The Making of Band Aid: Secrets and Stories From the Star-Studded Session
“Do They Know It‘s Christmas?” began life as a rejected Boomtown Rats tune.
Midge Ure: Bob turned up at my place with a guitar that looked as though he’d found it in a dump. It had hardly any strings on it. He started singing me this thing – it was obvious he was making it up as he went along. He sounded like a demented Bob Dylan. There was no melody, no structure and every time he sang it, it sounded different. He presented me the idea for the lyrics, the “It’s Christmastime, there’s no need to be afraid.” My main contribution was changing “And there won’t be snow in Ethiopia this Christmas,” which doesn’t scan in anybody’s book. We changed that to “Africa,” and we wrote the middle section together: “Here’s to you, raise a glass for everyone,” which is the nod to the irony of [it being a] Christmas record.
Simon Le Bon thought “Do They Know It‘s Christmas?” was going to be a duet between him and Sting.
Simon Le Bon: I was the first one Bob called. He called out of the blue and said, “Simon, did you see the [BBC report on the Ethiopian famine] last night? We’ve got to do something.” I didn’t see the program. He told me what it was about, and he said, “I have an idea. We should make a charity record. What do you think?” I said, “Yes, mate. Absolutely.” But it wasn’t sold to me as, “This is going to be a whole pile of musical legends”; it was, “You and Sting do it.” I thought I was going to get half the song. I was a bit pissed off, because when I walked into [Sarm Studios] they’re already recording somebody else singing one of my lines! That took a while to sort of get my head around.
Sting didn‘t want to sing the lyric, “the bitter sting of tears.“
Bob Geldof: Sting was moaning, “Do I have to sing that?” I said, “Yes, because it’s just a coincidence that the word sting is in it.” If you listen to the song, there’s a deep bitterness in Sting’s voice.
Sting: There’s a touch of irony there. When we had to dole out the lines to everyone else, it wasn’t an accident. I was still the King of Pain after all.
Bono didn‘t want to sing his line – “Tonight thank God it‘s them instead of you” – either.
Ure: Bono had a problem with it. He said, “Why would you say that?” That can be perceived as a brutal, unfeeling line.
Geldof: He said, “Are you really sure that’s what you want to say?” And I said, “I’m really sure.” I went through it with him rather like a director goes through a line that the actor may not be happy with.
Ure: But we’re not saying, “Rather them than us.” We’re saying how lucky we are that we don’t have to deal with that kind of extreme poverty. [After] Bob explained, Bono got it, and turned it into this magical moment on the record.
Geldof: He just has a profound rage. If you listen to the way the emotion of the song scales up, that’s the big powerful explosion. That became a phenomenon, which none of us expected.
Ure: I think he probably scared himself when he did it. He jumped way up an octave, and it was just astonishing – the sound that this little guy could radiate! It was like standing next to an opera singer. He did it twice but I think we kept the first.
JT Taylor (Kool and the Gang): I hated that line. All these years, I thought I was the only only person who felt that. For me, it was the worst line in the whole song.
Band Aid taught Bono “how to care.”
Ure: The Band Aid process changed him quite considerably. I saw a U2 concert three, four years ago, and they stopped the concert in the middle and said, “In the audience tonight…” And the spotlight came on me. Bono said, “Him and Bob taught me how to care.”