I feel guilty bagging on “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” After all, proceeds from the song will help fight the Ebola epidemic, and according to Bob Geldof, “For 30 years, we’ve been boring people to death about the great inequalities of the world, whereby 50% still live on two dollars a day. That’s disgraceful…And what they were dying of in 1984 was of course hunger, but they died essentially because they were poor. We know we can contain Ebola; we have the doctors, the nurses, medicines and state systems. We have money. They’re dying again because they are extremely poor. That is radically unacceptable.” That’s very true and it’s a wonderful cause…but do yourself a favor and send money to those in need without listening to the actual song.
Though you probably could have guessed as much by the talent assembled: Bono, Ellie Goulding, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Underworld, Sinead O’Connor, Bastille, and Elbow. So…yeah. It’s a shame that this is the fourth version of the song, and the second and third came out in 1989 and 2004. Feels like Geldof really missed something by not recording “Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1994)” ft. Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, Veruca Salt, Counting Crows, Mazzy Star, Danzig, and Bono, of course. I’d listen to that.
