The Day Metal United and Saved the World

Hear 'N Aid is the greatest thing that has ever happened.

The 80's were chock full of Aids. Bob Geldof created Band Aid, and kicked off the era with a benefit record featuring superstars like Bananarama, Spandau Ballet, and Shalamar. "Do they know it's Christmas?" they asked. The simple answer to that is, "Of course not." They don't celebrate Christmas in Ethiopia. But they didn't let little technicalities like that get in the way of the lyrics.

Quincy Jones ripped off the format with USA For Africa, and Bob Geldof continued his penance for the Boomtown Rats with Live Aid. They all had one thing in common. Megastars shedding their egos for one night, and coming together to record a lousy song.

Enter : Ronnie James Dio

All of human progress lead to this moment; this one moment where all of the greatest talents of the world met together at their artistic peaks and formed a perfect creation : Hear 'N Aid.

Look at this parade of genius.

Rob Halford from Judas Priest

Iron Maiden

Man 'O War

Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P. and Kevin DuBrow from Quiet Riot

Eric Bloom from Blue Oyster Cult

Geoff Tate from Queensryche

Geoff's pompa-fro is worth another look

The Nuge

And, uh, Spinal Tap?

And so the fist-pumping began.
Normally at these benefit recordings you leave your ego at the door. You might think it would be a good idea to use some of the lyrics to mention the cause. Not with Hear 'N Aid apparently. They pretty much just repeat "We're Stars" the whole time. They throw in the occasional, "We are magic in the night!" Whatever this benefit was for is anyone's guess.

Guitar solos have always been a useful time filler in heavy metal. How else are you supposed to get to 3 minutes with only 2 verses and a chorus? Just like they pass each lyric to the next singer, they pass each lick to the next guitarist. There's a good 3 and a half minutes of guitar solo hot potato here. All the greats show up.

Yngwie Malmsteen

George Lynch from Dokken

That guy from Quiet Riot and some other guy

Then it's just a weirdo free-for-all starting with this guy.

This dude.

And this anomaly. This guy is like the Dan Aykroyd moment in We are the World.
Ok, so maybe metal can't put together We are the World type numbers, but at least they stand really close together.