Despite its media hype, the song received mixed reviews from journalists, music critics and the public. Whilst the majority of record-buyers loved it, people like music critic and Bruce Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, noted that “We Are the World” was not widely accepted within the rock music community. Marsh said that the song was “despised” for what it was not: “a rock record, a critique of the political policies that created the famine, a way of finding out how and why famines occur, an all-inclusive representation of the entire worldwide spectrum of post-Presley popular music”
American journalist Greil Marcus felt that the song sounded like a Pepsi jingle. He wrote, “[...] the constant repetition of ‘There’s a choice we’re making’ conflates with Pepsi’s trademarked ‘The choice of a new generation’ in a way that, on the part of Pepsi-contracted song writers Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, is certainly not intentional, and even more certainly beyond the realm of serendipity.” Marcus added, “In the realm of contextualization, ‘We Are the World’ says less about Ethiopia than it does about Pepsi—and the true result will likely be less that certain Ethiopian individuals will live, or anyway live a bit longer than they otherwise would have, than that Pepsi will get the catch phrase of its advertising campaign sung for free by Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and all the rest. Author Reebee Garofalo agreed, and expressed the opinion that the line “We’re saving our own lives” was a “distasteful element of self-indulgence”. He asserted that the artists of USA for Africa were proclaiming “their own salvation for singing about an issue they will never experience on behalf of a people most of them will never encounter”
That was always something I thought about when I heard the words " we saving our own lifes"...
that its selfish in its core.
Very possible that the " choice we´re making" is connected to the Pepsi "choice of a generation" .
What was giving me a little struck was when I found that Michael Jackson made his own "we are the world" lyrics and guess what : the lyrics were different !
....." there ´s a chance we takin´,
we´re takin our own lifes ......"
As I read on wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World
the demo version of Michael was there first and the refrain phrase was changed after.
Richie had recorded two melodies for "We Are the World", which Jackson took, adding music and words to the song in the same day. Jackson stated, "I love working quickly. I went ahead without even Lionel knowing, I couldn't wait. I went in and came out the same night with the song completed—drums, piano, strings, and words to the chorus."[7] Jackson then presented his demo to Richie and Jones, who were both shocked; they did not expect the pop star to see the structure of the song so quickly. The next meetings between Jackson and Richie were unfruitful; the pair did not produce any additional vocals and got no work done. It was not until the night of January 21, 1985, that Richie and Jackson completed the lyrics and melody of "We Are the World" within two and a half hours, one night before the song's first recording session.[7]
[edit] Recording sessions
The first night of recording, January 22, 1985, had tight security on hand, as Richie, Jackson, Wonder and Jones started work on "We Are the World" at Kenny Rogers' Lion Share Recording Studio. The studio, on Beverly Boulevard in California, was filled with musicians, technicians, video crews, retinues, assistants and organizers as the four musicians entered. To begin the night, a "vocal guide" of "We Are the World" was recorded by Richie and Jackson and duplicated on tape for each of the invited performers. The guide was recorded on the sixth take, as Quincy Jones felt that there was too much "thought" in the previous versions.[8]
Quincy Jones, a plump bald African American man with a grey moustache and wry smile. He is elegantly dressed in a black brocade jacket with patterned collar over a black shirt.
Quincy Jones was a key figure in the production and recording of "We Are the World".
Following their work on the vocal guide, Jackson and Jones began thinking of alternatives for the line "There's a chance we're taking, we're taking our own lives": the pair were concerned that the latter part of the line would be considered a reference to suicide. As the group listened to a playback of the chorus, Richie declared that the last part of the line should be changed to "We're 'saving' our own lives", which his fellow musicians agreed with. Producer Jones also suggested altering the former part of the line. "One thing we don't want to do, especially with this group, is look like we're patting ourselves on the back. So it's really, 'There's a choice we're making.'"
