Heeding a Certain Call...

Last weekend, I finally got the opportunity to relive We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song. The last time I saw this video was probably back when I was fiddling with Transformers, playing Atari, and wearing my special steel-gray Members Only jacket. Which was last weekend.

Anyway, "We Are the World" was filmed in the balmy days of 1985, well before Ray Charles was celebrated with Academy Award-winning biopics and catchy Diet Pepsi jingles, and before Michael Jackson was celebrated with E! Entertainment Television courtroom reenactments. Back when you could point out every member of the Jackson family and say with authority which one was Jermaine and which was Randy. But there were others in this video! Others that I had no clue about whilst in the 3rd grade! Singers like...

	Bob Dylan, struggling to mumble the chorus as he seems to nurse a pretty bad hangover...
	... Oates...
	... and Dan Aykroyd? Seems strange now, but supposedly The Blues Brothers had some sort of 'clout' in the late 70s. Still, I can sort of imagine him and Huey Lewis getting into fisticuffs backstage over the controversial Ghostbusters theme.

The DVD also contains an hour-long documentary hosted by Jane Fonda that 90% of the country probably vaguely remembers, a full karaoke track, and some rare outtakes that show more of Kenny Rogers' facial contortions. Furthermore, the organization is actually still active. Still, it's unfortunate that the 20th anniversary DVD lacks, well, the 20th anniversary context - I'm pretty sure VH1 has ample supplies of it stored somewhere.

All in all, I have to give it 4.5 Kenny Loggins out of a potential 6 Kenny Loggins. Take a look at it on Amazon!