I recently watched the USA for Africa documentary about the recording process on ‘We Are The World’. It’s called ‘The Greatest Night In Pop’ and well worth watching, if only to boggle at some of the decision making as to who made the cut. Where, for example, are Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, The Byrds, the Beach Boys and The Eagles? Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt? Who thought Cyndi Lauper was a better idea than Madonna? Why didn’t Prince show up (possibly because Bob Geldof, singer with the Boomtown Rats, had called him a ‘creep’. Bob was great at saving lives in Africa, which kinda trumps everything else, but always had a misplaced perception of his own place in the musical canon, I’ve always felt.) As for the people who are in the room, well, there must have been a moment in time when James Ingram and Jeffrey Osborne were first on the teamsheet, but I can’t remember it.
There is, by the way, a very poignant moment when we see Bob Dylan, the Bob Dylan, really struggling and wondering what he’s doing there. Essentially Bob can barely sing anyway, he was at something of a cultural low point in his career mid-80s, and he had a solo verse to deliver. He’s got imposter syndrome! It reminded me of the time in my gap year when I realised I’d been hired as essentially a social experiment by IBM to see if an arts student could code computers. (Answer: They can’t, or at least I couldn’t.) I was surrounded all day every day by smirking nerds joking about COBOL programming glitches. I felt like Bob must have felt that night. Anyway, Stevie Wonder comes over and shows him how to sing it by imitating Bob Dylan. It’s incredible and very moving to see Bob wreathed in smiles as the penny drops.
The reason I bring all this up is because they start work on the song at 11pm after taxiing from some awards ceremony most of them have attended. And they don’t finish till 8am. A lot of them are tired anyway after they’ve completed a big tour, while others are midway through one. Bruce Springsteen’s voice has all but gone. As the night goes on, even for these night-time titans, energy flags and, just like normal humans, we see them slumped in corners, suppressing huge yawns, longing for sleep. We see the adrenalin almost visibly leaving the body of the producer Quincy Jones at the end.
So, here’s an episode about tiring, sleeping and dreaming. It’s not quite true that none of the artists in the room that night has ever appeared on the podcast. Diana Ross was once chosen by our interviewee Tara Emeleye Needham for her excellent song, ‘Reflections’. But that’s it. No Kenny Loggins. No Huey Lewis. No Al Jarreau. And what’s Al Jarreau doing there? (The short answer to that is - drinking too much.)
Setlist:
Dreamsickle, Wombo
Dreams tonite, Alvvays
Dreaming, Allo Darlin’
Nocturnal creatures, Moreish Idols
Fell asleep with a vision, Spirit of the Beehive
Daydreaming, Massive Attack
I’m a dream fighting out of a man, Luke de-Sciscio
Sleep, forever, Madder Rose
Dreams, Sebadoh
Tired, Beabadoobee
The dreaming moon, The Magnetic Fields
Singing in my sleep, The Chills
I’m so tired, Fugazi
Night of the worm moon, Shana Cleveland
Sleep, Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions