"Live 8: The World is Watching"
Me: "Yeah, but they're not seeing shit."
Wow, I get all of Will Smith's speech, but nothing approaching a complete song? The coverage yesterday was atrocious, with songs cut off halfway through and endless shots of MTV's "Sway" and wozhername blathering on and on about the "historicalness" of the event. Oh, and did we mention Kanye West had to fly in from another gig to perform?
Kanye West was the funniest part of the whole day, with his deadpan recitation of the "AIDS was manufactured to kill the black man" conspiracy theories and explanation of how lyrics about "wanting the ice" really have relevance to the situation of the African poor. They spent 30 minutes on this imbecile, while playing 1/2 of every song from other acts and talking over the Pink Floyd reuinion, which - and I don't care if you don't like PF - was easily the biggest musical headline of the day. Certainly a much bigger deal than Green Day butchering "We Are the Champions" or Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend going through the motions with their session men and trying to ignore Keith Moon hocking lungers on them from heaven.
This might have been, as the media are calling it, the "greatest concert event in history," but you wouldn't know it from yesterday's reportage. If the G-8 leaders were actually watching on Saturday, I'd be more afraid they might cancel debt relief solely because they're worried Africa might turn into the same collection of self-obsessed consumer whores on display on MTV and VH1.
As an aside, it was comforting to see the longest running FCC violation in history continuing in full force on ABC, which aired the Who's "Who Are You" - just like countless classic rock stations beforehand - with the line "Who the fuck are you?" played in its entirety after the network repeatedly bleeped both Green Day and Jay-Z.
From heavan? Really, now, no need to insult the man like that.
There was this one moment when they showed a couple of women singing in South Africa in front of a tight 4 piece combo that was actually getting me to sit up in my seat to sort of boogie a bit. This was right after the terrible vogueing of Destiny's Child.
Then the bastards switched to commercial halfway through the song, and came back not to these hip, interesting singers in South Africa, but to you guessed it, people talking about Kanye West. I turned it off, and every time I came back it was worse. I don't think I saw more than a few more minutes of the damned show.
Keith Moon has a place of honor in my version of heaven. John Bonham, too.
Jerry Edmonton is out of luck, however.
Amen! I tried to watch but the only thing that I saw in it's entirety were the commercials. A half song here and there mixed with imbecilic rantings of spoiled "stars" and commercials does not an event make!
When Keith Moon spits, it's as if God has spit.
Really? I always thought it was "Who the puck are you?"