Today, we look at how the production of “We Are the World” was bizarrely cruel to the late, great John Denver.
Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of pop culture history that interests me that doesn’t quite fit into the other features.
I’ve written before about how Madonna was not invited to participate in “We Are the World.” I noted that talent manager Ken Kragen was the main driver behind the performers being chosen for the recording (and it was Kragen who specifically chose Cyndi Lauper over Madonna, as if they couldn’t have both), and he specifically made a point to make sure that his clients were all chosen (like Kenny Rogers and, yes, Kim Carnes), however, I wanted to point out how oddly cruel the whole process was to John Denver, in particular.
The singer/songwriter, best known for songs like “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, “Annie’s Song”, “Rocky Mountain High”, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”, and “Sunshine on My Shoulders” was VERY active in charity, PARTICULARLY the cause of world hunger, which was what “We Are the World” was specifically ABOUT, so of COURSE Denver wanted to be involved in the song.
Kragen, though, turned him down. He recalled at the time, “How do you turn down well-meaning artists? How do you turn down John Denver? He’s been involved in fighting world hunger for years.” He later noted that turning down Denver was the hardest person he had to turn down.
And, like, WHY? Why not just throw the dude in the chorus? They already threw Harry Belafonte, the guy who CAME UP WITH THE IDEA for the whole thing (he initially was thinking a charity concert) into the chorus, so just throw Denver up there, too.
In his autobiography, Take Me Home, Denver noted, “It broke my heart not to be included.”
Okay, that’s sad and all, but whatever, other artists were turned down, as well.
However, according to the new documentary, The Greatest Night In Pop, Kenny Loggins says that Paul Simon joked (I hate when people in documentaries repeat zingers OTHER people said. Like, if you repeat some nice thing that Paul Simon says, that’s fine, but if you’re repeating a catty joke, it seems weird to me, as Simon isn’t there to confirm or deny he actually DID say it. When it’s positive, who cares, but when it’s catty like this, it’s more of an issue), “If a bomb hits this building today, John Denver’s back on top.”
Daaaaaaaaaaaaang, dude!
To get turned down from appearing on the song, and then the people who WERE chosen then were talking smack about you at the recording? That’s so harsh!
If anyone has an interesting pop culture bit that you’d like me to write about, drop me a line at brian@popculturereferences.com!
They invited Shiela E strictly to use her to leverage Prince to come, and he never did
KIM CARNES is an amazing singer-songwriter. 2 Grammy awards and 8 nominations, 25 hits as performer and several as songwriter (from Frank Sinatra to Reba McEntire).
For the week ending 19 January 1985, she became the first artist to lodge three hits on the Hot 100 as a solo artist (“Invitation to Dance”), duet partner (“Make No Mistake, He’s Mine”), and member of a trio (“What About Me”), simultaneously. Less than two weeks later, Carnes would also join a historic moment in pop music as a featured soloist in USA for Africa’s “We Are the World” (1985).
The number one song on the Billboard charts when “We Are the World” was recorded was “Like a Virgin.” It had been the number one the previous five weeks, as well.
In other words, there was no “Billboard achievement” standard to determining who was invited to the recording of “We Are the World.”
Lyrics to “We are the World” reveal an egotistical song telling us to support the celebrities’ fundraising. It’s not about the sufferers, “we’re saving our own lives”.
Then listen to, “I Want to Live”, by Denver. He celebrates the children, painting beautiful word pictures about life on Earth. Denver’s intimate’s lyrics make We are the World” look pathetic and shallow.
“WatW” was all hype and ego.
You can see and hear Paul Simon make the comment about Denver in the documentary on Netflix.
I loved “We Are the World” when it came out, and I look forward to watching the new documentary on Netflix. I was able to find a copy of the article from Life magazine about the event.
I guess politics are everywhere such that the cool kids didn’t want Denver involved in “We Are the World.” Sad that Paul Simon had to make a joke about Denver. I guess, despite the successes of some people, they can still revert to being in junior high.
Ken Kragen said he had to turn down about 40 other artists; I have searched everywhere but cannot find the names of these artists. Have you been able to find them? Thanks.
In response to ALee’s
“Lyrics to “We are the World” reveal an egotistical song telling us to support the celebrities’ fundraising. It’s not about the sufferers, “we’re saving our own lives”.”
I would say that my “reading” of the documentary and the song are different.
(1) They did give consideration to the possibility that some wording would be considered self-indulgent and left it out.
(2) And I interpret “we’re saving out own lives” not to be egotistical but as a clarion call to everybody that saving those lives in Ethiopea was tantamount to saving ourselves. It is OUR village.
I was thoroughly moved by the Netflix documentary — the leaving egos at the door by everybody as per Quincy Jones’ sign, the mutual admiration by singers famous in their own rights, the willingness to be shepharded into doing this charity bit despite the claustophobia the artistes must’ve felt, and their great collective artistic achievement — not to mention the tens of millions of dollars the song managed to collect AND the copycat songs for charities it managed to seed.