The Greatest Night In Pop
In 1985 famine rages in the Horn of Africa, leading to numerous charity responses. In the wake of the Live Aid event, a group of industry heavyweights determined to try their own effort with a host of major stars: Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder among just a few of them. This documentary charts the genesis, organisation and recording of the single “We Are The World” over one tortured session on the night of the 1985 American Music Awards, in which it constituted one of the most significant nights in the history of music.
Bao Nguyen’s documentary is certainly something of a forgotten topic. Not that “We Are The World” has been erased from history exactly, far from it, but in the popular remembrance of that period where megagroup charity singles were something of a trend, I feel like “Feed The World” might be better remembered (perhaps that’s just Irish cultural bias). Regardless, the story of how a number of the megastars of their day came together on one very special night is certainly something that piqued my interest. But the problem is that The Greatest Night In Pop doesn’t really have enough material to justify the stretching that takes place to get us to just north of 90 minutes, and maybe not even that grandiose title: it lacks the focus of Nguyen’s best known work, the documentary Be Water, on the life and career of Bruce Lee.
The Greatest Night In Pop is at its most interesting when it is talking about the recording process itself, this hectic effort to get a glut of musicians in the same space for long enough to actually record the song. Using some really interesting archival footage, there is a fascinating story to be told there: the efforts to conceal the recording space so as not to attract press; the logistics of singers arriving (some turned up in chauffeured limos, Springsteen parked across the street); fitting them into the space and then dealing with the heat that resulted; artistic debates about the exact lyrics of the song that threatened to become the worst kind of “Too many cooks” situation; ego-driven upset about details of connections and prestige; the difficulties some singers, like Dylan, had with what they were being asked to sing physically; and the long drawn-out process of getting it right, into the early hours of the morning. Even something as basic as footage of Jackson practising some of the lyrics alone ahead of the recording has a magical feel, his clear voice ringing out in all of its perfection even now.
But it’s everything else that is weak really. The lead-up to that recording is really stretched, Nguyen making a mountain out of the molehill of the song being written, and rather tedious discussions of how best to get all of the singers together in one place. When the time for the recording being depicted comes, there’s still a lot of time left, and The Greatest Night In Pop basically throws everything it can in, right down to the barely interesting anecdotes from lesser players you might never have heard of, and maybe a bit too much archival footage, wrapped in a sense of awe from the modern-day talking heads that gets a little tired. There’s a point missing I feel, with the film more interested in rather unimportant things like different singers harmonising than really delving into the motivations behind this kind of project, or what the difficulties in arranging it all says about the people involved. There’s missed opportunities too: when Sheila E. reveals her unhappiness at realising her invitation was essentially an effort to get her then partner/musical colleague Prince to show up too, you feel like a bit more could be explored, but we move on swiftly enough. Ditto for Waylon Jennings’ temporary walk-out, the country-singer allegedly annoyed at being involved with a song with suggested lyrics in Swahili, the racist implications of which are merely remarked upon, not examined.
There’s undoubtedly something of an inspiration from Peter Jackson’s Get Back in all this, but that was a first-hand depiction of a singular creative force, while The Greatest Night In Pop is, to put it plainly, a recordation of a once-off gimmick. That is not to say that it is not interesting on its own terms, but the idea does not stretch to 97 good minutes, and that shows especially in how quickly it all gets wrapped up once the recording footage runs out. There’s a tight 60 minute version of this story that has a better pace and flow. For some of that archival footage, this is recommended. For the rest – the over emphasis on how important the song was, the padding, the unsubtle efforts to introduce manufactured drama at points – it is not.
(All images are copyright of Netflix).
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