‘Drive’: The Cars anthem that rang the alarm on a humanitarian crisis
In a world so often beset with various humanitarian crises, it’s easy to become numb to the pain and heartbreak of it all when you feel so far removed. Although those struggles were being platformed on a world stage at Live Aid, it wasn’t until one particular anthem by The Cars rang the alarm on the cause and truly got the donations flowing.
It was, of course, the song ‘Drive’, which famously played over a video depicting the stark famine in Ethiopia that Live Aid was raising money for. But the story behind the moment, from the grace of David Bowie to the editor who created the cut itself, gave the song an almost otherworldly precedence, shooting beyond The Cars, or even to an extent Live Aid itself, in defining humanity for a generation.
Prior to the concert, CBC editor Colin Dean had been to Ethiopia and put together a video of the crisis while listening to ‘Drive’ on his Walkman. “It was only when he’d finished the edit that he realised that he’d cut this film to the beat and indeed the lyrics of the song, which he hadn’t really been thinking about,” recalled Bob Geldof in a 2020 interview. “And when he saw what he’d done, he sent it to me and I showed it to David [Bowie].”
With both Bowie and Geldof moved to tears by the effort, the Starman said he would forgo one song in his set on the day of Live Aid in order for the video to be played. Subsequently, after a blasting rendition of ‘Heroes’, he returned to the microphone and said: “Lest we forget why we’re here. I’d like to introduce a video made by CBC Television. The subject speaks for itself. Please send your money in.”
“And that’s when the phone lines all over the world collapsed… It’s that moment,” Geldof explained, “The moment came when people fully understood what this was for.” In that sense, everything that Live Aid stood for became defined single-handedly by The Cars. The new wave outfit had actually been at the gig and performed the song earlier in the night, but it wasn’t until the undeniable emotion of that critical moment that a tidal wave of legacy suddenly swept over them.
In most cases, bands that become defined by the success of one singular hit eventually learn to begrudge it, but to the credit of The Cars, they never let this consume them. In fact, in light of the reinvigoration that the track enjoyed in the charts after Live Aid, the band re-released the song and donated all the profits to Band Aid, with frontman Ric Ocasek presenting Midge Ure with a cheque for £160,000 the following year, in 1986.
There are few tunes out there that can genuinely claim to be world-changing. Sure, we talk about the greats and the gods as having a global rapture, but how many of them materially impacted humanity in the same way that The Cars did with ‘Drive’ and then refused to take the acclaim for it? Not many. That’s what really makes a song iconic – not for its lyrics or sound, but for its legacy.
