You know how sometimes a song will have a great tune and a great beat, but when you listen to the lyrics you’re kind of repulsed? For me one great example of this is the first of the 1980s pop music charity hits, “Do They Know It’s Christmastime”, by “Band-Aid”, a super-group made up of a whole lot of big names at the time. The song is basically asking if the starving Africans have any idea that it’s even Christmastime, so awful has their lot become. I’m always thinking, “Why wouldn’t they? They have calendars. Just because they’re dealing with a lot of shit doesn’t mean they don’t know what the date is.” And besides, there are a lot of Christians in Africa too. The whole song always bugs me (and not just for Bono’s lyric, “Well tonight thank God it’s them, instead of you!” Yikes.)
Anyway, yes, they know it’s Christmastime in Africa. Here’s some musical evidence.
