The causes for Africa relief struck in a big way during the mid 80's. My earliest memories of this were 1984's Do They Know It's Christmas Time, released as Band Aid, and the epic, We Are The World, which followed in 1985 by USA for Africa. These efforts even carried over into the comic book industry, where Marvel Comics released Heroes for Hope (1985), and DC followed suit with Heroes for Hunger (1986).
However, there was another effort which seemed to be overshadowed by the rest. One that many don't seem to mention when talking specifically about musical artists combining forces to spread the word about the problems in Africa, while also donating sales revenue to the cause. I'm talking about Artists United Against Apartheid, and their album, Sun City.
The album was lead by the title track, and though it would go on to raise over a million dollars, never reached the peak success that We Are the World did. For me personally, this is not surprising. Where as USA for African crafted radio friendly pop tracks, Artists United Against Apartheid, dug deep into the roots of African style music, and mixed it with hip hop, something, which at the time, was not popular on mainstream radio stations in the 80's.
Though it may not include as recognizable a lineup as other famine relief albums of the time, there was definitely no shortage of talent featured on the album, some of which worked on multiple "cause" projects during the time.
Afrika Bambaataa
Ray Barretto
Stiv Bator
Pat Benatar
Big Youth
Ruben Blades
Kurtis Blow
Bono
Duke Bootee
Jackson Browne
Ron Carter
Bob Dylan
The Fat Boys
Peter Gabriel
Peter Garrett
Bob Geldof
Daryl Hall
Eddie Kendrick
Little Steven
Darlene Love
Malopoets
Grandmaster Melle Mel
Michael Monroe
John Oates
Sonny Okosuns
Bonnie Raitt
Joey Ramone
Lou Reed
Kieth Richards
David Ruffin
Run-DMC
Scorpio
Gil Scott-Heron
Shankar
Bruce Springsteen
Zak Starkey
Ringo Starr
Tina B
Pete Townshend
Via Afrika
Tony Williams
Peter Wolf
Bobby Womack
Ron Wood
For me, Sun City is pretty much in the same category as We Are the World. I bought both albums for the title tracks, and the rest of the songs feel like throw away, which I will probably never listen to ever again. They just don't come across as the contributing artist's best efforts, and they aren't memorable.
Kudos to all who came together during this time in history to make a positive impact and push for change. There's no denying that these causes aided Africa in a big way.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS March 15, 1980 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS March 15, 1986 |
I'll have to check this out. I remember the album, but don't think I ever heard any of the songs.
ReplyDeleteYour comments often make me re-read my posts because I wrote them so long ago, I don't even remember what I said.
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