: Michael was the second MJ and that led Quincy to

1060
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:10,080
Speaker 2: announce God is with us and Steve Perry hung his

1061
00:58:10,160 --> 00:58:14,440
Speaker 2: head and the sad Walking Away music from Charlie Brown played.

1062
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:18,360
Speaker 2: But even Michael Jackson was nervous. When it came time

1063
00:58:18,400 --> 00:58:20,720
Speaker 2: to take the group photo for the sleeve of the single,

1064
00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:22,640
Speaker 2: which was going to be featured on the cover of

1065
00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 2: Time magazine, he was nowhere to be found, and according

1066
00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:28,000
Speaker 2: to Ken Craigan, they found the King of Pop hiding

1067
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:31,080
Speaker 2: in the bathroom, curled up on the countertop because he

1068
00:58:31,160 --> 00:58:38,040
Speaker 2: was so intimidated by the stars. Lindsay Buckingham, famously of Fleetwood,

1069
00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:43,120
Speaker 2: Mac and Cocaine, ran into him in the bathroom, saying

1070
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:45,880
Speaker 2: it kind of freaked Michael out. He was quite nervous

1071
00:58:46,360 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 2: just to be startled by someone walking in and I

1072
00:58:48,680 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 2: just nodded my head. I'm imagining like super coked outs. Lindsey,

1073
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:55,000
Speaker 2: who does like the backing vocals on the end part

1074
00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:56,680
Speaker 2: of the chain when they're doing running in the shadows

1075
00:58:56,680 --> 00:58:59,360
Speaker 2: and he's like, run, run, Run, Run roun run run,

1076
00:59:00,240 --> 00:59:02,760
Speaker 2: just like kicks the door open in the bathroom. He's

1077
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:06,280
Speaker 2: got its farmer hat on his little acoustic electric guitar,

1078
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 2: frantically finger picking and screaming. And Michael Jackson, because he's

1079
00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 2: a wizard, let's curl up on the famica. Lindsay just

1080
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:17,600
Speaker 2: rails a huge line of coke and goes back in.

1081
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:21,920
Speaker 2: Billy Joel would remember. Michael Jackson is sort of a

1082
00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:25,280
Speaker 2: bizarre presence in the studio, frequently wandering off to quote

1083
00:59:25,320 --> 00:59:27,800
Speaker 2: a remote part of the studio with his makeup kit,

1084
00:59:28,240 --> 00:59:31,160
Speaker 2: and he kept like putting his nose on because I

1085
00:59:31,160 --> 00:59:33,360
Speaker 2: think the tip of his nose was kind of falling off,

1086
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:35,920
Speaker 2: and he kept dabbing at it with makeup or smearing

1087
00:59:35,920 --> 00:59:39,600
Speaker 2: it with something that is so sad, my god. But

1088
00:59:39,880 --> 00:59:43,080
Speaker 2: you know, MJ is pretty good spirits there. He's dancing,

1089
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:47,200
Speaker 2: he's laughing when he flubs a take. And he allowed

1090
00:59:47,280 --> 00:59:50,320
Speaker 2: Quincy to call him their private nickname in public, smelly,

1091
00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:55,400
Speaker 2: which came from their term for the a good funk

1092
00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:57,720
Speaker 2: or good you know, good vibes on a track of

1093
00:59:57,920 --> 00:59:59,600
Speaker 2: funky jam. Smelly jelly.

1094
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:01,640
Speaker 1: I also heard that it might possibly have been a

1095
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:06,320
Speaker 1: joke because Michael is very fastidious with his appearance and

1096
01:00:06,440 --> 01:00:08,760
Speaker 1: very clean, and so that was Quincy's joke by calling

1097
01:00:08,840 --> 01:00:11,920
Speaker 1: him smelly, because he was very much not so.

1098
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:14,920
Speaker 2: Some of the other stars were perhaps a little nervous

1099
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:17,680
Speaker 2: because they were cut off from the umbilicus of their

1100
01:00:17,720 --> 01:00:21,960
Speaker 2: support staff, you know, the small army of personal assistants

1101
01:00:21,960 --> 01:00:24,560
Speaker 2: and publicists and managers that were the lifeblood of any

1102
01:00:26,680 --> 01:00:29,320
Speaker 2: I was gonna say of any celebrity, but especially celebrities

1103
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:32,680
Speaker 2: in the nineteen eighties. Uh, there's a strict policy against

1104
01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:35,880
Speaker 2: allowing anyone into the main studio who wasn't personally involved

1105
01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:43,760
Speaker 2: in the recording, except except Dunesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau. It

1106
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:47,160
Speaker 2: could be a thousand guests, Yeah, right, a thousand monkeys

1107
01:00:47,160 --> 01:00:49,120
Speaker 2: with a thousand typewriters could not come up with the

1108
01:00:49,200 --> 01:00:54,160
Speaker 2: name Gary Trudeau. Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Gary Trudeau though.

1109
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:55,840
Speaker 1: First cartoonist the one A Pulitzer.

1110
01:00:56,440 --> 01:01:01,200
Speaker 2: He was doing two weeks worth of Dudes Mary's strips

1111
01:01:01,320 --> 01:01:02,600
Speaker 2: about we are the World?

1112
01:01:02,720 --> 01:01:04,920
Speaker 1: Am I correct? Am I correct? In reading this?

1113
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:09,520
Speaker 2: I think there was just like a farcical Daryl Hall

1114
01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:12,600
Speaker 2: later told Esquire everybody usually walks around with their assistant

1115
01:01:12,680 --> 01:01:14,680
Speaker 2: or they're entourage. But you had to walk in the

1116
01:01:14,680 --> 01:01:17,200
Speaker 2: door yourself, just you and be in this room with

1117
01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:19,560
Speaker 2: a lot of people like you, with your peers, many

1118
01:01:19,600 --> 01:01:21,760
Speaker 2: of whom I had never met, and vice versa, they

1119
01:01:21,760 --> 01:01:23,880
Speaker 2: had never met me. Thank you, Daryl, that is what

1120
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:29,120
Speaker 2: that phrase means. Uh, it was what's the word slightly disconcerting?

1121
01:01:29,480 --> 01:01:32,520
Speaker 2: Two words. I'm a pretty self sufficient guy, but I'm

1122
01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:35,440
Speaker 2: used to walking into a situation having some support around me.

1123
01:01:36,400 --> 01:01:40,680
Speaker 2: Daryl Hall sucks great singer realized. I think I assume

1124
01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:45,160
Speaker 2: this was a tough interview. Welly, he seems really full

1125
01:01:45,160 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 2: of himself. Yeah, although there's supposedly isn't there like a

1126
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:52,840
Speaker 2: lost album that he did with Robert Fripp? Yes, yes

1127
01:01:52,880 --> 01:01:57,400
Speaker 2: there is. Bat Whips the stars. Didn't know exactly who's

1128
01:01:57,440 --> 01:01:59,920
Speaker 2: going to be there, and I don't know. It's kind

1129
01:01:59,920 --> 01:02:02,560
Speaker 2: of a cute, kind of a first day of class vibes.

1130
01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:06,920
Speaker 2: Billy Joel hugs Michael Jackson, Kenny Loggins hugged Bruce Springsteen,

1131
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:10,760
Speaker 2: Dinah Ross hugged Chila E. Bob Dylan hugged no one

1132
01:02:11,440 --> 01:02:15,960
Speaker 2: except Quincy Jones. Daryl Hall added to Esquire, We're all like,

1133
01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:18,280
Speaker 2: whoa what are we doing? Everybody had to figure out

1134
01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:20,480
Speaker 2: how to relate to each other, so everybody started to

1135
01:02:20,520 --> 01:02:22,680
Speaker 2: act like they were in eighth grade chorus. It was

1136
01:02:22,680 --> 01:02:25,840
Speaker 2: the weirdest thing I'd ever experienced. All these superstars, whatever

1137
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:27,479
Speaker 2: you want to call them, we all turned into junior

1138
01:02:27,560 --> 01:02:30,840
Speaker 2: high school kids and chorus, and Quincy became mister Jones.

1139
01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:35,040
Speaker 2: That's how it shook out, laughing like kids. Paul Simon

1140
01:02:35,040 --> 01:02:36,800
Speaker 2: walked in and asked where he could hang his coat.

1141
01:02:39,320 --> 01:02:43,320
Speaker 2: All four foot eight of Paul Simon, they heard they

1142
01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:48,440
Speaker 2: heard a meek squeaking and looked down. Kenny Rodg just

1143
01:02:48,440 --> 01:02:51,160
Speaker 2: lifted up his foot and lifted up his big ass

1144
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:53,920
Speaker 2: cowboy boot. The rest of the friends and family were

1145
01:02:53,920 --> 01:02:57,080
Speaker 2: sent to the Charlie Chaplin Memorials down stage next door,

1146
01:02:57,400 --> 01:03:01,240
Speaker 2: watching the proceedings through huge video monitors, and it was

1147
01:03:01,360 --> 01:03:04,640
Speaker 2: quite the ticket. Each artist was allowed to invite five people,

1148
01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:08,240
Speaker 2: so the room was filled with five hundred of LA's

1149
01:03:08,320 --> 01:03:12,960
Speaker 2: Glitziist Jane Fonda, Steve Martin, Dick Clark, Kareem abdul Jabar,

1150
01:03:13,440 --> 01:03:19,000
Speaker 2: Sidney Poitier, Christy Brinkley, and Brooke Shields. Journalist David Breskin

1151
01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:22,480
Speaker 2: described the opulence in his session notes. The normal home

1152
01:03:22,520 --> 01:03:26,680
Speaker 2: of Soul Train and countless pop videotapings features couches, rugs,

1153
01:03:27,040 --> 01:03:29,720
Speaker 2: more than twenty five tables with seatings of eight, two

1154
01:03:29,800 --> 01:03:33,160
Speaker 2: bars serving wine and beer, three catering stations laid in

1155
01:03:33,240 --> 01:03:36,040
Speaker 2: without mountains of food, one hundred and twenty five folding

1156
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:39,680
Speaker 2: chairs strategically placed before, five video monitors, and two huge

1157
01:03:39,680 --> 01:03:44,040
Speaker 2: movie screens. Kenscha palms and Ficus benjamina, plus two dozen

1158
01:03:44,080 --> 01:03:48,520
Speaker 2: flowering plants, azaleas and cyclomen. That's the most plants I've

1159
01:03:48,560 --> 01:03:51,520
Speaker 2: ever had to name in a damn podcast episode. Nine

1160
01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:54,800
Speaker 2: video games and a pool table for those who get bored.

1161
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:56,920
Speaker 1: I just love that they taped Soul Train in the

1162
01:03:56,960 --> 01:03:59,120
Speaker 1: same sound stage where Charlie Chaplin worked.

1163
01:03:59,160 --> 01:04:03,680
Speaker 2: What do you think the video game were? Pong Frogger, Tapper, Galagha,

1164
01:04:04,320 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 2: dig Doug Donkey, Kong, Donkey kong Et, Bob Geldoff ruins everything.

1165
01:04:14,920 --> 01:04:17,640
Speaker 2: They welcomed Bob into the studio, which is a mistake,

1166
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:20,080
Speaker 2: but only fair considering he was the man behind the

1167
01:04:20,120 --> 01:04:22,920
Speaker 2: charity supergroup band Aid, which helped inspired the whole USA

1168
01:04:22,960 --> 01:04:26,400
Speaker 2: for Africa thing God I hate Bob Geldoff. Bob not

1169
01:04:26,600 --> 01:04:29,720
Speaker 2: known as being a kind of go with the flow,

1170
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:33,800
Speaker 2: sort of sit by the river kind of guy, nearly

1171
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:37,560
Speaker 2: torpedoed the vibes when he saw the massive spread of

1172
01:04:37,600 --> 01:04:40,720
Speaker 2: food laid out in the adjacent green room. Someone had

1173
01:04:40,760 --> 01:04:45,440
Speaker 2: donated it. According to afore mentioned journalist, David Preskins, account

1174
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:50,760
Speaker 2: several kinds of pasta, salad, tordelini, lasagna, something called baron

1175
01:04:50,840 --> 01:04:54,240
Speaker 2: of beef. The hell's that mean? That's what you call

1176
01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:59,040
Speaker 2: a Texas cattle rancher? What is a baron of beef?

1177
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:01,920
Speaker 1: A baron of beef originated when Henry the eighth was

1178
01:05:01,920 --> 01:05:04,360
Speaker 1: served as spit roasted double surloin beef.

1179
01:05:05,600 --> 01:05:08,520
Speaker 2: So it's two cuts of surloin wore like stitch together.

1180
01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:13,160
Speaker 2: He dubbed it sirloin the baron of beef. It was

1181
01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:19,680
Speaker 2: sent making a joke and the borschbolt comedian potato skins,

1182
01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:23,760
Speaker 2: parmesan chicken fruit, twelve hundred pounds of ice, two twelve

1183
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:26,600
Speaker 2: foot dessert buffets, and breakfast at three am.

1184
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:28,800
Speaker 1: A bad look for a hunger single.

1185
01:05:29,040 --> 01:05:34,360
Speaker 2: Fair enough, but Bob Geldoff thought that the producers had

1186
01:05:34,440 --> 01:05:36,840
Speaker 2: spent money on this food instead of it being donated,

1187
01:05:37,320 --> 01:05:40,440
Speaker 2: and started saying, you know, grabbed the mic in the

1188
01:05:40,440 --> 01:05:42,960
Speaker 2: green room and started ranting, you people are here eating

1189
01:05:42,960 --> 01:05:45,920
Speaker 2: all this food when there's people starving in Africa. When

1190
01:05:45,960 --> 01:05:49,000
Speaker 2: he was doing band Aid, he went out and got

1191
01:05:49,240 --> 01:05:52,960
Speaker 2: fast food for his crowd of assembled British A listers

1192
01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:56,120
Speaker 2: and left that. Eventually someone was able to calm him

1193
01:05:56,120 --> 01:05:58,080
Speaker 2: down and insist to him that they weren't partying and

1194
01:05:58,080 --> 01:06:00,960
Speaker 2: that the food had been donated, but he was upset.

1195
01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:04,240
Speaker 2: He was heard several times throughout the night muttering I've

1196
01:06:04,280 --> 01:06:08,520
Speaker 2: never seen more millionaires in one room. Harry belle Fonte

1197
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:11,040
Speaker 2: made a strange comment which actually I respect quite a

1198
01:06:11,080 --> 01:06:14,280
Speaker 2: bit in that night. He said, if a bomb hit

1199
01:06:14,320 --> 01:06:16,680
Speaker 2: this place, the business would have a lot of catching

1200
01:06:16,760 --> 01:06:22,800
Speaker 2: up to do. He's not wrong, No, he's not. To

1201
01:06:22,880 --> 01:06:25,560
Speaker 2: kick off the session. Quincy Jones invited Geldoff to say

1202
01:06:25,560 --> 01:06:29,160
Speaker 2: a few words, and Geldoff, reading the room, said.

1203
01:06:29,160 --> 01:06:33,640
Speaker 3: Well, maybe to put you in the mood of the

1204
01:06:33,680 --> 01:06:38,560
Speaker 3: song you're about to sing, which hopefully will save millions

1205
01:06:38,600 --> 01:06:40,800
Speaker 3: of lives. I think it's best to remember that the

1206
01:06:40,840 --> 01:06:43,920
Speaker 3: price of life this year is a piece of plastic

1207
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:44,840
Speaker 3: seven inches.

1208
01:06:44,600 --> 01:06:47,360
Speaker 4: Wide with a hole in the middle, and that I

1209
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:50,600
Speaker 4: think is an indictment of us. And I think what's

1210
01:06:50,640 --> 01:06:55,560
Speaker 4: happening in Africa is a crime of historical proportions. And

1211
01:06:55,640 --> 01:06:59,040
Speaker 4: the crime is at the Western world has.

1212
01:06:58,880 --> 01:07:03,240
Speaker 3: Got billions of tons of grain bursting in its silas,

1213
01:07:04,280 --> 01:07:06,240
Speaker 3: and we're not releasing it to people who are dying

1214
01:07:06,240 --> 01:07:10,920
Speaker 3: of hunger. And I don't know if we in particular

1215
01:07:11,040 --> 01:07:15,320
Speaker 3: can conceive of nothing. But nothing is not having a

1216
01:07:15,360 --> 01:07:19,880
Speaker 3: cardboard box to sleep under a minus ten degrees. Nothing

1217
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:24,560
Speaker 3: is not having any drink to get drunk on, not

1218
01:07:24,640 --> 01:07:27,840
Speaker 3: having water. And you walk into one of the cargaged

1219
01:07:27,920 --> 01:07:33,760
Speaker 3: iron huts and you see meningitis, the malaria and typhoid

1220
01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:36,200
Speaker 3: buzzing around in the air, and you see dead bodies

1221
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:40,000
Speaker 3: lying side by side with the live ones. And on

1222
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:41,960
Speaker 3: a good day you can only see one hundred and

1223
01:07:41,960 --> 01:07:45,520
Speaker 3: twenty people die slowly in front of you, and some

1224
01:07:45,600 --> 01:07:48,320
Speaker 3: of the camps you see fifteen bags of flower for

1225
01:07:48,440 --> 01:07:50,360
Speaker 3: twenty seven and a half thousand people.

1226
01:07:52,120 --> 01:07:55,120
Speaker 4: And it's that that we're here for. And I don't

1227
01:07:55,120 --> 01:07:57,800
Speaker 4: want to bring anybody down, but maybe it's the best

1228
01:07:57,800 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 4: way of making what you really feel, wire really here tonight,

1229
01:08:01,600 --> 01:08:04,480
Speaker 4: come out through this song. So thanks a lot, everybody, let's.

1230
01:08:04,280 --> 01:08:08,040
Speaker 2: Help worse, and so the session begins.

1231
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:10,680
Speaker 1: The musical track had already been recorded about a week

1232
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:14,240
Speaker 1: before the sessions. Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, and

1233
01:08:14,320 --> 01:08:17,559
Speaker 1: Lionel Richie went to Kenny Rodgers private studio, a personal

1234
01:08:17,600 --> 01:08:21,639
Speaker 1: studio Lion's Share Recording in Hollywood and recorded the backing

1235
01:08:21,680 --> 01:08:25,479
Speaker 1: track of the song. Thirteen year old Emmanuel Lewis from

1236
01:08:25,600 --> 01:08:30,479
Speaker 1: TV's Webster was also there at Michael Jackson's insistence, and

1237
01:08:30,520 --> 01:08:33,840
Speaker 1: the pair had a playful fight shooting popcorn kernels at each.

1238
01:08:33,720 --> 01:08:36,880
Speaker 2: Other in the middle of the session, and Emmanuel Lewis

1239
01:08:36,880 --> 01:08:38,240
Speaker 2: sat on Michael's lap.

1240
01:08:38,080 --> 01:08:40,920
Speaker 1: During playback and they shared grapes there.

1241
01:08:40,920 --> 01:08:44,320
Speaker 2: It is Seriously, that's the worst thing I've ever heard

1242
01:08:44,320 --> 01:08:49,120
Speaker 2: in my damn life. Anyway, Emmanuel Lewis was there, yeah,

1243
01:08:49,160 --> 01:08:52,400
Speaker 2: eating grapes from Michael Jackson's lab, one of many young

1244
01:08:52,439 --> 01:08:55,599
Speaker 2: boys who would eat fruit from Michael Jackson's lap throughout

1245
01:08:55,600 --> 01:08:59,760
Speaker 2: the years. Gross. Ah, that's so weird. Why did you

1246
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:02,360
Speaker 2: put that image of my head? Dude? I should have

1247
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:07,400
Speaker 2: sent you into a vocal booth alone to record this. God,

1248
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:10,640
Speaker 2: I have to think about that. That's living in my

1249
01:09:10,760 --> 01:09:12,200
Speaker 2: head right now. Why grapes?

1250
01:09:13,720 --> 01:09:20,600
Speaker 1: Somebody sent out for a banana too? Ah yeah. To

1251
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:23,000
Speaker 1: record the instrumentation for We Are the World, they use

1252
01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:25,400
Speaker 1: some of the same musicians that Quincy Jones had employed

1253
01:09:25,439 --> 01:09:28,840
Speaker 1: on Michael Jackson's Off the Wall and Thriller, including Greg

1254
01:09:28,880 --> 01:09:32,240
Speaker 1: phill Gaines on keyboard, John Robinson on drums he's the

1255
01:09:32,280 --> 01:09:37,120
Speaker 1: drummer in Rufus, Michael Bodeker on synthesizers, Plio da Costa

1256
01:09:37,360 --> 01:09:41,120
Speaker 1: on percussion, Lewis Johnson, who's the basis for Brothers Johnson,

1257
01:09:41,439 --> 01:09:47,240
Speaker 1: Steve Picaro from Toto Toto of Africa Fame on synthesizers,

1258
01:09:47,640 --> 01:09:51,519
Speaker 1: and David pich on synthesizers as well. Not as excited

1259
01:09:51,560 --> 01:09:53,639
Speaker 1: about him as I was about the guy from Toto.

1260
01:09:54,600 --> 01:09:57,240
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson and Lionel Richard recorded a guide vocal on

1261
01:09:57,280 --> 01:09:59,479
Speaker 1: the backing track, which they sent to all the artists

1262
01:09:59,520 --> 01:10:02,160
Speaker 1: to help them in the song, and Quincy Jones mailed

1263
01:10:02,240 --> 01:10:04,719
Speaker 1: numbered cassettes to all the participants along with a note

1264
01:10:04,720 --> 01:10:07,599
Speaker 1: that read, in part, my fellow artists, in the years

1265
01:10:07,640 --> 01:10:10,040
Speaker 1: to come, when your children ask what did mommy and

1266
01:10:10,120 --> 01:10:13,360
Speaker 1: daddy do for the war against famine, you can proudly

1267
01:10:13,439 --> 01:10:15,240
Speaker 1: say this was your contribution.

1268
01:10:16,400 --> 01:10:22,439
Speaker 2: Ah, how many children, how many rich Nepo babies asked

1269
01:10:22,479 --> 01:10:25,640
Speaker 2: themselves that what did mommy and daddy do in the

1270
01:10:25,680 --> 01:10:27,400
Speaker 2: war against famine?

1271
01:10:28,360 --> 01:10:31,360
Speaker 1: Well, actually, I'm sure their parents never shut up about it.

1272
01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:32,760
Speaker 1: I'm sure they never had to ask.

1273
01:10:33,400 --> 01:10:35,400
Speaker 2: Actually a son name was black Ops and the Congo

1274
01:10:35,439 --> 01:10:38,680
Speaker 2: would you like see my necklace of ears? Were you

1275
01:10:38,720 --> 01:10:47,000
Speaker 2: win the ship? I don't know why I find this

1276
01:10:47,080 --> 01:10:47,479
Speaker 2: so funny.

1277
01:10:47,560 --> 01:10:51,720
Speaker 1: Ken Craigan's organization called the FedEx president personally and got

1278
01:10:51,720 --> 01:10:54,479
Speaker 1: them to agree to send these forty five cassette tapes

1279
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:58,720
Speaker 1: out to the celebrities at no charge. So that's like

1280
01:10:58,720 --> 01:11:00,000
Speaker 1: like three hundred bucks right there.

1281
01:11:00,080 --> 01:11:04,000
Speaker 2: I said Jesus to do this today and wouldn't get

1282
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:04,599
Speaker 2: there in time.

1283
01:11:05,760 --> 01:11:09,400
Speaker 1: FedEx agreed, but they refused any offer of credit because

1284
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:11,840
Speaker 1: they were worried if word got out that everyone would

1285
01:11:11,920 --> 01:11:14,040
Speaker 1: call and be like, yeah, can you send this for free?

1286
01:11:14,080 --> 01:11:21,080
Speaker 1: It's it's for charity, but yeah. Despite all this effort

1287
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:24,519
Speaker 1: of making this demo cassette and sending it out and

1288
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:28,959
Speaker 1: even getting the fee waived by the FedEx president himself, most.

1289
01:11:28,720 --> 01:11:31,160
Speaker 2: Of the celebrities didn't take time.

1290
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,240
Speaker 1: To listen to the cassette and the first time they

1291
01:11:33,280 --> 01:11:35,439
Speaker 1: heard the song We Are the World was when they

1292
01:11:35,479 --> 01:11:38,960
Speaker 1: got to the studio, which once again they couldn't be

1293
01:11:39,160 --> 01:11:45,960
Speaker 1: artist to do the bare minimum the recording. Yes, the

1294
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:48,400
Speaker 1: recording of the vocal parts began a little after nine

1295
01:11:48,479 --> 01:11:51,839
Speaker 1: pm on the night of January twenty eighth. Michael Jackson

1296
01:11:51,880 --> 01:11:54,120
Speaker 1: did his parts first while most of the people were

1297
01:11:54,120 --> 01:11:57,840
Speaker 1: still at the AMAS across town, and he and Quincy

1298
01:11:57,920 --> 01:12:00,600
Speaker 1: Jones debated until the very last minute about singing you

1299
01:12:00,680 --> 01:12:03,960
Speaker 1: and I or you and Me, and they decided that

1300
01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:06,360
Speaker 1: you and Me was more soulful and country like, so

1301
01:12:06,400 --> 01:12:09,000
Speaker 1: they went with that, and then by around ten thirty

1302
01:12:09,000 --> 01:12:11,639
Speaker 1: the full session was underway and Quincy Jones kicked things

1303
01:12:11,680 --> 01:12:13,080
Speaker 1: off by announcing.

1304
01:12:12,600 --> 01:12:14,200
Speaker 2: Okay, let's start chopping wood.

1305
01:12:15,120 --> 01:12:17,680
Speaker 1: And they did the big choir session first because they

1306
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:20,240
Speaker 1: wanted to stop people from bouncing after they record of

1307
01:12:20,240 --> 01:12:23,160
Speaker 1: their solo part, which is smart. So much of the

1308
01:12:23,240 --> 01:12:27,000
Speaker 1: session or just studies and like you know, group dynamics

1309
01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:31,479
Speaker 1: and psychology. It's like when you're you're a multi band

1310
01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:33,920
Speaker 1: show and your band goes first, then you just leave

1311
01:12:34,040 --> 01:12:37,920
Speaker 1: right after, yeah.

1312
01:12:36,920 --> 01:12:40,280
Speaker 2: After, Well, sometimes you can't if you have to borrow

1313
01:12:40,320 --> 01:12:42,760
Speaker 2: their amp oh so yeah.

1314
01:12:42,800 --> 01:12:45,960
Speaker 1: After Bob Geldof's introductory speech about the horrors of famine,

1315
01:12:45,960 --> 01:12:48,679
Speaker 1: everyone was handed a lyric sheet and a foldable chart

1316
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:51,280
Speaker 1: of the music and guided to their bit of tape

1317
01:12:51,280 --> 01:12:53,280
Speaker 1: on the floor with their name scrawled on it.

1318
01:12:53,920 --> 01:12:54,599
Speaker 2: And I love this.

1319
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:58,519
Speaker 1: Before the session began, Quincy Jones decided where everyone would stand,

1320
01:12:58,880 --> 01:13:01,639
Speaker 1: working it all out in cards like a wedding planner

1321
01:13:01,760 --> 01:13:04,280
Speaker 1: doing a seating chart, and he put the tape on

1322
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:06,360
Speaker 1: the floor with each singer's name on it, and in

1323
01:13:06,400 --> 01:13:10,240
Speaker 1: his autobiography explained, we didn't want to encourage decision making

1324
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:14,240
Speaker 1: during the session, any decision where they would stand, what

1325
01:13:14,240 --> 01:13:16,519
Speaker 1: they would sing, when they would sing. We had to

1326
01:13:16,560 --> 01:13:19,400
Speaker 1: think it through and spell it all out. Over the years,

1327
01:13:19,400 --> 01:13:21,400
Speaker 1: I'd learned the hard way that once a group this

1328
01:13:21,560 --> 01:13:24,559
Speaker 1: size and the stature gets involved in making decisions, you're

1329
01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:27,600
Speaker 1: in trouble again. I mean being a producer. Oh not

1330
01:13:27,720 --> 01:13:29,599
Speaker 1: much of being a producer is about just like being

1331
01:13:29,640 --> 01:13:34,040
Speaker 1: a psychologist, you know. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, But still,

1332
01:13:34,040 --> 01:13:36,639
Speaker 1: despite all this planning that went into the seating arrangement

1333
01:13:36,720 --> 01:13:39,400
Speaker 1: or standing arrangement, I should say thanks to Quincy Jones,

1334
01:13:39,439 --> 01:13:41,479
Speaker 1: not everyone was happy with their space.

1335
01:13:41,600 --> 01:13:45,120
Speaker 2: On the bleachers. Diana Ross, who was basically like an

1336
01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:48,000
Speaker 2: aunt to Michael Jackson dating back to nineteen sixty nine

1337
01:13:48,000 --> 01:13:50,840
Speaker 2: when Motown and all their press releases claimed that she

1338
01:13:50,960 --> 01:13:54,559
Speaker 2: had discovered the Jackson Five, complained to Michael that she

1339
01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:58,000
Speaker 2: didn't like her spot, and Michael relayed this to Quincy,

1340
01:13:58,080 --> 01:14:00,680
Speaker 2: who moved her to a prime space the front row

1341
01:14:00,720 --> 01:14:06,000
Speaker 2: between Michael and Stevie. Wonder, God, she's the worst. It

1342
01:14:06,080 --> 01:14:06,680
Speaker 2: wasn't that thing.

1343
01:14:06,840 --> 01:14:10,000
Speaker 1: Like after Michael Jackson died, it came out that he

1344
01:14:10,120 --> 01:14:12,519
Speaker 1: was gonna, like if his mother had died before him,

1345
01:14:12,720 --> 01:14:15,840
Speaker 1: he was gonna leave his kids to Diana Ross. And

1346
01:14:15,920 --> 01:14:18,320
Speaker 1: Diana Ross apparently like had no idea, Like that was

1347
01:14:18,360 --> 01:14:21,800
Speaker 1: news to her. It was like no, but she was

1348
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:25,000
Speaker 1: the legal, like the legal guardian of Michael's kids if

1349
01:14:25,040 --> 01:14:30,160
Speaker 1: his mother was incapacitated. Hmmm, Like could we all just

1350
01:14:30,200 --> 01:14:32,920
Speaker 1: do that? Like if I could I just like send

1351
01:14:32,920 --> 01:14:36,160
Speaker 1: them to me? No, I mean like just on like my.

1352
01:14:36,160 --> 01:14:38,479
Speaker 2: Will, but like you know, in the event of my death,

1353
01:14:39,560 --> 01:14:41,879
Speaker 2: Diana Ross is the legal guardian of my children.

1354
01:14:41,920 --> 01:14:43,680
Speaker 1: And then what if we all just agreed to.

1355
01:14:43,600 --> 01:14:47,479
Speaker 2: Do that to send them to Diana Ross, Yeah, or

1356
01:14:47,520 --> 01:14:55,720
Speaker 2: her estate like care of if we had more cloud,

1357
01:14:55,960 --> 01:14:59,520
Speaker 2: I would execute a viral trend of getting Diana Ross's

1358
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:03,040
Speaker 2: She's still alive, right, She's still alive? Yes, okay, of

1359
01:15:03,080 --> 01:15:06,879
Speaker 2: getting people of a flood of paperwork going to Diana

1360
01:15:07,000 --> 01:15:13,880
Speaker 2: Ross's office, thousands of people signing away their children to well, no,

1361
01:15:14,400 --> 01:15:16,280
Speaker 2: she didn't know it until after Michael died.

1362
01:15:16,320 --> 01:15:18,000
Speaker 1: It was like you just like in your will, just

1363
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:20,400
Speaker 1: like you would think that they would have had a

1364
01:15:20,439 --> 01:15:22,760
Speaker 1: discussion about it, but apparently they never did. And she

1365
01:15:22,920 --> 01:15:25,760
Speaker 1: just discovered that had Michael's mother died, she would have

1366
01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:27,599
Speaker 1: been next up to care for his kids. And she

1367
01:15:27,680 --> 01:15:31,400
Speaker 1: was like, that's news to me. And Katherine Jackson still alive.

1368
01:15:32,960 --> 01:15:36,880
Speaker 2: That's a great premise for a children's movie, is children,

1369
01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:40,479
Speaker 2: So were showing up at Diana or horror movie? It's

1370
01:15:40,520 --> 01:15:44,360
Speaker 2: good set up. It's a children's movie, horror movie, children

1371
01:15:44,439 --> 01:15:47,240
Speaker 2: showing up at Diana Ross's house unsolicited.

1372
01:15:46,720 --> 01:15:48,799
Speaker 1: National lampoon, Diana Ross vacation.

1373
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:52,640
Speaker 2: My god, you're gonna have a hard time editing this.

1374
01:15:52,680 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 2: We're like, what not even halfway through? Oh? Thank god? Okay,

1375
01:15:55,520 --> 01:15:58,760
Speaker 2: we are Oh are we?

1376
01:15:58,840 --> 01:16:02,839
Speaker 1: The twenty one soloist in order were Lionel Richie Stevie Wonder,

1377
01:16:03,080 --> 01:16:07,280
Speaker 1: Paul Simon, Kenny Rodgers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel,

1378
01:16:07,360 --> 01:16:12,360
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Diane Warwick, Willie Nelson, Algera, Bruce Springsteen,

1379
01:16:12,560 --> 01:16:16,479
Speaker 1: Kenny log And, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper,

1380
01:16:16,800 --> 01:16:21,280
Speaker 1: Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles, and the A

1381
01:16:21,400 --> 01:16:24,479
Speaker 1: List backing choir of twenty three, by my account, was

1382
01:16:24,520 --> 01:16:26,920
Speaker 1: filled out by the likes of Bette Midler, who didn't

1383
01:16:26,920 --> 01:16:29,799
Speaker 1: get a solo, Smokey Robinson, who didn't get a solo,

1384
01:16:30,040 --> 01:16:35,160
Speaker 1: The Pointer Sisters, Okay, understand, LaToya Jackson, Understand LaToya remainder,

1385
01:16:35,439 --> 01:16:40,960
Speaker 1: the remainder of the Jackson five Waylon Jennings, Harry Belafonte, Shannett.

1386
01:16:42,360 --> 01:16:44,160
Speaker 2: Maybe she was too young. I don't want to know

1387
01:16:44,280 --> 01:16:47,800
Speaker 2: she was still doing would have come out, Oh yeah, yeah,

1388
01:16:47,800 --> 01:16:49,760
Speaker 2: you're right. I don't know. Maybe she was.

1389
01:16:51,520 --> 01:16:54,560
Speaker 1: Harry Belafonte, Lindsay Buckingham, Jeffrey Osborne.

1390
01:16:54,600 --> 01:16:55,719
Speaker 2: I don't know who that is.

1391
01:16:55,760 --> 01:16:59,880
Speaker 1: Sheila E presumably filling the Prince quotient, John Oates, who

1392
01:17:00,120 --> 01:17:03,000
Speaker 1: did not get a solo, even though Daryl Hall did,

1393
01:17:04,360 --> 01:17:06,439
Speaker 1: and you even get to stand next to Daryll, which

1394
01:17:06,479 --> 01:17:09,840
Speaker 1: I find really funny. I had Huey Lewis's backing band,

1395
01:17:09,920 --> 01:17:14,400
Speaker 1: the News and we can't forget band Aid architect Bob Geldoff.

1396
01:17:14,880 --> 01:17:15,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, poor John Oates.

1397
01:17:15,880 --> 01:17:18,639
Speaker 1: He talked about his solo snow but an interviewed with Esquire,

1398
01:17:18,680 --> 01:17:21,320
Speaker 1: he said, I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed.

1399
01:17:21,600 --> 01:17:23,960
Speaker 1: I was obviously not worthy, but at the same time,

1400
01:17:24,040 --> 01:17:27,200
Speaker 1: it was cool when Darryl and I performed together. Daryl's

1401
01:17:27,200 --> 01:17:30,519
Speaker 1: the lead singer, He's the guy. He's got an amazing voice,

1402
01:17:30,560 --> 01:17:33,160
Speaker 1: and of course he deserved it the solo. Quincy and

1403
01:17:33,240 --> 01:17:35,640
Speaker 1: Lionel and Michael knew exactly what they were doing. When

1404
01:17:35,680 --> 01:17:38,040
Speaker 1: you're dealing with those three guys, you're dealing with guys

1405
01:17:38,080 --> 01:17:39,160
Speaker 1: who really know how to.

1406
01:17:39,120 --> 01:17:41,920
Speaker 2: Make a record. That's very generous of them. I feel like.

1407
01:17:43,400 --> 01:17:45,320
Speaker 1: I'd like to do a little study of who got

1408
01:17:45,320 --> 01:17:47,639
Speaker 1: a solo versus who got stuck on the chorus, because

1409
01:17:47,640 --> 01:17:50,040
Speaker 1: this is just wrong to me. Bette Midler and Smokey

1410
01:17:50,120 --> 01:17:53,559
Speaker 1: Robinson didn't get a solo, but Huey Lewis did, and

1411
01:17:53,600 --> 01:17:55,599
Speaker 1: they let him bring all of the news.

1412
01:17:57,560 --> 01:18:00,360
Speaker 2: Hey, they're in that contract you signed for Hugh, you

1413
01:18:00,360 --> 01:18:05,200
Speaker 2: get the news. Like the shirt says, no Huie, no news.

1414
01:18:05,640 --> 01:18:07,360
Speaker 2: No thanks.

1415
01:18:08,920 --> 01:18:11,400
Speaker 1: Heigel for our band as a uniform, the only uniform

1416
01:18:11,439 --> 01:18:12,000
Speaker 1: we ever had.

1417
01:18:12,080 --> 01:18:14,919
Speaker 2: Bought us all that T shirt right before the pandemic

1418
01:18:15,000 --> 01:18:17,840
Speaker 2: and we never got to show that night. Now you know,

1419
01:18:17,880 --> 01:18:18,639
Speaker 2: I'm really sad.

1420
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:22,680
Speaker 1: Lionel and Quincy Jones worked out who was going to

1421
01:18:22,760 --> 01:18:26,280
Speaker 1: sing all the solo spots, and as co writer, Lionel

1422
01:18:26,320 --> 01:18:29,120
Speaker 1: Richie got first DIBs on the opening line, which he

1423
01:18:29,280 --> 01:18:31,439
Speaker 1: understandably took because he wanted to get it out of

1424
01:18:31,439 --> 01:18:34,559
Speaker 1: the way first. But because the parts were so brief,

1425
01:18:34,600 --> 01:18:37,200
Speaker 1: they decided you need to have a really identifiable voice.

1426
01:18:37,240 --> 01:18:39,360
Speaker 1: So that was part of the logic that went into

1427
01:18:39,560 --> 01:18:42,479
Speaker 1: thinking of who gets a solo and to achieve the

1428
01:18:42,520 --> 01:18:46,120
Speaker 1: harmonic vocal overlap of the voices because the lines, they

1429
01:18:46,160 --> 01:18:47,920
Speaker 1: would sing parts of it together just so.

1430
01:18:47,920 --> 01:18:48,920
Speaker 2: It all flowed nicely.

1431
01:18:49,360 --> 01:18:53,080
Speaker 1: Lionel, Quincy Jones and vocal ranger Tom Baylor worked hard

1432
01:18:53,120 --> 01:18:56,519
Speaker 1: to pair off people who sang in the same approximate range,

1433
01:18:56,760 --> 01:18:58,400
Speaker 1: and Baylor worked really hard.

1434
01:18:58,400 --> 01:18:59,160
Speaker 2: He did his homework.

1435
01:18:59,160 --> 01:19:01,760
Speaker 1: He bought several dozen records made by each of the

1436
01:19:01,840 --> 01:19:04,680
Speaker 1: artists and spent days leading up to the sessions just

1437
01:19:04,760 --> 01:19:06,600
Speaker 1: listening to them over and over again and try to

1438
01:19:06,600 --> 01:19:08,679
Speaker 1: get a feel for all the artists in their range.

1439
01:19:08,960 --> 01:19:11,320
Speaker 1: And for Baylor this was the opportunity of a lifetime

1440
01:19:11,360 --> 01:19:13,600
Speaker 1: to pick and choose who sang what I mean, it

1441
01:19:13,680 --> 01:19:16,720
Speaker 1: was just the ultimate chorus. But for Quincy Jones it

1442
01:19:16,840 --> 01:19:21,240
Speaker 1: was stressful. He likened it to quote putting a watermelon

1443
01:19:21,280 --> 01:19:24,439
Speaker 1: in a coke bottle. In other words, too much stuff,

1444
01:19:24,600 --> 01:19:28,080
Speaker 1: not enough space. And I'm sure he was worried about

1445
01:19:28,080 --> 01:19:32,000
Speaker 1: offending people like, you know, sorry, you don't get a solo,

1446
01:19:32,120 --> 01:19:35,320
Speaker 1: bet Miler, But Huey Lewis needs his space.

1447
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:38,800
Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm taking that. I love Huey Lewis, yeah,

1448
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:40,840
Speaker 2: and he does a great job on it too, I know,

1449
01:19:40,960 --> 01:19:41,720
Speaker 2: but I don't know.

1450
01:19:42,080 --> 01:19:44,840
Speaker 1: Smokey Robinson's lack of a solo was really puzzling to me.

1451
01:19:45,200 --> 01:19:46,880
Speaker 1: One version I heard of it why he doesn't have

1452
01:19:46,960 --> 01:19:49,439
Speaker 1: one is that Smokey wasn't even part of the initial

1453
01:19:49,479 --> 01:19:52,880
Speaker 1: invitees and he just showed up, and obviously no one

1454
01:19:52,880 --> 01:19:54,839
Speaker 1: wanted to be the one to kick out Smokey Robinson,

1455
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:57,439
Speaker 1: so he stayed. The other version I've heard is that

1456
01:19:57,479 --> 01:19:59,920
Speaker 1: Smokey was slated for a solo but then was called

1457
01:20:00,080 --> 01:20:03,280
Speaker 1: way on a family medical emergency before his Parker recorded.

1458
01:20:03,760 --> 01:20:07,639
Speaker 1: Considering they recorded all the solo spots between like four

1459
01:20:07,680 --> 01:20:11,200
Speaker 1: and eight in the morning, I'm guessing that isn't the case.

1460
01:20:13,760 --> 01:20:17,120
Speaker 1: But yeah, allegedly, Huey Lewis's solo line but if you

1461
01:20:17,280 --> 01:20:21,080
Speaker 1: just believe, there's no way we can fail was originally

1462
01:20:21,080 --> 01:20:24,479
Speaker 1: set aside for Prince, which to me just makes it

1463
01:20:24,520 --> 01:20:26,599
Speaker 1: all the more puzzling that he got a solo, because

1464
01:20:26,600 --> 01:20:29,479
Speaker 1: that was like a game time call. Somebody looked around

1465
01:20:29,560 --> 01:20:32,800
Speaker 1: the room with the line of talent and pointed at

1466
01:20:32,880 --> 01:20:36,679
Speaker 1: him and said, you're up. Sorry, Bet and Smoky.

1467
01:20:37,439 --> 01:20:42,679
Speaker 2: So I like your fixation that Bette Midler like Smoky

1468
01:20:42,760 --> 01:20:47,920
Speaker 2: I get. But oh, the divine miss m it's a

1469
01:20:47,920 --> 01:20:50,240
Speaker 2: great singer. You should have given it to Lindsey Buckingham.

1470
01:20:50,800 --> 01:20:54,440
Speaker 2: Oh well, yeah, it's got a distinctive voice, that's true. Yeah,

1471
01:20:54,760 --> 01:20:57,679
Speaker 2: Waylon Jennings. Can you imagine, Oh my god, he probably

1472
01:20:57,680 --> 01:21:02,679
Speaker 2: would have dropped a slur. We'll talk more about that later. Witalan,

1473
01:21:02,720 --> 01:21:05,960
Speaker 2: that's not even on the lyric sheet. Just already drunk.

1474
01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:12,760
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, Huey Lewis. He does a great job. He

1475
01:21:12,800 --> 01:21:13,719
Speaker 2: knocks out of the park.

1476
01:21:13,840 --> 01:21:16,040
Speaker 1: He's also one of the nicest guys I've ever interviewed,

1477
01:21:16,080 --> 01:21:20,160
Speaker 1: so i'll I should stop slagging him off. He had

1478
01:21:20,160 --> 01:21:21,559
Speaker 1: a cute thing to say about the Weird of the

1479
01:21:21,560 --> 01:21:23,840
Speaker 1: World experience. It was an amazing night.

1480
01:21:24,080 --> 01:21:26,400
Speaker 2: Imagine meeting all those people since I'm talking to the

1481
01:21:26,400 --> 01:21:27,920
Speaker 2: av Club in twenty twelve.

1482
01:21:28,160 --> 01:21:30,439
Speaker 1: Most people don't get to meet those people in their career.

1483
01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:32,600
Speaker 1: Just to all be there in the same room, it

1484
01:21:32,680 --> 01:21:35,479
Speaker 1: was fantastic. I got to hang out with Bruce Springsteen

1485
01:21:35,520 --> 01:21:39,839
Speaker 1: a little bit. I haven't seen Bruce Springsteen in ten years, probably,

1486
01:21:40,320 --> 01:21:42,519
Speaker 1: but I know that we're pwells in a way because

1487
01:21:42,520 --> 01:21:46,519
Speaker 1: of that we shared that experience together. I don't know

1488
01:21:46,560 --> 01:21:48,160
Speaker 1: if that makes you friends, Hueye, but.

1489
01:21:49,120 --> 01:21:52,000
Speaker 2: It's so much more adorable that it's like completely one sided.

1490
01:21:52,080 --> 01:21:54,280
Speaker 2: Like if you guys, Bruce would probably be nice about it,

1491
01:21:54,320 --> 01:21:56,680
Speaker 2: but he'd be like, no, I don't know him, and

1492
01:21:57,160 --> 01:22:00,000
Speaker 2: Juey Lewis is like we are brothers, bonded and blood.

1493
01:22:01,080 --> 01:22:03,600
Speaker 1: You'll notice speaking of people that seem slightly out of

1494
01:22:03,640 --> 01:22:07,320
Speaker 1: place in the USA for Africa lineup, that among the

1495
01:22:07,400 --> 01:22:13,320
Speaker 1: musical icons is comedian Dan Aykroyd. For years, I assumed

1496
01:22:13,320 --> 01:22:15,879
Speaker 1: he'd been invited in the wake of his Blues Brother's success,

1497
01:22:15,920 --> 01:22:18,240
Speaker 1: which earned him a number one album that kind of

1498
01:22:18,280 --> 01:22:21,719
Speaker 1: made him an honorary rock star. But apparently that's not true.

1499
01:22:21,880 --> 01:22:27,200
Speaker 1: He basically wandered into the session. He told New Hampshire

1500
01:22:27,240 --> 01:22:31,080
Speaker 1: magazine quote, my father and I were interviewing business managers

1501
01:22:31,080 --> 01:22:33,200
Speaker 1: in LA and we walked into this office of a

1502
01:22:33,240 --> 01:22:36,240
Speaker 1: talent manager and I realized we were in the wrong place.

1503
01:22:36,680 --> 01:22:39,400
Speaker 1: I was looking for a money manager, not a talent manager.

1504
01:22:39,720 --> 01:22:41,920
Speaker 1: I had managed myself at the time and always have.

1505
01:22:42,479 --> 01:22:45,280
Speaker 1: But the manager, presumably Ken Craigan, said so, as long

1506
01:22:45,320 --> 01:22:47,280
Speaker 1: as you're here, would you like to come and join this?

1507
01:22:47,320 --> 01:22:49,840
Speaker 1: We're the world thing? And I thought, how do I

1508
01:22:49,880 --> 01:22:52,519
Speaker 1: fit in here? Well, we did sell a few million

1509
01:22:52,520 --> 01:22:54,960
Speaker 1: records with the Blues Brothers and my other persona I

1510
01:22:55,000 --> 01:22:57,320
Speaker 1: am a musician, so I showed up and was a

1511
01:22:57,320 --> 01:23:00,559
Speaker 1: part of it. But it was totally by accident, and

1512
01:23:00,640 --> 01:23:02,640
Speaker 1: I love this. A funny moment occurred later that night

1513
01:23:02,680 --> 01:23:06,240
Speaker 1: when Dion Warwick heard unexplained voices in her headphones, which

1514
01:23:06,479 --> 01:23:09,120
Speaker 1: well the remains of another audio track that weren't supposed

1515
01:23:09,120 --> 01:23:11,799
Speaker 1: to be there, and it's a phenomenon in studio parlance

1516
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:15,120
Speaker 1: called ghost voices. And when she said, oh, I got

1517
01:23:15,120 --> 01:23:18,559
Speaker 1: ghost voices, Kenny Rodgers chimed in who you Gonna call?

1518
01:23:18,960 --> 01:23:21,920
Speaker 1: Which is a medium funny Ghostbusters reference.

1519
01:23:22,000 --> 01:23:22,920
Speaker 2: Someone had to do it.

1520
01:23:23,160 --> 01:23:25,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sadly Dan Ackroyd was out of the room at

1521
01:23:25,600 --> 01:23:26,479
Speaker 1: the time and missed it.

1522
01:23:26,560 --> 01:23:29,519
Speaker 2: I wish Steve Martin would have come in with his banjo,

1523
01:23:30,520 --> 01:23:34,240
Speaker 2: his banjo and his bunny ears on. Yeah. Unfortunately, many

1524
01:23:34,280 --> 01:23:37,720
Speaker 2: of the involved artists hated this song, which is fair

1525
01:23:37,760 --> 01:23:41,000
Speaker 2: good reason. It's not a good song. But the day

1526
01:23:41,040 --> 01:23:43,519
Speaker 2: that they according to Ken Craig, in the day before

1527
01:23:43,560 --> 01:23:47,439
Speaker 2: they were set to record, one globally renowned rock group

1528
01:23:47,560 --> 01:23:50,960
Speaker 2: that he refused to name, threatened to pull out because

1529
01:23:50,960 --> 01:23:54,240
Speaker 2: they thought it would harm their street cred. Who do

1530
01:23:54,280 --> 01:23:57,600
Speaker 2: we think that was, Jordan? I mean, the only group.

1531
01:23:57,479 --> 01:24:00,880
Speaker 1: In here, well, there's the Pointer Sisters. They're not a

1532
01:24:00,960 --> 01:24:04,519
Speaker 1: rock group though, and he specifically said up notes is

1533
01:24:04,600 --> 01:24:05,480
Speaker 1: the news.

1534
01:24:05,320 --> 01:24:10,640
Speaker 2: Oh hmm or Hall of Notes? I guess do we

1535
01:24:10,720 --> 01:24:13,439
Speaker 2: think which of those two men, those two groups do

1536
01:24:13,479 --> 01:24:17,800
Speaker 2: you think were more desirous of protecting their quote quote

1537
01:24:17,840 --> 01:24:20,360
Speaker 2: unquote street crib well, I would say hall of O.

1538
01:24:20,479 --> 01:24:23,880
Speaker 2: It's but they're not a rock group. Yeah, that's sad

1539
01:24:23,920 --> 01:24:28,120
Speaker 2: about the news. Here about the news. You hear about

1540
01:24:28,120 --> 01:24:32,880
Speaker 2: the news. Ultimately, Bruce Springsteen, as he often does, save

1541
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:35,720
Speaker 2: the day by telling this band, I didn't come out

1542
01:24:35,720 --> 01:24:38,439
Speaker 2: here to walk away. I came here to save lives.

1543
01:24:39,200 --> 01:24:42,120
Speaker 2: I came here to feed people. I'm gonna be there.

1544
01:24:43,280 --> 01:24:47,240
Speaker 2: And sure enough, the next day everyone showed up except Prince.

1545
01:24:47,360 --> 01:24:50,240
Speaker 2: Except for Prince who did not care about feeding people. Uh,

1546
01:24:50,479 --> 01:24:55,880
Speaker 2: he just cared about beating Michael Jackson and bailing Is

1547
01:24:56,200 --> 01:24:59,160
Speaker 2: two of his twenty bodyguards out of jail for manhandling

1548
01:24:59,200 --> 01:25:02,479
Speaker 2: a photographer. Billy Joel's you know, the cute atmosphere in

1549
01:25:02,520 --> 01:25:06,080
Speaker 2: the studio, but there there was people immediately started trying

1550
01:25:06,080 --> 01:25:09,760
Speaker 2: to play uh producer, you know, and and Billy Joel

1551
01:25:09,920 --> 01:25:12,200
Speaker 2: later said at Test Squire, I don't think anybody liked

1552
01:25:12,240 --> 01:25:14,920
Speaker 2: this song. There was a lot of side eye. There

1553
01:25:14,920 --> 01:25:17,320
Speaker 2: were a lot of people looking at at the other person.

1554
01:25:17,560 --> 01:25:19,920
Speaker 2: And I remember Cindy Lauper saying it sounds like a

1555
01:25:19,920 --> 01:25:22,720
Speaker 2: Pepsi commercial. There were a couple of chuckles and a

1556
01:25:22,720 --> 01:25:26,400
Speaker 2: few grunts. Uh, that was all coming from Bob Dylan.

1557
01:25:26,520 --> 01:25:33,840
Speaker 2: Actually that was pretty much the consensus. I think, yeah,

1558
01:25:33,920 --> 01:25:37,599
Speaker 2: there's choice. We're making the Pepsi slogan at the times,

1559
01:25:37,720 --> 01:25:40,080
Speaker 2: choice of a new generation. Both line of Richie and

1560
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:45,240
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson were Pepsi shill men. Billy Pepsi sent Michael

1561
01:25:45,320 --> 01:25:48,360
Speaker 2: Jackson's hair on fire, he sure did, and started him

1562
01:25:48,400 --> 01:25:51,040
Speaker 2: on his painkiller journey. So in a way, Pepsi killed

1563
01:25:51,040 --> 01:25:56,040
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson saved a untold number of African children. But

1564
01:25:58,000 --> 01:26:00,559
Speaker 2: so really with the butterfly effect on this, yeah, really

1565
01:26:00,640 --> 01:26:03,719
Speaker 2: quite When Lady Justice takes both of those things into

1566
01:26:03,760 --> 01:26:05,240
Speaker 2: her scales.

1567
01:26:05,360 --> 01:26:13,640
Speaker 1: It's the Egyptian Heart and the fellor it's Mummuary on TFI.

1568
01:26:16,560 --> 01:26:21,559
Speaker 2: Wow, weird. Now entering It's Proud fourth month, we are

1569
01:26:21,680 --> 01:26:26,879
Speaker 2: tunneling up our own asks for this one. Joel told Esquire.

1570
01:26:27,000 --> 01:26:29,800
Speaker 2: I looked at these lyrics. Well, yes, Joel, as you

1571
01:26:29,840 --> 01:26:31,960
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier, did not like the song and hated the

1572
01:26:32,040 --> 01:26:34,240
Speaker 2: lyrics that he was given. He looked at them and said,

1573
01:26:34,280 --> 01:26:37,320
Speaker 2: that's what I get the truth. And it was kind

1574
01:26:37,360 --> 01:26:39,560
Speaker 2: of a low part too. I think a lot of

1575
01:26:39,600 --> 01:26:41,720
Speaker 2: people were trying to be virtuosos when it came to

1576
01:26:41,760 --> 01:26:44,920
Speaker 2: their part. I know Cindy did. Cindy jumped into this

1577
01:26:44,960 --> 01:26:47,880
Speaker 2: whole other octave. But she can do that. She's a

1578
01:26:47,920 --> 01:26:49,960
Speaker 2: great singer. I think everyone wanted to put a little

1579
01:26:49,960 --> 01:26:52,400
Speaker 2: filigree on it, so they jumped out. I looked at

1580
01:26:52,400 --> 01:26:54,640
Speaker 2: my part and I thought, don't even try, just hit

1581
01:26:54,680 --> 01:26:56,720
Speaker 2: the mark and shut up. It wasn't a time to

1582
01:26:56,720 --> 01:27:02,160
Speaker 2: show off for me. He is correct, Cyndi lauper Cort

1583
01:27:02,920 --> 01:27:07,280
Speaker 2: has four bars and in the second one skyrockets up

1584
01:27:07,280 --> 01:27:10,960
Speaker 2: an octave, and immediately after Kim Carnes sings her line

1585
01:27:11,040 --> 01:27:15,840
Speaker 2: going into the refrain, does another skyrocketing like vocal ad lib.

1586
01:27:16,120 --> 01:27:19,000
Speaker 2: It's amazing. It's so disrespectful, I said earlier. It was

1587
01:27:19,040 --> 01:27:23,680
Speaker 2: like Alan Iverson stepping over someone he knocked over on

1588
01:27:23,720 --> 01:27:25,439
Speaker 2: the way to his zoo. On the way to the hoop.

1589
01:27:26,880 --> 01:27:29,200
Speaker 2: During one one through, Billy took a moment to walk

1590
01:27:29,240 --> 01:27:31,720
Speaker 2: over to the piano in the studio and play the

1591
01:27:31,760 --> 01:27:34,000
Speaker 2: song himself, confirming that it was in the key of E,

1592
01:27:34,760 --> 01:27:39,880
Speaker 2: and then he said, E I hate E snakes. Why

1593
01:27:40,680 --> 01:27:43,560
Speaker 2: why did it have to be a KIV is a

1594
01:27:43,600 --> 01:27:45,760
Speaker 2: hard it's hard, well, it's tricky for men. That's why

1595
01:27:45,760 --> 01:27:48,000
Speaker 2: a lot of bands tuned down a half step or

1596
01:27:48,000 --> 01:27:50,680
Speaker 2: a whole step or whatever, because for men typically that

1597
01:27:50,800 --> 01:27:52,920
Speaker 2: vocal range is like, that's why a lot of blues

1598
01:27:52,920 --> 01:27:55,879
Speaker 2: stuff is in open D tuning, because it's a tricky range.

1599
01:27:56,040 --> 01:27:59,120
Speaker 2: For men, you can't always take up the octave. It's

1600
01:27:59,160 --> 01:28:03,160
Speaker 2: just a I understand Billy where he's coming from. From that, still, though,

1601
01:28:03,280 --> 01:28:05,280
Speaker 2: I don't think he got the short end of the

1602
01:28:05,280 --> 01:28:09,479
Speaker 2: stick lyrically, I believe that went to Willie Nelson, who

1603
01:28:09,840 --> 01:28:12,639
Speaker 2: was given the line as God has shown us by

1604
01:28:12,680 --> 01:28:17,559
Speaker 2: turning stones to bread, which I don't think is in

1605
01:28:17,600 --> 01:28:18,120
Speaker 2: the Bible.

1606
01:28:18,840 --> 01:28:20,679
Speaker 1: No, that's a misquoted Bible line.

1607
01:28:20,800 --> 01:28:23,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, is it? The beating the swords into plowshares? Is

1608
01:28:23,800 --> 01:28:25,639
Speaker 2: that what they were going for? And they just didn't

1609
01:28:25,680 --> 01:28:30,000
Speaker 2: bother to cross reference it. I think they just I

1610
01:28:30,000 --> 01:28:32,120
Speaker 2: think Lionel Richie wanted to get out of Michael's room

1611
01:28:32,120 --> 01:28:34,479
Speaker 2: before the snake came back, and they just just I

1612
01:28:34,520 --> 01:28:37,960
Speaker 2: think it's right. Perhaps that's why a confused really stumbles

1613
01:28:38,000 --> 01:28:42,800
Speaker 2: into that line a full half beat late. It's like, wait,

1614
01:28:42,880 --> 01:28:51,680
Speaker 2: is this right? Sidney Lauper showed up as Cyndi Lauper. Yeah, well,

1615
01:28:51,680 --> 01:28:55,000
Speaker 2: what do you think of Cyndey Lopper? I love Claer. Yeah. Yeah,

1616
01:28:55,040 --> 01:28:58,439
Speaker 2: she's a tremendous vocalist. She's really interesting as far as

1617
01:28:58,479 --> 01:29:03,360
Speaker 2: the she's this weird lineage of like New York songwriter

1618
01:29:03,560 --> 01:29:06,360
Speaker 2: like that that she's so unusual, has like old like

1619
01:29:06,479 --> 01:29:09,519
Speaker 2: vaudeville piano on it, but she's this new wave figure.

1620
01:29:10,040 --> 01:29:14,280
Speaker 2: She's got tremendous vocal range. Yeah. Cyndy Lapper Whips Dude.

1621
01:29:14,720 --> 01:29:16,960
Speaker 2: One of my favorite Prince covers too, When you Were Mine.

1622
01:29:17,920 --> 01:29:19,880
Speaker 2: She's a great cover when you Were Mine on there,

1623
01:29:21,040 --> 01:29:23,920
Speaker 2: but you know, she showed up with enough jewelry on

1624
01:29:23,960 --> 01:29:26,720
Speaker 2: it that it up playback by banging against the mic

1625
01:29:26,840 --> 01:29:29,360
Speaker 2: stand and had to have it removed piece by piece,

1626
01:29:30,760 --> 01:29:34,040
Speaker 2: take by take. Cindy Cristy was like, wait, what's that jangle?

1627
01:29:34,040 --> 01:29:37,040
Speaker 2: We keep getting that? Is there like somebody playing the tambourine,

1628
01:29:37,040 --> 01:29:40,240
Speaker 2: Like what is that? And then they find like, oh,

1629
01:29:40,520 --> 01:29:47,040
Speaker 2: I can't do it. Cyndey Opper voice, it's my bracelets. Yeah,

1630
01:29:47,120 --> 01:29:49,960
Speaker 2: it's a Betty Boop voice essentially. Yeah, she's like, I

1631
01:29:50,120 --> 01:29:55,200
Speaker 2: RL Betty Boom. Quincy Jones seems to harbor a grudge

1632
01:29:55,200 --> 01:29:57,960
Speaker 2: about this. He was told Vulture in twenty eighteen she

1633
01:29:58,000 --> 01:29:59,880
Speaker 2: had a manager come over to me and say the rockers,

1634
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:02,360
Speaker 2: I don't like the song. I know how that works.

1635
01:30:02,640 --> 01:30:05,160
Speaker 2: We went to see Springsteen, Hollanos, Billy Joel and all

1636
01:30:05,200 --> 01:30:07,360
Speaker 2: those cats, and they said we love the song. Well,

1637
01:30:07,439 --> 01:30:10,920
Speaker 2: Billy Joel didn't. So I said to Lauper, okay, you

1638
01:30:10,960 --> 01:30:13,200
Speaker 2: can just get your show over with and leave. And

1639
01:30:13,240 --> 01:30:15,479
Speaker 2: she was fitting up every take because her necklace or

1640
01:30:15,520 --> 01:30:17,200
Speaker 2: brace that was rattling in the microphone.

1641
01:30:17,479 --> 01:30:20,360
Speaker 1: It was just her that had a problem. Maybe that's

1642
01:30:20,400 --> 01:30:23,120
Speaker 1: the one Ken Craigan's talking about. And he thought she

1643
01:30:23,240 --> 01:30:27,080
Speaker 1: was in a band or something playing fast than loose

1644
01:30:27,160 --> 01:30:27,960
Speaker 1: with the term band.

1645
01:30:29,000 --> 01:30:31,280
Speaker 2: It was not the end of her wardrobe problems, she

1646
01:30:31,360 --> 01:30:34,120
Speaker 2: later told Interview Magazine. When I finally got there to

1647
01:30:34,200 --> 01:30:37,799
Speaker 2: the session, I had a jacket on an Italian general's

1648
01:30:37,880 --> 01:30:41,600
Speaker 2: jacket with tails, and I see Michael Jackson's jacket this

1649
01:30:41,680 --> 01:30:44,200
Speaker 2: was in his quasi military phase, and I said, oh no,

1650
01:30:44,920 --> 01:30:47,759
Speaker 2: So I took it off. Also because I had moossom

1651
01:30:47,800 --> 01:30:49,960
Speaker 2: that was flaking all over the jacket, so it looked

1652
01:30:49,960 --> 01:30:52,640
Speaker 2: like I had yellow dandruff. I was standing next to

1653
01:30:52,640 --> 01:30:58,360
Speaker 2: Billy Joel, who was gracious, and Bruce Springsteen, what what

1654
01:30:58,439 --> 01:30:59,719
Speaker 2: the hell is that quote?

1655
01:31:00,880 --> 01:31:02,400
Speaker 1: She didn't go out of her way to say that

1656
01:31:02,400 --> 01:31:04,880
Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen was also gracious, which leads me to believe

1657
01:31:04,880 --> 01:31:06,840
Speaker 1: that something happens which I don't want to think about.

1658
01:31:06,960 --> 01:31:09,439
Speaker 2: I love the idea of Bruce Springsteen breaking character for

1659
01:31:09,479 --> 01:31:11,080
Speaker 2: like the first time in his life and looking down

1660
01:31:11,120 --> 01:31:14,920
Speaker 2: at Cindy and being like, girl, you are a mess.

1661
01:31:17,439 --> 01:31:20,920
Speaker 5: Just like something sweet in this Something the documentary, She's sweet,

1662
01:31:21,200 --> 01:31:27,240
Speaker 5: just something extremely bitchy Cindy does, despite murdering her, come

1663
01:31:27,280 --> 01:31:29,559
Speaker 5: to the rescue of kim Betty Davis as Carnes, who

1664
01:31:29,600 --> 01:31:33,320
Speaker 5: had a sinus infection, struggled to sing her sign part

1665
01:31:33,360 --> 01:31:36,679
Speaker 5: and she was too embarrassed to admit this to Quincy

1666
01:31:36,960 --> 01:31:42,040
Speaker 5: or afraid, and she confessed this to Cindy, who stepped

1667
01:31:42,040 --> 01:31:43,719
Speaker 5: all over her on the track.

1668
01:31:44,240 --> 01:31:46,880
Speaker 2: Carnes later said, Cindy was incredible. I said, oh my gosh,

1669
01:31:46,960 --> 01:31:48,360
Speaker 2: this is too high for me and I've got such

1670
01:31:48,360 --> 01:31:51,800
Speaker 2: a cold, and she said, let's figure it out, which

1671
01:31:51,840 --> 01:31:54,720
Speaker 2: in the final product means let me step all over

1672
01:31:54,760 --> 01:31:58,519
Speaker 2: your face. She's holding her up vocally. No, no, she

1673
01:31:58,600 --> 01:32:01,559
Speaker 2: does not. You hold someone up vocally by going under

1674
01:32:01,680 --> 01:32:05,639
Speaker 2: them or doubling them. You don't immediately say watch how

1675
01:32:05,720 --> 01:32:10,639
Speaker 2: high I can sing Sickoh, oh, you have a sinus infection.

1676
01:32:10,960 --> 01:32:15,640
Speaker 2: Check this shit out. Come on. And I say this

1677
01:32:15,680 --> 01:32:19,280
Speaker 2: as a cide laupera fan. Uh, but Cindy was kind

1678
01:32:19,280 --> 01:32:22,120
Speaker 2: of the scrappy little underdog on the sessions. Most people

1679
01:32:22,160 --> 01:32:24,519
Speaker 2: in the room were rooting. For barely two years earlier,

1680
01:32:24,520 --> 01:32:27,160
Speaker 2: she'd been playing holiday inns. You know. She almost lost

1681
01:32:27,160 --> 01:32:29,479
Speaker 2: her voice at one point too. She was singing in

1682
01:32:29,479 --> 01:32:31,559
Speaker 2: a band called Blue Angel, and I think she like

1683
01:32:31,600 --> 01:32:34,880
Speaker 2: blew out her vocal chords for that. When that band

1684
01:32:35,000 --> 01:32:37,240
Speaker 2: was they wanted to sign her without that band, and

1685
01:32:37,280 --> 01:32:40,120
Speaker 2: she refused. If memory serves correctly, she wanted to sign

1686
01:32:40,160 --> 01:32:42,160
Speaker 2: the whole band, and then that backfired later on when

1687
01:32:42,160 --> 01:32:45,960
Speaker 2: they broke up. But she told journalist David Breskin, who

1688
01:32:46,000 --> 01:32:47,400
Speaker 2: was there for the session, she said, I'm a little

1689
01:32:47,400 --> 01:32:49,559
Speaker 2: blown away. Can you believe you're sitting in a room

1690
01:32:49,560 --> 01:32:51,840
Speaker 2: with Ray Charles playing the piano. I mean, just start

1691
01:32:51,880 --> 01:32:54,120
Speaker 2: off with that. It's good to get everybody off their

1692
01:32:54,160 --> 01:32:56,800
Speaker 2: rumps because a lot of people have so much and

1693
01:32:56,840 --> 01:32:59,160
Speaker 2: some people have nothing. So it makes you think every

1694
01:32:59,200 --> 01:33:02,200
Speaker 2: time you eat something and don't finish it. I struggled,

1695
01:33:02,360 --> 01:33:05,120
Speaker 2: I starved. I was in the hospital twice for malnutrition,

1696
01:33:05,600 --> 01:33:08,800
Speaker 2: once for maultnutrition and dehydration because I had no food

1697
01:33:08,800 --> 01:33:10,960
Speaker 2: to eat just this year. I thought about where I

1698
01:33:11,000 --> 01:33:13,400
Speaker 2: came from, and I can't believe it. It's a very real

1699
01:33:13,439 --> 01:33:15,880
Speaker 2: thing to be hungry. I think how hungry I was.

1700
01:33:16,200 --> 01:33:18,240
Speaker 2: But I would maybe get to eat something during the day.

1701
01:33:18,600 --> 01:33:20,639
Speaker 2: If I didn't eat one day, I'd eat the next day.

1702
01:33:21,000 --> 01:33:24,280
Speaker 2: But these people, they ain't eaten for weeks. Just imagine

1703
01:33:24,320 --> 01:33:25,719
Speaker 2: that all in that Brooklyn Honk.

1704
01:33:27,960 --> 01:33:30,160
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right

1705
01:33:30,240 --> 01:33:32,800
Speaker 1: back with more, too much information in just a moment.

1706
01:33:43,080 --> 01:33:46,680
Speaker 2: God, this is so tim funny. Another one point of

1707
01:33:46,680 --> 01:33:51,320
Speaker 2: contention during the recording process was Michael Jackson's use of

1708
01:33:51,600 --> 01:33:52,960
Speaker 2: nonsense syllables.

1709
01:33:53,400 --> 01:34:00,040
Speaker 1: Jordan remind me what those syllables were, shalem sha, linge, bob.

1710
01:34:00,439 --> 01:34:04,559
Speaker 2: And possibly others felt that those syllables somewhat undermined the

1711
01:34:04,560 --> 01:34:08,040
Speaker 2: seriousness of the undertaking, possibly could even be construed as offensive,

1712
01:34:08,120 --> 01:34:12,719
Speaker 2: being as that they are just gibberish that vaguely sounded

1713
01:34:12,760 --> 01:34:15,760
Speaker 2: African to the so in vogue doesn't line in all

1714
01:34:15,840 --> 01:34:19,479
Speaker 2: night long? Isn't there like there's like a quasi African?

1715
01:34:19,880 --> 01:34:24,559
Speaker 2: Is that actually African I that I don't know All

1716
01:34:24,840 --> 01:34:28,640
Speaker 2: Night Long h the two genders of the lyrics in

1717
01:34:28,680 --> 01:34:31,839
Speaker 2: All Night Long? Uh in my Google search from Hollywood

1718
01:34:31,840 --> 01:34:34,520
Speaker 2: dot Com. Richie did such a good job that Africans

1719
01:34:34,560 --> 01:34:38,400
Speaker 2: often compliment him on his Swahili. They come up and say, Lionel,

1720
01:34:38,520 --> 01:34:42,800
Speaker 2: it's amazing. A couple more search results down. Lionel has

1721
01:34:42,840 --> 01:34:45,960
Speaker 2: admitted that certain African lyrics in the song were actually

1722
01:34:46,000 --> 01:34:52,840
Speaker 2: made up. Jury's still out on that one, anyway, h Lionel.

1723
01:34:52,880 --> 01:34:56,880
Speaker 2: Richie insisted that Jordan, what was that again? Shalem shlinge

1724
01:34:57,520 --> 01:35:01,960
Speaker 2: was an actual Swahili phrase, It is not Stevie Wonder,

1725
01:35:02,600 --> 01:35:05,240
Speaker 2: as only Stevie Wonder could called a friend in Africa

1726
01:35:05,479 --> 01:35:10,559
Speaker 2: from the studio, and suggested replacing those with an actual

1727
01:35:10,600 --> 01:35:13,720
Speaker 2: Swahili phrase that translated was we are the children, we

1728
01:35:13,760 --> 01:35:19,639
Speaker 2: are the world. This is at which point tensions boiled over.

1729
01:35:20,120 --> 01:35:23,240
Speaker 2: The cameras were shut off and Ray Charles reportedly shouted,

1730
01:35:23,560 --> 01:35:28,120
Speaker 2: say what it's three o'clock in the damn morning Swahili.

1731
01:35:29,120 --> 01:35:33,240
Speaker 2: I can't even sing in English no more? And Waylon

1732
01:35:33,280 --> 01:35:37,240
Speaker 2: Jennings left the studio muttering, no good old boy sings

1733
01:35:37,240 --> 01:35:42,719
Speaker 2: in Swahili, which God that sounds racist and a count's

1734
01:35:42,760 --> 01:35:44,920
Speaker 2: various whether or not he even came back. None of

1735
01:35:44,920 --> 01:35:47,080
Speaker 2: the group photos show him in it, but he does

1736
01:35:47,120 --> 01:35:49,800
Speaker 2: have a credit as part of the chorus. And of

1737
01:35:49,920 --> 01:35:54,679
Speaker 2: course Bob Geldoff with a finger in the air saying,

1738
01:35:55,360 --> 01:36:00,639
Speaker 2: actually Ethiopians don't speak Swahili, and it would be best

1739
01:36:00,800 --> 01:36:02,760
Speaker 2: to sing.

1740
01:36:02,560 --> 01:36:05,240
Speaker 1: What sing for the people who've got money to give

1741
01:36:05,680 --> 01:36:09,400
Speaker 1: ah rather than people who are starving, because you are

1742
01:36:09,439 --> 01:36:13,160
Speaker 1: singing to people who you were making an appeal to

1743
01:36:13,240 --> 01:36:17,080
Speaker 1: those people and not to the people who are actually starving, which.

1744
01:36:17,680 --> 01:36:21,840
Speaker 2: God, I hate you. What a wet fart of a

1745
01:36:21,920 --> 01:36:27,040
Speaker 2: human being. Aljirou came up with one World, Our World,

1746
01:36:27,080 --> 01:36:30,880
Speaker 2: which got modified to one World Our Children. Tina Turner,

1747
01:36:31,080 --> 01:36:33,679
Speaker 2: so tired she is visibly singing with her eyes closed,

1748
01:36:34,640 --> 01:36:39,160
Speaker 2: said I like Shalombetter, who cares what it means. Tina

1749
01:36:39,200 --> 01:36:42,080
Speaker 2: had a headache that night and her duet partner Billy Joel,

1750
01:36:42,120 --> 01:36:44,800
Speaker 2: who is himself getting over the flu, told her that

1751
01:36:44,880 --> 01:36:47,920
Speaker 2: he had an aspirin in his pocket. She said, no,

1752
01:36:48,000 --> 01:36:51,599
Speaker 2: I don't take that. I only use homeopathic. Billy Joel replied,

1753
01:36:51,880 --> 01:36:54,240
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is, but I ain't got

1754
01:36:54,280 --> 01:36:58,080
Speaker 2: any Eventually, Ray Charles tired of the debate and announced

1755
01:36:58,360 --> 01:37:01,920
Speaker 2: ring the bell, Quincy, ring the bell translation the fight

1756
01:37:02,040 --> 01:37:05,160
Speaker 2: is over. And in the end they went with the

1757
01:37:05,200 --> 01:37:09,000
Speaker 2: English line one world, our children, so let's start giving.

1758
01:37:09,800 --> 01:37:12,920
Speaker 2: Oh you got to do the Ray Charles sections. You

1759
01:37:13,000 --> 01:37:15,280
Speaker 2: do it. You love Billy Joel more than I do

1760
01:37:15,439 --> 01:37:16,599
Speaker 2: as much as I love Raychrol.

1761
01:37:16,920 --> 01:37:20,400
Speaker 1: That is true, that is true. I love Ray Charles.

1762
01:37:20,439 --> 01:37:23,320
Speaker 1: In this hole we are the world saga. Lionel richiegu

1763
01:37:23,320 --> 01:37:25,439
Speaker 1: has called him the most popular guy in the room.

1764
01:37:25,640 --> 01:37:28,640
Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen was probably a close second, and many of

1765
01:37:28,640 --> 01:37:30,920
Speaker 1: the participants in the session didn't know ahead of time

1766
01:37:31,080 --> 01:37:32,760
Speaker 1: that Ray Charles would even be there.

1767
01:37:33,400 --> 01:37:34,599
Speaker 2: Billy Joel, who'd.

1768
01:37:34,400 --> 01:37:36,400
Speaker 1: Flown in from New York that morning and was still

1769
01:37:36,439 --> 01:37:38,960
Speaker 1: wearing his winter coat that night, couldn't get over it

1770
01:37:39,000 --> 01:37:42,040
Speaker 1: because Ray Charles was just his ultimate hero. He wrote

1771
01:37:42,080 --> 01:37:44,680
Speaker 1: New York State of Mind in an attempt to emulate him,

1772
01:37:44,840 --> 01:37:48,040
Speaker 1: and when Ray Charles arrived, Billy Joel exclaimed, that's like

1773
01:37:48,080 --> 01:37:51,040
Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty walking in and he was visibly

1774
01:37:51,160 --> 01:37:54,840
Speaker 1: shaking when Quincy Jones introduced him to Ray and he said, Ray,

1775
01:37:54,920 --> 01:37:56,960
Speaker 1: this is the guy who wrote New York state of mind,

1776
01:37:57,479 --> 01:37:59,880
Speaker 1: and when Billy explained that this song was an oma

1777
01:38:00,439 --> 01:38:03,639
Speaker 1: to him, they struck up a lasting friendship and within

1778
01:38:03,680 --> 01:38:07,719
Speaker 1: a year they recorded a duet together called Baby Grand which,

1779
01:38:07,880 --> 01:38:10,000
Speaker 1: despite my love of both these artists, I had never

1780
01:38:10,040 --> 01:38:11,400
Speaker 1: heard until earlier today.

1781
01:38:11,520 --> 01:38:13,680
Speaker 2: And it's actually really good, and the videos really so.

1782
01:38:13,840 --> 01:38:16,160
Speaker 2: The video is adorable. It just opens with the two

1783
01:38:16,200 --> 01:38:19,000
Speaker 2: of them singing side by side and Ray Charles like

1784
01:38:19,040 --> 01:38:23,640
Speaker 2: ad libbing around a very sincere Billy Joel's It's incredible.

1785
01:38:23,640 --> 01:38:26,000
Speaker 2: It's so adorable anyway.

1786
01:38:26,600 --> 01:38:28,760
Speaker 1: And Ray inducted Billy Joel into the Rock and Roll

1787
01:38:28,840 --> 01:38:30,439
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety nine.

1788
01:38:30,640 --> 01:38:32,840
Speaker 2: So that's they love that. I love that.

1789
01:38:32,880 --> 01:38:35,719
Speaker 1: I love when artists get bigged up by their heroes.

1790
01:38:35,920 --> 01:38:39,679
Speaker 1: They think that's the sweetest thing. Bruce Preestein also compared

1791
01:38:39,800 --> 01:38:43,959
Speaker 1: Ray Charles to a landmark, compared him to the Washington Monument.

1792
01:38:44,520 --> 01:38:49,040
Speaker 1: But Ray Charles himself had a special kinship with Willie Nelson.

1793
01:38:49,600 --> 01:38:52,559
Speaker 1: He and Willy kept ducking out to Willie's notorious tour bus,

1794
01:38:52,560 --> 01:38:55,840
Speaker 1: which they parked around back behind the studio and yeah,

1795
01:38:55,960 --> 01:39:00,000
Speaker 1: I know, and during their other tet tet, Willie Nelson

1796
01:39:00,160 --> 01:39:02,479
Speaker 1: recalled telling Ray wouldn't it be nice if he did

1797
01:39:02,520 --> 01:39:05,400
Speaker 1: something for the people in our own country, which planted

1798
01:39:05,400 --> 01:39:08,160
Speaker 1: the seeds for farm aid, which continues to this day.

1799
01:39:08,920 --> 01:39:10,840
Speaker 1: But these sessions for we of the world meant a

1800
01:39:10,840 --> 01:39:13,280
Speaker 1: lot to Ray Charles. As he'd been to Africa and

1801
01:39:13,479 --> 01:39:15,720
Speaker 1: witnessed the effects of the famine firsthand.

1802
01:39:16,520 --> 01:39:17,759
Speaker 2: He knew all.

1803
01:39:17,560 --> 01:39:20,200
Speaker 1: Too well that thousands would die that very night while

1804
01:39:20,200 --> 01:39:22,880
Speaker 1: they were singing. And as he told journalist David Breskin

1805
01:39:22,960 --> 01:39:25,719
Speaker 1: during the session, I put my hands on these children

1806
01:39:25,760 --> 01:39:29,000
Speaker 1: and their skin feels like cellophane on bone. You have

1807
01:39:29,120 --> 01:39:32,559
Speaker 1: to feel that, man, That's unreal stuff. I ain't talking

1808
01:39:32,600 --> 01:39:37,759
Speaker 1: about skin, I'm talking cellophane on bone. And Ray truly

1809
01:39:37,840 --> 01:39:42,599
Speaker 1: he brought that sense of gravitas and seriousness to the session,

1810
01:39:42,640 --> 01:39:43,479
Speaker 1: in addition to the.

1811
01:39:44,000 --> 01:39:46,040
Speaker 2: Levity that he also displayed.

1812
01:39:46,400 --> 01:39:48,479
Speaker 1: And you know, if Quincy Jones was the producer of

1813
01:39:48,520 --> 01:39:50,960
Speaker 1: the record, Ray Charles was sort of the band leader.

1814
01:39:51,520 --> 01:39:53,600
Speaker 1: John Oates remembered Ray as being the only one in

1815
01:39:53,600 --> 01:39:56,200
Speaker 1: the room who could pull rank and keep everyone in line.

1816
01:39:56,280 --> 01:39:59,200
Speaker 1: He said, Ray Charles, being who he was, commanded a

1817
01:39:59,240 --> 01:40:01,920
Speaker 1: certain def and said respect from everyone, even though he

1818
01:40:01,960 --> 01:40:04,640
Speaker 1: didn't assert himself in any weird way. He was just

1819
01:40:04,640 --> 01:40:07,600
Speaker 1: standing in the middle doing his part. Lionel, Michael and

1820
01:40:07,680 --> 01:40:10,599
Speaker 1: Quincy were running the show. It was their song, their production,

1821
01:40:10,720 --> 01:40:13,400
Speaker 1: and everyone's very respectful trying to make it happen. There

1822
01:40:13,439 --> 01:40:15,760
Speaker 1: were moments when people and I won't name any names

1823
01:40:15,800 --> 01:40:17,960
Speaker 1: because it isn't worth it, and the chorus started to

1824
01:40:17,960 --> 01:40:20,840
Speaker 1: put their producers hats on. They started to say, well,

1825
01:40:20,880 --> 01:40:22,439
Speaker 1: what if we did this, what if we did that?

1826
01:40:22,520 --> 01:40:25,000
Speaker 1: And coming in with their ideas, it was obvious that

1827
01:40:25,000 --> 01:40:27,120
Speaker 1: it was a complicated thing to pull off in general,

1828
01:40:27,160 --> 01:40:29,080
Speaker 1: and having too many cooks in the stew would be

1829
01:40:29,080 --> 01:40:32,320
Speaker 1: a giant catastrophe. Ray every once in a while would

1830
01:40:32,360 --> 01:40:35,200
Speaker 1: just pipe up, come on, hey, let's go listen to Michael.

1831
01:40:35,240 --> 01:40:37,799
Speaker 1: Let's get this thing done. He was there to sing,

1832
01:40:37,840 --> 01:40:40,080
Speaker 1: and he sensed that it could go south very quickly.

1833
01:40:40,479 --> 01:40:42,559
Speaker 1: He commanded a lot of respect, and I thought that

1834
01:40:42,640 --> 01:40:46,200
Speaker 1: was very cool. And Ray Charles and Quincy Jones, they

1835
01:40:46,200 --> 01:40:48,439
Speaker 1: go way back to the clubs in Seattle back in

1836
01:40:48,479 --> 01:40:51,800
Speaker 1: the forties. They met when Quincy was fourteen and Ray

1837
01:40:51,920 --> 01:40:56,360
Speaker 1: was sixteen, and Ray called Quincy sixty six and Quincy

1838
01:40:56,439 --> 01:41:00,599
Speaker 1: called Ray sixty nine. Those were their nicknames, and I

1839
01:41:00,600 --> 01:41:01,640
Speaker 1: I don't even want to know.

1840
01:41:02,479 --> 01:41:05,840
Speaker 2: You know why they called his backup singers the Raylettes, right, No,

1841
01:41:06,560 --> 01:41:07,840
Speaker 2: because he had to let Ray.

1842
01:41:08,920 --> 01:41:11,640
Speaker 1: I'm picking up on the context, but I don't understand.

1843
01:41:11,439 --> 01:41:14,559
Speaker 2: He had a gang of all female backing singers called

1844
01:41:14,600 --> 01:41:17,200
Speaker 2: the Rays, and to become a Raylette you had to

1845
01:41:17,320 --> 01:41:24,280
Speaker 2: let Ray. The implication is that true. I've heard I

1846
01:41:24,320 --> 01:41:28,440
Speaker 2: think it might even be in Ray in Ray Jesus,

1847
01:41:30,080 --> 01:41:31,719
Speaker 2: what do you have to do to get the nickname

1848
01:41:31,800 --> 01:41:38,479
Speaker 2: sixty nine? Well, what is sixty six then? But stuff? Uh,

1849
01:41:39,560 --> 01:41:41,880
Speaker 2: I don't want to know.

1850
01:41:43,040 --> 01:41:44,920
Speaker 1: Even though there was just a few years apart, Quincy

1851
01:41:44,960 --> 01:41:47,400
Speaker 1: always felt that Ray was much more mature because he

1852
01:41:47,439 --> 01:41:49,840
Speaker 1: had his own place when he was a teenager and

1853
01:41:49,880 --> 01:41:52,960
Speaker 1: he had two girlfriends, which Quincy was very impressed by

1854
01:41:53,080 --> 01:41:56,519
Speaker 1: because he would be And Quincy was also very impressed

1855
01:41:56,520 --> 01:41:59,719
Speaker 1: with Ray Charles because he overcame his adversity his blindness

1856
01:41:59,760 --> 01:42:02,840
Speaker 1: to be come one hell of a musician. Speaking to

1857
01:42:02,880 --> 01:42:06,320
Speaker 1: GQ in twenty eighteen, which is also known in Quincy's

1858
01:42:06,320 --> 01:42:08,960
Speaker 1: world as the Troubled Era, Quincy had this to say

1859
01:42:08,960 --> 01:42:11,920
Speaker 1: about Ray. He was the most independent blind man you

1860
01:42:11,920 --> 01:42:15,000
Speaker 1: could ever witness. He'd go cross street lights, go to

1861
01:42:15,040 --> 01:42:18,320
Speaker 1: the supermarket shop count has changed with no help, no

1862
01:42:18,600 --> 01:42:21,400
Speaker 1: damn Kynes and no cups, nothing like that. His mother

1863
01:42:21,400 --> 01:42:23,559
Speaker 1: wouldn't let him do it, and the only time he

1864
01:42:23,640 --> 01:42:25,920
Speaker 1: got blind was when the girls were around and he

1865
01:42:26,040 --> 01:42:28,400
Speaker 1: start walking in the wall so they'd feel sorry for

1866
01:42:28,520 --> 01:42:29,559
Speaker 1: him and help him.

1867
01:42:30,040 --> 01:42:31,600
Speaker 2: Stevie Wonder took a similar.

1868
01:42:31,320 --> 01:42:33,680
Speaker 1: Approach in life and took great delight in messing with

1869
01:42:33,720 --> 01:42:36,320
Speaker 1: people by proving that he was far more able than

1870
01:42:36,360 --> 01:42:39,479
Speaker 1: he seemed. He famously, when he was on tour, would

1871
01:42:39,680 --> 01:42:42,559
Speaker 1: memorize the layout of the lobby of the hotel they

1872
01:42:42,560 --> 01:42:48,440
Speaker 1: were staying at and then just walk around, you know, unassisted, perfectly,

1873
01:42:48,960 --> 01:42:51,240
Speaker 1: making it seem like he knew exactly where he was.

1874
01:42:51,240 --> 01:42:53,280
Speaker 2: Going, but you know he did.

1875
01:42:53,400 --> 01:42:54,840
Speaker 1: And there was a great moment during the Wheel of

1876
01:42:54,880 --> 01:42:57,920
Speaker 1: the World session when Ray Charles asked where the bathroom was,

1877
01:42:58,320 --> 01:43:00,280
Speaker 1: and sure enough Stevie was like, oh, yeah, don't sorry,

1878
01:43:00,280 --> 01:43:02,360
Speaker 1: I know, I'll show you, and he led him down

1879
01:43:02,360 --> 01:43:06,599
Speaker 1: the hallway to the toilet, the blind, literally leading the blind.

1880
01:43:06,800 --> 01:43:08,400
Speaker 2: I guess he must have. I mean, he must have

1881
01:43:08,479 --> 01:43:10,280
Speaker 2: memorized the floor plan like he used to do in

1882
01:43:10,320 --> 01:43:13,200
Speaker 2: the hotels, right, Yeah, probably, I'm sure.

1883
01:43:13,280 --> 01:43:14,759
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1884
01:43:14,840 --> 01:43:16,000
Speaker 2: Quincy Jones he didn't.

1885
01:43:15,760 --> 01:43:19,200
Speaker 1: Exactly have it easy either, though in fact his upbringing

1886
01:43:19,560 --> 01:43:22,679
Speaker 1: was I would argue maybe the most Dickensian of anyone

1887
01:43:23,040 --> 01:43:25,599
Speaker 1: in the Wheel of the World session, aside from maybe

1888
01:43:25,640 --> 01:43:28,720
Speaker 1: Tina Turner. I know this because I just wrote his

1889
01:43:29,120 --> 01:43:32,439
Speaker 1: premature obituary for People magazine. If people know what that is,

1890
01:43:32,479 --> 01:43:34,920
Speaker 1: they pre bit. If the bank obitu yeah, pre bit.

1891
01:43:35,120 --> 01:43:38,000
Speaker 1: If the bank them in advance. For artists of a

1892
01:43:38,000 --> 01:43:39,679
Speaker 1: certain age, let's have them on hands.

1893
01:43:39,760 --> 01:43:39,920
Speaker 2: Hope.

1894
01:43:39,920 --> 01:43:42,840
Speaker 1: I'm not giving away any secrets that they don't want

1895
01:43:42,880 --> 01:43:45,960
Speaker 1: out there anyway. Quincy Jones he was born in Chicago's

1896
01:43:46,000 --> 01:43:50,120
Speaker 1: notorious Bronzeville neighborhood, where his father was a carpenter who

1897
01:43:50,120 --> 01:43:54,040
Speaker 1: worked for the city's most notorious gangsters. Dead bodies were

1898
01:43:54,040 --> 01:43:56,400
Speaker 1: a frequent sight in his childhood, and he recalled one

1899
01:43:56,479 --> 01:43:59,120
Speaker 1: hanging from a telephone pole with an ice pick through

1900
01:43:59,120 --> 01:44:03,480
Speaker 1: its neck. His mother, Sarah, was prone to erratic behavior,

1901
01:44:04,040 --> 01:44:07,360
Speaker 1: like suddenly heaving Quincy's birthday cake onto the back porch

1902
01:44:07,600 --> 01:44:11,120
Speaker 1: in the middle of his fifth birthday celebration, and Jones

1903
01:44:11,120 --> 01:44:13,479
Speaker 1: would remain haunted by the memory of her being taken

1904
01:44:13,479 --> 01:44:15,599
Speaker 1: away from his home in a strait jacket when he

1905
01:44:15,640 --> 01:44:17,800
Speaker 1: was a boy. And also I don't even know if

1906
01:44:17,840 --> 01:44:19,920
Speaker 1: I can read this. And also of the time he

1907
01:44:20,000 --> 01:44:22,240
Speaker 1: visited her in the psych ward only to find her

1908
01:44:22,280 --> 01:44:26,080
Speaker 1: eating her own fecal matter. Quincy Jones, Ladies and gentlemen.

1909
01:44:26,960 --> 01:44:29,840
Speaker 1: After his mom was institutionalized, Quincy was sent to live

1910
01:44:29,880 --> 01:44:33,799
Speaker 1: in a Louisville shotgun shack with his grandmother, a former slave,

1911
01:44:33,840 --> 01:44:36,240
Speaker 1: who taught him to catch rats that she would fry

1912
01:44:36,320 --> 01:44:39,760
Speaker 1: them for dinner. And he reunited with his father once

1913
01:44:39,800 --> 01:44:43,200
Speaker 1: he remarried, and the family was relodicated to Seattle.

1914
01:44:43,000 --> 01:44:44,599
Speaker 2: Where he would meet Ray Charles.

1915
01:44:44,600 --> 01:44:48,000
Speaker 1: But his abusive stepmother made life at home hell. She

1916
01:44:48,120 --> 01:44:50,760
Speaker 1: refused to call Quincy by his name until he was

1917
01:44:50,840 --> 01:44:51,679
Speaker 1: fifty seven.

1918
01:44:51,760 --> 01:44:53,240
Speaker 2: He was always Jones boy.

1919
01:44:54,280 --> 01:44:56,760
Speaker 1: In other words, she wouldn't call him by his name

1920
01:44:56,840 --> 01:44:59,680
Speaker 1: until after he made We Are the World. And I

1921
01:44:59,680 --> 01:45:03,720
Speaker 1: guess she used to beat him regularly. Then there was

1922
01:45:03,720 --> 01:45:05,640
Speaker 1: the time in the seventies when the blood vessels in

1923
01:45:05,680 --> 01:45:10,200
Speaker 1: his brain versed. So yeah, Quincy Jones, hell of a life.

1924
01:45:10,960 --> 01:45:16,400
Speaker 2: Hmm. But the sessions that wasn't all bad. It wasn't

1925
01:45:16,439 --> 01:45:19,680
Speaker 2: all but the session. Let's look on.

1926
01:45:19,760 --> 01:45:23,320
Speaker 1: Let's look on the bright side here. Despite Bob Geldof's

1927
01:45:23,320 --> 01:45:25,920
Speaker 1: little outburst. The sessions were, for the most part, light.

1928
01:45:26,280 --> 01:45:28,400
Speaker 1: There was one playful moment when the crowd broke into

1929
01:45:28,400 --> 01:45:32,040
Speaker 1: a spontaneous version of Harry Belafonte's Do or the Banana

1930
01:45:32,080 --> 01:45:34,400
Speaker 1: Boat Song, which is a fitting tribute to the guy

1931
01:45:34,439 --> 01:45:37,439
Speaker 1: who sort of started the whole venture, and also, as

1932
01:45:37,439 --> 01:45:40,040
Speaker 1: Harry noted, the song is about a boat that carries food,

1933
01:45:40,120 --> 01:45:43,200
Speaker 1: so again it's a fitting song. Billy Joel later said,

1934
01:45:43,200 --> 01:45:46,160
Speaker 1: there was a table piled up with cold cuts, sandwiches

1935
01:45:46,200 --> 01:45:49,800
Speaker 1: and stuff Bruce Bruce Springsteen, and I kept wandering over

1936
01:45:49,840 --> 01:45:52,400
Speaker 1: to this daily table, hitting on a beer or a sandwich.

1937
01:45:52,720 --> 01:45:57,160
Speaker 1: It wasn't like church, you know, and I love this.

1938
01:45:57,520 --> 01:46:00,559
Speaker 1: Billy Joel managed to sneak his fiance, model Christie Brinkley,

1939
01:46:00,680 --> 01:46:03,240
Speaker 1: and to introduce her to Bob Dylan and Paul Simon,

1940
01:46:04,120 --> 01:46:06,599
Speaker 1: presumably still trying to make up for the fact that she.

1941
01:46:06,680 --> 01:46:09,040
Speaker 2: Was way out of his league. Didn't he also date

1942
01:46:09,120 --> 01:46:12,479
Speaker 2: like El McPherson too, Yeah, yeah, I just love the

1943
01:46:12,479 --> 01:46:15,479
Speaker 2: fact that he picked like. He didn't introduce her to

1944
01:46:15,960 --> 01:46:20,760
Speaker 2: chiseled out of Bruce Bruce that jawline, or like even

1945
01:46:20,840 --> 01:46:23,800
Speaker 2: Jerry and Darryl Hall, like any of the other alpha men.

1946
01:46:23,880 --> 01:46:27,719
Speaker 2: He was found the two nebishier guys in the room

1947
01:46:27,760 --> 01:46:30,920
Speaker 2: and was like, this is my wife. He's the only

1948
01:46:30,920 --> 01:46:34,080
Speaker 2: two men in here shorter than me. Oh adorable.

1949
01:46:34,520 --> 01:46:37,280
Speaker 1: There's a great story where Bruce Springsteen drank a Budweiser

1950
01:46:37,320 --> 01:46:39,240
Speaker 1: and left the can on the risers where they were

1951
01:46:39,240 --> 01:46:42,479
Speaker 1: all standing, and Michael Jackson's personal photographer, who was on

1952
01:46:42,600 --> 01:46:46,680
Speaker 1: hand because of course Michael brought his own photographer, spotted

1953
01:46:46,720 --> 01:46:49,200
Speaker 1: it and suggested that Michael pose with it, thinking that

1954
01:46:49,240 --> 01:46:51,559
Speaker 1: it would be really funny to see, you know, squeaky

1955
01:46:51,600 --> 01:46:55,320
Speaker 1: clean Michael Jackson with a Budweiser can, and Michael initially

1956
01:46:55,360 --> 01:46:57,479
Speaker 1: refused because he said it would just be bad for

1957
01:46:57,520 --> 01:46:59,720
Speaker 1: his image, but the photographer was like, Oh, come on,

1958
01:46:59,760 --> 01:47:00,840
Speaker 1: who's ever gonna find out?

1959
01:47:00,880 --> 01:47:02,000
Speaker 2: Please, It'll be funny.

1960
01:47:02,840 --> 01:47:04,760
Speaker 1: And then a few days later, this photo made it

1961
01:47:04,760 --> 01:47:07,400
Speaker 1: into the New York Post and the photographer had a

1962
01:47:07,439 --> 01:47:10,360
Speaker 1: toll melt down because he was trying to figure out, like,

1963
01:47:10,360 --> 01:47:13,120
Speaker 1: who leaked this image? Like Michael I talked to Michael

1964
01:47:13,160 --> 01:47:15,920
Speaker 1: into taking this photo for fun, and now it's in

1965
01:47:16,000 --> 01:47:18,439
Speaker 1: the paper, and you know, he clearly didn't want it

1966
01:47:18,479 --> 01:47:21,439
Speaker 1: out there. Eventually he learned that Michael did it himself

1967
01:47:21,479 --> 01:47:24,560
Speaker 1: as a prank on this photographer to make him sweat.

1968
01:47:26,360 --> 01:47:27,240
Speaker 2: Sick man.

1969
01:47:30,479 --> 01:47:33,679
Speaker 1: Diana Ross, whose reputation as a diva had long preceded

1970
01:47:33,720 --> 01:47:37,240
Speaker 1: her I like this, took pity on video director Tom

1971
01:47:37,400 --> 01:47:40,960
Speaker 1: Trivitch Around four am. She broke her hamburger intwo and

1972
01:47:41,040 --> 01:47:43,439
Speaker 1: called him over, saying come here, come here, you haven't eaten,

1973
01:47:43,880 --> 01:47:47,880
Speaker 1: and he was surprised, shall we say, by her thoughtfulness,

1974
01:47:47,960 --> 01:47:49,920
Speaker 1: later telling es Squire, I.

1975
01:47:49,880 --> 01:47:52,839
Speaker 2: Don't want to say she was well, let's just say she'd.

1976
01:47:52,640 --> 01:47:54,840
Speaker 1: Been difficult other times I'd been working with her.

1977
01:47:54,880 --> 01:47:57,000
Speaker 2: He didn't mention that she had already chewed that.

1978
01:47:57,040 --> 01:48:02,920
Speaker 1: Half spat it. Now it's like a mama bird. There's

1979
01:48:02,920 --> 01:48:04,800
Speaker 1: another image for me. A lot of good images from

1980
01:48:04,800 --> 01:48:08,160
Speaker 1: mend this. Quincy Jones made a joke in the middle

1981
01:48:08,160 --> 01:48:10,639
Speaker 1: of the session that they were available for proms, which

1982
01:48:10,720 --> 01:48:15,360
Speaker 1: I find funny. It's just in Quincy Jones' voice available

1983
01:48:15,439 --> 01:48:20,680
Speaker 1: to proms too, baby, But no, okay. All in all,

1984
01:48:20,720 --> 01:48:23,519
Speaker 1: they got the pretty light and before the sessions were over,

1985
01:48:23,600 --> 01:48:25,679
Speaker 1: many of the singers took their music sheets around.

1986
01:48:25,720 --> 01:48:28,960
Speaker 2: They got everyone to sign it like a little yearbook. Cute.

1987
01:48:29,560 --> 01:48:32,040
Speaker 1: Kenny Rodgers apparently was the one who kicked off the trend.

1988
01:48:32,080 --> 01:48:33,760
Speaker 1: He said, once we sang it all the way through

1989
01:48:33,800 --> 01:48:36,559
Speaker 1: and realized how well thought out it was, we realized

1990
01:48:36,600 --> 01:48:38,800
Speaker 1: that the song was something special. So I took a

1991
01:48:38,800 --> 01:48:41,160
Speaker 1: shoot of music from the session and started getting people

1992
01:48:41,160 --> 01:48:43,880
Speaker 1: to sign it. Once I started, Diana Ross started, and

1993
01:48:43,880 --> 01:48:46,720
Speaker 1: then everybody was running around trying to get everybody. My

1994
01:48:46,840 --> 01:48:49,120
Speaker 1: copies framed on the wall of my house in Atlanta,

1995
01:48:49,640 --> 01:48:51,639
Speaker 1: and John Oates did the same thing. He later said,

1996
01:48:51,640 --> 01:48:54,559
Speaker 1: I framed in my studio in Colorado. When people come

1997
01:48:54,560 --> 01:48:56,760
Speaker 1: in and see it, they freak. I made sure I

1998
01:48:56,800 --> 01:48:59,639
Speaker 1: got everybody. I even got Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder

1999
01:48:59,680 --> 01:49:02,200
Speaker 1: to sign for once. I had the presence of mind

2000
01:49:02,200 --> 01:49:05,000
Speaker 1: to do something like that, and it's my most treasured possession.

2001
01:49:05,520 --> 01:49:08,639
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder signs by giving his fingerprint. But Ray Charles,

2002
01:49:08,640 --> 01:49:11,680
Speaker 1: he has pretty decent penmanship. That might be because I

2003
01:49:11,720 --> 01:49:14,120
Speaker 1: think Ray Charles wasn't born blind. I think he went

2004
01:49:14,120 --> 01:49:16,519
Speaker 1: blind when he was like four or five. Maybe was

2005
01:49:18,160 --> 01:49:19,439
Speaker 1: lie or something. Something.

2006
01:49:19,479 --> 01:49:24,559
Speaker 2: Dickenziean and horrifying. Quincy Jones assigned music sheet hangs in

2007
01:49:24,600 --> 01:49:26,720
Speaker 2: his den. He says, it always makes me smile when

2008
01:49:26,720 --> 01:49:32,200
Speaker 2: I look at it, start reading those names. This is

2009
01:49:32,240 --> 01:49:34,960
Speaker 2: all fine. No, I just kept thinking of like he's like,

2010
01:49:35,000 --> 01:49:37,440
Speaker 2: and I know which one of them actually killed JFK.

2011
01:49:40,560 --> 01:49:43,200
Speaker 2: The recording session, which as you may remember, took place

2012
01:49:43,280 --> 01:49:46,160
Speaker 2: after the AMAS that night, went from ten thirty pm

2013
01:49:46,240 --> 01:49:49,719
Speaker 2: until eight am. They didn't even start recording their solo

2014
01:49:49,800 --> 01:49:53,760
Speaker 2: parts until four am. Quincy originally planned to record the

2015
01:49:53,800 --> 01:49:56,639
Speaker 2: individual line separately in isolation boots, but it was getting

2016
01:49:56,720 --> 01:49:59,800
Speaker 2: late or early, so he opted for a quicker but

2017
01:50:00,080 --> 01:50:03,559
Speaker 2: riskier method, placing twenty one microphones in a U shape

2018
01:50:03,600 --> 01:50:07,439
Speaker 2: and getting them all to record side by side. Taking

2019
01:50:07,479 --> 01:50:10,040
Speaker 2: this kind of chance is like running through hell with

2020
01:50:10,200 --> 01:50:14,120
Speaker 2: gasoline drawers on, he said in a sound bite for

2021
01:50:14,160 --> 01:50:18,200
Speaker 2: the Ages. Any talking or outside noises, laughing, giggling, even

2022
01:50:18,200 --> 01:50:20,200
Speaker 2: a creak in the floor could ruin the whole thing.

2023
01:50:21,479 --> 01:50:25,480
Speaker 2: An uncharacteristically shy Cindy Lauper asked Quincy if she could improvise,

2024
01:50:25,720 --> 01:50:29,000
Speaker 2: and he sounded thrilled, responding absolutely, this is not right

2025
01:50:29,040 --> 01:50:32,880
Speaker 2: of spring. At one point during the rehearsal, Cindy cried, Hey, everybody,

2026
01:50:32,960 --> 01:50:35,519
Speaker 2: stop laughing when I'm singing. You can laugh when I talk,

2027
01:50:35,600 --> 01:50:38,599
Speaker 2: but not when I sing. You laugh when I talk,

2028
01:50:38,880 --> 01:50:44,720
Speaker 2: but not when I'm sing. Boop boo boo boop. At

2029
01:50:44,720 --> 01:50:48,120
Speaker 2: another moment, Stevie Wonder messes up and line overchie cracks.

2030
01:50:48,240 --> 01:50:53,000
Speaker 2: Stevie messed up? Is that legal? That's great? That's good U.

2031
01:50:53,680 --> 01:50:56,360
Speaker 2: The assembled choir was just about to record a take

2032
01:50:56,880 --> 01:51:00,799
Speaker 2: when two guests arrived in the studio unannounced. David Breskin's

2033
01:51:00,800 --> 01:51:04,080
Speaker 2: liner notes recount the following moment. The mood is lighthearted.

2034
01:51:04,320 --> 01:51:07,360
Speaker 2: Everyone's telling lies and joking around. The artists have caught

2035
01:51:07,360 --> 01:51:10,439
Speaker 2: their second win. Just as they're ready to record, two

2036
01:51:10,520 --> 01:51:13,519
Speaker 2: Ethiopian women guests of Stevie Wonder walk into the room.

2037
01:51:13,920 --> 01:51:17,120
Speaker 2: One woman says tearily, thank you on behalf of everyone

2038
01:51:17,120 --> 01:51:21,200
Speaker 2: from our country. The artists are stunned. No one speaks,

2039
01:51:21,720 --> 01:51:25,960
Speaker 2: a deep, penetrating silence. The women cry, The artists cry.

2040
01:51:26,479 --> 01:51:28,719
Speaker 2: It's the moment when the stars come crashing down to earth.

2041
01:51:29,200 --> 01:51:31,960
Speaker 2: It's the moment no one will forget. It's a moment

2042
01:51:31,960 --> 01:51:36,160
Speaker 2: of no photographs. The women, shaken, are led from the room.

2043
01:51:36,479 --> 01:51:39,960
Speaker 2: Quincy breaks the silence softly, saying it's time to sing.

2044
01:51:40,560 --> 01:51:43,719
Speaker 2: But the feeling in the room remains. Whatever show business

2045
01:51:43,720 --> 01:51:46,479
Speaker 2: pretension remained in the room after Geldoff's initial speech five

2046
01:51:46,520 --> 01:51:49,639
Speaker 2: hours ago. Is vanquished for good. Here we are having

2047
01:51:49,680 --> 01:51:52,519
Speaker 2: a good time, says Lionel, and reality walks in the door.

2048
01:51:52,960 --> 01:51:55,519
Speaker 2: It took them seven takes to get the final take

2049
01:51:55,640 --> 01:51:59,440
Speaker 2: of this, and the group once again erupted into spontaneous applause.

2050
01:52:00,200 --> 01:52:03,120
Speaker 2: Charles left somewhat early. Was he the oldest guy? That's understandable.

2051
01:52:03,200 --> 01:52:06,280
Speaker 2: Ray Charles would have been ready for bed, although he

2052
01:52:06,360 --> 01:52:09,520
Speaker 2: did announce I haven't had no good love since January,

2053
01:52:10,320 --> 01:52:14,519
Speaker 2: and it was January according to Rolling Stone. His vocal

2054
01:52:14,520 --> 01:52:18,240
Speaker 2: solo was recorded a few days later. H Tina Turner

2055
01:52:18,280 --> 01:52:23,240
Speaker 2: for some reason shouted out Fishburger in celebration for nailing

2056
01:52:23,280 --> 01:52:26,160
Speaker 2: her part. Is that you know? Is that like an

2057
01:52:26,160 --> 01:52:31,080
Speaker 2: old blues thing? Not as far as I know. Maybe

2058
01:52:31,080 --> 01:52:33,720
Speaker 2: she just likes the mcfish.

2059
01:52:33,840 --> 01:52:37,320
Speaker 1: Mick fleet was micphish Burger saw something there?

2060
01:52:37,880 --> 01:52:41,280
Speaker 2: Anything there? Well, No, that's that's actually pretty good. Mike

2061
01:52:41,320 --> 01:52:46,240
Speaker 2: Fleetwood's fish and Chips a competitor for Kenny Rodgers roaster.

2062
01:52:47,000 --> 01:52:50,800
Speaker 2: Oh all right, we're doing We're onto something here, Jamie.

2063
01:52:50,800 --> 01:52:52,240
Speaker 2: Can we get Mike Fleetwood on the phone. I want

2064
01:52:52,240 --> 01:52:56,320
Speaker 2: to pitch something to him. Bruce Springsteen again, fresh off

2065
01:52:56,320 --> 01:52:59,280
Speaker 2: of months of touring, gave Lionel his autograph, after which

2066
01:52:59,400 --> 01:53:03,360
Speaker 2: Lionel declared he's now officially on vacation. Bruce told everyone

2067
01:53:03,360 --> 01:53:05,360
Speaker 2: how good the track was, before saying I want to

2068
01:53:05,360 --> 01:53:07,800
Speaker 2: get a soda, and with that he walks out of

2069
01:53:07,840 --> 01:53:11,120
Speaker 2: the studio, passed six limos in the parking lot, across

2070
01:53:11,120 --> 01:53:13,320
Speaker 2: the street to his rent a car in Librea and

2071
01:53:13,400 --> 01:53:14,160
Speaker 2: he's gone.

2072
01:53:14,680 --> 01:53:17,080
Speaker 1: That's his exit line. I'm gonna go get a soda.

2073
01:53:17,360 --> 01:53:18,559
Speaker 1: That's his Irish goodbye.

2074
01:53:18,720 --> 01:53:23,120
Speaker 2: What kind of soda Werner's guys?

2075
01:53:23,240 --> 01:53:27,320
Speaker 1: Oh man, he's a chuer wy fago. He's a squirrez

2076
01:53:27,320 --> 01:53:28,280
Speaker 1: of mellow yellow guy.

2077
01:53:29,320 --> 01:53:36,080
Speaker 2: He would be mister pib Yeah, that I buy around

2078
01:53:36,160 --> 01:53:38,680
Speaker 2: six forty five am. Quincy starts asking for a few

2079
01:53:38,720 --> 01:53:43,880
Speaker 2: more vocal fills. Stevie ever the jester quipsque, just point

2080
01:53:43,920 --> 01:53:44,760
Speaker 2: to me when it's my turn.

2081
01:53:44,800 --> 01:53:49,400
Speaker 1: Okay, He's got a million of them. No one has

2082
01:53:49,479 --> 01:53:52,080
Speaker 1: made more jokes about being blind than Stevie Wanter.

2083
01:53:52,960 --> 01:53:57,679
Speaker 2: By Sunrise, only Quincy Jones, Lyona Richie, Diana Ross, Ken Craigan,

2084
01:53:57,800 --> 01:54:00,880
Speaker 2: and the arranger Tom Baller remained in the studio. Michael

2085
01:54:00,920 --> 01:54:04,559
Speaker 2: Jackson may have also been there, he reportedly requested footage

2086
01:54:04,560 --> 01:54:06,120
Speaker 2: from the event to view before it was made into

2087
01:54:06,120 --> 01:54:08,840
Speaker 2: a scizzle reel and sent to the press. When they

2088
01:54:08,840 --> 01:54:11,439
Speaker 2: asked him what his address was, his face went blank.

2089
01:54:12,120 --> 01:54:14,360
Speaker 2: I just know how to get there through the backstreets,

2090
01:54:14,439 --> 01:54:15,080
Speaker 2: he replied.

2091
01:54:17,479 --> 01:54:19,559
Speaker 1: So did he not know his own address or was

2092
01:54:19,560 --> 01:54:21,840
Speaker 1: he really not willing to give his own address out

2093
01:54:22,360 --> 01:54:24,440
Speaker 1: and he was just feigning at ignorance.

2094
01:54:25,600 --> 01:54:29,040
Speaker 2: There's something so quietly sinister about that. I only know

2095
01:54:29,120 --> 01:54:32,320
Speaker 2: the backway. Richie was so exhausted he claims to have

2096
01:54:32,360 --> 01:54:35,480
Speaker 2: no memory of hosting that night's American Music Awards ceremony

2097
01:54:35,520 --> 01:54:39,120
Speaker 2: and winning five awards, including Favorite Pop Rock Mail Artist.

2098
01:54:40,120 --> 01:54:42,080
Speaker 2: Thirty five years later, when asked about the day, the

2099
01:54:42,080 --> 01:54:44,160
Speaker 2: first thing he says is, let us first trace the

2100
01:54:44,200 --> 01:54:48,120
Speaker 2: meaning of the words delirium and exhaustion. That's the one

2101
01:54:48,120 --> 01:54:52,680
Speaker 2: where he kept being like outrageous, Yeah, yeah. Ken Craigan

2102
01:54:52,680 --> 01:54:54,920
Speaker 2: would later recall we were huddled in a circle on

2103
01:54:54,920 --> 01:54:57,120
Speaker 2: the floor of the studio, tightly hugging each other and

2104
01:54:57,160 --> 01:55:00,520
Speaker 2: crying like crazy from the experience of the night. Arguable

2105
01:55:00,600 --> 01:55:02,600
Speaker 2: architect of the session had an ignoble end to his

2106
01:55:02,640 --> 01:55:05,720
Speaker 2: long night. His Jaguar had some sort of electrical problem,

2107
01:55:05,840 --> 01:55:07,960
Speaker 2: so he had to drive home to Beverly Hills with

2108
01:55:08,040 --> 01:55:11,520
Speaker 2: its door open and the alarm blaring. When all was

2109
01:55:11,560 --> 01:55:14,840
Speaker 2: said and done, the session reportedly had not cost a

2110
01:55:14,960 --> 01:55:18,680
Speaker 2: penny despite an operating budget of two hundred grand. They

2111
01:55:18,720 --> 01:55:21,400
Speaker 2: got over a million dollars in goods, and servants has

2112
01:55:21,520 --> 01:55:28,600
Speaker 2: donated Ah again song. Tom Bryan, his number one's column

2113
01:55:28,600 --> 01:55:31,280
Speaker 2: for Stereogum, said, we Are the World is a tough hang.

2114
01:55:31,720 --> 01:55:35,480
Speaker 2: It's a glacial and unending seven minute ordeal, an ongoing

2115
01:55:35,520 --> 01:55:38,040
Speaker 2: series of stars stepping up to deliver their most anguished

2116
01:55:38,120 --> 01:55:40,720
Speaker 2: and worried wails. Most of them only get a sentence

2117
01:55:40,800 --> 01:55:43,000
Speaker 2: or less, so they put everything they have into singing

2118
01:55:43,000 --> 01:55:46,360
Speaker 2: hot air platitudes. It's time to lend a hand to life,

2119
01:55:46,680 --> 01:55:49,200
Speaker 2: the greatest gift of all. We Are the World as

2120
01:55:49,280 --> 01:55:52,800
Speaker 2: pure musical goo, a shiny, rhythmless trudge that's only there

2121
01:55:52,800 --> 01:55:56,120
Speaker 2: to melt into the background. The focus instead is on

2122
01:55:56,160 --> 01:55:59,320
Speaker 2: the singers. Some of those singers sound pretty great, whatever

2123
01:55:59,360 --> 01:56:02,720
Speaker 2: her feelings are. The song. Cyndi Lauper howls the absolute

2124
01:56:03,000 --> 01:56:05,680
Speaker 2: out of her one big line, and Jackson himself is

2125
01:56:05,720 --> 01:56:09,040
Speaker 2: sensitively shivery on his solo moment some of them, like

2126
01:56:09,120 --> 01:56:12,920
Speaker 2: Dylan and Springsteen, sound like but mostly though, they're a

2127
01:56:12,960 --> 01:56:15,400
Speaker 2: mismatched mess, a big group of people who don't have

2128
01:56:15,440 --> 01:56:18,160
Speaker 2: any chemistry with one another and who aren't entirely certain

2129
01:56:18,200 --> 01:56:20,800
Speaker 2: why they're all there. The song is a chore, and

2130
01:56:20,880 --> 01:56:24,000
Speaker 2: it sounds like one. Brian does, however, concede later on

2131
01:56:24,040 --> 01:56:27,160
Speaker 2: that the song was indeed created with the best intentions.

2132
01:56:28,360 --> 01:56:31,480
Speaker 2: Released on March seventh, nineteen eighty five, we Are the

2133
01:56:31,480 --> 01:56:34,760
Speaker 2: World became the fastest selling American pop single in history

2134
01:56:34,840 --> 01:56:37,360
Speaker 2: up to that point, moving eight hundred thousand copies within

2135
01:56:37,440 --> 01:56:41,480
Speaker 2: three days of its release. The radio edited to this

2136
01:56:41,680 --> 01:56:46,600
Speaker 2: was six twenty two. Jesus There was also the first

2137
01:56:46,840 --> 01:56:49,160
Speaker 2: single since the Beatles Let It Be in nineteen seventy

2138
01:56:49,200 --> 01:56:51,880
Speaker 2: to enter Billboard's Top five within two weeks of its release.

2139
01:56:52,760 --> 01:56:54,440
Speaker 2: I love how the Beatles side note are just like

2140
01:56:54,480 --> 01:56:59,040
Speaker 2: shorthand for all chart achievements. Everything, every significant chart achievement

2141
01:56:59,120 --> 01:57:01,480
Speaker 2: is like, yeah, this was such and such in relation

2142
01:57:01,560 --> 01:57:05,520
Speaker 2: to the Beatles doing it first, or longer or more

2143
01:57:05,600 --> 01:57:09,200
Speaker 2: of it. When it finally yeah, Well, when it finally

2144
01:57:09,240 --> 01:57:10,840
Speaker 2: hit the top spot, it became the first and only

2145
01:57:10,920 --> 01:57:13,440
Speaker 2: number one song of the Hot one hundred four, Bruce Springsteen,

2146
01:57:13,520 --> 01:57:17,360
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan, Steve Perry, Willie Nelson, and al Giau. After

2147
01:57:17,400 --> 01:57:24,680
Speaker 2: staying at number one for four weeks, Madonna oo chittuny ah.

2148
01:57:25,800 --> 01:57:28,320
Speaker 2: That is her name, right? I thought it was checkone

2149
01:57:28,320 --> 01:57:39,080
Speaker 2: but oo chi chune Uh. Sorry, just got sidetracked. Think

2150
01:57:39,120 --> 01:57:41,760
Speaker 2: about how much I hate Madonna. Knocked off by Madonna's

2151
01:57:41,760 --> 01:57:44,440
Speaker 2: Crazy for You, not even the best song called Crazy

2152
01:57:44,480 --> 01:57:47,080
Speaker 2: for You. We Are the World became the first ever

2153
01:57:47,120 --> 01:57:50,760
Speaker 2: single to be certified multi platinum. It received a four

2154
01:57:50,800 --> 01:57:54,240
Speaker 2: time certification by the RIAA and the nineteen eighty six Grammys.

2155
01:57:54,760 --> 01:57:58,080
Speaker 2: The song and its accompanying video won four awards, Record

2156
01:57:58,080 --> 01:58:00,000
Speaker 2: of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance

2157
01:58:00,080 --> 01:58:01,800
Speaker 2: by a Duo or a Group with Vocal and Best

2158
01:58:01,880 --> 01:58:05,960
Speaker 2: Music Video Comma Short Form, What's Best Music Video Long Form?

2159
01:58:06,040 --> 01:58:08,960
Speaker 2: They So I Don't Care. Eventually, it sold upwards of

2160
01:58:09,000 --> 01:58:12,160
Speaker 2: twenty million copies worldwide, making it the best selling single

2161
01:58:12,280 --> 01:58:15,560
Speaker 2: of the decade. In one year, the song raised forty

2162
01:58:15,560 --> 01:58:18,560
Speaker 2: four and a half million dollars for famine relief in Africa,

2163
01:58:18,680 --> 01:58:22,240
Speaker 2: and all told, raised over eighty million in humanitarian aid

2164
01:58:22,280 --> 01:58:24,880
Speaker 2: for Africa and the United States, and still pulls in

2165
01:58:24,880 --> 01:58:28,640
Speaker 2: about a half million dollars annually. The song was included

2166
01:58:28,640 --> 01:58:30,960
Speaker 2: on the album We Are the World, which featured nine

2167
01:58:30,960 --> 01:58:34,440
Speaker 2: additional songs, including if Only for the Moment Girl by

2168
01:58:34,480 --> 01:58:38,560
Speaker 2: Steve Perry Prince and The Revolutions four, the Number, the

2169
01:58:38,640 --> 01:58:41,840
Speaker 2: Tears in Your Eyes, Trapped by Bruce Springsteen in the

2170
01:58:41,880 --> 01:58:44,680
Speaker 2: East Street Band, and the Rest Jordan.

2171
01:58:45,480 --> 01:58:48,200
Speaker 1: The first money for this venture came two days after

2172
01:58:48,240 --> 01:58:51,360
Speaker 1: the session during a press conference held with Quincy Jones,

2173
01:58:51,360 --> 01:58:55,400
Speaker 1: Harry Belafonte, Ken Craigan, and Bob Geldoff among a few others,

2174
01:58:55,720 --> 01:58:58,400
Speaker 1: and Ken Craigan was talking about the freebee USA for

2175
01:58:58,480 --> 01:59:00,720
Speaker 1: Africa sweatshirts that were gonna have out to all the

2176
01:59:00,760 --> 01:59:05,880
Speaker 1: reporters present, and Bob Geldoff interjected semi jokingly, sell them,

2177
01:59:05,960 --> 01:59:08,960
Speaker 1: don't give them, And so they settled on selling these

2178
01:59:09,160 --> 01:59:11,920
Speaker 1: sweatshirts for ten dollars a pop to all the reporters,

2179
01:59:11,960 --> 01:59:13,960
Speaker 1: and by the end of the press conference he been

2180
01:59:14,040 --> 01:59:16,760
Speaker 1: handed five hundred and ten dollars, which were the very

2181
01:59:16,840 --> 01:59:20,640
Speaker 1: first direct contributions to USA for Africa, and it was

2182
01:59:20,680 --> 01:59:23,600
Speaker 1: reported the happiest that anyone had seen Bob Geldoff during

2183
01:59:23,600 --> 01:59:27,400
Speaker 1: the entire experience, which I Believe, and two months after

2184
01:59:27,440 --> 01:59:30,520
Speaker 1: releasing Were the World, the USA for Africa charity organization

2185
01:59:30,600 --> 01:59:33,240
Speaker 1: received its first check for its record sales, and Ken

2186
01:59:33,320 --> 01:59:36,480
Speaker 1: Craigan went straight to Africa to help. He later said,

2187
01:59:36,520 --> 01:59:38,640
Speaker 1: the first check we picked up was for five million.

2188
01:59:38,720 --> 01:59:41,200
Speaker 1: We picked that up in May. Then we immediately put

2189
01:59:41,200 --> 01:59:43,280
Speaker 1: a trip together to go to Africa and we flew

2190
01:59:43,360 --> 01:59:47,240
Speaker 1: up a huge cargo plan fool supplies and Ken wasn't

2191
01:59:47,240 --> 01:59:49,160
Speaker 1: alone in his trip to Sudan. He also made it

2192
01:59:49,160 --> 01:59:51,640
Speaker 1: with a group of twenty six that included charity board

2193
01:59:51,680 --> 01:59:54,440
Speaker 1: members and doctors, and they spent the next few years

2194
01:59:54,520 --> 01:59:56,480
Speaker 1: making sure the money went to those who needed it

2195
01:59:56,560 --> 01:59:59,520
Speaker 1: the most. They focused on providing food and supplies to

2196
01:59:59,600 --> 02:00:02,920
Speaker 1: organization that had demonstrated a commitment to the cause and

2197
02:00:03,040 --> 02:00:05,760
Speaker 1: also shown that they could use the donations effectively. This

2198
02:00:05,800 --> 02:00:08,080
Speaker 1: was a big problem with things like Live Aid and

2199
02:00:08,320 --> 02:00:10,640
Speaker 1: George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, where a lot of the

2200
02:00:10,640 --> 02:00:14,879
Speaker 1: money got squandered by either dishonest charities or just mismanaged charities.

2201
02:00:15,280 --> 02:00:17,720
Speaker 1: They also ensure that the money would be doled out slowly,

2202
02:00:17,840 --> 02:00:20,440
Speaker 1: with a percentage of the money earmarked for long term

2203
02:00:20,520 --> 02:00:24,840
Speaker 1: self reliant development and solutions. To systemic problems. Ken Craigan

2204
02:00:24,880 --> 02:00:27,600
Speaker 1: defended this decision by saying, quote, we could go out

2205
02:00:27,600 --> 02:00:29,800
Speaker 1: and spend it all in one shot, maybe save some

2206
02:00:29,840 --> 02:00:31,560
Speaker 1: lives in the short term, but it would be like

2207
02:00:31,600 --> 02:00:34,880
Speaker 1: putting a band aid over a serious wound, for adding

2208
02:00:34,880 --> 02:00:37,280
Speaker 1: that it would likely take an estimated ten to twenty

2209
02:00:37,400 --> 02:00:41,440
Speaker 1: years to make a difference to Africa's long term problems,

2210
02:00:41,480 --> 02:00:45,560
Speaker 1: probably more like forty to fifty years these days. Conversely,

2211
02:00:45,600 --> 02:00:48,760
Speaker 1: Bob Geldof's distributions from Live Aid have come into scrutiny.

2212
02:00:49,320 --> 02:00:52,080
Speaker 1: Spin magazine had a whole expose that reported that the

2213
02:00:52,120 --> 02:00:55,320
Speaker 1: donations that he raised were accidentally used to fund the

2214
02:00:55,320 --> 02:00:56,240
Speaker 1: brutal Dictator.

2215
02:00:57,120 --> 02:01:04,200
Speaker 2: Whoops, oops, all Dictator. Where were you on that one, Bob, Yeah,

2216
02:01:04,240 --> 02:01:06,840
Speaker 2: oh yeah, Soul speaks with Heeli there. Oh yeah.

2217
02:01:06,920 --> 02:01:11,720
Speaker 1: But in addition, is still pulling in a sizable amount

2218
02:01:11,720 --> 02:01:14,160
Speaker 1: of cash each year, some half a million. We Are

2219
02:01:14,160 --> 02:01:17,120
Speaker 1: the World started a ripple effect of charity singles, some

2220
02:01:17,280 --> 02:01:21,600
Speaker 1: merely bad, others on par with genocide. Despite their abysmal

2221
02:01:21,680 --> 02:01:24,680
Speaker 1: musical quality, it's still obviously a positive thing that they

2222
02:01:24,720 --> 02:01:27,320
Speaker 1: exist at all. There's tears are not Enough by the

2223
02:01:27,320 --> 02:01:30,480
Speaker 1: Canadian supergroup Northern Lights which includes a.

2224
02:01:30,960 --> 02:01:34,720
Speaker 2: Surprisingly decent lineup. There's Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Geddy, Lee

2225
02:01:34,920 --> 02:01:38,200
Speaker 2: and Murray and Brian Adams, among others. It's not Bad.

2226
02:01:38,600 --> 02:01:41,120
Speaker 1: And then there was the aforementioned album, courtesy of a

2227
02:01:41,120 --> 02:01:44,840
Speaker 1: heavy metal coalition calling themselves here in Age That's Really Good.

2228
02:01:46,200 --> 02:01:49,160
Speaker 1: Features heavy metal artists like Rodney, James Dio and members

2229
02:01:49,160 --> 02:01:53,120
Speaker 1: of Judas Priest, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue and Moore, boasting

2230
02:01:53,880 --> 02:01:58,360
Speaker 1: a truly bonkers ensemble of lead guitarists in addition to vocalists.

2231
02:01:58,560 --> 02:02:01,080
Speaker 2: It's just, Oh, it's so good. Imagine all of the

2232
02:02:01,240 --> 02:02:06,280
Speaker 2: sensitivity and and and and any and saying that's whatever

2233
02:02:06,320 --> 02:02:09,640
Speaker 2: sensitivity is present in We Are the World. Imagine stripped

2234
02:02:09,640 --> 02:02:13,680
Speaker 2: out and yarled through the assembled throats of some of

2235
02:02:14,360 --> 02:02:21,520
Speaker 2: LA's most leathery coke addicts and c boodlist tired men.

2236
02:02:22,640 --> 02:02:27,600
Speaker 2: You know who's present there, Neil Sean, Oh, my enemy

2237
02:02:27,600 --> 02:02:33,880
Speaker 2: of the pod, Neil Sean. I don't know. You've had

2238
02:02:33,920 --> 02:02:36,080
Speaker 2: good luck with Neil Sean. It's just really me. So

2239
02:02:38,120 --> 02:02:40,880
Speaker 2: jury's still out on Neil shot on his wife, didn't you?

2240
02:02:41,120 --> 02:02:41,280
Speaker 3: Yeah?

2241
02:02:41,320 --> 02:02:49,400
Speaker 2: I sure did, White House gate crasher Michelle Salahi. There's

2242
02:02:49,440 --> 02:02:51,040
Speaker 2: also Sun's City, which.

2243
02:02:50,920 --> 02:02:53,120
Speaker 1: Is more of a protest record than a charity record,

2244
02:02:53,120 --> 02:02:55,640
Speaker 1: and I think there's a subtle difference there. But the

2245
02:02:55,680 --> 02:02:58,440
Speaker 1: Stevie van Zinte Helm song raised awareness for the evils

2246
02:02:58,440 --> 02:03:02,280
Speaker 1: of apartheid. And there's also the number one hit That's

2247
02:03:02,320 --> 02:03:05,400
Speaker 1: What Friends Are For with Stevie Wonder, Dion Warwick, Elton

2248
02:03:05,480 --> 02:03:08,440
Speaker 1: John and Gladys Knight, which raised money for amphar and

2249
02:03:08,520 --> 02:03:11,480
Speaker 1: Aged charity, and as we mentioned earlier, Willie Nelson was

2250
02:03:11,520 --> 02:03:14,720
Speaker 1: inspired to start farm Aid following his participation in USA

2251
02:03:14,800 --> 02:03:15,440
Speaker 1: for Africa.

2252
02:03:16,520 --> 02:03:18,320
Speaker 2: We Are the World was performed live.

2253
02:03:18,120 --> 02:03:21,200
Speaker 1: On a handful of occasions with a suitably starry cast,

2254
02:03:21,320 --> 02:03:23,840
Speaker 1: most notably at Live Aid, which was held just a

2255
02:03:23,840 --> 02:03:26,320
Speaker 1: few months after the song was released in nineteen eighty five,

2256
02:03:26,880 --> 02:03:28,800
Speaker 1: and it was also sung I have no memory of

2257
02:03:28,800 --> 02:03:31,879
Speaker 1: this at an inauguration event for Bill Clinton in January

2258
02:03:31,920 --> 02:03:34,680
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety three, which features vocal help from the

2259
02:03:34,680 --> 02:03:40,560
Speaker 1: First Family, Kenny Rodgers, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, and

2260
02:03:40,600 --> 02:03:42,360
Speaker 1: we touched on this earlier. We Are the World was

2261
02:03:42,400 --> 02:03:45,520
Speaker 1: re recorded on February first, twenty ten, in order to

2262
02:03:45,560 --> 02:03:47,800
Speaker 1: raise money for those affected by the earthquake in Haiti

2263
02:03:47,840 --> 02:03:51,360
Speaker 1: that killed two hundred thousand people. This twenty first century

2264
02:03:51,440 --> 02:03:53,880
Speaker 1: version of the song featured Justin Bieber. I shouldn't have

2265
02:03:53,960 --> 02:03:56,600
Speaker 1: led with that, Barbara streisand making up for the fact

2266
02:03:56,600 --> 02:04:00,000
Speaker 1: that she skipped the original one. Rob Thomas of Matchbucks

2267
02:04:00,160 --> 02:04:06,520
Speaker 1: twenty Pink wild lef Jean Jamie foxx Jeff Bridges.

2268
02:04:07,280 --> 02:04:09,760
Speaker 2: I guess he's yeah, sort of saying yeah, he would

2269
02:04:09,760 --> 02:04:11,040
Speaker 2: have been right on Crazy Heart.

2270
02:04:11,160 --> 02:04:14,160
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're right, okay, and a duet between Janet

2271
02:04:14,240 --> 02:04:18,600
Speaker 1: Jackson and her late brother Michael. Supposedly the Jackson families request.

2272
02:04:18,720 --> 02:04:20,960
Speaker 1: I guess they controlled the rights to the song because

2273
02:04:20,960 --> 02:04:22,520
Speaker 1: he was a co writer, so I guess they could

2274
02:04:22,560 --> 02:04:25,760
Speaker 1: make whatever demands they wanted. What's more, this is really

2275
02:04:25,800 --> 02:04:28,280
Speaker 1: interesting to met Lionel Richie even talked about recording a

2276
02:04:28,320 --> 02:04:30,640
Speaker 1: third version of We Are the World to raise money

2277
02:04:30,640 --> 02:04:33,160
Speaker 1: for COVID nineteen relief in twenty twenty.

2278
02:04:34,000 --> 02:04:39,320
Speaker 2: This failed to occur, but an imagined thing. Yes. Tom Bryan,

2279
02:04:39,440 --> 02:04:43,000
Speaker 2: the stereo gum writer, did a fantasy recasting.

2280
02:04:42,360 --> 02:04:44,800
Speaker 1: For this twenty twenty version of We Are the World.

2281
02:04:46,160 --> 02:04:48,760
Speaker 2: Let's pick that apart, shall we must?

2282
02:04:48,800 --> 02:04:51,480
Speaker 1: We just for a moment, all right, It's not like

2283
02:04:51,520 --> 02:04:54,320
Speaker 1: it's pushing midnight and we're our third hour of this.

2284
02:04:55,960 --> 02:05:00,360
Speaker 2: Too much riffing about well, never mind, that's all cutting

2285
02:05:00,400 --> 02:05:02,280
Speaker 2: room floor. Yeah, you'll hear any of that.

2286
02:05:03,360 --> 02:05:06,680
Speaker 1: Wonder Cevie Wonder is being recast in twenty twenty as Beyonce.

2287
02:05:07,040 --> 02:05:08,520
Speaker 2: I can see that. That's fine.

2288
02:05:08,760 --> 02:05:12,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, Paul Simon is Lana del Ray. I don't understand

2289
02:05:12,120 --> 02:05:12,760
Speaker 1: that at all.

2290
02:05:13,280 --> 02:05:16,080
Speaker 2: No, it would be like father John Misty. Yeah, even

2291
02:05:17,360 --> 02:05:17,760
Speaker 2: somebody a.

2292
02:05:17,760 --> 02:05:20,160
Speaker 1: Little more cloud or gravitas.

2293
02:05:19,520 --> 02:05:22,360
Speaker 2: Or like bonavert itbe Bonaver.

2294
02:05:22,600 --> 02:05:27,320
Speaker 1: Okay, put a pin in that, Kenny Rogers, Lil nas X.

2295
02:05:27,440 --> 02:05:30,400
Speaker 1: I don't understand the comparison there. If anything, I'd say,

2296
02:05:30,480 --> 02:05:33,440
Speaker 1: like Willie Nelson, he's still alive.

2297
02:05:34,080 --> 02:05:37,280
Speaker 2: Get prop him up in front of the microphone againis

2298
02:05:37,640 --> 02:05:41,880
Speaker 2: Brad Paisley? Yeah fine, Yeah, James Ingram I didn't know

2299
02:05:41,880 --> 02:05:43,600
Speaker 2: who he was in the original, so I can't really

2300
02:05:43,600 --> 02:05:47,880
Speaker 2: comment on this. They recast him as Khalid sure, DJ

2301
02:05:47,960 --> 02:05:52,440
Speaker 2: colle It or Khalid, oh Khalid? Excuse me? Moving on,

2302
02:05:52,560 --> 02:05:56,640
Speaker 2: Tina Turner, Gucci Mayne, that's just dumb, Bill, Joel post

2303
02:05:56,720 --> 02:06:01,080
Speaker 2: them alone, that's also dumb. Michael Jackson, Drake, Well, we

2304
02:06:01,160 --> 02:06:06,800
Speaker 2: know one thing they have in common. Diana Ross Lil Wayne,

2305
02:06:07,240 --> 02:06:09,720
Speaker 2: it's Rihanna. Yeah, it's Rihanna.

2306
02:06:09,800 --> 02:06:13,520
Speaker 1: Well, I don't Understandwick Lady Gaga.

2307
02:06:13,640 --> 02:06:17,480
Speaker 2: Yes, that's good, that works really well. Willie Nelson whis Khalifa,

2308
02:06:17,760 --> 02:06:21,120
Speaker 2: no weed thing. Willie Nelson would still be in it.

2309
02:06:21,120 --> 02:06:24,480
Speaker 1: It would be Willy Nelson, Nelson playing himself, Willie Nelson

2310
02:06:24,520 --> 02:06:29,200
Speaker 1: as himself, Al Girou, James Blake, I don't see that.

2311
02:06:29,320 --> 02:06:33,280
Speaker 2: It would be Sam Smith. I think, uh, Bruce Springsteen,

2312
02:06:33,360 --> 02:06:37,000
Speaker 2: Ariana Grande hell is that? No, you need some kind

2313
02:06:37,000 --> 02:06:40,200
Speaker 2: of token big dumb um. It would be the kid

2314
02:06:40,200 --> 02:06:42,880
Speaker 2: from Gretel van Fleet. They need like a rock person

2315
02:06:42,960 --> 02:06:43,480
Speaker 2: in there.

2316
02:06:43,400 --> 02:06:48,200
Speaker 1: Right, NOI Blake Sheldon, No, it's two country.

2317
02:06:48,360 --> 02:06:51,240
Speaker 2: They need a token Heartland rocker who's like the token

2318
02:06:51,360 --> 02:06:54,360
Speaker 2: Heartland rocker in twenty twenty three. Imagine dragons. I don't

2319
02:06:54,400 --> 02:06:55,800
Speaker 2: even know if that's a genre anymore.

2320
02:06:56,400 --> 02:06:58,800
Speaker 1: Adam Levine, he's not a hardline.

2321
02:06:59,680 --> 02:07:07,200
Speaker 2: Drive me to drink, Bud Kenny Loggins, Quavo, Yes, Steve Perry,

2322
02:07:07,280 --> 02:07:10,000
Speaker 2: Harry Styles, that's a one to one. I respect that.

2323
02:07:10,160 --> 02:07:16,600
Speaker 2: Darryl Hall, Sway Lee whatever, Huey Lewis, Lizzo, Sure, Cyndi

2324
02:07:16,680 --> 02:07:23,400
Speaker 2: Lauper Little UZI vert whatever Kim Carnes Sea, Yeah right,

2325
02:07:24,600 --> 02:07:28,240
Speaker 2: she has forgotten more number ones than Kim Carnes ever

2326
02:07:28,280 --> 02:07:34,160
Speaker 2: got with him Desert Mile of Bob Dylan, Billie Eilish. No,

2327
02:07:35,520 --> 02:07:40,800
Speaker 2: it would be who's like a spokesperson of their generation thing, Sharon.

2328
02:07:42,760 --> 02:07:44,880
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking, who's who's the last guy you saw

2329
02:07:44,920 --> 02:07:48,960
Speaker 2: on TV playing guitar with a guitar? Yeah, Ray Charles,

2330
02:07:49,440 --> 02:07:53,360
Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen. Okay, that's the most media in the room,

2331
02:07:53,400 --> 02:07:58,000
Speaker 2: Old Tim. It should be Smoky Robinson. They should, they

2332
02:07:58,000 --> 02:08:02,080
Speaker 2: should address their error and give corn old horny, Old Smokey.

2333
02:08:02,120 --> 02:08:06,720
Speaker 2: You just released an album called gasms. Oh I never

2334
02:08:07,120 --> 02:08:11,920
Speaker 2: want have you? Have you heard about gasms? Yeah? Yeah? Good?

2335
02:08:12,840 --> 02:08:17,560
Speaker 2: Well that was dumb. Do you know that whye Cliff

2336
02:08:17,600 --> 02:08:22,000
Speaker 2: Jean's Haiti charity, established after that earthquake, is alleged to

2337
02:08:22,040 --> 02:08:25,600
Speaker 2: have spent nine million dollars, with half of it on

2338
02:08:25,720 --> 02:08:30,160
Speaker 2: travel and salaries and consultants fees. Investigations into them still

2339
02:08:30,200 --> 02:08:34,760
Speaker 2: open in Haiti. Hope for Haiti became the most watched

2340
02:08:34,840 --> 02:08:36,240
Speaker 2: telethon to date on TV.

2341
02:08:36,440 --> 02:08:40,560
Speaker 1: What wow, I doubt I didn't know.

2342
02:08:40,880 --> 02:08:44,320
Speaker 2: Yep. They closed it in twenty twelve. They fixed Haiti,

2343
02:08:49,880 --> 02:08:53,400
Speaker 2: what's your outro? Jordan take us Home? Well.

2344
02:08:53,440 --> 02:08:55,880
Speaker 1: Regardless of his musical merits, We Are the World helped

2345
02:08:55,920 --> 02:08:59,120
Speaker 1: create an environment where musicians fell responsibility to take a

2346
02:08:59,200 --> 02:09:04,040
Speaker 1: stand for humanitarian concerns, and as insufferable as that can

2347
02:09:04,080 --> 02:09:06,960
Speaker 1: sometimes be, I would argue that that's a very good thing.

2348
02:09:07,640 --> 02:09:09,560
Speaker 1: And the song also went a long way towards putting

2349
02:09:09,560 --> 02:09:13,360
Speaker 1: the tragedies of Africa in the international spotlight, which is important.

2350
02:09:13,840 --> 02:09:16,920
Speaker 1: The song remains a career highlight for all involved. Quincy

2351
02:09:17,000 --> 02:09:19,760
Speaker 1: Jones recalled on a twenty fifteen USA to Day interview,

2352
02:09:20,000 --> 02:09:22,680
Speaker 1: I don't think that night, that experience will ever truly

2353
02:09:22,720 --> 02:09:25,760
Speaker 1: be duplicated again. I know and believe in the power

2354
02:09:25,800 --> 02:09:28,680
Speaker 1: of music to bring people together for the betterment of mankind,

2355
02:09:29,080 --> 02:09:31,120
Speaker 1: and there may be no better example of this than

2356
02:09:31,160 --> 02:09:34,480
Speaker 1: the collective that was We Are the World. And speaking

2357
02:09:34,480 --> 02:09:36,880
Speaker 1: of that once in a lifetime recording session, Lionel Richie

2358
02:09:36,920 --> 02:09:39,680
Speaker 1: told Esquire, we came in like little kids on their

2359
02:09:39,680 --> 02:09:41,800
Speaker 1: first day of kindergarten, and we were all kind of

2360
02:09:41,800 --> 02:09:44,280
Speaker 1: looking at each other. Everybody was kind of freaked out,

2361
02:09:44,360 --> 02:09:46,720
Speaker 1: standing next to each other for a brief moment, and

2362
02:09:46,760 --> 02:09:48,600
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden we realized it's.

2363
02:09:48,480 --> 02:09:49,480
Speaker 2: Not about us.

2364
02:09:49,840 --> 02:09:52,720
Speaker 1: We're actually using our voice and our celebrity to save

2365
02:09:52,840 --> 02:09:55,640
Speaker 1: some people, and it's about us giving everything we have

2366
02:09:55,760 --> 02:09:58,840
Speaker 1: to save their lives. So I think the brilliance of

2367
02:09:58,880 --> 02:10:02,000
Speaker 1: that evening was started out as forty five artists looking

2368
02:10:02,000 --> 02:10:04,919
Speaker 1: at each other and going, yeah, I'm famous and you're famous,

2369
02:10:05,480 --> 02:10:06,879
Speaker 1: and we left as a family.

2370
02:10:09,640 --> 02:10:13,720
Speaker 2: Did they truly give everything they had? Or did they

2371
02:10:13,720 --> 02:10:21,480
Speaker 2: give a night and their sea game for a decently

2372
02:10:21,520 --> 02:10:28,760
Speaker 2: catered buffet? Lionel answer the question. Lionel asked if he

2373
02:10:28,800 --> 02:10:30,280
Speaker 2: would write another Week of the World.

2374
02:10:30,320 --> 02:10:33,080
Speaker 1: Lionel Richie said it wasn't necessary because the lyrics to

2375
02:10:33,120 --> 02:10:36,080
Speaker 1: the song are still relevant today. He said, you don't

2376
02:10:36,080 --> 02:10:38,440
Speaker 1: need any new words. What we were trying to say

2377
02:10:38,480 --> 02:10:40,760
Speaker 1: back then was let's take care of our brothers and

2378
02:10:40,800 --> 02:10:44,640
Speaker 1: sisters over there, because one day it might just happen

2379
02:10:44,760 --> 02:10:48,520
Speaker 1: over here. And I think that's an appropriate level of

2380
02:10:48,520 --> 02:10:52,600
Speaker 1: egotism and wide eyed idealism to sum up the whole affair.

2381
02:10:54,240 --> 02:10:57,520
Speaker 2: What do you think, Kyle, I just can't get Michael

2382
02:10:57,600 --> 02:11:02,720
Speaker 2: Jackson feeding Emmanuel Webster grapes out of my hand. Emmanuel

2383
02:11:02,760 --> 02:11:08,000
Speaker 2: Lewis character you played his Webster white grapes, red grapes?

2384
02:11:08,840 --> 02:11:12,920
Speaker 2: Would it have been better if they were raisins? Worse smaller?

2385
02:11:13,040 --> 02:11:14,800
Speaker 1: I have to get his fingers closer to his mouth.

2386
02:11:14,880 --> 02:11:23,560
Speaker 2: Oh well, folks, well, I think I'm Willie Nelson coming

2387
02:11:23,640 --> 02:11:25,440
Speaker 2: up to the microphone a half beat early in this,

2388
02:11:25,560 --> 02:11:31,160
Speaker 2: and you're diale Warwick, gracefully holding up my script. This

2389
02:11:31,280 --> 02:11:35,480
Speaker 2: has been too much information. Approximately a third of this

2390
02:11:35,520 --> 02:11:40,160
Speaker 2: will make it to air. Thank you for listening. If

2391
02:11:40,200 --> 02:11:43,560
Speaker 2: you want to hear the offensive outtakes, and consign a

2392
02:11:43,560 --> 02:11:52,560
Speaker 2: waiver benmost five bucks, which will donate to ourselves. Thanks

2393
02:11:52,560 --> 02:11:55,400
Speaker 2: for listening, Malex Eigel.

2394
02:11:55,080 --> 02:11:58,000
Speaker 1: And I'm Jordan run Tug. We'll catch you next time.

2395
02:12:03,080 --> 02:12:06,280
Speaker 1: Too Much Information was a production of iHeartRadio. The show's

2396
02:12:06,280 --> 02:12:09,640
Speaker 1: executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan Runtogg. The show's

2397
02:12:09,640 --> 02:12:12,040
Speaker 1: supervising producer is Michael Alder June.

2398
02:12:12,400 --> 02:12:15,480
Speaker 2: The show was researched, written and hosted by Jordan Runtgg

2399
02:12:15,520 --> 02:12:16,640
Speaker 2: and Alex Heigel.

2400
02:12:16,440 --> 02:12:19,640
Speaker 1: With original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Punk Orchestra.

2401
02:12:20,040 --> 02:12:22,080
Speaker 2: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave

2402
02:12:22,160 --> 02:12:22,640
Speaker 2: us a review.

2403
02:12:22,840 --> 02:12:27,200
Speaker 1: For more podcasts and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts,

2404
02:12:27,400 --> 02:12:33,120
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.