This is the third time I’m posting Harrison Ford’s speech from the Actor’s Award. With every passing day, this speech hits harder & harder. Of all the award tributes, speeches, monologues I’ve ever seen, this is up there. Why? It’s straight from Ford’s heart. He’s an inspiration.
Bono brings it home at Dublin’s annual Christmas Eve busk on Grafton Street! Dueting “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with Imelda May.
Unscripted Bono, the greatest gift.
THE TRUE STORY OF BOB GELDOF BULLYING BONO TO SING THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL LYRIC IN CHARITY ROCK HISTORY
November 25, 1984. Sarm West Studios, London. Midge Ure & Bob Geldof have written “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in a single night. The original lyric in the big finale was the gentle, saccharine: “Tonight we’re reaching out and touching you.”
Geldof decides it’s too soft. At the absolute last minute — while artists are already arriving — he scribbles a new line: “Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you.”
Bono (24 years old) walks into the vocal booth, sees the lyric sheet, and immediately refuses. According to everyone in the room (Midge Ure, Paula Yates, the engineers, Bono himself in later interviews), he said something like: “I’m not singing that. It’s crass, it’s smug, it’s revolting. It sounds like the rich West saying ‘thank God the starving people are African and not us.’”
Geldof storms into the booth and unleashes one of his legendary tirades (compiled from multiple witnesses + Bono’s own retellings): “It’s not supposed to make you feel warm and fuzzy, you little Irish prick! It’s supposed to be a slap in the f*cking face! It’s supposed to make the listener in their nice warm house feel uncomfortable — that’s the entire bloody point! Now stop being a precious little art-school wanker, get back in that booth and sing the f*cking line like you mean it!”
After several minutes of shouting, Bono finally relents — but only if he can deliver it with total disgust and venom, turning the line into an accusation instead of a celebration.
He does exactly that. You can hear the disgust in his voice — it’s the moment that made the song unforgettable.
For decades Bono still hated the line. He called it “the most cringe thing I’ve ever sung.”
When the song was re-recorded in 2014, Bono insisted they change it back to the original soft version: “Tonight we’re reaching out and touching you.”
Which version do you prefer?
🎥 1984, 2014 and 2024 versions of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
"People ask me all the time what 'Dream On' is all about,"
said Steven Tyler in 'Walk This Way', Aerosmith's authorized band biography.
"It's simple. It's about dreaming until your dreams come true. It's about the hunger and desire and ambition to be somebody that Aerosmith felt in those days."
That was his answer.
Watch how Steven Tyler makes a great introduction speech to the song Dream On.
Steven Tyler & 2Cellos performing 'Dream On' and 'Walk This Way' live at Roman Colosseum, Andrea Bocelli Show, Celebrity Fight Night, September 8th, in 2017.
Donald Sutherland’s monologue in JFK (1991) is one of the great info-dump scenes in cinema. 15 minutes of conspiracy, power, and cold institutional logic, delivered with a calm that makes it even more chilling. A masterclass in holding the screen. https://t.co/lXNIM4mmF5
@n_lavi@ElonMuskNews47 please kindly follow me as I am maxed out on the account so I can follow on Twitter right now. I will then send you a DM so I could be directed to collect my Tesla certificate for my package! @n_lavi
Mexico City, 1997: Bono breaks down at the end of “One” — 11 days after his close friend Michael Hutchence took his own life. He dedicated the song to him that night. One of U2’s most raw, emotional moments ever caught on film.