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Christmastime 1984: The Band Aid Song Changed My Life
Each December, the promise of these words overtakes me, and again, I believe a better world is possible
He was barely known in America, but the song’s opening line was granted to Paul Young. He states the obvious to us: “It’s Christmastime.” So wonderfully, he tells us there is “no need to be afraid. At Christmastime, we let in light and banish shade.” Beautiful, right?
From the moment I heard those words, I was transported. Having just returned from a three-month exchange experience in Switzerland, the horizon of my world had been rapidly and forever stretched out like the famous Salt Water taffy made in my small, oh-so-typical hometown. Pushed out beyond the site of my imagination, my summer in Switzerland told me what I always knew: There is so much more to life than just trying to buy more stuff and then upgrade that stuff to stay materially balanced.
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure pulled together Band Aid to fund anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia. Bringing together all of the biggest names of British pop, the song was then, and still is, one of the most inspirational ones I ever heard.
Having fully aligned myself with my political identity in a small village near Basel, Switzerland, that summer, when I heard the…
