Make Them Know It's Christmas Time

I've just made a cursory glance around the Internet at some lists of the worst song lyrics of all time. Unfortunately there is one particular song that never seems to crop up. If you check out the examples on that site you will see some truly awful examples of songwriting. However these are all examples of simple idiocy. In my view the worst lyrics going, in terms of not just poetic idiocy but also political idiocy, are those to Band Aid's festive classic, Do They Know It's Christmas?

It's christmas time, there's no need to be afraid
At christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade

And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy!
Throw your arms around the world at christmas time
But say a prayer - pray for the other ones
At christmas time

it's hard, but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dreaded fear
Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears
And the christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom

Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you!!!11one

And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow

Do they know it's christmas time at all?

Here's to you
Raise your glass for everyone
Here's to them
Underneath that burning sun

Do they know it's christmas time at all?

Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time and
Feed the world
Let them know it's christmas time 

Boy oh boy. Where to start? How about with some facts taken from the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia:

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 45% of the population are Muslims, 40% are Christians and less than 15% continue to follow traditional African religions. 

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as sahel, and steppe dominate.

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world.

So, immediately we can see that in Africa things do indeed grow, rivers do indeed flow, and that the majority of people living there aren't too bothered whether or not it is Christmas time. We can also forgive Africa it's lack of snow as traditionally it's summer in December.

We could look further into sloppy lyricism elsewhere in the song (clanging chimes of doom, really?) but the far more pressing concern is with the depiction of the African as an Other, and the impression of Occidental values upon them. Immediately Africans are described as the "other ones" and this is expounded later on in Bono's famous line, "tonight thank God it's them instead of you". This is an undeniably horrible line. If someone's got to suffer, well thank heavens it's someone who is completely different to me, hey? This acceptance of poverty and inequality is at odds with the message the song is trying to convey, but completely indicative of the propagation of the status quo that is the underlying truth of it. "Here's to them, underneath that burning sun". We'll just carry on with things as they are, but we'll spare a thought as we do it. There is no impetus here to make a difference.


Consumerism rears its head in the song as well, which is unsurprising given that the lyrics attempt to draw occidental values against Africa. The line "the greatest gift they'll get this year is life" is the key here. Surely life is, in nearly every situation, the greatest gift you can have? The line though takes an almost sneering view of this. It conjures up images of Nintendo Wiis, Blu-Ray DVDs, Louis Vuitton handbags and Ugg Boots. Those poor Africans, they'll never be able to sit around watching Avatar with the family on Christmas Day. On a separate note, the presumption that every African is impoverished is yet another problem here. You could argue that perhaps I'm making a bit of a leap here, but why draw attention to this greatest gift if what they're getting differentiates from what we're getting. The importance placed on a singular exchange is again another case of trying to cure the symptoms rather than the disease.

A famous advert once said, "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Feeding the world will not be accomplished through a one-off (or sporadic) cash payment for a song, it needs to be a constant process, and one that is an exchange on equal terms. Whilst we are looking at the notion of feeding the world, the song is further flawed in how it reduces the world, or at least the non-Occidental world, to Africa. There are plenty of other areas in the world, spread across every continent, that are impoverished, suffer from inequality and are in great need of help. The documentary that inspired the Band Aid movement may have focused on poverty in Africa, but the slogan "Feed The World" encapsulates the hubristic nature of the song. It is so sweeping that it becomes meaningless in this context.

There are other problems with the song apart from the lyrics as well. The way it has been re-recorded three separate times serves as a metaphor for the way that the situation of inequality in Africa has not changed since the song's release. On an unrelated note there was also the problem with the original recording in the lack of women participating (only Bananarama if I recall), which has subsequently been amended in succeeding editions. These are worth looking at as a bit of extra-curricular.

You could say that this is the most fitting Christmas song in many ways. Let's just hope that when they roll out Band Aid 29 that they enlist Des'Ree, Snap, Razorlight, ABC, U2, Toto, Oasis, Duran Duran, Human League and Black Sabbath to lend a hand.