Comments on: The Bizarre Cruelty of ‘We Are the World’ to John Denver

By: Jeff Grabowski

Jeff Grabowski — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:54:30 +0000

Wasn’t this a period in which Denver’s brave but rejected lyricism focused almost on nutsacks? I always thought that’s why he was excluded.

By: Jill

Jill — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 15:30:05 +0000

Dan Akroyd was in it. A few artists that were no better than John.

By: Jill

Jill — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 15:30:05 +0000

Dan Akroyd was in it. A few artists that were no better than John.

By: fg

fg — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 05:35:22 +0000

outrageous rejecting John Denver legend & world leader poverty activist. no wonder he never went back to US.

By: F

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 23:55:57 +0000

I couldn’t figure this out, either. They reject John Denver, but include Bob Dylan, who was so high he had to be force fed his one or two lines, then appeared to fall asleep during the recording? Please.

By: Ajit Dongre

Ajit Dongre — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 19:06:30 +0000

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.

By: Diane Brown

Diane Brown — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 03:02:19 +0000

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.

By: John

John — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 04:35:35 +0000

You can see and hear Paul Simon make the comment about Denver in the documentary on Netflix.

By: ALee

ALee — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 01:22:08 +0000

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.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 20:19:54 +0000

In reply to Guilherme Machado Corrêa.

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.”