...here's something significant.
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by PAM
After speaking in my recent post here about how Duran Duran and their contemporaries in the second 'British Invasion' dominated the beginning of the MTV era in the '80s, I got reminded of the iconic collaboration between one of the best guitarists the world has ever seen, Mark Knopfler, and his famous band, Dire Straits, and the one and only legend himself, Sting. Their song is called, "Money for Nothing"... which started with Sting filling the airwaves with his peculiar voice declaring how he wants his MTV. And the very best time they shared the stage to perform their iconic song is at the historic Live Aid concert on 13 July 1985 in front of 72,000 people at the Wembley Stadium in London while 100,000 more watched them live via satellite from the other venue of Live Aid, at the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, PA. It was watched all over the globe via satellite... and it dropped on our TV set in the Philippines, too. And what an amazing experience it was!
"Listen here, now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it. You play the guitar on the MTV. That ain't workin' that's the way you do it. Money for nothin' and your chicks for free."
The Live Aid concert was the coming together of the greatest music artists of the '80s across the Atlantic, organized by Sir Bob Geldof of the Irish band, Boomtown Rats, of the "I don't like Mondays" fame, and the Scottish musician, Midge Ure of Ultravox, to raise funds for and awareness of the famine in Ethiopia, Africa. It started with the gathering of the frontrunners in the 'British Invasion 2' as a 'charity supergroup' called, Band Aid, to record the song, "Do they know it's Christmas?" (DTKIC) in 1984. I remember, I was freshman in College. I stepped out of my classroom one December morning to listen to it when it was played for the first time on radio... because I knew it was history unfolding.
One of the very best performances at Live Aid happened in Wembley Stadium. It was that of Queen with their larger-than-life late frontman, Freddie Mercury, showing why they are one of the very best music legends of all time. And, of course, the genius guitar player that is Sir Brian May showed up, too, as well as their painfully awesome drummer, Roger Taylor, and their great bass player, John Deacon, strutted his thing on stage, too.
"Mama, ohh, didn't mean to make you cry. If I'm not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters."
Ahh... didn't that make you feel nostalgic? And speaking of MTV and other music media that sort of pushed back that classic music medium that endured many generations: the good old radio, how does this make you feel...
"You had your time, you had the power, you've yet to have your finest hour. Radio, radio..."
Ahh... man, what I wouldn't do to go back to the '80s! Queen is too good, right? Right! Alright!
Of course, the great Irish band, U2, with their legend of a frontman, Bono, and their legend of a guitarist, The Edge, also made their mark in Wembley as they performed two of their greatest hits, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Bad".
"How long, how long must we sing this song? ...'cause tonight we can be as one..."
Powerful, isn't it? Then and now, U2 and U2 music are just so iconic... in so many ways. They are absolutely brilliant! I saw them in the Manila leg of their Joshua Tree World Tour... and I lost it, I wept!
Let me end with a song that was staple in the '80s, "Everytime you go away", by the owner of the voice who sang the first line in DTKIC, Paul Young. He just turned 68 yo... and he just got married for the second time, too.
Ah... there so many challenges in this world, but with great music such as these, it just makes our burden a bit lighter. Thank goodness for good music, and thank God for brilliant music artists!
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Video credit: All videos belong to Live Aid - thanks, YouTube, for the video links.
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