Remarkable change in We Are The World lyrics

2

Comments

  • It's an huge change.. The original line, written in 1985, makes me wonder.. <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? --> Now the meaning is completely different. <!-- s:!: -->:!:<!-- s:!: -->
    Thanks!
  • ok can anyone please explain what does the change mean?? i'm not getting it...
  • I don´t think it´s so important.... if you hear the original demo you can see it was completely different from the recorded song... Michael made the music and the structure but then Lionel must have worked with him changing the lyrics....
    [youtube:uhpbydho]
  • Is there a way to contact Lionel and just ask him about the change ?????

    xoxoxo
  • In Heal the world he writes God turns stone into bread. When I google about that I cannot find anything that that happenend. But when you read the story about Jezus and the temptation, it's said that Jezus was in the desert for forty days and forty nights. And resists the temptation of the devil. look now at the 3th part of Billy Jean:

    For forty days and forty nights
    I was on her side
    But who can stand
    When she's in demand
    Her schemes and plans
    Cause we danced on the floor, in the round
    (floor = desert = his life, fooling -
    So take my strong advice
    ( around with devil = illuminati)
    Just remember to always think twice
    (Do think twice)
    Do think twice
    Hooo

    At the time that he writes Heal the world and wrote the part about stone/bread, and you find out that it's not the original story, he wants us to look to Billy Jean (and other lyrics?) To let us know that someone (illuminati) wants to take (keep) control over him. And now it is changed again. Do think twice!!
  • misha86misha86 Posts: 508
    ok can anyone please explain what does the change mean?? i'm not getting it...


    back at that time mike was under control of the illuminati, they worship the devil so by saying "god changed bread to stone" is saying that the devil is god

    that line is gone , meaning that he is not under control of them no more
  • eviltwineviltwin Posts: 154
    You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.
  • SouzaSouza Posts: 9,400
    You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

    The devil turned stone to bread, not God. Even I know that and I am not even religious. I am glad it was removed.

    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

  • eviltwineviltwin Posts: 154
    You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

    The devil turned stone to bread, not God. Even I know that and I am not even religious. I am glad it was removed.
    The Devil DID NOT turn stones into bread, he simply tempted. The Devil suggested that If Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus should turn the stones to bread. "If you are really the Son of God, turn these stones into bread."

    This verse in WATW titles "GOD". Jesus is the second person in the Trinity. God the Father created Jesus to turn our hearts of stone into the bread of forgiveness. That is only possible by way of The Bread of Life who is Jesus, God's Son. Hence the Temple curtain tore in two from top to bottom upon the crucifixion. It's all relative.
  • SouzaSouza Posts: 9,400
    You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

    The devil turned stone to bread, not God. Even I know that and I am not even religious. I am glad it was removed.
    The Devil DID NOT turn stones into bread, he simply tempted. The Devil suggested that If Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus should turn the stones to bread. "If you are really the Son of God, turn these stones into bread."

    This verse in WATW titles "GOD". Jesus is the second person in the Trinity. God the Father created Jesus to turn our hearts of stone into the bread of forgiveness. That is only possible by way of The Bread of Life who is Jesus, God's Son. Hence the Temple curtain tore in two from top to bottom upon the crucifixion. It's all relative.

    If my bible knowledge has failed me and that's quite possible since I haven't read it in almost 20 years, and what you are saying is true, then the phrase is still disturbing. "As God has shown us after being told by the devil to do so..."

    No offence, to me there are (besides some good life lessons as well) a lot of disturbing things in the bible, this is one of them.

    Also (and again no offence) the fact that God is cut out again, is not a bad thing at all. If people would love each other half of how they love their god, the world would be a wonderful place again.

    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

  • Well, the original was not Biblically accurate. So they had to change it.
  • teensyteensy Posts: 120
    I noticed the line change immediately!
    As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
    I think it was no accident or misunderstanding that this line was in the song originally.
  • MJonmindMJonmind Posts: 7,290
    If I'm not mistaken, MJ said that he and Lionel had worked and worked on WATW and it wasn't satisfactory, and MJ did some more work on it and finally it was good at the last "minute"! Does someone know if that was in Moonwalker? About the lyric change. Art is not necessarily supposed to be theologically, grammatically, politically, etc. correct. It's about emotion, story, message, passion. I believe the context of this controversial line is that we need to show caring for the people, planet around us. I don't think MJ cared so much for the letter of the law but the spirit of the law. This message is about God our creator, sustainer, provider providing food for the hungry out of the most unlikely sources, even hardened hearts or selfish greed. He might have lifted it out of the temptation of Christ but he's using it for his own thoughts.

    The story in the Bible was all about Jesus resisting temptation to sin and listen to the devil--it was test of His character. Jesus in effect says to the devil, bread is good but you also need to listen to God's voice. Well maybe in the world today God is showing us and the devil His ways of doing things better. MJ's an artist not a theologian, thankfully. If you study the New Testament you'll notice Jesus did his own thing too, quoting Old Testament and other literature of his day, not sitting too well with the proper thinkers of his day. Also there is much use of the word 'stone' in the Bible. Another good study. Just a few verses back from the Matthew 4:3 in question, to 3:9 where Jesus is lashing at the religious leaders and says, "Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves,'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you, that God is able from these STONES to raise up children to Abraham." Heck God can make anything out of anything He wants to. Another thought on 4:3 the devil is directing his question to Jesus not God. In the song it is God making the bread and for what purpose--showing us something--what--to love, care and lend a hand.

    Send them your heart so they know that someone cares
    And their lives will be stronger and free
    As God has shown us by turning stones to bread
    So we all must lend a helping hand
  • I see nothing disturbing with that verse. <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->

    The only thing I see is a lyricist that made a mistake, or was too into lyrics and forgot the 'historical' part. Many poets are doing mistakes like those - unintentionally or intentionally - because their truth is the poetical truth not the historical truth.





    From a religious point of view it's not even a mistake, because Jesus already turned water into wine, so stones turned into bread would not make a crime either.

    What the crime would have been is for Jesus to fail unto temptation into desert and just FEED himself, by making stones into bread. The act of feeding himself while he was fasting. That was the temptation, that would be the crime, not the act of turning something into other thing. Jesus already did that, and we can guess he did it many times, not only the times mentioned in the Bible, just to feed the men and women around, he multiplied the fish. For a wedding he turned water into wine.

    So not big deal for Jesus to do those kind of transformations... So not the act of transformation of stones into bread, is bad. But the temptation to feed yourself in the middle of the fasting and give up on your lusts and instincts. And the devil tempted Jesus by telling him, to do another transformation. The devil knew Jesus is expert in those kind of transformations, and wanted Jesus to use that in his own benefit. With one little step, giving up to your own instincts, the devil can have you. he even can have Jesus into his evil power.... This is the meaning of the story, the selfish acts can draw us to the devil, enslaves us.





    So the verse from the We Are the World is just mistake done by a lyricist, Lionel, or Mike doesn't matter. They did just an historical mistake. Not even a religious one, as I've explained above... Jesus was perfect capable of turning everything into everything. Those who do not understand the CORE of this biblical story, are grasping fanatically at the surface of things.



    Open you eyes and stop being afraid and look at Jesus with innocent eyes, look at the core not surface.
    <!-- s;) -->;)<!-- s;) -->
  • MJonmindMJonmind Posts: 7,290
    I still totally believe Michael intended to say what he did--he knew his Bible well. In one story (can't remember the guy's name)- he verified that Michael did the 40 day fast possibly on more than one occasion. If he wants to draw our attention to the line for a certain reason, then we just haven't understood it properly yet. Theologians don't agree on almost every verse in the Bible and so how can we say with certainty what a verse totally means, can be literally, figuratively and then in layers. We should keep on looking. I think calling it an error is a mistake. <!-- s:lol: -->:lol:<!-- s:lol: --> IMHO
  • So? That means that Mike did it on purpose, meaning he was siding with the devil... or Illuminati Or just wanting to poke our heads, and that in the middle of an inspirational song?

    I think people are looking too much into things, too many conspiratorial theories, for real. Just for the sake of it.
  • SouzaSouza Posts: 9,400
    So? That means that Mike did it on purpose, meaning he was siding with the devil... or Illuminati Or just wanting to poke our heads, and that in the middle of an inspirational song?

    I think people are looking too much into things, too many conspiratorial theories, for real. Just for the sake of it.

    Maybe, but how do you explain that that phrase is replaced?

    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

  • simalvessimalves Posts: 730
    Some reviews about that line

    <!-- m -->http://www.ericmetaxas.com/writing/essa ... le-people/<!-- m -->
    Well, the big thrill for me in resurrecting this tacky dinosaur is that I get to hear the one lyric that should go down in history as Exhibit A in how Hollywood celebrities are magnificently and almost charmingly out-of-touch with the most basic religious facts. What is that lyric, you ask? Remember when Willie Nelson gets his moment in the sun and comes in with his signature warble? He says: “As God has shown us… by turning stone to bread…” I’ll never forget hearing that for the first time. For me it was like hearing someone referring to President Richard M. Dixon. I couldn’t believe it. Had Willie Nelson just said that God had at one time “turned stone to bread”? Had I really heard that? Who’d written this lyric — and why had Willie sung it? I could only guess that the lyricist was Lionel Ritchie or the King of Pop himself. In any case, they had flubbed up rather majorly here. It was obvious that they mistakenly thought Jesus had at some point in his ministry performed this miracle… But as any non-Grammy-winning Fifth-grader knows from Sunday School, Jesus didn’t turn stone to bread — he refused to turn stone to bread. That’s an important difference.

    But hadn’t someone suggested turning stone to bread? Whose idea was that? (Cue 80’s-era Churchlady voice): Satan’s?? That’s right, Churchlady: it was Satan’s idea. Most average Americans remember the famous scene from Scripture where Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. He is hungry, having fasted for forty days, and Satan suggests that he use his miraculous powers to turn “these stones into bread.” And Jesus refuses, saying: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Whoops!

    Anyway, Lionel and Michael and Quincy and Willie and everyone else on the risers seems to have missed this. Did Cyndi Lauper notice and not say anything? Or Dan Ackroyd? Or Ed Bradley? I doubt it. Certainly no one in the news media picked up on this whopping gaffe at the time, and as far as I know it’s never been mentioned since. Why? Well, mainly because the tiny group of Americans who are part of the much-vaunted media elites simply don’t know this sort of thing. And here’s the kicker — they don’t know anyone who knows it. It’s as if they are quarantined behind impenetrable pallisades of secularism — utterly protected from any molecules of Biblical knowledge or ideas. As if they are all Bubble People.

    And that night in the cab home I thought of Willie and Quincy and Michael and Lionel and my friend. All living in their bubble, not knowing there is a world outside them, actually thinking they are the world, when they are just inside a bubble inside it. Behold the Bubble People! Shall we tell them and burst it? Or is the wind shifting, and are they already beginning to gain altitude and float away, away, away?

    Also
    <!-- m -->http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question106949.html<!-- m -->
    In several spots, the Bible alludes to the seemingly spontaneous generation of food. While stone is not turned to bread, Psalm 104 does give God the credit for bringing "bread from the earth". In Numbers 19 God brings forth water from seemingly otherwise barren rock. In Exodus, the manner in which the mannah is formed is described as it's being formed from lifeless dewdrops.

    And this facebook hate page about the lyrics
    <!-- m -->http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=1 ... topic=9158<!-- m -->
    LOL

    I just think people need to chill and not look so deeply into the lyrics...
  • To me, the new line is what is important. It is clear that there are different biblical interpretations, depending personal beliefs and knowledge. Maybe the new line means more, no-one could argue with the meaning of this:-

    'We cant let them suffer, no we cannot turn away'

    Religion appears to cause anger, people become divided in their opinions. This could be why it was removed. The new line brings unity in a simple message that everyone will understand as having the same meaning.

    Maybe this is the message. <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->
  • simalvessimalves Posts: 730
    Very important to note that at the memorial they left the line out - so that means Michael definitely wanted it changed.


    There comes a time when we heed a certain call
    When the world must
    stand together as one.
    There are people dying
    It's time to lend a hand
    To life - the greatest gift of all.

    We can't go on pretending day by day
    That someone
    somewhere will soon make a change.
    We are all a part of God's great big family
    And the truth
    You know
    Love is all we need.

    We are the world
    We are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let's start giving.
    There's a choice we're making
    We're saving our own lives.
    It's true
    We'll make a better day
    Just you and me.

    When you're down and out

    And there's seems no hope at all
    But if you just believe
    There's no way
    you can fall
    Well, well, well, well, let us realize
    That a change will only come
    When we stand together as one

    We are the world
    We are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So lets start giving
    There's a choice we're making
    We're saving our own lives
    It's true we make a
    brighter day
    Just you and me...
  • simalvessimalves Posts: 730
    I actually love the demo. Though it is strange that all the lyrics are copyrighted for some reason. Maybe they want to put the blame for that line on him. I have some lyrics from the demo but there are a few words missing.

    There is a time when we should hear the certain calls
    'Cause the world it seems it's right in this line
    'Cause there's a chance for taking in needing our own lives
    It seems we need nothing at all

    I used to feel I should give away my heart
    And it shows that fear of needing them
    Then I read the headlines and it said they're dying there
    And it shows that we must heed instead

    We are the world
    We are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let's start giving
    There's a chance we're taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me

    Give in your heart and you will see that someone cares
    'Cause you know that they can feed them all
    Then I read the paper and it said that you've been denied
    And it shows the second we will call

    We are the world
    We are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let's start giving
    There's a chance we're taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me

    Now there's a time when we must love them all
    And it seems that life, it don't make love at all
    But if you'd been there, and I'll love you more and more
    It seems in life, I didn't do that

    We are the world, the world
    We are the children, are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let's start giving, let's start giving
    There's a chance we're taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me

    We are the world, are the world
    We are the children, are the children
    We are the ones who make a brighter day
    So let's start giving, let's start giving
    But there's a chance we're taking, taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me

    We are the world, shalom
    We are the children, shalingin
    We are the ones who make a brighter day, shalom
    So let's start giving, 'cause that's what we're being
    There's a chance we're taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me
    Come on, yeah

    We are the world, shalom
    We are the children, shalingin
    We are the ones who make a brighter day, shalom
    So let's start giving, 'cause that's what we're being
    There's a chance we're taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me
    Oh yeah, we got it

    We are the world, shalom
    We are the children, shalingin
    We are the ones who make a brighter day, shalom
    So let's start giving, cause that's what we're being
    There's a chance we're taking
    We're taking our own lives
    It's true we'll make a brighter day
    Just you and me
  • paula-cpaula-c Posts: 7,221
    if weeks ago is speaking here about a name on the gravestone of the Thriller video, is that the name?, Luis Moreno.
    When it was announced that the band records the song We Are The World I always thought that Michael is behind all this. I ask all who read blogs and Mo Zousa, Whether they agree or not, but it gives an idea of what we are investigating. A
    the end each one to decide. <!-- s8-) -->8-)<!-- s8-) -->
  • tiida11tiida11 Posts: 248
    The song was registered for humanitarian scope and they changed that verse to sensitize he possible donors :. But they couldn't do that without his/lawyers agree...
  • MJonmindMJonmind Posts: 7,290
    When Michael comes back there's so many things to ask him about. <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D -->
  • paula-cpaula-c Posts: 7,221
    tiida11 if in agreement and the strange thing is that nothing is mentioned of lawyers or family ,..... <!-- s8-) -->8-)<!-- s8-) -->
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