free sing along christmas carols new york 2018

To truly get me into the spirit of the season, I need the jolt that only Bono screaming “well tonight thank God it’s them/ instead of you” can provide. But by 2014, when Band Aid Thirty recorded a new version to raise money to combat the Ebola crisis, he may have realized that there were less divisive ways to get a message across and bring people together, singing instead, “Tonight we’re reaching out/ and touching you.”

In 2004, when a 20th-anniversary version of the song was recorded, Bono stood by the line and sang it again. Which is something the 1984 punk-influenced Bono would have done. While he didn’t write the line, it is clear Bono is being sarcastic, pulling no punches and upping the ante on the juxtaposition between the haves (you the listener) and the have-nots (the people of Africa). But that is because the line is mostly misunderstood in the general context of the song. I know that some people find Bono’s rapturous rallying cry at the end of the first verse to be troublesome and cringeworthy. Written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money to combat famine in Ethiopia, it features some of the biggest British pop stars of the day, including Duran Duran, Boy George, Phil Collins, Sting and Paul Young (not to mention New Jersey’s own Kool & the Gang). The 1984 benefit single by the British supergroup Band Aid is my favorite Christmas song. But to truly get me into the spirit of the season, I need the jolt that only Bono screaming “well tonight thank God it’s them/ instead of you” can provide. I love “O Holy Night” with the right singer and appreciate just about anything Amy Grant and Frank Sinatra have to say about the holidays. There are plenty of songs that signal the arrival of the Christmas for me.

Free sing along christmas carols new york 2018