The Long Walk to Logic
The Fark headline says it best: “In a rare act of coolness, AOL puts up the entire set of Live 8 performances for free download.” So maybe it’s not the entire set, but there is some incredible footage from Philadelphia, London, and Toronto. My favorites include Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft – (“Bittersweet Symphony,” Velvet Revolver – “Fall to Pieces,” and the brief reunion of Pink Floyd.
Some Gr8 quotes:
Madonna: “Are you ready to start a revolution?”
Snoop Dogg: “There’s a lot of rich people in the world and a lot of them are just selfish!”
Vince Neil: “This day is about eight powerful men in one room, doing the right thing. Don’t you think they should do the right thing man? The main thing, if they do the right thing, is it’s all about the music today.”
Coldplay guy: “This, of course, is about the G8. And those people are pretty G8. This guy I’m about to introduce would make them guys look not so cool. This is probably the best song in the world and the best singer in the world, Mr. Richard Ashcroft.”
Scott Weiland: “The world has come together today. It’s not just a rock show. It is just… a beautiful event for us all to come together. It’s music. And more.”
Seriously though, I really like Anne Applebaum’s (The Washington Post) take on Live 8 and Africa’s desperate situation:
“For while the need to open up agriculture to trade is so obvious to development economists that it hardly bears repeating, the message seems not to have reached the Live 8 crowds. On the contrary, most of the concertgoers’ somewhat inchoate demands revolved around the much more appealing and, frankly, much simpler idea that the rich should give more money to the poor. Getting millions of people across Europe and the United States to support political leaders who will actually take steps to end the massive farm subsidies — temporarily or even permanently reducing the incomes of European and American farmers — is really very difficult.”