I wasn't too sure what to blog about this week, until a good friend of mine, Bob Groder posted on Facebook that July 13th was the thirtieth anniversary of the Live-Aid concert. Bob and I hung out a lot in the 80's, so I do remember him going to JFK Stadium in Philadelphia where the U.S. portion of the concert was being held. It was a historic day, for sure, as the proceedings started over in the U.K., at Wembley Stadium that morning, and a couple hours later, simultaneously started in Philly as well, overlapping for several hours. When the British version ended, several more hours of music continued in Philly, and the whole thing was over sixteen hours later. Bob had told me at the time that it was a very hot day, and water was sprayed at the concertgoers to try and cool them off.
As for me, I watched mostly from home, as the event was broadcast on both ABC and MTV, although the latter was constantly interrupted by commercials, often the same ones. I think I spent a good part of the day glued to watching it, but I don't think I saw the whole thing.
1985 was an interesting year in music, to say the least. The top 40 (or "Contemporary Hit Radio", at it was known then) scene had come back with a new sound and radio stations had a new attitude the last few years, most likely due to MTV becoming a force. The decade (at least up to that point) was a mixture of old (the 1960's were being recalled in nostalgic revivals of sorts) and new (we had experienced a "second British Invasion, many of the artists performed at the concert). The prior year, Bob Geldof of the band Boomtown Rats had heard about a famine situation occurring in Africa, in particular, Ethiopia, with many of their peoples dying of starvation, and Geldof wanted so much to do something about it. Thus he organized Band-Aid, and had a multitude of stars in the U.K. record "Do They Know Its Christmas" as a charity single to be released in the holiday season of 1984. It was a huge success, and that spurred an American answer to it, "We Are The World" which was released in the spring of 1985. As a result, the idea of this concert came about.
Tonight I was reading up a bit on this event, which, unlike Woodstock, which it is sometimes compared to, was more an exercise in modern technology at the time. It didn't take place in an open field, rather at stadiums, and as such, was a much more commercial venture; it was not a free concert as Woodstock turned out to be. It also purported to be much more ambitious as well, and stars from the 60's through the mid-80's invited to perform. Paul McCartney was there and performed "Let It Be" at Wembley; Led Zeppelin had a reunion of sorts, in spite of the fact that their drummer John Bonham, had passed away; taking up the slack was Phil Collins (who was the only artist to perform both at Wembley and JFK, as he accomplished this by taking the SST Concorde to the States), as well as Tony Thompson, originally of the disco-era band Chic (with Nile Rodgers) but currently part of the supergroup Power Station. The Beach Boys also performed, mostly their hits from that era. Other bands included Queen, Black Sabbath, The Who, U2, the hot-at-the-time Duran Duran, and many other artists. Despite its difference from Woodstock, Joan Baez, began the U.S. portion of the concert telling the audience "This is your Woodstock", and in that sense it was; while the legendary concert from 1969 was all about peace, love and understanding, you could definitely apply that to the love of helping those halfway around the world.
There were a slew of similar events after Live-Aid, most notably Farm-Aid, which was organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young (who also performed at Live-Aid, although separate from his sometime cohorts Crosby, Stills & Nash), and it was based on a controversial statement that Bob Dylan had made about Live-Aid, in that some of the monies should go to support family farms here in the U.S. Charity records continued, from Canadian artists ("Northern Lights") and support to end Apartheid in South Africa ("Sun City"), and many others.
Still, in spite of those efforts, Live-Aid never really got the remembrances that Woodstock did (and still gets). We talk about Woodstock constantly, but except for anniversaries, you don't hear too much about Live-Aid. But it was a pivotal part in defining rock, pop and R&B music in the 1980's, a decade that we sometimes overlook (at least our baby boomers do), but to me, it was just as important as the two decades preceding it.
ON MY CHART: After a four week run, Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" finally relinquishes the top spot to the runner up of the last three weeks, the Decemberists' "Cavalry Captain" in a close race. It's their second SNS #1, following 2010's "Down By the River". The big mover in the top echelon is Courtney Barnett's "Bad Fox" moving up from #21 to #9. Beck's "Dreams" also advances 17-13; the song is #3 on the Alternative chart this week, his third biggest hit there, encompassing 21 years.
THE NEW PHASE: It's refreshing to see the Top Debut from a band making their first appearance on the SNS 100. PHASES is an indie-pop band from Los Angeles; at one time they were called Jjamz which were the first letters of their names, before changing it to PHASES (spelled in upper case). The song, one of several recorded but not yet planned on an album, "I'm In Love With My Life" is the first with their new name. It's an immediately catchy tune with an interesting combination of funky, rhythmic bass and a cool gangly guitar riff. The harmonies take over and it projects a good-time feeling. As they used to say on Amercian Bandstand, it's got a good beat and you can dance to it. The song lifts you higher than anything else on the airwaves these days. A winner for sure.
Also debuting are Mumford & Sons' follow-up to their SNS top 10 "Believe"; "The Wolf", also from their third album Wilder Mind; Metric, the Canadian band best known to me for their #1 song of 2009, "Help I'm Alive", as well as for their 2010 year-end top 10 "Eclipse (All Yours)", are back with "The Shade", from their forthcoming album Pagans In Vegas, due in September; Ed Sheeran's follow-up to his SNS #1, "Photograph", and another "Summer" song, "In the Summer" by I Am Dynamite who hit my top 20 in 2013 with "Hey Girl".
This weekend, there are two music festivals in the New York-New Jersey area that' I've been to in the past, going on this weekend. In Columbia, NJ, there is the WNTI Summer Stage, which goes on Friday through Sunday, with the headliners on Saturday being The Smithereens, and on Sunday, the legendary Chubby Checker. The Rosendale Street Festival, in that town in New York's mid-Hudson Valley also goes on Saturday and Sunday with bands at five different stages. Last year, I discovered the reggae-oriented band The Big Takeover; two of their songs have hit my charts, they will perform at the Mountain State on Sunday.
As for me, I will be going to a geocaching event with, as far as I know, no music involved. However, I will be camping with my friend Brian Sniatkowski (the one with all the songs of the week), so there are chances I'll be exposed to new music anyway.
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 2 | NUMBER ONE:
"Calvary
Captain"
Album: What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World
|
14 |
| 2 | 1 | Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud | 19 |
| 3 | 3 | Florence + the Machine - Ship to Wreck | 10 |
| 4 | 4 | Grace Potter - Alive Tonight | 8 |
| 5 | 7 | Elle King - Ex's and Oh's | 9 |
| 6 | 5 | St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Like a Mighty River | 11 |
| 7 | 6 | Calvin Harris f. Ellie Goulding - Outside | 11 |
| 8 | 10 | Tame Impala - Let It Happen | 14 |
| 9 | 21 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Dead Fox"
Album: Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit
|
3 |
| 10 | 12 | Coin - Run | 7 |
| 11 | 8 | Alabama Shakes - Gimme All Your Love● | 12 |
| 12 | 17 | Beck - Dreams | 4 |
| 13 | 9 | Mumford & Sons - Believe | 13 |
| 14 | 11 | MS MR - Painted | 9 |
| 15 | 13 | Walk the Moon - Shut Up & Dance | 16 |
| 16 | 14 | George Ezra - Budapest | 21 |
| 17 | 18 | Locksley - Let It Ride | 16 |
| 18 | 15 | Meg Myers - Sorry | 12 |
| 19 | 20 | Wiz Khalifa f Charlie Puth - See You Again | 6 |
| 20 | 22 | Kid Rock - First Kiss | 14 |
Tremors:
| 101 | ---- | Tyler Farr - A Guy Walks Into A Bar |
| 102 | ---- | Arkells - Leather Jackets |
| 103 | ---- | James Ray - Hold Back the River |
| 104 | ---- | Ok Go - Turn Up the Radio |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more
plays on my iPod.
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