George Michael R.I.P.

or a long illness

anyway this quote from 1988 sums up a lot

"If you listen to a Supremes record or a Beatles record, which were made in the days when pop was accepted as an art of sorts, how can you not realize that the elation of a good pop record is an art form? Somewhere along the way, pop lost all its respect. And I think I kind of stubbornly stick up for all of that."

Hadn't been in and out of the hospital over the last couple years?

no suspicious circumstances in UK police speak is probably actually more like "we can't see an obvious cause of death but nothing suggests murder/foul play". if there is no obvious cause they cannot give an absolute public answer on anything until an autopsy legally makes it clear. due to recent quietness i expect its just more of his recent ill health problems.

I was going down for the third time - my heart was broken, I was not open to your suggestion - had so many questions that you just kissed away. I guess that Cupid was in disguise the day you walked in & changed my life. I think it's amazing, the way that love can set you free. So now I walk in the midday sun. I never thought that my savior'd come. I think it's amazing. I think you're amazing.

standing behind a club in 2007 listening to this on headphones over and over, my lifeline, in a state of disbelief that the guy whose "Edge of Heaven" had taken me by surprise in '85 -- I was so young, music moved so fast, I'd figured Wham! was old news and I'd moved on and then BAM, there it was...but life is long and there's so much, and by '07 I'm not thinking about Wham or G.M. at all, that's stuff from my teen years right? and the iTunes says "new George Michael single" and I say "sure, let's give it a shot, he was so good once"

and then that burbly 4 a.m. muffled club synth intro into that smooth beat and that da-da-das

you were a giant, George Michael. truly a giant.

If Lou Reed made me gay, and David Bowie made me insouciant about it, then George Michael helped me realize it.

<3

I put youtube on my tv and have been shuffling through his catalog, crying and dancing and quietly thinking about George

such a friend to my ears

"As" on right now & I simultaneously wish for a dance party and rain

Oh George

I wrote this in September, when he wasn't dead.

An amazing artist with a huge heart and a wicked sense of humour. RIP George.

oh man "Somebody to Love": It's this perfect combo of techinical prowess + passion. He was the only performer that night who projected not only how much he LOVED Freddie Mercury's music, which is quite enough if you're straight, but how Queen had saved him.

Consummate artist

and I can't get past how often he sneaked gay overtones into these massive pop hits. "Different Corner," sure, but listen to "One More Try" without thinking it's a gay "Maggie May."

"One More Try" is maybe a top 5 vocal performance of the late 80s (at least)

fuck this shit. <3 and rest in peace George.

RIP
the morbid weirdness of hearing "Lazarus" and "Sometimes it Snows in April" and "You Want It Darker" and now and "Last Christmas" sums up this year all too neatly

no suspicious circumstances in UK police speak is probably actually more like "we can't see an obvious cause of death but nothing suggests murder/foul play".

true, and "unexplained" doesn't really indicate it was suicide.

thinking illness, esp since the family said he died peacefully

his spokesperson said he hadn't been ill, but tbh we're already knee-deep in not-our-business territory so

Some striking photos here:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2016/dec/26/george-michael-life-in-pictures

lovely bittersweet listen here, George's Desert Island Discs ep from 2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008006s

Oh thanks!

8 years ago, I got his Twenty- FIve, which has shit from Older and Patience that I had never heard and really liked it… I knew "fastlove" referencing his recently deceased boyfriend, and "outside" which has a funny vid re: his "importuning" arrest but that was it…which is to say that in America, his work past Listen W/out P. is obscure; like, what he did in 1990-1991 was not in tune with the 90s alt-milieu, and I don't remember the MOR audience going for him.

I would be interested in English people's, or people from anywhere else, impressions of his last 20 years: like did his shit get on the radio or you heard it everywhere you went upon release? is ti true that he was huge everywhere else?

Older was massive in Australia iirc

This feels cruel and unfair.

Fuck you 2016.

Outside and its accompanying video are one of the most fearless and funny artefacts in pop. A 100% "up yours!" to the media and the establishment. I'm so sad that he's gone but so happy that he turned devastating events into something so joyous. He did not give a shit in the last 10-15 years. I think he was happy and happy being a fuck up. He was brutally honest with George and generous to others.

What a FANTASTIC man!

He was a hell of a ballad singer, and as close to a pure pop artist/auteur as the 80s had - MJ and Madonna had too much outside help to really qualify, Prince was too rock/funk/whatever and too flat out eccentric. Not a first-rate lyricist but at best he was pretty sly. What nobody ever mentions is that he was also a preternaturally gifted composer - "Freedom '90" and "Jesus to a Child" among others are as remarkable for their structure and arrangements and chord changes as they are for their by-now-obvious subtext. This is OTM:

His casual mastery of pop form was daunting

And so is this:

fresh out of the gate, he had more hits than most people would even dare to pray for, every one of them a dense tapestry of impulses & influences; and he was underrated from early on, too

RIP.

Even though Faith was massive pretty much everywhere, it is odd that he is never really quite considered part of the Bruce/Madonna/Michael/Prince/Whitney 80s pop royalty, although I'm probably coming at this from a very American (by way of Canada) perspective. I'm likely guilty of underrating him myself; between owning a cassette of Faith when I was 10 and rediscovering the album only a few years ago, I don't think I ever thought of him outside the occasional public embarrassment. Even watching the news just now, on which every song they played clips from--aside from "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go"--was from Faith, it really is astonishing how one album produced so many massive singles.

RIP

i always figured him in pop royalty, growing up in Australia may have helped that impression I guess

insane *not* to think of him as such

One of my husband's relatives, just now: "Did he leave behind a wife and kids?"

Hmm. Dare I ask what the reaction was when this person was disabused?

wow

In his defense you can be gay and leave behind a wife and kids.

But that's off topic and worthless to discuss atm. I'd rather talk about his late work:

What was the last thing he did? I think the last song I heard from him was Outside from 1998! I lost track completely. Anything you recommend from his work of the past 20 years?

I remember there were some rumors of a Disclosure/George Michael collaboration... seems it never came through but I would've loved to hear him in that 'updated' setting - not necessarily Disclosure but any sort of modern edm/disco/house context- he had a really smooth very sexual voice.

53. That came out of nowhere.
RIP George.

Anything you recommend from his work of the past 20 years?

Joan L. Chachi on "Amazing" upthread to thread

I just played "Freedom '90" and his death is going to be especially hard to come to terms with because as well as only being 53, so many of his songs are about being alive and living your life on your own terms. "Because I would really really love to stick around."

really sad news. he had a really amazing voice. agree with ned about father figure. i'd say there's always been one or two of his singles drifting into regular rotation for me, over many years, whether solo stuff or wham.

obvious choice but the vocal in this is so brilliant, it's obviously a great song but he performs it with such style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtYOpHp-bX0

Love the guy but his post 96 output save Amazing was dismal

He seemed to be going on a whole new terrain with Older that he never properly followed up on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdfXzUFo3_s

friend shared this on facebook, great track and a really nice video.

Heartbroken about this. The ILM poll earlier this year made me go back to his stuff and listen to it over and over, especially Precious Box.

RIP George.

This has been widely posted but just adding here as it's amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1ZMi3cPzUg

Also just to rep for "As", which I will listen to any day over the Stevie version

What a man

Also, Fastlove, I think in retrospect the greatest song of my teenage years. Back when pubs had pool tables and jukeboxes, always impossible not to 50p it

as a DJ in hip-hop clubs in New York City in the late 90’s, George/Wham’s “Everything She Wants” was one of maybe three or four tunes by white artists that you could follow MJ, Frankie Beverly or Roy Ayers with

nice tribute from Mark Ronson https://www.instagram.com/p/BOdfkmVArb7/

it's all so sad :'(

Amazing how patronised George is in that clip, while being the most broadly knowledgeable and open person on the panel. ugh, Morrissey.

Had never heard (or heard of) "If I Told You That" until this morning.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7EjfbyCpAxA

Love the guy but his post 96 output save Amazing was dismal

i mean i know i'm cap'n save an artist's later work but having gone through it just earlier this year this is absolutely untrue

i mean, "cars and trains"! "precious box"! "an easier affair"!

'Flawless'
'Shoot the Dog'

From a Neil Tennant interview:

I first met him in 1982. I interviewed him and Andrew (Ridgley) for Smash Hits and then the last time we saw him it was exactly 30 year later, at the Olympic closing ceremony. We were in these Portakabin-y dressing rooms and the person next to us is playing music unbelievably loudly. I said to our tour manager: ‘Can you go and ask him to turn that down, please?’ And suddenly the door flings open and George, who we hadn’t seen since he’d been in jail, comes in and says: ‘Did you just tell me to turn my music down?’ I said: ‘Yes, I did.’ And he says: ‘Give me a hug.’ And then he went back to his dressing room, put his stereo on and played West End Girls – loudly.”

Ridgley’s RRHOF induction speech for GM was great.

<3

Michael was a massive PSB fan. Chris Heath's first PSB book notes how in 1989 GM hung out by the sound booth pumping his fist in the air to "Left to My Own Devices" singing every word.