Tears Are Not Enough | |||||||||||||
Recording Artist: | Northern Lights for Africa | ||||||||||||
Writers: | Jim Vallance Rachel Paiement Bryan Adams David Foster Bob Rock Paul Hyde |
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Date Written: | February 1985 | ||||||||||||
Albums: | Tears
Are Not Enough (1985) USA For Africa: We Are The World (1985) |
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Charts: | #1 (4 weeks) / The Record, Canada / April 29, 1985 (15 weeks on the chart, total) | ||||||||||||
Awards: | 1986 - Procan Award (Performing Rights Organization of Canada) for Canadian radio airplay | ||||||||||||
FIX Audio: | |||||||||||||
Audio: | |||||||||||||
David Foster: keyboards, Moog bass Paul Dean: electric guitar David Sinclair: acoustic guitar Steven Denroche: French Horn Doug Johnson: synthesizer Jim Vallance: drums |
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Produced by David Foster. Associate producer Jim Vallance. |
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Recorded by Jim Vallance at Distorto Studio (Vancouver), Bob Rock at Little Mountain Studios (Vancouver), Geoff Turner at Pinewood Studios (Vancouver), and Hayward Parrott at Manta Sound Studios (Toronto). Mixed by Humberto Gatica at Lion Share Recording Studios (Los Angeles). |
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Comments: | Our gig at Mah's ended each night at 11:30. We'd drop our instruments and run down the street so we could catch Tommy Banks' last set at The Embers. Tommy and his band were amazing. They performed flawless, energetic covers of "Chicago" and "Blood Sweat And Tears". Foster was a skinny 21-year-old who played piano, organ and trombone ... all extremely well. He was the stand-out musician in a stand-out band. I was an instant fan. A year later I was back in Vancouver, just starting to break into the studio scene as a session drummer. By this time David had also moved to Vancouver, and I did a few recordings sessions with him before he permanently relocated to Los Angeles. After that he was unstoppable, working with "Earth Wind And Fire", "Chicago", Barbara Streisand, Boz Scaggs, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and countless others. Fifteen years later, in 1985, David returned to Vancouver for a short time. He and his wife Rebecca bought a house in the neighbourhood where Bryan Adams and I lived, but we didn't see much of them. One day I ran into David in the lobby of Little Mountain Sound Studios, where he was producing an album for The Payolas. He approached me in a panic. "You have a home studio, right?". I replied that I did. Visibly excited, David told me he'd just got off the phone with Quincy Jones. Quincy had just finished recording a Michael Jackson/Lionel Ritchie song for African famine relief called "We Are The World". He played the song for David over the phone, then the asked David if he could write a Canadian song for Africa. |
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"We
Are The World" was written in response to Bob Geldoff's song, "Do
They Know It's Christmas", recorded and released the year before
(1984). Geldoff's song raised millions of dollars, and had
already made a significant difference to those suffering from drought
and famine in Africa. Quincy hoped that the U.S. and Canadian songs might make a difference
too. David had a melody, borrowed from a song he'd been working on, and he had a title, "Tears Are Not Enough". Twenty years later I finally heard the story behind the "title": Paul Hyde and Bob Rock were in the studio with Foster the day that Quincy Jones called. Several weeks earlier they'd written a song called "Tears Are Not Enough", and after the call from Quincy they played their song for David, thinking it might be suitable for the Famine Relief recording. "So, what do you think?", they asked. "Nice title", David replied. The Rock/Hyde song wasn't used, but the title was. |
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We started recording the music track right away. The lyrics could wait until later. Using his Emulator synthesizer David laid down a piano, followed by a Moog bass, then a bell sound. I added drums and percussion. An hour or two later we had a "basic track". It was intended to be a quick "demo" recording, but it worked so well that we ended up using it for the final "master" recording. Then we started working on the lyrics: We can close the distance Only we can make the difference Don't you know that tears are not enough? It was a good start, but David had to rush away for a session with The Payolas, promising to return the following day. I continued working on the lyrics, while my wife Rachel starting writing the French lyric (c'est l'amour qui nous rassemble, d'ici a l'autre bout du monde) -- after all, it was a Canadian song for Africa! The next day Bryan Adams hurried over to help. He looked at the lyrics I'd written and immediately suggested an improvement: "How about 'we can BRIDGE the distance'?", he asked. It was perfect, and with that we were off and running. Bryan and I finished the lyric later that evening. Then Bryan and Rachel recorded the vocals which would serve as a "guide track" for the singers who would eventually be involved. The demo was completed at 4:00 a.m. the next morning. David Foster was delighted with the results. David enlisted Bryan's manager, Bruce Allen, to help assemble a roster of performers. Bruce is well-respected and well-connected in the music industry, and in quick succession Joni Mitchell and Neil Young agreed to participate, followed by Kim Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot. Burton Cummings came on board, and so did Geddy Lee and Corey Hart. Comedians John Candy and Catherine O'Hara offered their services, along with legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and David Letterman's Canadian sidekick Paul Shaffer. Dan Hill, Jane Sibbery, Sylvia Tyson, Robert Charlebois ... the list of participants grew by the hour. Only someone with Bruce Allen's stature and clout could have pulled all these people together on such short notice. It was remarkable to witness. |
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On Saturday (February 9, 1985) we flew to Toronto to prepare for the mammoth recording session planned for the following day. During the four-hour flight from Vancouver to Toronto I reviewed the lyric sheet with David Foster, Bryan Adams and Mike Reno. We talked about who should sing which line. We decided we'd start with Canadian legend Gordon Lightfoot ("As everyday goes by ..."), then move to Burton Cummings ("How can we close our eyes ..."), then to Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, and so on (for the complete list, click here). The session took place on Sunday, February 10. It was a cold, windy day, and the ground was covered in snow. Regardless, hundreds of fans gathered outside Manta Studios to watch the "stars" arrive. Gordon Lightfoot drove himself to the studio in an old pick-up truck. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell arrived by taxi with Neil's manager, Elliot Roberts. Platinum Blonde arrived in a white stretch limousine. Just as Quincy Jones had done in Los Angeles, David posted a sign at the entry to the studio that said, "Leave your egos at the door". Everyone gave 200%, and at the end of the day we had the makings of a magical record. |
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"But that's my sound, man", Neil shot back, good naturedly. For me, one of the highlights was sitting on the studio floor, a few feet from Joni Mitchell, while she carved graceful lines in the air with her hands as she sang. Joni later spoke to writer Iain Blair about the recording experience: "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I was literally starving when we did the session 'cause my yoga teacher had sent me to a psychic dietician who had diagnosed a lot of food allergies. I was hardly allowed to eat anything, so by the time I arrived with an apple and a rice patty, my poor stomach was making all these strange noises. The engineer says he can't record 'cause he's picking up some weird rumbling sound coming from my direction. And it was all pretty ironic, considering the subject matter!" For me, another special moment was meeting Richard Manuel, singer and pianist for "The Band". In fact, Joni and "The Band" are two of my biggest musical influences, and I was in "fan heaven" hearing them sing lyrics I'd written a few days before! |
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After
completing the vocal session in Toronto, David and I flew back to Vancouver
and booked time at Pinewood Studios and Little Mountain Sound where more
musicians were added to the track, including Loverboy's Doug Johnson
and Paul Dean, who contributed keyboards and guitar. Steven Denroche, a member of the Vancouver Symphony, played French Horn. Like the session in Toronto, there was a film crew present, collecting footage for a planned documentary and music video. |
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It took less than 15 minutes for Steven to record
his French Horn part. When he was done, David thought it would sound
good if the part was doubled. David asked Steven to play a single note on his horn, and hold it for about 10 seconds. David recorded the note into his "Emulator" (photo above), after which he was able to play a perfect French Horn sound on the keyboard. Using the Emulator, David quickly doubled the "real" French Horn with the "sampled" sound. He thanked Steven for donating his time, and sent him on his way. |
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When it got to the French Horn part I noticed they'd deleted most of the footage of Steven playing, but had kept the part where David records Steven's long note and doubles the real horn. In the finished film it appears as if Steven contributed nothing more than a single note, with David doing all the rest. I told David I thought it was cruel to fabricate a scene at Steven's expense, particularly after Steven had donated his time to the project. David thought the humour of the "one note" French Horn performance outweighed any concerns over humiliating the musician, and he left it in. As newspaper magnate William Randolph Heart once said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story". |
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One
important Canadian artist was unable to attend the Toronto recording
session. Bruce Cockburn was touring in Europe. Bernie Finkelstein (Bruce's manager) wondered if there might be a way that Bruce could record his vocal at a studio in Germany and have it edited into the mix at a later date. It was a nice idea, but to meet our deadline Bruce's contribution would have to be filmed and recorded sometime in the next 48 hours. Without really "thinking it through", I volunteered to fly to Germany! The good news is, Air Canada provided a free ticket. The bad news is, there were no direct fights -- so I had to fly from Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to London, London to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Hamburg ... a 44-hour round-trip. I arrived in Hamburg just in time to catch Bruce's performance at a club on Tuesday evening. Bruce is a gifted musician, and his performance was rivetting. I met him backstage, for the first time, after the show. I'd brought a cassette recording of the song, which Bruce hadn't heard yet. But before I could even play the tape for him, Bruce dropped a bomb. He said he still hadn't decided if he wanted to participate on the project! |
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In my sleep-deprived, jet-lagged stupor, my first reaction was to reached across the table and grab Bruce by the throat with both hands. I'm joking, of course, but I did use every ounce of diplomacy I could muster. I told Bruce how magical the session in Toronto had been ... how it was truly a special project, and that everyone was looking forward to his involvement, which was true! Bruce eventually came around, and he agreed to meet me at a Hamburg recording studio the following morning. It took less than an hour to complete Bruce's audio and video recording. He did a splendid job ... thoroughly professional. Then it was back to the airport for the 22-hour return flight to Vancouver (via Frankfurt, London and Toronto). |
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The next morning I flew to Los Angeles to deliver Bruce's audio track. Foster and his assistant Chris Earthy met me at the airport. We rushed over to Kenny Roger's "Lion Share" studio on Melrose where, literally at the last minute, Cockburn's vocal was edited into the audio mix that engineer Humberto Gatica had nearly completed (all of this travel could have been avoided if digital audio and email had existed in 1985!). "Tears Are Not Enough" reached #1 on the Canadian charts and raised more than $3-million for African famine relief. |
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Northern Lights:
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Bryan
Adams Carroll Baker Veronique Beliveau Salome Bey Liona Boyd John Candy Robert Charlebois Tom Cochrane Bruce Cockburn Burton Cummings Dalbello Brian Good Corey Hart Ronnie Hawkins Dan Hill Mark Holmes Tommy Hunter Paul Hyde Marc Jordan Geddy Lee Gordon Lightfoot Murray McLauchlan Baron Longfellow (aka Andy Kim) Frank Mills Joni Mitchell Kim Mitchell Anne Murray Bruce Murray Aldo Nova Catherine O'Hara Oscar Peterson Colina Phillips Carole Pope Mike Reno Lorraine Segato Paul Shaffer Jane Siberry Liberty Silver Wayne St. John Ian Thomas Sylvia Tyson Sharon Williams Neil Young Alfie Zappacosta |
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Lyrics: | As every
day goes by how can we close our eyes Until we open up our hearts We can learn to share and show how much we care Right from the moment that we start It seems like overnight we see a world in a different light Somehow our innocence is lost How can we look away 'cause every single day We've got to help at any cost We can bridge the distance Only we can make the difference Don't you know that Tears are not enough If we can pull together We can change the world forever Heaven knows that tears are not enough It's up to me and you To make the dream come true It's time to take our message everywhere C'est l'amour qui nous rassemble D'ici a l'autre bout du monde Let's show them Canada still cares Oh, you know that we'll be there We can bridge the distance Only we can make the difference Don't you know that Tears are not enough If we can pull together We can change the world forever Heaven knows that tears are not enough And if we should try Together, you and I Maybe we could understand the reasons why If we take a stand, Every woman, child, and man We could make it work For god's sake, lend a hand We can bridge the distance Only we can make the difference Don't you know that Tears are not enough If we can pull together We can change the world forever Heaven knows that tears are not enough |
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Lyrics (part 2): | I've had a number of requests from people wanting to know "who sang which line" on the recording of "Tears Are Not Enough". Here it is ... | ||||||||||||
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Gordon Lightfoot: As every day goes by, how can we close our eyes |
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Burton Cummings: Until we open up our hearts |
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Anne Murray: We can learn to share and show how much we care |
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Joni Mitchell: Right from the moment that we start |
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Dan Hill: It seems like overnight we see the world in a different light |
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Neil Young: Somehow our innocence is lost |
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Bryan
Adams: How can we look away, 'cause every single day |
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Mike Reno
/ Liberty Silver: We've got to help at any cost |
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Chorus #1
/ the
above 9 singers: We can bridge the distance Only we can make the difference Don't you know that tears are not enough? If we can pull together We can change the world forever Heaven knows that tears are not enough |
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Carroll
Baker / Ronnie Hawkins / Murray McLaughlin: It's up to me and you to make the dream come true |
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Corey
Hart: It's time to take our message everywhere |
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Veronique Beliveau / Claude Dubois
/ Robert Charlebois: C'est l'amour qui nous rassemble d'ici a l'autre bout du monde |
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Bruce Cockburn: Let's show them Canada still cares |
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Geddy Lee: You know that we'll be there |
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Chorus #2 / the above 18 singers: |
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Bryan Adams
/ Donny Gerrard: And if we should try |
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All 44 singers: Together you and I |
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Alfie Zappacosta: Maybe we could understand the reasons why |
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Lisa Dal Bello
/ Carol Pope / Paul Hyde: If we take a stand |
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Salome Bey
/ Mark Holmes / Lorraine Segato: Every woman child and man |
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Mike Reno: We can make it work, for God's sake lend a hand |
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Chorus #3 / all 44 singers: We can bridge the distance Only we can make the difference Don't you know that tears are not enough? If we can pull together We can change the world forever Heaven knows that tears are not enough |
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Ad libs (in order of appearance): Bryan Adams, Mike Reno, Donny Gerrard, Mark Holmes, Carol Pope, Lisa Dal Bello, Mike Reno, Wayne St. John |