CAPE TOWN. After 28 years of silently tolerating it, a group of unemployed local musicians have joined forces to release a Christmas single, entitled ‘Yes we do,’ in response to the Bob Geldof inspired Band Aid song, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’…
Speaking at the launch of the single, whose proceeds will go towards teaching discipline, literacy and contraception at British schools, composer and singer Boomtown Gundane said that for years he had been irked by Geldof’s assumption that hungry Africans were also stupid….”Of course we knew it was Christmas.”…
Gundane said he hoped that his involvement with the song would turn him into an expert on British politics and economics in the same way ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ had turned Geldof and Bono into the world’s leading experts on Africa.
“If I’m not sharing a platform with the Queen and David Cameron by this time next year; or headlining at Glastonbury, then I will have done something very wrong,” said Gundane.
For more, go here. (Thanks, N!)
While I think that making of Bono and Geldof experts on Africa is ludicruous, I would say that Gundane is reading a bit much into the lyrics. I never took it to mean that hungry Africans were also stupid, rather I took it to mean that they were given no indication it was x-mas (i.e. they would not know it was) given that nobody cared for them, hence the other piece of lyric which is a pretty direct call to action: feed the world, let them know it’s x-mas time! You are full of x-mas spirit? Then prove it.
Am I missing something?
The famine in question was in Ethiopia, which follows the Old Calendar for church stuff. So they thought it was too early for Christmas.
LOVE IT. The choice of charity is my favorite.
Yes, Christine. You are missing that it is joke. (Other news: http://www.hayibo.com/nazis-and-librarians-slam-e-readers-for-taking-fun-out-of-traditional-book-burning/)
Ha ha! Lesson learned: I have to refrain from commenting on posts before finishing my first pot of coffee!
It was a completely plausible story though. I googled the band’s frontman’s name before I checked other pages on the site.
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