It was 1985, and improvised empathy was cool.

News reports of families starving to death in drought-stricken Ethiopia were enough to move the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats to assemble a British supergroup to help save them.

Bob Geldof, Band Aid and “Do They Know It’s Christmas” helped inspire Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson to rally even more star power into USA for Africa, raise hundreds of millions with “We Are The World,” and create momentum for a bicontinental mega-concert called Live Aid.

And when the Philadelphia stage hit late prime time, Bob Dylan unwittingly gave this wave of pop philanthropy another push.

“I hope that some of the money that’s raised for the people in Africa,” Dylan said, flanked by Keith Richards and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. “Maybe they can just ta

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