George Michael R.I.P.

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'

more sparse than dismal

Outside too.

George does come across very tasteful and intelligent in that eight days a week episode. But fucking Morrissey ... ugh! indeed, what a repulsive lil' arrogant overgrown 6th former cunt he makes out of himself.

that was the raw material he had tbf

this is gorgeous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRAOG-BpNOw

his combination of chops and soul, passion and control was sublime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbWJO8RMg1A

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?

― veronica moser,

Older was to England what Faith was in America: a massive hit.

t became Michael's biggest-selling album in his homeland, achieving over 1.8 million copies sold, and receiving a 6xPlatinum certification by the BPI on 5 December 1997. In the UK, it spent a total of 147 weeks inside the Top 200, 99 of them on the Top 75, and 35 of them on the Top 10 (including 23 consecutive weeks).[13] The steady sales of the album were the result of good promotion market and the release of six hit singles throughout a 2-year period. All of these singles (except for the one for the title track) were released and promoted as EP's, in two available formats, most of them containing previously unreleased material (including live tracks, alternate versions and, in the case for the Spinning the Wheel EP, two new studio recordings of brand-new George Michael compositions). Most of these singles were promoted with live performances at Top of the Pops and also music videos were recorded for the four first singles. All of this helped to push the album sales from one week to another, with the album usually returning to the Top 10 in the British charts. For example, when "Star People '97" was released in mid-1997, Older achieved a 21-14-10-7 progression on the charts. Very much the same happened when "You Have Been Loved/The Strangest Thing '97" was issued as the sixth single (fourteen months after the original release of the album), and Older showed a 24-14-7 move on the UK charts. In all, Older currently sits as the 97th best selling album of all time in the United Kingdom.

Listened to Battlestations for the first time in 25 years today. Loved it at the time then but didn't fully appreciate what a Prince-inspired classic it clearly was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSxl3CHeI7Q

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?

― veronica moser,

Just check and his last hit in the US was 20 years ago, what were you lot thinking? In that same period, he had 10 more top 10 hits and 5 top 20 hits in the UK.

RIP George btw.

Have you listened to American radio in the last 20 years? Nuance is not one of its prized qualities.

Stunned at the level of grief and interest in his death to be honest. Obviously he was much more popular in the UK. "I Want Your Sex" is a sick fucking song, those synth stabs in the chorus. But grouping him in with Prince and Bowie (haven't read all of this thread yet but I've seen that appraisal elsewhere) seems insane to me.