WEBVTT
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Welcome everybody. This is the one and only back to
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the Eighties Radio. This is Tuscano from the dynamic duo
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of Radio Tascano and Chang. If this is your first
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time finding the show, here's what we do. We talk
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about the eighties and we talk about music wherever you're
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listening to us from tonight, where you're in the car
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at home via headphones with the lights slow. I'm really
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glad that you found the show. Now, if you're new here, welcome,
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You picked a great evening. And if you've been with
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me before, well you already know how this goes. We're
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gonna slow it down just enough to let stories breathe,
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but we keep the energy moving because this is after all,
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steal Radio. So you can hear the show anytime you
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want at fmads dot com. That's Fmaighties dot com. You
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can write into the program as well at fmadsradio at
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gmail dot com. And if you're listening on a podcast app,
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understand this, You're only going to be listening to the
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beginning and the end of the songs because we only
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play the songs in their entirety for the first week,
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week and a half and then for copyright issues. We
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take them down. So make sure you're following the show,
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leave a review, a comment when you get a chance,
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wherever you listen to us, and that's how this show
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stays on the air and keeps growing. All Right, today,
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we're going to be going back to nineteen eighty five,
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when pop music stopped competing with itself and decided to
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do well, something bigger. You already know the song, you've
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heard it, and you've probably sung it many times. But
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what you may not know is how actually the song
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we're going to be talking about today came together, Who
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pushed it forward from the very beginning, and why for
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one night some of the biggest names in the music
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industry agreed to check their egos at the door. Now,
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this isn't going to be a countdown, and it's not
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a trivia night. This is the real story behind We
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Are the World. Let's set the era first. So here's
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Huey Lewis on the news and the Power of Love.
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You're listening to the one and only back to the
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eighties radio.
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A curious thing, another man.
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Up to a little white.
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Bonding and feeling. That's power love.
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After the diamonds, bricks like cream, strong and like a band,
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streaming like a band.
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Want your own right power.
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Love if you home in mind, you don't.
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Need money and you don't take fame, time need a
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credit card.
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Line in their strain, stand in sudden strong.
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Sometimes with my se your life.
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That's a powera love.
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It's a time, lovest time of feeding my mind saying
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next time feeding it in my man.
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You can't be can when found that's the problem, the
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worm out, don't tray many, don't take fame, don't need
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no credit card line in the stream, start in the sun,
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in the reading pool sometimes.
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But by al see no life.
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They say.
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Love, but you don't care. But when need of you
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and with a little U from you, feel the pi.
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You feel the proper love.
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Can you feel it?
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Don't take money, don't take side it, don't need no
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trying to.
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Come right there sat the nabs stalling.
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And steal to feel in field still.
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Steal the power. That's fun, that's power, steel the power.
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Right Friday, alright, Briday.
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Right party right time, right, we get.
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Quentin John if you're ready.
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All right, welcome back. That was Huey Lewis and the
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News and the Power of Love, a song that came
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out as a soundtrack for a movie you may have
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heard called Back to the Future. That sound really captures
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something about the mid eighties. It was a decade of confidence,
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I was sure it was, but there was also sincerity.
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It was.
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It was a decade that everyone believed that music could
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still do something and accomplish something. And that belief is
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exactly where we are tonight talking about a song called
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We Are the World, and that's where everything begins today.
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An idea that didn't start with a record label, and
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it didn't start with Michael Jackson, believe it or not,
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and it did not start as a song. It started
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with Harry Belafonte. Belafonte had been involved in humanitarian and
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civil rights work for decades, and by late eighty four
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he was watching the news coverage about the famine and Ethiopia,
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and if you went through the era, you'll remember exactly
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what I'm talking about. We saw the infomercials. It seemed
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like they would last hours, and we would watch the
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children cry and dead kids on the street, and it
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left a hole in your heart, the images that were
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just impossible to ignore. Well, at that same time, something
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important had just happened overseas in the UK, a group
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of British and Irish musicians released Do They Know It's
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Christmas as band aid Now. This song and video raised
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significant amount of money and focused global attention on the crisis. Well,
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Bellafonte saw that and asked a simple question, why isn't
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there an American version of this? Not as competition but
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as responsibility? And Bellefonte knew he couldn't do it alone,
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and he knew it had to feel real, so he
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reached out to Lionel Ritchie, who at the time was
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one of the biggest artists in the world, respected across pop,
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R and B and adult contemporary radio, and he agreed
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to help. But he made something very clear from the
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very start, and that song itself had to be good
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enough to stand on its own with no slogans, no guilt,
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We're talking a real song. Now. That's where Michael Jackson
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enters the picture. Because Michael worked on the melody quietly,
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mostly on his own, aman for something universal yet simple,
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almost like a hymn, and Richie focused on lyrics and structure.
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So here's an important detail. There were no singers, no guarantees.
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It was just an idea, a cause, and a song
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that needed to be finished. And we're going to get
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into that and a lot more as we joined Tears
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for Fears into a song that came in at the
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right time from nineteen eighty five, a song with more
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of a political point of view. And everybody wants to
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rule the world.
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Well even well you say, we will both to.
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Let on your best combas.
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It's my it's my only, help me to the side.
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Help me make sid and last last.
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Start till sod was made so soundly, too mad, and.
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Was made.
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The sas say that ver never did they went Jo Basketball,
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Brad f Bodys.
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When Cameron was in the Egypt's land, let my Cameron go.
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All right, welcome back to the eighties radio today. We're
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talking about the song We Are the World Now. Where
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we left off is once the song came into fruition,
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once the song was developed, once the song existed. The
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following challenge wasn't much musical. It was the human challenge.
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And that's where Quincy Jones steps in because Quincy Jones
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immediately understood the danger here and not musically speaking, but
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socially why Because frankly, there were too many egos, too
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many histories, too many power dynamics. So what he did
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is he set some rules. We're only going to do
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one session and there's no hierarchy. And yeah, that sign
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that he put up, handwritten, was taped to the wall,
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and this sign said check your ego at the door.
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Now let me backtrack a little bit because there was
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another key figure whose name is Ken Craigan, a major
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music manager at that time, and he handled logistics, you know,
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outreach and organization, and he helped form USA for Africa,
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the nonprofit created to manage the funds. Then after that
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came the most important decision of all, which was a
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recording that would happen on one night only on January
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twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five, immediately right out after the
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American Music Awards at A and M Studios in Los
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Angeles finished. Okay, so that was late night, no rescheduling,
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and no second sessions. If you showed up, you were in.
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If you didn't, you were out, and the song was
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going to be recorded anyway. So what ended up happening
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is artists started arriving tired, some still dressed from the
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awards show and unsure who else would be there. And
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when the doors closed, something unexpected happened. There was a
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lot of patience. It was a long night, and people
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waited their turn. They listened, They encouraged each other. You know,
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some artists nailed their lines immediately, others struggled. One artist
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famously froze, and instead of pressure or embarrassment, another artist
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stepped in quietly and helped them through it. That moment,
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more than anything else, is the heart of the song.
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When the economy was good and the metal was heavy?
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Man, how can I just.
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Let you walk away?
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Just let you leave without the trace, when I standing
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taking every bread with you. You're the only one really
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knew me. How can you just walk away from me
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when all I can do is watch you leave? Because
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you save the life around.
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The pain and even shave thirty.
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You're the only one you really knew me.
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No stingle looking me now, there's just a naptio space.
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There's nothing left to real me, just the man red
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of face.
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You take a lin line, that's just.
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A naptio space.
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That you're coming back to me is against the yards,
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And that's why I've got to me.
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I was shocked with the space.
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Turn around, turn.
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Around and see bestride.
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There's so much journey to.
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Sity, so many signs.
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Why you're the only one really love me? So she
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don me not line.
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It's just an anti space.
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There's nothing that chance to me. I mean just a
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very all the things. It's now take a look at
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me now stab an antiou space. But to waste for
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you is all I can do you when that's all
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love God the face.
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Don't take on the looking.
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Because n standing he.
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And she's coming first on me.
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It is against all off.
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It's the chums of God.
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The change.
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You just heard Phil Collins and against Dull Odds on
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Back to the eighties Radio today. Here on back to
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the eighties Radio. We are talking about the song we
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Are the World. Well, by early morning that song was
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finished the entire night one session and when We Are
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the World was released in March of nineteen eighty five.
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It went to number one around the world. It won
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multiple Grammy Awards, raised over sixty three million dollars for
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famine relief, some say up to eighty equivalent to around
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six hundred million or so today. But that's not why
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it still matters. It matters because it didn't feel cynical.
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It really felt sincere. It was people using what they
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already had, their talents, their visibility, their visibility, their influence
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to respond to something that was real. All right, stay
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with me here, because before we let the song play today,
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I want to do something that really matters. Because a
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lot of times when people talk about we are the world,
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they talk about it like it well, it just happened,
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and it was inevitable, like it was something spontaneous, some
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spontaneous explosion of goodwill. And it wasn't. It was carefully built.
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It was deliberate by specific people who made specific choices
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and who worked very hard. And yes, it all started
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with Harry Belafonte, who wasn't reacting emotionally or impulsively. He
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just saw the famine Ethiopia, saw the impact of band
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Aid in the UK, and asked, why can't we do
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it with an even bigger reach. He didn't want a
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benefit concert, he didn't want speeches. He wanted something direct,
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a song in a moment to last an eternity. And
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to make that real, he brought in an entire crew,
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an entire team of people. He brought in Lionel Ritchie,
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who agreed to help on one condition that the song
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had to be strong enough to live in its own
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without guilt or pressure attached. Richie partnered with Michael Jackson,
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who developed the melody quietly and intentionally. To hold a
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room together, they brought in Quincy Jones, who understood immediately
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that this wouldn't fail musically, it would fail socially if
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egos weren't managed. And to make the entire thing function
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with scheduling, outreach organization, and the creation of USA for
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Africa as a charity, that responsibility fell to Ken Craigan.