Sunday, July 13, 2003

READY TO FEEL OLD? Live Aid was eighteen years ago today. Eighteen years since Madonna said "I'm ain't taking shit off today" (in the wake of the Penthouse photos), eighteen years since Bob Dylan was completely stoned during the US finale, eighteen years since we thought it was really cool for Phil Collins to play two concerts in two continents in one day (while US stars Michael Jackson, Prince and Bruce Springsteen played none), eighteen years since Billy Ocean was followed by a reunited-with-Ozzy Black Sabbath, eighteen years since Hall and Oates played with the Temptations' David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks before serving as Mick Jagger's backup band for his striptease performance with Tina Turner, and eighteen years since Queen and U2 blew my mind with their performance of "Radio Ga Ga" and "Bad", respectively.

But the most memorable moment of the day, as British folksinger John Wesley Harding reminds us, was probably its most notable failure:
The music was fucking brilliant
And that Madonna she sure can move
By the time Paul McCartney's microphone [shouts away from the microphone] had failed
Yeah, we are all well into the Live Aid groove

Paul McCartney, he sang . . . [strums 'Let It Be' on guitar, mouthing the words to the song]
Which must have been a bit of an irony
Because if you 'Let it Be' nothing will ever improve

Want to know why Springsteen wasn't there? Blame Julianne Phillips.

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