Bob Dylan at “We Are the World.” recording session in Hollywood. 1985. All color still images by Paul Goldfinger from the Netflix movie.
USA For Africa. 1985. Publicity photo 1985
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net.
Feb. 10, 2024
In 1985, 46 superstar vocalists got together in Hollywood to make a movie and to write and create a monstrous musical hit for charity called “We Are the World.”
The movie, currently on Netflix, is a remarkable documentary showing how so many musical powerhouses were able to come together personally and musically. And beautiful solos were woven into the fabric of the song along with choral singing.
I totally enjoyed seeing these singers work as a group. There were so many wonderful musical moments such as when Stevie Wonder helped Bob Dylan with his performance.
Michael Jackson wrote the anthem with Lionel Ritchie, and you can see why he was so highly regarded.
Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes and Huey Lewis did their segment together after some unforgettable interactions.
And I was impressed with how human and vulnerable these world famous performers were under pressure to create an unforgettable ensemble result.
If you watch the Netflix video you will be impressed and you will learn so much about how challenging it is to create American music, especially with these very difficult circumstances.
Here are a few still photos which I obtained from that Netflix movie.
Michael Jackson. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Bruce Springsteen. Paul Goldfinger photo.
Cyndi Lauper with Kim Carnes. Blogfinger.net
In case you don’t get to see the Netflix video, here is a good quality entire audio of a recording that was made in 1985. This single was a Grammy winning hit all over the world.
The video is done in pieces in order to appreciate all that went into the effort.
Read our rules on top of the home page to find out why a comment might be rejected or edited. We accept almost all comments if they are interesting. It doesn’t matter if the commenter disagrees with us or not.
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–Paul @ Blogfinger.net
In not one but two instances you printed my comments then a day later removed them. Whatever . Don’t know why I even bother.
On the contrary—Almost all the performers were American, and this is totally American music. And the fact that the concert was to benefit Africa is irrelevant. It was a good cause.—Paul
“create American music” you wrote . This event was Internationally intended and many of the performers were not American . Nonetheless quite a moment in time such as 9-11 concert & sandy concert too .
Thanks for the link to your music attachments. I’ve been a happy recipient of your Blogfinger posts for awhile now, but at some point the music links stopped appearing. So now that I know how to access your musical accompaniments, I’m once again a Happy Camper. Blessings!