George Michael R.I.P.

Nevertheless, I'm listening to Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 again for the first time in ages, and I keep forgetting how utterly fucking wonderful 'Praying For Time' is.

I've always loved George Michael's voice, and felt he was somewhat underrated as a songwriter and a producer. Maybe now, people will look at his body of work and realise that he had an amazing songwriting gift.

TMZ is saying he may have had a lot of recent weight gain and since the cause of death was heart failure, could have been related to that. it just kind of shows how random it all is - there's no equation for who lives to what age, such as the examples above.

feel like listening to "Cowboys and Angels" now.

"Praying For Time" and "Freedom '90" are kind of an amazing one-two of high profile MTV-uber-alles videos that now weirdly seem like total harbringers of the YouTube era -- a lyric video followed by a dubsmash.

'Somebody To Love' was the song I havent been able to listen to since the news. I hadn't properly cried til now & I can't stop.

It is the song that means the most to me because his performance shows how deeply he understands the song. My understanding is that Somebody was Freddie's favorite song, but the one he was most self-conscious of because of how personal it was. - I like to think that George knew that, an as an expression of solidarity & understanding - he's playing not just to the huge crowd but to the heavens.

But he inhabits the *plea*. That's where he gets me. Freddie's version can make me cry any day of the week because of that plea, that hope, that need. George captures it so perfectly. Like a great actor he not only reads the lyrics, he *listens* & answers.

He's not mimicking Freddie in any way, he feels it in his soul & pours it out the way the song demands & it defeats any argument against his right to be among the great interpreters & creators of pop music. Not that those arguments hold much water but anyway

I just feel so ;_;

so I wrote this: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7633317/george-michael-gay-artist-sexuality-career

really nice. i saw it linked online before too.

VectorVictoria @V3ct0rv1ct0r

@richardosman he gave a stranger in a cafe £25k as she was crying over debt. Told the waitress to give her the cheque after he left.

EMILYNE MONDO @EmilyneMondo

George Michael worked anonymously at a homeless shelter I was volunteering at. I've never told anyone, he asked we didn't. That's who he was
4:43 AM - 26 Dec 2016

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/26/506998666/after-george-michaels-death-stories-emerge-of-his-quiet-generosity

There's been a lot of that stuff on the news over here too. He genuinely seems like he was a nice person.

I liked a few GM/Wham songs, but would hardly classify myself as a fan, per se. However, Queen not paying him whatever he asked to front the band after Freddie died = dumbest mistake ever. George Michael was like Freddie, with arguably even better pop/soul chops, and totally agreed w/above, regarding how deeply he clearly understood their music. Maybe he wouldn't have even been interested, but it's hard not to think about what might have been. RIP

so I wrote this: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7633317/george-michael-gay-artist-sexuality-career🔗

Wonderful piece. Definitely gonna investigate his later work.

Although this duet has always struck me as ropey and vacant, hearing it this morning brought tears. It works better as an ode to music instead of a love song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBCWLhlJV0Y

Yeah I love it as a callback to duets like Aint No Mountain High Enough etc

It's naff but very lovable - actually a very good song for children. There's a TOTP clip with John Peel snarking on it immediately after the song - amusingly dickish but always made me like the ring even more.

it was on the radio ALL the time when it came out, i was young enough to enjoy it

it's a v posi vibe song

Song even more

Sorry, didnt mean that as a reflection on the quality of Patience

I shouldve just said 'sparse' yes

I remember seeing the video and thinking it looked like it was made in outer space, or something equally unearthly. Gradually becoming clear at that age that guy was simply awesome

i was 28 yrs old

“Hey George Michael you don’t know me but I know you very well.. They can’t take that away from you. You are the one.. "

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

rip man this sucks so much

and your mom
and your mom
was always acting craaaazy

Per my earlier post about how "Father Figure" had been on my mind:

http://nedraggett.tumblr.com/post/155001636372/it-came-to-mind-the-other-week-i-have-no-idea

there was a Q mag interview with him in the wake of the 1998 Will Rogers park incident (my copy is in another state) in which he was not all contrite and hugely entertaining as such…it seems like he never really stopped cruising like that… good for him!

One thing I'm still curious about is how he and Ridgley might have been perceived by, say, the NME reading student cohort, like how he was dressed in that thing with Morrissey and Tony Blackburn. Like, would "naff" hit the spot? I'm sure this is perfectly obvious, but if someone could unpack the specific variety of corn/ cheese he bespoke '82-'87, I'd be interested. There can be no doubt that from the 90s on, he inhabited the most exquisite gay existence imaginable…

i once waited on him in a restaurant. he was at a table with two huge bears. they were all very nice.

:) :)

what'd they drink?

tea, iirc!

I remember reading a reprint of an NME interview with Michael from the mid-80s, iirc NME had been very positive about Wham Rap and Young Guns (Go For It), giving them single of the week etc, but had turned against them when they did Club Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go etc and became full on Smash Hits approved pop stars, the interview was basically a debate between GM and the NME journalist, with GM accusing them of being too-cool-for school snobs who rejected them for being too popular and the NME journalist accusing Wham of going middle of the road and bland.

I mean, this is all way before my time, but that's what I inferred from this reprinted interview. I guess that Wham hit their peak just at around the time that what the NME reading students were into and what was in the top 20 was being beginning to diverge with "indie" becoming a thing?

bob stanley touches on their perception at the time here https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/dec/26/george-michael-wham-most-misunderstood-group-1980s-thatcherism

I still have that 1998 Q issue - GM seemed relieved and happier for it (unlike, say the early 90s for example).

He said it was possibly not the easiest way to handle it, but the fact it was now 'over' was the point.

There was nothing wrong with Smash Hits at all. In fact, looking back through the archives has made me realise just how OTM they were a lot of the time.

Neil Tennant wrote that SH interview.

Was playing around with "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" at home and realized it's got a vocal range of two full octaves.

I spun Faith a couple of hours ago - 'Hand to Mouth' stood out to me this time around for some reason.

I've always loved that one.

I never think of "I Want Your Sex" as a great single, but listening to Faith again today, I gotta say I like it a lot better in its two-part 10-minute form.

Also, knowing now about GM's generosity and charity work has enhanced 'Praying For Time' for me, particularly the second verse. The song feels much more sincere to me than it did beforehand.

xpost:

The sudden transition from Part 1 to Part 2 on IWYS is one of the best moments on the album for me, at least musically.

The first ("I Want Your Sex") and last ("Kissing a Fool") Faith were the weakest.

*Faith singles

Mark Simpson in Rolling Stone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/george-michael-gay-link-between-david-bowie-david-beckham-w457892

"I don't want any children; I don't want responsibility," [George Michael] told Time Out matter-of-factly in 2007. "I am gay, I smoke weed and I do exactly what I want in my life because of my talent

George Michael and Wham were huge for me as a kid, I played my tape of Faith until it wore out. I love how many smooth jazz versions exist of Careless Whisper. Just sad that he pass so young.

https://insideplaya.org/2016/12/27/a-black-thing/

Carl Wilson:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2016/12/george_michael_dead_at_53_leaves_a_subversive_legacy.html

From a giggly teen viewpoint, “guilty feet” was a hilariously maladroit personification, too fleshy and too cerebral all at once. But now, as an image of a humiliated and stricken queer body, of a person too ashamed to dance in a culture of dance clubs, it doesn’t seem silly at all.

I like Carl but that obit is like the annoying guy at a Q&A who makes a rambling statement instead of a question

And the feet line is great whichever way you read it

I’ve also come to love that he was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in North London, emerging from an old-fashioned kind of immigrant background and name change for a pop singer, rather like a second closet. It explains both his long-term, for-all-ages vocal approach and why he was never a punk rocker. Subsequently, that’s why, given the era, he had so little cool cred. He was suburban, not abjectly working class, yet his parents didn’t even let him buy pop records. (He was hearing mainly Tom Jones and Henry Mancini at home but Queen and Elton John on the radio.) So his threshold for rebellion was much lower than for many of his London peers. Pop would do. Plus, the punk kids weren’t the beautiful people, and—at least after he met his more stylish adolescent bandmate—he wanted to be one of those

This is so snobby and wrong

Whatever, I know for a fact the cool kids of his generation (your clubbing-with-Leigh-Bowery types) utterly adored him and saw him as a peer.