Re: Worst song lyrics ever
I always cringe when I hear Do They Know It's Christmas on the radio during the holidays.
The song's alright, I think. I think a lot of the song is just addressing to western audiences how lucky they are, how grateful they should be.
And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time
Perhaps it's not snowing because December is in the middle of summer there.
Well... yeah? I mean while it is obvious they're not wrong? I should know, I'm from New Zealand where Christmas time is during the summer for us.
The song's target audience seems to primarily be a Western audience who experience snowfall during Christmas, and thus they often identify Christmas with snow, so the visual image of a lack of snow maybe helps emphasise how "un-Christmas" it is to them. I've seen comments online from Americans/British people saying it's weird to see places like Australia and NZ have super hot summers on Christmas day, simply they're so used it to be freezing cold and snowy.
Also bit of a fun fact, while it happened 29 years later, snow did actually briefly fall in Cairo less than two weeks before Christmas 2013.
Where nothing ever grows, No rain nor rivers flow
Yes, Africa has rain and rivers.
Oh yeah I get where you're coming from on this point because the continent of Africa isn't just some barren, deserted wasteland and it's not fair to represent it all as such.
However, wasn't this song written for and during a huge famine? Therefore being a famine, many riverbeds are drying up, there's no rainfall and therefore many crops are failing to grow? I mean, if that's the case then the lyrics fit....?
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?
Yes, Africans know what Christmas is considering half the continent is Christian.
I don't think that's what they mean by that. I'm sure a good number are literally aware that it's Christmas time, but compare the situation between your normal British family and the average African family who is suffering due to the famine at the time of writing.
The British family is getting along fine financially, they have the day off to spend with their family, all cosy'd up in their insulated home as they eat special hot roasts and share presents with each other. The many African families who are struggling to grow anything? On Christmas day for them, they're going to keep going about their normal day to day life to survive because they don't have all the luxuries that many of the Western audiences listening will have. They're barely struggling to feed themselves, let alone have the finances to buy and share gifts for one another along, along with many of the other privileges those well off will have.
With so many of them barely struggling to survive, they're going to just go about their day as normal to make ends meet so that begs the question that is being asked. Maybe they do know it's Christmas time, maybe they don't... but they're not getting to celebrate what it's all about given their day to day struggles that many of the Western listeners are so fortunate to not be exposed to.
That's how I've always interpreted it.
And wtf is with the "thank God it's them instead of you", who says that in a charity song?
It's a dark line for sure and I don't think it should've made the final version (the line was replaced in a recent remake actually), but I think it really just means that you should be grateful that it's not you who is suffering at the moment, to not forget how privileged you are etc.
The lyrics are flawed and they definitely could've been written better, but at least these super huge musicians actually came together for free to try and do the right thing. Their hearts were in the right place.
