Various Artists slaughter "Everybody Hurts" for Haiti

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Eddy .

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Eh it's a charity song. It's supposed to be sickly & morose.
It's not meant to be a musical masterpiece, just a piece of over emotional tat that raises money. They seem to have succeeded pretty well at doing that.
 
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I heard on NPR today that internationally known D-bag Simon Cowell of American Idol and X Factor fame had orchestrated a cover of the 1992 R.E.M. classic "Everybody Hurts" by some "famous" artists to raise money for Haiti, a la We Are the World. Of course I had to check it out and by god is it the worst thing I have ever heard? Pretty damn close. As I listened to Mariah Carey slaughter some of the most endearingly beautiful lyrics ever with her "talent", the heartbreaking memories I once associated with the song dissappeared, only to be replaced with even worse memories of Bon Jovi fucking up a great song. Well done Mr. Cowell! You have succeeded in commercializing one of my favorite childhood songs and you did it with conviction! Gone is the naive innocence of Stipe's technically imperfect but emotionally flawless vocal. Gone are Mike Mill's song-making harmonies. Gone is everything about this song that once made it great. I do hope the Athens, G.A. boys are having a good laugh about this one, because I certainly am not.


Thoughts on this travesty?
 
Ugh, why can't they do the inoffensive thing and just donate a bunch of money themselves. This idea comes across as contrived and pretentious.
 
All this talk made me watch the damn thing all the way through..
It's hilarious when at the end (about 5:10) the announcer starts promoting the song and talking about when it goes on sale and then nervously states "it doesn't matter whether you like it or not .. it's just what it's all about so..uhh.." then the audio cuts.:laughing: So I guess you're not alone in your pain, Rickenbacker.
 
Maybe I'm jaded but it's been so many years since I've given a shit about the song that I'm not very devastated. And despite all the good things you mentioned about the song (which I kinda agree with) I'm hardly surprised by this as the original song is so sappy that it really lenRAB itself to this sort of thing.
 
I'd gladly bung a tenner their way if I never have to hear it ever again.

Sadly I have a feeling when I return to work in a couple of weeks i'll be hearing this all day every day. :(
 
Various Artists slaughter "Everybody Hurts" for Haiti

Impressive, they managed to make an already pretty bad and cheesy song even worse! Then again, with those
 
yeah that's probably more accurate, but either way i don't see how it makes for an appropriate charity song, especially for this situation, since either breaking up or suicide, the song is still about getting over it and pushing on.

so is the message to Haiti really hey yeah, it sucks for everyone sometimes, so just hold on, it'll get better?

seems to me it didn't take that long for a songwriter to whip up a unique pile of cheesy drek in the 80s for causes like this one, why choose an inappropriate cover now? it's not like there aren't career songwriters making bank out there at the moment...
 
Did Cheryl Cole sing or did they just plant her face in the video?

This sort of thing is awful for me. I keep thinking I should probably support it because it's in aid of a charity but let's face it it's just a very fake venture on behalf of Simon Cowell again and in his head I'm debating whether or not this is foreseen as a charity event or a publicity stunt.
 
actually the video is kind of funny / disturbing to watch on mute. it's just still photos and poorly synced names at the bottom. then you get a minute and a half of smug insanity as they end the video on a shot of robbie williams looking like a cross between 10 years ago george clooney and current bat poop insane mel gibson.
 
If they just donated money, then who would know about it? Like - all just give-away and no promotion? That wouldn't make any sense. ;)

The song is not very good, but I'm already tired of the original and I'm not normally exposed to a lot of present popular music, so I don't think this will impact my day to day life much. I think it's good that artists do this kind of thing despite possible corrupt motivations, such as artists doing it for exposure perhaps more than anything.

In the end, the result is the same whatever motivation. I'm sure you can find some way to argue that it's stupid when rich people donate money, but I think the people of Haiti will accept and appreciate them. Their opinions matter more.
 
Listening to that has really pissed me off, Miley Cyrus was where I really fucking hated it.

Yay, let's take a beautifully written and sang song, and ruin it!



I posted about Miley Cyrus being the tipping point without reading the other pages, spot on. And James Blunt also pissed me off.
 
Its no better or no worse than every other charity song. It serves a purpose and in my opinion a good one. Its not the kind of song that people buy because they like it, its the kind of song people buy to be a part of contributing towarRAB a cause so really the quality of the cover doesnt matter at all.

I say whats the harm?
 
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