George Michael R.I.P.

This dude has become my big brother

you need to correct "Uet" in your subheading. This has made me want to listen to LWP again right now, so thanks!

Lovely top 5, Alfred. I haven’t gotten over his passing either.

My friend shared a very cute story today about her 3 year old.

“Important- G. asks us to play the “Save me some tears” song Friday night. We are perplexed. Saturday, we’re driving and Wham’s Last Christmas comes on. “Here it is Mom. My favorite song!” and proceeds to sing 80% correct lyrics at full volume. Also, telling me it’s her turn to sing-“not you Mom.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1kWLPGUKcs

Nailed it

https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/7314/production/_114406492_georgemic1.jpg

the hell

http://steemitimages.com/DQmW9bN7ck4wXs98aB1YdmHF1iu7f7RgcDKr5adwSR5v8EQ/parker_oliver1.jpg

What does that say on the bottom left, 'just abolishing'?

saw this the other day, and still cannot figure out the crashing helicopter thing.
was it really the only way to get 'WHAM' into the image ?!

it’s the police helicopter from the “Outside” video, innit? George was on his way to singlehandedly ‘just abolishing’ (as well as defunding) the police with the way he let that sting operation blew up in their faces.

(I think I just blew my own mind here)

never seen the video.
so ta for the insight.

don’t take it from me, I can’t even spell ‘blow’ right!

that's a brilliant interp

alternatively, it could simply be about Wham! ABSOLUTELY DESTROYING The Police and their Sting operation back in the 80s.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b7/Roy_Lichtenstein_Whaam.jpg/400px-Roy_Lichtenstein_Whaam.jpg

I'm reading the James Gavin biography. Currently up to the Faith tour and am kinda infuriated at how little he spends on, y'know, his craft. Like, Gavin spends *one sentence* on the recording of "Hard Day", never mentioning that the dude who he just a couple chapters earlier described as barely being able to play an instrument played ~everything~ on that song. Same with how he goes from having his voice go out during Wham! shows to doing the massive tour for Faith. Did that just somehow *snap* happen?

Doesn't it also sport typos?

The newe 33 1/3 on Faith is worth your time.

yeah, there have been some typos here and there, but nothing particularly egregious. cool, will check out the 33 1/3 book. thanks!

I've had enormous months-long GM 'phase' which I'm only just sort of coming out of now and in that time I didn't read one book on him. Time to change that.

Finished the biography and it mostly just struck me as a hit piece -- just going through gossip pages and looking for quotes to match up. Can't recommend it. Though I have to admit I didn't realize how badly thins went in the last few years of his life. 33 1/3 book will be up next.

Agreed. It has little or nothing to say about music creation.

You won't have this problem with the 33 1/3.

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

Ugh, that NPR article still rips my guts out.

I said this on the Listen Without Prejudice thread, but I really wish he'd put out more music. I loved (still love) his voice, but he deserved more respect as a songwriter.

I guess Elton John apparently said this on record and it infuriated him, though they patched things up. I think at that point though, it wasn't going to change anything as he was much older and had settled in on self-releasing the occasional song. But he did lose a lot of valuable time in the '90s when he scrapped an album and fought with Sony. Anyone know more about that? The idea that Sony would drop the ball on marketing Listen Without Prejudice seems bewildering to me - the market hadn't dramatically changed yet and he was still seen as the biggest-selling name on any of their labels. I'm sure he had other reasons to leave Sony, but it brings to mind Prince's fight with WB - he had good reason to leave the label, but he had a lot of grievances and they weren't all solid (i.e. WB curating his releases more carefully wasn't a bad idea in hindsight).

The new biography (execrably proofread, I must day) gets into it. I tend to stay neutral when artists fight against their labels, especially when they're as obsessed with productivity as Prince and George Michael. It is true, though, that Sony was not, uh, crazy about LWP; he even avoided playing many of its songs live on that tour, preferring a set list comprising R&B covers.

i presume his increasingly public sexuality played a big part in his lack of marketing support

Not giving a fuck about how he expressed it was a bigger part.

yeah, that's my meaning

It does seem strange seeing that Freedom '90 only managed number 28 in the UK charts, as at the time it felt somewhat bigger than that

It went top ten in the States but had a much, much larger afterlife, certainly more than the #1 "Praying for Time."

This is basically Britpop, cool that it finally made it to the Isle of Wight I guess (they can keep it)

― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Monday, 13 February 2023 12:25 (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't think I've actually listened to any Wet Leg before seeing this video and I wasn't prepared for how much it looks and sounds like Bis

sorry, wrong thread

wet my leg before you go-go

Wetting For Time

I have no idea what was going on with George's UK singles sales in this era.

Yeah that always puzzled me. I listened to Capital Radio a lot then and all of the LWP singles were played to death...possibly his audience at the time was more rigidly split between 'I'll just get the album' and 'I'll just tape it'.

For those who are interested in radio edits, there was 7" promo single edit of "Freedom '90" tailored for the UK, and it's a much better edit than what was done for the US market:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-zqlgyUkd0

There's basically two edits - a brief one somewhere about a minute in and then a larger one towards the end. I don't think it's ever been released on CD, not even as a promo, but if they ever release another hits compilation - the kind that leans on radio edits just to fit in more tracks - this would be a good one to use.

(instead of "there's basically two edits," I probably should have said "there's basically two sections edited out from the track")

Went to an 80s prom event this weekend and one of the songs that I was ecstatic to dance to with my wife was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". Just pure joyous music.

joyous

I mentioned this on the TOTP re-runs thread a while back, but the bit at 30 seconds where George jumps into frame and then a split second later Andrew does too is exactly this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgZ7gMze7A

Browsing through old coverage on Michael, it's stunning how a lot of people never gave him a chance, at least in the U.S. It's not limited to members of the press, here's Natalie Merchant in 1990 bringing him up when discussing her departure from 10,000 Maniacs:

She said her regard for (10,000 Maniacs) and its music is so strong that it "borders on insanty." But with so many entertainers exuding self-importance, Merchant said she almost feels embarrassed to be associated with them.

She cited George Michael as a prime example of a singer who made it to the top of the music charts by cultivating a sexy, carefree image, and now is longing to be taken seriously as an artist.

"We're talking about a man here who puts his rear end in front of a camera and shakes it around," said Merchant, 26. "When he was in that incredibly hard-to-take-seriously group (Wham!), I remember seeing a picture of him walking on the Great Wall of China and thinking something wasn't quite right.

"He's trying to change his image now because it doesn't suit him anymore. Well, you can't change your philosophy midstream and then expect people to take you seriously. It just doesn't work that way."

This is utterly ridiculous. Even if Wham! really was devoid of merit (and I think their heart was in the right place even on the least of their work) there's an abundance of great artists you could wrongfully dismiss using the same misguided logic.

Hey, we can't all aspire to the deeply mystical visionary artistic heights of (checks notes) Natalie Merchant. Some artists are just about shaking they booty.

(And I say that as a sincere fan both of Natalie and of the Maniacs)

is she quoting him or is he quoting her?

Posing for another picture
Everybody's got to sell
But when you shake your ass
They notice fast
And some mistakes were built to last
That's what you get, that's what you get
That's what you get, I said that's what you get
That's what you get, for changing your mind

cf. rockism

At the time, I was put off by someone who had made a big point of how he had taken control of his own music and image just a couple of years earlier (to the point of directing his own videos) acting as though someone else had made him stand by a jukebox or wear a leather jacket. Not that pop musicians shouldn't change or become more serious, but I thought it was seriously tacky to underline it the way he did, instead of just changing.

bird - what is that Merchant interview? I don't see it online, just curious... thx

Pulled it off NewsBank through my local library's online portal. It's from the Chicago Sun-Times, October 30, 1990.

The Sun-Times critics (mostly Don McLeese who covered him the most) were consistently dismissive, but Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune was pretty supportive. Their reviews for LWP couldn't be more different.

FWIW here's an LA Times review of a 2008 show - I wish I could've caught one:

George Michael really knows his crowd. When he gave some grief to talk-show shrink Dr. Phil McGraw midway through Wednesday's show at the Forum, it seemed like simple celebrity-on-celebrity taunting. In fact, Michael was nodding to some of his most loyal fans.

"Dr. Phil is here," said Michael. "He's here with his wife, who's having a whale of a time. And he's over there making this miserable face. He's been doing it for an hour. I think maybe you should see somebody about that," he joked.

...

Fans tried several times to sing "Happy Birthday" to Michael, who turned 45 Wednesday, before he finally let it happen during his final encore. Actress Bo Derek (of all 1980s icons) brought out what appeared to be a fake cake, and just like on "Careless Whisper" and "Freedom! '90," everybody sang.

Not that pop musicians shouldn't change or become more serious, but I thought it was seriously tacky to underline it the way he did, instead of just changing.

I feel this. At the time, I was little confused about his extreme heel-turn. Like, Faith was a huge hit... what I am supposed to not be "prejudiced" about? Should I be embarrassed for enjoying the jukebox era, now that he's blown it up? It's one thing for an artist to adopt a new style, but another to say – "That old era was silly, and (by implication) it was silly for you to like it."

Christgau:

Listen Without Prejudice: Vol. 1 [Columbia, 1990]
Who has this boy been listening to? Morrissey? Anita Baker? June Christie? Harry Connick Jr.? Whatever the sleazy details, his announced decision to hold off on the dance music till next time half-proves he doesn't know as much about stardom as he thinks, and the ruminations with which he proclaims his seriousness finish the job. As a public figure he's no Bono or Boy George--he's a good-looking, replaceable teenybop idol. So only teenyboppers, and not too damn many of those, are likely to care that he feels demeaned by false fame. It's as a musician that he's won respect, and not even a pop musician--a dance musician. Ironic, isn't it, that the danciest thing here is yoked to (and undercut by) his highly unoriginal thoughts on this matter? And though the McCartneyesque "Heal the Pain" sounds like a hit ballad, most of this cocktail music is no more interesting than the cipher who sings it so "well." I'm betting it doesn't move a quarter of Faith's units, which ought to enhance his appreciation of dance music pronto. C+

To be clear, George Michael recorded serious music in 1983. "Everything She Wants" is serious music. "A Different Corner" and "One More Try" are serious music. LWP and Older aren't without their patches of dead grass, but thirty years after his death and the publicity in 1990-1991 they stand as well-wrought albums with many showcases for that protean voice. I suppose I'll cut Natalie Merchant slack for dismissing him so rudely -- she was in the scrim.