Billy Joel - 1985-09-22 - Champaign, IL (FM)

Billy Joel

1985-09-22

Farm Aid

Memorial Stadium

Univerity of Illinois

Champaign, IL

FM Broadcast

320 kbps

Artwork Included

01. Summer Highland Falls

02. Only The Good Die Young

Backing Darly Hall

03. Every Time You Go Away

Billy Joel - 1985-09-22 - Champaign, IL (FM)

Thirty one years ago today, on September 22, 1985, Neil Young, Willie Nelson & John Mellencamp, inspired by Bob Dylan's pleas at Live Aid to help the family farmer in America, launched Farm Aid intending to do just that!  That firs concert, which was held at the University of Illinois, attarcted 80,000 fans and raised over $9 million.  Over the past 3 decades the effort has raised well over $50 million to help America's family farms while also serving a a key organization to raise awareness of the importance and plight of those farmers.  Yo can help by going here to donate.

Today, we'll bring your 4 sets from that first landmark Farm Aid show, as well as another concert from that same date in history by a band who wouldn't appear at Farm Aid until 1994.  The inaugural Farm Aid had the largest roster of artists of any of the shows, as the mood of giving back, fostered by Live Aid, inspired a diverse and eclectic group of artists to lend a hand.  From Van Halen, with new lead singer Sammy Hagar, to John Denver, from the Beach Boys to Foreigner, from BB King to Kenny Rogers, all topped off by a set from the man whose words triggered a movement, the one and only Bob Dylan, the first Farm Aid set the standard for the future, musicians uniting for a cause invoking the spirit of the 1960s where rock and roll helped change the world.

We start our tribute to the first Farm Aid concert with an FM Broadcast of Billy Joel, making his one and only Farm Aid appearance, on September 22, 1985, 31 years ago today.