We Are The World

“We Are The World” has always held a special place in my heart. As a young music geek, the original 1985 version of this song was a sampling of who was relevant and important at that time. Some of those artists who participated in the original like Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan continue to produce important music however many participants like James Ingram, LaToya Jackson and Peter Cetera are not known now to most people.



This song written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by one of the greatest producers of all time Quincy Jones never claimed to feature all of the greatest artists of the time. There are many people that you can point to at the time who were absent like Neil Diamond, Madonna, Johnny Cash, who were relevant back then and whose influence is still felt right now. And of course there were no British guys, I know it was “USA for Africa” but c’mon where was Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney?

“We Are The World” featured incredible “dream team” duets like Billy Joel and Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick and Willie Nelson and Springsteen trading ad libs in the end with Stevie Wonder still gives me chills.

This song was a huge success, was a top selling single and a cultural phenomenon. And now twenty-five years later “We Are The World” is back. Lionel Ritchie, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones had considered remaking “We Are The World many times but the tragedy in Haiti provided the greatest reason to make this remake happen.

Ritchie and Jones decided first off that they would get a whole new crop of artist, people who participated in the original were not going to be in the cover except for Ritchie himself and Michael Jackson. As news of this remake broke there was a lot of skepticism in the news. Arap verse was going to be added, artist which many see as not “legit” like the Jonas Brothers were spotting walking into the recording studio and for some reason Lil-Wayne and T-Pain being asked to sing.

And this is what they came up with:


Love it or hate it, this cover of “We Are The World” is very much a spiritual child from the original. There are some legends like Tony Bennett, Barbara Streisand and LL Cool J as well as teen idols lot like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. Before you go crazy about how theses people shouldn’t be there keep in mind in the original recording, Cyndi Lauper, Springsteen and Huey Louis were more teen idols than anything else.

There are some beautiful moments Josh Groban's classical touch. Tony Benntt is a gentle elder statesman and Mary J. Blige proves that she really is one of the greatest soul singers of her time. Michael and Janet. . . there’s really not words. Wyclef singing for his own people is inspired and Usher singing the bridge with Michael his hero is a fitting tribute. Jamie Foxx doing his best Ray Charles was a fun and I’ll even give Celine Dion props, Fergie on the other hand well. . . whatever.

As much as you may not like Lil’ Wayne, T-Pain and this whole auto-tune thing, it is an important and relevant way that people express themselves through music and featuring it in this song is putting this sound in a times capsule so that people understood that it's part of music. “I’m On A Boat” is good stuff people.

The rap section led by living hip-hop legend, LL Cool J with Will.i.am, Snood Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West and many others. They wisely to chose to make this section most chant like and focused on the clarity of the rhymes and lyrics as opposed to rapid fire delivery. It’s a declaration of values and solidarity that proves that the art of rap isn’t tied down to the themes of drugs and gangster life.

Quincy Jones opened up the song creating a more dynamic background. The ending in brilliant having the instrumentals drop out and letting Wyclef’s voice echo out. This song rejuvenates the original but there is a rejuvenated dynamic which reflects how much pop music has changed in the past twenty-five years. What remains the same is also what continues to make the pop music relevant: great melodies, powerful messages and beautiful voices.

I don’t what it is about Michael Jackson. His death still feels unresolved for me. Seeing him featured prominently in this new version makes me happy but also a little sad. I don’t think he’s a martyr. I’ve acknowledged the darkness in this life but there were great things that he provided this culture and “We Are The World” is one of them.



The demo of “We Are The World” revels the soul of this song which really is Michael’s view of the world. His intentions musically truly were something amazing. It’s an amazing thing how the 1985 version captured this spirit and I’m glad to see it carried on 25 years later.

Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin

Not all lyrics are created equal.

Some lyrics are trite and are just there to serve the melody, other times lyrics play an equal importance in the song and with artist like Bob Dylan, the lyrics are the most important expressive and artistic aspect of a song.

Regardless of the level of the lyrical artistry, I like knowing the lyrics and what they are about. Often when I’m talking to friends and they a mention and I casually mention what they lyrics are about they are often shocked especially when the lyrics seems to say express something different then the words. One of the most striking examples of this is “Mack The Knife” from The Threepenny Opera

Between World War I and World War II, life for Germans was so bad that all artist could do was make jokes about life’s misfortune. This type of “black humor” was the only way people could cope with life. Two of the most important artists of this time in Germany who used dark humor to comment on life were the composer Kurt Weill and the playwright Bertolt Brecht. In 1928, these two legendary artist combined forces to compose the musical The Threepenny Opera.

The Threepenny Opera is the story of Macheath. He falls in love with a girl named Polly and wants to marry her against her father’s wishes. The father, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, who controls the beggars in London, successfully gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to death. Luckily Macheath is pardoned right before he is executed. Our hero is released and we are made to feel happy that Macheath has escaped such an unjust and cruel fate.

Before this story begins, we are told about this person, our hero, Macheath, otherwise known as “Mack the Knife.” The musical opens with a “moritat” a story of murder performed strolling musician. The moritat singer bookends the show singing about hos exploits.

Macheath is bad man even though it’s not clear what exactly he has done. The police have arrested him numerous times for crimes but Macheath always gets released because he served in the military with the Chief of Police. Even though Macheath has done some horrible things, we cheer him on in this story as he fights for his love and freedom, with the warnings of “Mack the Knife” echoing in our memory.

What people originally heard was not a big band arrangement with a swinging jazz vocalist out front, instead they heard this:



This recording of Brecht singing “Mack the Knife” in German is kind of creepy isn’t it? Listening to this song feels like I’m wearing a shirt that doesn’t quite fit right but I just can’t get it off. . ick.

That’s the original “Mack the Knife.” It’s eerie and just a tad disturbing. It’s like someone telling a group of people a joke about a girl being raped and laughing at his own joke while everyone else in the room is just sickened.

When Bobby Darin told his management that he wanted to record “Mack the Knife,” after he had just scored with the hits “Splish Splah” and “Dream Lover,” they argued against it. Darin recorded it anyways and it became his biggest hit. Many people recorded this song after Darin brought it into our cultural consciousness. My personal favorite is this Robbie William’s cover.



The song opens talking about a shark as a metaphor for Macheath. The “scarlet billows” is blood flowing while Macheath’s fancy gloves never show “a trace of red.” The next verse talks about a body “oozing life” as the singer wonders if he just saw Macheath around the corner. The singers takes us down by the river, where a cement bag is weighing someone down to the bottom of the river which the singers sees as a sign that Macheath is back in town. The last part of the song lists off people who Macheath killed. It’s kind of odd how this is the part of the song when it kicks into a joyful shout chorus.

I’ve always loved “Mack the Knife” but ever since I found out the history behind the song and what the lyrics are about, I feel a little guilty enjoying hearing about this sadistic man, Macheath. The thing is, I like the song even more knowing what it’s about, and the feeling that I shouldn’t is what makes it all the more fun.

Mr. Bojangles by Sammy Davis Jr.

“Mr. Bojangles” live performance

I love talking to older people about music, people in their 60s and up. I find it interesting to hear about how they experience music what it meant to them when they were younger and what it means to them now. Usually when the topic of current music comes up, I hear a lot of complaining about the way the music sounds and the musicians themselves. This rant often concludes with: “music was real in my day, and music is just noise right now and the musicians are not as talented as they used to be.”

For the most part, I disagree respectfully and cite music and artists who are producing music now who I feel are at the same level of the music that the love. However, once in a while someone will talk about an artist like Sammy Davis Jr. and talk about how there simply isn’t any artists around now who are as great an entertainer as he was, and part of me agrees.

Sammy Davis Jr. could do it all. He was a fantastic actor, a genius at impressions, a virtuosic tap dancer, a great singer and if that wasn’t enough he was also an unbelievable fast draw artist. I guess it helped that his father was in show business and Sammy started going on tour with his dad’s vaudeville act when he was three years old and started performing soon after.

Davis’ biggest musical hit was “Candy Man” from the film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. This is a fun songs but what many people think of when they reminisce about Davis is a song that is closer not only to his own heart but his life experience “Mr. Bojangles.”

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson one of the most important song and dance men of the 1930s and 1940s. He is most famous for appearing with Shirley Temple movies like The Little Colonel. He was an amazing pop culture personality who revolutionized dancing and the way that Americans viewed African Americans in popular culture. However, the song “Mr. Bojangles” is not about the famous actor and dancer.

Jerry Walker composed “Mr. Bojangles” in 1968 after encountering an incarcerated street performer in a New Orleans Jail. After a murder in 1965, the police arrested all of the people in the area and Walker was put in a crowded cell where he met an old man who began telling him stories about his life. Others who became annoyed at his stories asked him to lighten up the mood, so the old man began to tap dance. The policeman had given nicknames to the people in the cell to help identify them and after the dancing display, this old man got the nickname “Mr. Bojangles.”

The lyrics in "Mr. Bojangles" are straightforward describing the man, and meeting him in New Orleans. This man started out his life dancing in minstrel shows and now dances in honky tonks spending most of his time in jail. The one glory, the light in this mans existence is his dancing. The narrator marvels how “he jumped so high, then he lightly touched down” and effortlessly clicked his heels.

The chorus beckons “Mr. Bojangles” to dance. This request comes as the other cell mates who are bored but reaches another level throughout the song. By performing we see an old drunk, tired man come to life and by asking him to dance, it is rejuvenating Mr. Bojangles himself reminding him of his own glory days.

Sammy Davis Jr. started out doing minstrel shows and had his share of struggles. There was his drugs addiction, family issues, and racism, which he fought against his entire life. For example performing in the Las Vegas with the Rat Pack, he couldn’t stay in the hotels that he was performing in and didn’t have a dressing room. He was forced wait in-between acts by the pool poolside while his friends would be backstage.

When we hear Davis sing “Mr. Bojangles” it’s almost like he is singing about himself. There is deep sense of authenticity in his singing that comes only from a life lived on the stage and the road.

Watching Sammy Davis Jr. perform “Mr. Bojangles,” is an amazing experience. Yes, first off you need to get over the brown jump suit that is just a little bit too tight (it was the 1970s people, let’s move on). Everything he does is effortless and seems completely natural. However, all that he does including the way he colors each note, the way he stands, the exact motion that he flips the hat on his head is calculated and rehearsed. All of this contributes results in an organic and beautiful performance.

My favorite part of the performance is when Davis clicks his heels (around 2 minutes) with a graceful leap in the air that seems to come out of nowhere. What makes this moment even more amazing is how right after the leap he starts singing as if the leap was nothing.

When Davis asks at the end of the song “why can’t you come back and dance?” I find myself wanting to ask Sammy Davis Jr. himself that question. I know the answer, but still can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to see him jump so high and lightly touch down.

Love Child by the Supremes

I took a sociology class my freshmen year at Northwestern University. One of the books I read for this class was Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier. This book documented the life of homeless people in New York City and explained how they handled different aspects in their life like how they made money found food. One aspect that I never thought about was their romantic life. I just assumed that homeless people didn’t have boyfriends or husbands. I didn’t really think that someone who get their food from a trash could have a sex life, but they do.

Duneier discuss where homeless people find places to be romantic, make love and how these relationships in many way are not that different than the relationships of those of us who are fortunate enough to live comfortably. However, like most things for people who are in poverty, romance and sex is more challenging and in some ways is not as enjoyable.

Everything from fancy dinners, sexy underwear and romantic vacations all contribute to people’s enjoyment of each other. One of the less apparent advantages but important ones is birth control. Whether it’s condoms or pills, these things all cost money. If those things fail, people of means have much more resources and options when it comes to abortions and putting children up for adoption. The lack of options of people in poverty and the fear of an unwanted baby drives the narrator in “Love Child.”

I always found “Love Child” to be one of the most intriguing songs that the Supremes recorded. The Supremes set the standard for what it meant to be a girl group. Motown built up the Supremes with an image of high-class elegance singing some of the best crated pop songs in music history. Most of the songs are relatively light in their subject matter, contemplating idealized romantic love through a variety of situations.

After two failed singles, Berry Gordy the owner of Motown records got a group of songwriters called The Clan to work on a new hit single for the Supremes. What they created was not a song about romantic love but a song about a woman trying to explain to her boyfriend why she doesn’t want to have sex with him. Can you imagine pitching this song idea to a pop radio station? The subject doesn’t sound like something that most people would want to listen to but “Love Child” holds as the Supremes best selling single, outselling all of their other 45 releases. It was so successful it knocked off The Beatles’ enormous hit “He Jude” off the number one spot on the pop charts.

Diana Ross, the lead singer of the Supremes takes on the roll of a woman who was born a “love child.” This is another term for a child born to unwed parents. Her mother was poor and Diana’s character grew up in a tenement slum. She describe is the first verse how she never knew her father and that she carries the guilt from her mother about the fact that she has no name. In the second verse Diana, describe starting school in a second hand dress. There is pain in not having the things that her friends had but what is even more painful is the guilt that she carries.

This first hand experience as a “love child” motivates Diana’s character to try to convince her boyfriend to hold off making love because the possibility of creating a “love child” that they will both end up hating this child. Diana’s character asserts that if she has a illegitimate child that it will carry the same shame and guilt that she carries.

There are attitudes in our society about children born out of wedlock, but I wonder if the level of shame and guilt that Diana’s character experiences comes more from her mother than society. Diana’s character herself feels ashamed of her own existence and this is one of the most shocking things about this song. She talks about a “love child” as being “never meant to be” and if there is any doubt that she is referring to herself, she sings in the end of the first chorus “take a look at me.”

“Love Child” ends with a declaration of love. In an earlier section she explains to her boyfriend that she wants to please him and that she needs him which is followed by talking about a the love child they may create. So when Diana starts signing “I’ll always love you,” my initial thought was that she was singing to her boyfriend. In declaring that she loves him, maybe she is attempting to assuage his advances by expressing a level of commitment that would make up for not making love. The more I listen to this song, the more I think that she’s probably not singing to him, but to herself and to her child.

As Diana sings “I will always love you” it sounds more like a desperate cry than a declaration of romantic love. After telling herself and her future child how much she thinks they are both mistakes, she realizes how wrong she is and tries to convince them otherwise. Was she being so negative as a reflection of how she truly feels or in an effort to convince her boyfriend not to force her to have sex? Either way by the end of the song, with the back-up singers reminding us that the being a “love child” is on her mind, she sings about love, apologizing to herself and her future child.

Diana Ross stretches her dramatic abilities as a singer in “Love Child.” In earlier songs written for the Supremes, Diana’s thin, gentle and conversational voice worked in those songs. She doesn’t have a large range, or a great degree of variety in her tone but “Love Child” she approaches a level of rawness, expressing an internal struggle as she pushes her voice creating a level of intensity that drives the song as much as background instruments.

The Andantes, Motown’s session singers sang on this record instead of the Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, the other two members of the Supremes. The Andantes begin the song singing on “oo” while softly rising. Then right before Diana enters they sing a high tense “ah” that comes across like a woman screaming. This happens a couple times during the song expressing the turmoil in the main character’s mind and makes it clear to the listener that there is a level of pain to be dealt with in this song.

Sometimes I wonder, what is the point of a song like “Love Child.” It’s not especially happy and it doesn’t put me in a great mood to listen to it. I’m sure some people who feel like Diana Ross’ character can relate to it, but I don’t really relate to most of this song. Is this song suppose to make me feel bad about poor people motivating me to go help them? I don’t think so, and that’s one reason why I like this song. It’s not preachy but instead it’s an interesting examination of a human conflict. These kinds of stories come from all different place, sometimes it’s from Green Bow, Alabama with a guy names Forrest and other times it comes from a tenement slum. What great stories do is help us know another person for a moment and in that experience we feel things that we don’t normally do, and get perspective on our lives.

It’s important that we are aware of the struggles of others, not so that we can feel guilty all of the time and spend our lives doing charity work. We all should work to help others but people’s choices about charity are their own prerogative. However, it is essential that we are aware of struggles like the one in “Love Child” because it is through understanding each struggle that we realize that there is no individual experience but only a shared humanity that binds us, challenges us and brings us closer to each other and ourselves.

In the Ghetto by Elvis Presley & Lisa Marie Presley

“In the Ghetto” live performance
“In the Ghetto” original studio recording

The cold is heartless. As the wind chills us, the cold creeps into our hearts with feelings of despair, loneliness and sadness. When I face the cold, I’m in my car, not walking to a bus stop. My North Face coat keep the warmth close to my body as opposed to a coat taken from a donation box that through seasons of use has lots its effectiveness to keep out the stings of wind. I have a hot mug of tea and a lunchbox full of food while others are not sure when there next meal will be. In a way I’ve never been cold.

“In The Ghetto” is a story about what it means to feel cold. On a snowing, cold and gray Chicago morning a baby child is born. For those of you who have never lived in Chicago winter mornings can reach below 0 degrees Fahrenheit and in the depth of winter, mornings can not only be grey but black as the sun takes it’s time it to rise. This is the setting for a tragedy though fictional speaks truths about struggles and lives of those less fortunate.

When Elvis Presley recorded this song in 1969, it had been four years since his last Top 10 hit. Spending his time making mediocre films had made Elvis irrelevant in the music world. It wasn’t until his television comeback special in 1968 that Elvis reminded America that he was one of the most influential musicians in American culture. He followed this special up by jumping back in the studio. He recorded in Memphis, Tennessee and during intense midnight sessions he recorded some of the greatest work in his career including “Suspicious Minds” and “In The Ghetto.”

Elvis revolutionized music with his sexually charged performances and a voice that was a unique amalgamation of country, gospel, soul and pop. His early recordings captured his unbridled expression, which seemed to evaporate as his career progressed

“In The Ghetto” was a return to greatness. The opening guitar arpeggio, the subtle horn colors, the lush strings and the soulful back-up singers worked together to created an indescribable feeling of harmony. I’m not talking about harmony in the musical sense, but rather the feeling that you get when you are in a group of people and everyone is working together, for the same reasons, to reach the same goal. In this song, the many different elements, the many different people working together combine so well that instead of hearing each individual musician, you feel what they are expressing.

The song tells the story of a child’s life. He is born to a single mother who’s first thought after he is born is not of love but of regret as she thinks of him as another mouth to feed. The child grows up on the cold streets and gets the best education that is available to him. The school is his streets, the teachers are neighborhood boys, and their curriculum is fighting and stealing. His motivation is not grades but rather hunger, that like the cold gnaws away not only at the body but also the soul. One day he tries to steal a car and the police catch him and dies. His mother weep is at the side of her dying boy as she dies what in another part of the ghetto, another boy is being born.

This song was originally title “The Vicious Cycle” and this song posits that the story of this boy is destined to repeat. As much as people do break out of the cycle and move out of the ghetto, many more people never do rise above the economic hardship they are born into. I’m not here to debate why people are stuck in the ghetto and what we as a society should do about it but I believe we all can agree there is a cycle in which it is nigh-impossible for people born in the ghetto to get out.

People make bad choices and often pay for them. For example, someone may break a law and then lose their job, go to jail and then when they get out, the only place they can afford to live is the ghetto. On some level, we can blame that person for their situation. However, a child born in the ghetto didn’t choose to be born there. “In the Ghetto” asks us if we see that this boy needs help because the song argues that if he doesn’t get it he will grow up bitter and angry. Then the songs asks, “Are we too blind to see or do we simply turn our heads and look the other way?”

Honestly, most of the time, I simply turn my head.

I don’t always know what to do with that. I like to think that I do all I can to help those in need, but I don’t really. Often, we tell ourselves that people don’t deserve our help because their misfortune is their fault, but who are we to judge?

I believe we can do better. I don’t know if it’s through our government or private organizations but there’s no reason why the richest country in the world can’t make sure all of it’s children have enough food to eat and shelter from the cold. Just because we don’t necessarily have answers, doesn’t mean we should stop asking questions.

In 2008, Lisa Marie Presley had one answer. Elvis Presley’s only child recorded over Elvis’s original recording to create a duet and donated all of its proceeds to charity. Natalie Cole was the first musician to do this singing “Unforgettable” with her dad Nat King Cole. Since then, many artist have sung duets with musicians who have passed on and most of the time I find that these works in overdubbing and editing do not add anything real or substantial to the original recording. However, there’s something different with Lisa Marie.

When Elvis died at the age of 43, Lisa Marie was 9 years old. The whole world got to know her dad, but she barely did. Even though Lisa Marie has not made a significant impact on the music world she is the strongest tie we have to Elvis and she continuously works, despite the behavior that the tabloids often report, to honor her father and help his estate do charity work.

Elvis’ deep baritone perfectly matches Lisa Marie’s rich alto voice. Though they are similar, Lisa Marie has a slight edge and yearning that compliments the solemn and soulful delivery of her father. Elvis was taken from Lisa Marie like “In the Ghetto” describes the son being taken from his mother. Alone, Elvis expresses the tragedy of this loss. However, with Lisa Marie “In the Ghetto” becomes a celebration of what people can create beyond circumstance, beyond death and beyond life in the ghetto.