Not a fan but a tragically young age to be taken.
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RIP, George.
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An enormously talented man and an irreplaceable presence in British popular music. RIP George
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I only came to appreciate his music in my later years and agree wholeheartedly with Beefy's comment above.Comment
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Totally agree with Beefy and Micky.
An extraordinary talent.
2016 still squeezing a few more in before it's over.
RIP GeorgeComment
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Sad news. Like Ewan MacColl's old man, he was only 53. The same was true of Rossetti, Descartes, Tchaikovsky, Lenin, John Denver and Jerry Garcia, Vivien Leigh and Linda Lovelace, Dian Fossey, Mary Shelley, Jim Henson and Jackie Robinson. Of these, Tchaikovsky's life was perhaps the closest in terms of its number of days. I don't have any of his records. I am not sure why I don't as I have Sting with The Police, Bono with U2, Knopfler in more than one guise and a wide range of eighties others. I might well not have had any of those if I had been more precious about concepts of coolness and taste. Do I have anything by Prince? I will have to check the "fringes" of my record collection again. That's the key word for where I perceive these huge mainstream superstars to sit in my myriad of vinyl and CD hues, genuine, individual so I like to think and alternatively alternative.
I liked George Michael better than many. He was as most have now indicated talented. I listened in half sleep to callers on a local radio show for a number of hours very early this morning. There were moments of sadness, of what felt like true mourning, of assessing the respective merits of life and art or huge wealth and poverty in all its senses. And there were other moments about social norms at any given time, tragedy, excess, mental health, being a celebrity versus being a nonentity, media pressure and social media overkill.
There will be more and more of this sort of thing, I said, or words to that effect at the start of the year in respect of David Bowie. I did search briefly for the precise quote but couldn't find it. What I did find was an insightful post by frenchfrank. I am taking the liberty of reproducing it here because it seems apt in regard to much of what has followed:
I am struck by the manner in which many who have recently departed "too young" were not in the standard category of having a wife and 2.4 children - Prince, Pete Burns, George Michael himself - although that point could be overstated. It is also true that several were at the heart of Live Aid in 1985, in my own life just a backdrop to my degree ceremony which was on the same day but never screened. The first was, of course, a key vehicle for Bob Geldof long before he took to a boat in the style of the Sex Pistols to stick two fingers up to Brexiteers. George Michael was in his prime then, an eighties phenomenon, albeit one who was soon to be no more delighted by show business than another George, George Harrison. While recording artists in that decade who were just off the mainstream owed much to the punk and new wave impetus of 1976-1981, mainstream music had seemed distinct from all that had gone before. It was unexpectedly "stratospheric" not least in sales and in production values sprayed into a knowingly artificial sheen. It was sophisticated or the opposite depending on view, ability to be selective and desire for critique. Rock, soul and reggae had gone as fast and furiously as the 70s had as a decade.Originally posted by french frank View Post
If the likes of Wham and Bananarama were really "boy" and "girl" "bands" - something I doubt other than to acknowledge young teenagers gave them smash hits - they were further removed from the Osmonds than Take That and the Spice Girls and all things X Factor. It was that period when groups as well as true bands were intended to have a bit of "credibility" with some wider pop age appeal. But slightly weightier adult orientated pop and rock from the seventies were always there as an indicator of "how it is all supposed to be done more seriously" beyond new musical uncertainties presented with confidence. Prince looked to Hendrix and George Michael was well aware of the longevity of Elton John and Diana Ross. Live Aid was a nod to the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh which was among the caring, exotic offspring of the Beatles. That's the aforementioned earlier George.
This music angle is to me far more interesting than the details of Michael's private turmoil. So often dismissed as lightweight, it is the 1980s that should and probably will be considered increasingly in detail as popular music's crucial cusp. By the 1990s, many in that field were drawing without apology on almost anything from the past and wearing influence on sleeves - see Blur and Oasis etc. In the 1960s and the 1970s the main dividing lines had been clear. In varying depths, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Bowie and Pink Floyd were among the characters to be analysed and assessed. Other types, again in varying depths, simply did what they and it said on the can. One of the sixties' many creations, Rick Parfitt, was at Live Aid. He brought joy to millions across a few generations. Even my father liked the Quo. As I have said before some of his colleague Rossi's discarded ornaments stand uneasily in my parent's sideboard courtesy of a rich boot fair. To say more would be to do him an immense disservice, for his music was his music and it defies essay.
Except the Quo were utterly unique while being totally derivative. Simplicity is never as simple as it seems though the eighties mainstream was more complex and it had grander ambitions especially on the wave of music television. It never spoke about the Burt Bacharachs and the Jimmy Webbs, of course, and to do so would have been commercially disadvantageous. It was not until the Gallagher sons came on the scene that such figures could be resurrected by "serious" musicians as true greats in Q magazine. And yet the bar had been set high - for songcraft, for song structures, for melody. While those writers were regarded as unfashionably easy listening, they were the ones to whom George Michael and Co inadvertently aspired, perhaps recognising that MTV could make them into film stars while simultaneously risking them to accusations of being musically diluted. There was a legacy too which went back much further, in the longer term to provide a benchmark. One day we should try to find a list of all the songwriters who have been given an Ivor Novello award - in fact if anyone has the full list please post it - but for the time being it is worth saying that George Michael won a fair few and that mattered a fair bit in its time.
Were they deserved? Very possibly, not that he ever was a Bacharach or a Webb. He did have considerable skills in writing songs as songs had been known. They were not as solidly musical as much of what had emanated from the sixties and seventies either in easy listening or adult orientated rock but then nothing in the eighties was so. That was a part of what made the decade distinct. Stronger in composition than most of his peers. Nevertheless, not always convincing unless one were to compare him to the often woeful attempts in the 21st Century. That is about the gist of it. Good. It isn't a bad achievement at all. Would it be churlish to say that "Last Christmas" is reminiscent of "Can't Smile Without You", a song not by Barry Manilow as many believe but songsmith stalwarts Arnold and Morrow? I hope not for it is truth. Similarly, "Careless Whisper" written I believe around 1981 though not released until much later, may have paid homage to Smokey Robinson's "Being With You" of the same year. One could almost argue that Smokey Robinson was a subconscious blueprint from the moment of "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". Inferior to Holland-Dozier-Holland's "Mickey's Monkey" yet it did have an aura of its dumb joy.
Solid songcraft, eh, and the progress of life. Next summer, we will all again be searchin' in the sun for another overload or to hear someone singin' in the wire. Tracks about tears and the smiles of a clown, a seconding of some or other emotion while a crowd of real Brits leave a cake in the rain because it takes so long to bake it. As for 53 that was what I was pleased to leave in mid December and it didn't need to be "televisual". I just contemplated whether the trials of that age were somehow about moving beyond the number of weeks in one year. Daft really. It's not likely to be much of a thought when rockabyeing baby or rocking all over the world. I have no idea whether this ramble helps to measure George Michael and his work - such as there are insights they are mainly about the journey of pop music generally - other than happily to confirm they were never less than sound.
George Michael - Kissing a Fool - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omsBhh8vA7c
........I Can't Make You Love Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEOKJe3QqoE
RIP
Last edited by Lat-Literal; 27-12-16, 15:05.Comment
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Sad news indeed
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Ooh.... so many wonderful songs. Yes, it's an early death but, like Mozart, with a life so full of music, this mortality is a little less regrettable. The pain is a little softened, enriched by art, pleasure and beauty. And dancing!
Like Bowie, like Prince, he was one of the soundtracks to one of my earlier lives.... what can you do but post a favourite? This is just wonderful in every way from start to finish, especially to a rhythm-freak like me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cs3Pvmmv0E
What a jacket & jeans! .... love them so much it makes me wonder if I could still carry the look off myself...
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Oh God, George, you were pretty damn cool!...Thanks for the music and your queer-reclaiming courage! It all meant so much to so many.
IN 2017 - YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH!Comment
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