Beijing 2008’s TOO AWESOME Theme Song
I’ve been watching a bit of CCTV 5, errrr, CCTV (Olympic Rings), and have seen the Olympic theme song video about a dozen times in the last two days. Never to be one to use hyperbole, I’m arguing that this is definitely one of the two greatest famous-people ensemble songs ever made.
Let me say straight off that I don’t recognize any of the people, but I’m assuming they are celebrities. I mean, they’re so —famous-looking. The song, which is unconvincingly titled ‘We Are Ready,’ features a combination of solos and larger groups singing different bits, and looking just a little too much like they are trying to appear natural and casually cool. Here’s the video, which reminds me more than a little of another video with a similar theme and title (see below).
As you may have guessed, the video that it is strikingly similar to is the granddaddy of all group celebrity songs: ‘We Are the World.” For those of you youngsters out there they may not remember, ‘We Are the World’ was a song by 497 of the most famous celebrities circa 1985. You know, people that stood the test of time, like Cindy Lauper, Rick Springfield, and miscellaneous hair-band dude. It was written by Michael Jackson, who at that time was considered cool and cutting edge, and not in a Roman Polanski kind of way. I have to say, this video is still pretty cool, and not just because they managed to include two different blind, black artists, who were both absolute musical geniuses (Stevie and Ray). It was put together to end hunger in Africa. Based on those results I’m pretty optimistic that the song will ensure Beijing will be prepared for the Games.
Here is a trip down memory lane, and see how many celebrities you can count:
I feel like Beijing should have enlisted Michael Jackson and Tina Turner (not to mention Kenny Rogers) to write “We Are Ready,” but the attempt was good enough. The Chinese attempt doesn’t have enough of that ‘Hey, I can’t believe he’s in this video,’ but then again maybe that’s because I can’t recognize too many of the singers. I feel like this would have has more impact if Wang ZhiZhi were in it, if only because he’s 7-feet tall.
A few notes on ‘We Are the World’: I would argue that the by far the two best parts of the video are (1) Bob Dylan making his solo during a Michael Jackson song sound exactly like “Slow Train.” If you just listen to Bob’s 10 seconds I could probably convince you that it’s from a tour with The Dead (2) Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder’s dueling solos that are such a caricature that I can’t watch it without thinking of SNL’s old Ebony and Ivory sketch (which I can’t link to because even though SNL is supposed to be really cool and hip–supposed to be I said–they’ve removed all of their videos from YouTube, you know, to increase viewership).
Back to the Olympics and whether they’ll be ‘ready’ for them. I could go into the 732 reasons that I’m convinced it will be a disaster, but since I’ve covered that extensively (and I’ve heard some other people have too), I’ll just leave you with this thought. ‘We Are Ready’ is the theme song of the new Olympics channel, formerly known as the China’s sports channel. It seems like if they were so ready their initial press conference launching the new theme would not have been the most bizarre and embarrassing moment of any network in recent memory (excluding the Golf Channel)?
Loading …[In response to a reader's comment I have included "Do The Know It's Christmas," which while amusing, hardly stand up to WATW. Kudos for having: Boy George, Bono, Sting, and Phil Collins. However, the song is pretty horrible.]
Tim responds:
Posted: January 20th, 2008 at 6:07 pm →
I find it more than a little ironic that one of the washed up stars from we are the world is Lionel Ritchie who is still pretty popular among Chinese people. Perhaps he could have added a little class to the we are ready vid
Pappi responds:
Posted: January 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm →
You can’t seriously believe that China would possibly let the games work out badly for them. Can you imagine what kind of repercussions there would be for someone like that CCTV 5 chick if they pulled that kind of stunt during the games? People disappear in China for a lot less. I’d be pretty worried for all of these people who are suddenly allowed to speak to the press after years of restrictions. They don’t really think that the government isn’t keeping a list and won’t hunt down people that say inappropriate things to the western media can they? Haven’t these people heard of the 1000 Flowers campaign. All those people spoke up once, and never again.
Trust me, they are ‘ready.’
chriswaugh_bj responds:
Posted: January 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm →
Umm, that would be 100 flowers, Pappi. One too many zeroes, there.
Can we change the word “awesome” to “cheesy”? Then I’ll think about voting.
That said, I’m just going to briefly revisit my youth, courtesy of your conveniently embedded video…
King of Men responds:
Posted: January 21st, 2008 at 2:34 pm →
Hate to bring back history, bu,t “Do They Know It’s Christmas” was Bob Geldof’s predecessor that “We Are The World” capitalized on. Then there was the abomination known as “Metal Aid,” and the cool, surprisingly effective “United Artists Against Apartheid,” Sun City project that “Little” Steven Van Zandt put together (Lou Reed, Miles Davis, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, and The Ramones were far more cutting edge, talented and 100% kiddie-diddling free than “We Are The World”) and hey: Apartheid in South Africa’s pretty much a dead institution.
Look for the Ramones’ video “Something to Belive In,” which totally takes the piss out of the Hands Across America/Live Aid 80 cult of personality ego fests.
King of Men responds:
Posted: January 21st, 2008 at 2:58 pm →
It’s hard to tell with the blurry Tudou-ripped-then-re-uploaded-to-youtube quality, but I think I spotted Alan Tam Wing-lun, Sandy Lam, Gigi Leung, Eason Chan, and that Phyllis Diller-esque Supergirl song contest winner from 2005.
I know how to rip Youtube videos, but what are you using to rip Tudou videos?
Josh responds:
Posted: January 21st, 2008 at 6:28 pm →
@ King
Are you implying that United Artists Against Apartheid was a major factor in the downfall of De Klerk’s government?
@Chris
How come no Kiwis were involved in We Are the World? Why do you guys hate Africans so much?
Pappi responds:
Posted: January 21st, 2008 at 10:35 pm →
I’m assuming ‘awesomer’ has to be said in a Will Ferrell voice.
The Bruce Juice has to be the best part. Is he being serious when he sings that? He has to be doing it tongue in cheek, no? The crazy factor is also unparalleled. How did they get Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Billy Joel, Dionne Warwick, and Whitney Houston on one stage? They should have checked to see if baby Britney and adolescent Tom Cruise were available.
nanheyangrouchuan responds:
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 am →
Thanks to some freedom loving Chinese and some righteous minded foreigners in China, the Bilderberg armies, the US, Japan, SK and Taiwan have the coordinates of the SA-10 defense grids around Beijing and Shanghai. Now the financial and cultural centers of China can be smashed should China misbehave in Asia:
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE East of Beijing
40 06′54.81 North 116 59′20.93 East
98 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE South East of Beijing
39 48′24.03 North 117 02′41.20 East
57 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE South of Beijing
39 34′36.38 North 116 45′38.33 East
59 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE South West of Beijing
39 22′44.91 North 116 07′51.48 East
85 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE West of Dalian - Yingchengzi PLAAF base
39 00′18.46 North 121 24′00.15 East
30 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE North of Shanghai
31 49′23.95 North 121 51′00.70 East
13 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE North of Shanghai
31 29′24.70 North 121 16′42.86 East
11 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE south of Shanghai
30 52′53.32 North 121 52′16.48 East
16 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE southwest of Shanghai
30 50′17.81 North 121 33′41.35 East
10 ft. Elevation
PLA SA-10 SAM SITE Gangtou
25 34′34.88 North 119 27′15.44 East
52 ft. Elevation
PLAAF SA-10 SAM SITE AT Luocheng
25 01′59.45 North 118 48′26.19 East
54 ft. Elevation
Josh responds:
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm →
@nhyrc
WTF? How does that bizarre bit of info relate to this discussion at all?
chriswaugh_bj responds:
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm →
@Josh: nhyrc is good at trying to drag things off into some nutty China-bashing fest, regardless of relevance. But more importantly: We don’t hate Africans, and we did everything we could to end Apartheid. It’s just that we have to go to pretty huge extremes, like banning nuclear weapons, to make anybody pay attention to us.
King of Men responds:
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 at 5:26 pm →
>>>>>>>>>>@ King
Are you implying that United Artists Against Apartheid was a major factor in the downfall of De Klerk’s government?<<<<<<<<<<<<
No. Not at all. I am, however, implying that out of all of those benefit albums from the eighties, it’s the only one whose stance actually resembled popular movements that lead to eventual change.
Chris Devonshire-Ellis responds:
Posted: January 26th, 2008 at 7:54 am →
It was arranged and produced by Quincy Jones, who also produced Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, We Are The World, et al - and you can still see those influences in this new Olympics song. Thats why the comments above seem to spot the similarities.
King of World. Totally agree about the Ramones. The clip of that song is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhxGcrXmAnU
Hilarious and very, very cool. “We’re Sparks and - he’s in it”
ainsworth forsythe responds:
Posted: March 20th, 2008 at 2:20 am →
I would like to get the words of the song.