Wham! It's the GEORGE MICHAEL TRACKS POLL voting thread (voting ends Saturday 17 September)

http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/484126/stream_img.jpg

It had to happen. Welcome to the ILM George Michael Tracks Poll.

• check out the spotify playlist
• Select your top twenty tracks. Wham!, solo George and featuring George are equally welcome
• no side polls
• send your ballot to ismaelklata at gmail dot com
• voting closes Saturday 17 September

Happy listening!

Spotify playlist: whole discography

I've made a list of George's oddly short discography, nearly all of which is in the link above. I count 120 tracks, which feels like very little for someone who's been a megastar, off and on, for thirty years. The more so because he obviously really loves music; he just doesn't make that much of it.

FANTASTIC

Bad Boys
A Ray of Sunshine
Love Machine
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)
Club Tropicana
Nothing Looks the Same in the Light
Come On!
Young Guns (Go For It!)

MAKE IT BIG

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Everything She Wants
Heartbeat
Like A Baby
Freedom
If You Were There
Credit Card Baby
Careless Whisper

WHAM! ERA MISCELLANY

The Edge of Heaven
Battlestations
I’m Your Man
Do It Right
A Different Corner
Blue (Armed With Love)
Where Did Your Heart Go?
Wheel Me Out
Last Christmas
Like A Baby
Club Fantastic Megamix

FAITH

Faith
Father Figure
I Want Your Sex
One More Try
Hard Day
Hand to Mouth
Look at Your Hands
Monkey
Kissing a Fool
A Last Request
Look at Your Hands
Love's in Need of Love Today

LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE VOL 1

Praying for Time
Freedom 90
They Won't Go When I Go
Something to Save
Cowboys and Angels
Waiting for That Day
Mother's Pride
Heal the Pain
Soul Free
Waiting (Reprise)
If You Were My Woman
Fantasy

OLDER

Jesus to a Child
Fastlove
Older
Spinning the Wheel
It Doesn't Really Matter
The Strangest Thing
To Be Forgiven
Move On
Star People
You Have Been Loved
Free
You Know That I Want To
Safe

SONGS FROM THE LAST CENTURY

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Roxanne
You've Changed
My Baby Just Cares for Me
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Miss Sarajevo
I Remember You
Secret Love
Wild Is the Wind
Where or When/It's All Right with Me

PATIENCE

Patience
Amazing
John and Elvis Are Dead
Cars and Trains
Round Here
Shoot the Dog
My Mother Had a Brother
Flawless (Go to the City)
American Angel
Precious Box
Please Send Me Someone (Anselmo's Song)
Freeek! 04
Through

ON SYMPHONICA ONLY

Let Her Down Easy
Feeling Good
Going to a Town
Idol

FIVE LIVE EP (WITH QUEEN)

Somebody to Love
Killer/Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone
These are the Days of our Lives
Calling You
Dear Friends

GEORGE ERA MISCELLANY

Jive Talkin’ (with Boogie Box High)
Gave it all Away (with Boogie Box High)
I Knew You Were Waiting For Me (with Aretha)
Heaven Help Me (with Deon Estus)
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (with Elton)
Too Funky
Crazyman Dance
Waltz Away Dreaming (with Toby Bourke)
I Believe
I Can't Make You Love Me
Desafinado
Outside
As (with Mary J Blige)
If I Told You That (with Whitney)
This is not Real Love (with Mutya)
Edith and the Kingpin
An Easier Affair
Understand
December Song
Jingle (A Musical Interlewd)
True Faith
You and I
White Light
Song to the Siren

I'LL TELL YOU THAT I'M HAPPY IF YOU WANT ME TO

Yeah that's probably number 1 but there's a few from the solo albums right up there too

What was the GM tune that appeared on one of those HIV awareness compilations? I really liked that one + its video as a teen.

I can't imagine anything else than "Freedom 90" winning this, and deservedly so. Such a monster jam!

And an iconic video that was, er, well loved by many straight teenage boys around that time.

my top 5 would be :
club tropicana - fun and careless partying.
everything she wants - almost an MJ circa Thriller track. that good !
one more try - just a great ballad.
Freedom 90 - otm Tuomas
As - the original is fantastic but the cover reminds me of nice student'years.

he has totally disappeared, hasn't he ?

I can't imagine anything else than "Freedom 90" winning this, and deservedly so.

It will, but only because "I'm Your Man '96" has been left out of the nominations. Corrupt poll - Sad!

I will accept off-list and third-party votes, if you can identify any. He seems never to have had many b-sides until a brief period around Patience, and has far fewer guest appearances than you'd think, so we're not going to unearth many deep cuts I fear.

Everything She Wants as a Thriller track is an incredible idea. I'm sad that we'll never hear it.

"Too Funky" better hit the top ten.

'Fastlove' FTW!

I hope we'll discuss the phenomenon whereby Older became a best seller in every country except the United States; that album was everywhere in 1996-1997.

I didn't know it didn't do so well in the US, but Older was definitely inescapable here. It was seen as being his triumphant post-Sony comeback, even if it was quite a downbeat record.

yeah it's not a bad record but it charted in America on good will, even the top tens "Fastlove" and "Jesus to a Child."

It really was. I spent a bit of time in Tunisia in that period and there were three albums that were everywhere - something by Madonna, something by Michael Jackson (not real albums iirc, just bootleg hits tapes) and Older (also a bootleg, but this time of the actual album). You wouldn't see anything else. More than anything else, that's what made me realise just how big he was.

i may not have a job but i have a good time with the boys i meet down on the line

'Spinning That Wheel' made #2 here, and would have been #1 if it wasn't for the Spice Girls' 'Wannabe'

ALL THAT BULLSHIT CONVERSATION

whoa:

At the time of release, the album was a huge commercial hit, particularly in Europe, but was received in America with a lukewarm critical approval and mediocre sales figures.[1] In the UK, the album was particularly notable for producing six Top Three hit singles in a two-year span, creating a record still unsurpassed.

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. I

GUILTY FEET HAVE GOT NO RHYTHM

Ha! I seem to remember around this time George Michael doing 'Star People' at an awards ceremony and Bryan Adams (who was on his own promo cycle with '18 Til I Die') called him out for allegedly lip-syncing. MTV made some kind of huge deal over it.

ALL THAT BULLSHIT CONVERSATION

I didn't do any side polls, but if I had it would've been to poll eras - Wham! George vs Faith George vs Artist George vs Busted George. I'm fondest of the first and last of these I think. He covers quite serious topics throughout his career, but the frowniness of the middle two makes them feel a bit heavy to me. He wears his own - and life's - ridiculousness really well.

The alternative was a Wham! member ballot side poll.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Andrew_Ridgeley_Son_of_Albert_album_art.JPG

I should have done the ANDREW RIDGELEY TRACKS POLL instead shouldn't I?

All for the trilogy that is Too Funky / Fastlove / Outside

Now that we're on the subject of sales let me remind those who weren't around at the time how omnipresent Faith was in 1987-88: six singles, four #1s, including a rare #1 on the R&B chart.

I really really hate "I Want Your Sex."

that's silly

yay, glad this poll has gotten underway.

George was such a hot babe circa Wham!

I really really hate "I Want Your Sex."

oh c-c-c-c-c-c-c'mon

wow.. oh man.

closest thing we ever got to Prince in the UK. i never cared much for Wham at first, as a kid. then someone left a home-taped copy of Faith at our house. by mistake i started on Side 2 which went..

"Hard Day"
"Hand to Mouth"
"Look at Your Hands"
"Monkey"
"Kissing a Fool"

nothing was ever the same tbh.

Now that we're on the subject of sales let me remind those who weren't around at the time how omnipresent Faith was in 1987-88: six singles, four #1s, including a rare #1 on the R&B chart.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 8, 2016 9:25 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, it was absolutely massive. The only other album of the time that was as huge was Bad.

yeah wasn't it number 1 in the States for like.. 2 months?

as Mariah testifies in this disjointed montage "people who only listened to rap had that album,
people who only listened to rock had that album"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXVfrzAmIL0

Faith was so big that it astounds that it did...OK business in the UK? It's the reverse of Older.

I don't really know how much Faith has sold in the UK in the long run, but I do seem to remember many of the singles from the album getting a huge amount of airplay and it seems to be one of those albums that I find keeps cropping up in people's CD collections even if it's one of the few pop albums they own.

In fact, thinking about it, I guess The Joshua Tree and Whitney were as huge as Faith or Bad. I have a feeling, though, that Bad may have sold the most out of all of 'em.

Sometimes you wake up in the morning with a bassline

I was reading a 2005 interview with George where he's talking about cutting down on dope, but he can't go without because it's an aid to creativity. But when I count up, between Older and his last release (2014, so eighteen years) I get only 19 or 20 tracks that he's written, and 13 of those are on one album.

"Waiting for that Day" a contender for me. Top 3 at least.

YOU'RE A FOOL, BOY

Excited for this. I was listening to Patience a lot earlier this year. It's a patchy record but there's some great stuff on there. Precious Box will be really high on my list. Cars & Trains and Freeek will be up there too.

"Waiting for that Day" a contender for me. Top 3 at least.

― andrew m., Friday, September 9, 2016

top five for me

what do y'all think of "A Different Corner"? It codes to me as the story of a guy's unrequited passion for his straight male friend.

A Different Corner is gorgeous. One of the most minimal songs to ever hit number one.

minimal except for that vocal, which gets overripe in places.

Didn't NME compare it to Eno?

No idea. Pretty weird comparison if they did.

Just glancing over the available tracks, it really is surprising how little material he's recorded in his career, especially with Wham.

Tom Ewing has published excellent reconsiderations at Populist. Here's one: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/11/george-michael-a-different-corner/comment-page-1/

Voted Without Prejudice (or Patience)

I suspect I shall be the only voter for "Shoot the Dog" *pre-emptive sadface*

I love this Michael-produced and co-written song, a CVS favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otndHX0q1wc

I'm not even remotely a fan of George Michael, but as a 9-year-old I thought this Top of the Pops performance was excellent: https://youtu.be/xNX3xA3wx5c

what do we think of Aretha's only #1 in England only her second in America?

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

This single was, to use the phrase, all about positioning. Released six months before Faith, it showed programmers he could "go" R&B. It paid off: a year later "One More Try" and the album hit #1 on the R&B chart.

Never been a fan of the Aretha duet. I'm glad it was left off Faith.

wut??!! I Knew You Were Waiting is probably in my top 20 (or 30) singles of the 80s.

I can't top Tom Ewing's line: "Simon Climie appears to have written the track using a set of gospel magnetic fridge poetry. Low valleys, high mountains, deep rivers, faith, destiny, spirit: all that’s missing is, well, God."

To me it's a problem of distance. Who the hell are Aretha and George playing? Not lovers, certainly. You don't need to know about Michael's sexuality to hear how, to my ears, they're shouting through the void. The Narada Michael Walden production is like a pair of handcuffs.

his 80s duets suck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RaMkpJGOz8

they sound so straight I can't believe people thought they were gay

I'm hugely enjoying the Young Guns TOTP performance that NBS posted above. I always liked it in that era when they got the audience right in close. Nice touch as well giving the drummer a line.

Also Andrew's already clearly a spare part. Was Wham! so obviously a solo vehicle right from the off?

Watching that TOTP performance confirmed Ridgeley's essentialness though. Their chemistry is undeniable, and it was he who got Michael off his ass in the early '80s. By all accounts he was cool with his best friend's sexuality too -- and may indeed have been the subject of "A Different Corner" for all we know.

I don't think it fair for me to vote since I haven't heard anything post-LWP but just figured I"d rep for these tracks:

Wham!: the 12" cut of "Everything She Wants" might be my favorite thing he's ever done. I like the album version but that extra bit in the middle just puts it over for me. "Careless Whisper", "Go-Go", and "Freedom" also classic, fuck the rest pretty much.

Faith: "Hand to Mouth" and "Hard Day" are underrated songs, the latter is a good pounding pop tune, but I like the melancholy of the former. really don't think there's a bad song on this album, but those two get overlooked. favorite tho, idk...I kinda think it's "One More Try" at this point, just for that performance alone. the I Want Your Sex suite maybe runner-up.

LWP: "Cowboys and Angels" is amazing. love the mood on that one.

and "Knew You WEre Waiting for Me" is pretty dope even tho it comes well after Aretha's prime.

I don't really know the backstory. I was considering getting Bare, his 1991 autobiography - it might be interesting to see what story he was telling at that time. Have you read it?

Vote anyway - doesn't matter if you're leaving out half his career, whatever makes the cut will be worth talking about regardless.

or maybe I can give those albums a quick listen. these are the days of the open net....

Some good picks there Neanderthal. Cowboys & Angels is my favourite song on Listen Without Prejudice. It's such a beautiful melody. Hand to Mouth will be very high on my list. Like you say, it's one of the more underrated songs on Faith. One of the few songs not to be released as a single.

Not sure how much Wham will be on my list yet. Everything She Wants will be a contender. It's always been overshadowed by Last Christmas but it's just as good.

i've always wanted my seasonal caroling company to arrange Last Christmas as one of our tunes. nobody has taken this request seriously (they do other Christmas secular pop, why not Wham!?)

every time I look at the draft I've made of my ballot I think "wow these are the best songs ever made"

I just listened to Older for the first time for this poll. It was pretty sleepy, reminding me of listening to REM's Around the Sun. "Fastlove" seems to reach the album's urbane R&B aspiration the best. Otherwise I don't know what to listen for; I suppose maybe it's so slinky that it snakes away from my attention?

Try "The Strangest Thing" and "Star People."

Hi guys I will be voting

I came here to say that his duet with Elton of "Dont Let the Sun Go Down On Me" is so awesome, it always brings tears to my eyes

And I love his version of Somebody To Love from the Freddy Mercury Tribute concert

George is the best I love him forever

Wham!: the 12" cut of "Everything She Wants" might be my favorite thing he's ever done. I like the album version but that extra bit in the middle just puts it over for me.

Well this turned into quite the surprise. This entire extra section - extra song, basically - that's great in its own right, and I had no idea existed. I'm excited about the idea that you could cover a monster hit by an iconic artist, be faithful to it, and yet still make it unrecognisable to most.

That said, they made the right choice in pushing the edit. It's a minimal classic as is, and the tiny extra lushness in the 12" is just that slight bit of gilt on the lily.

great faith-era b-side that i don't think was released until lwp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X1PDIW_ZFQ

I just listened to Older for the first time for this poll. It was pretty sleepy, reminding me of listening to REM's Around the Sun. "Fastlove" seems to reach the album's urbane R&B aspiration the best. Otherwise I don't know what to listen for; I suppose maybe it's so slinky that it snakes away from my attention?

― droit au butt (Euler)

I only got round to listening to Older a couple of years ago and was surprised how boring I found it. The Strangest Thing is the only other song that I'd put up there with Fastlove. I think Patience is a much more varied and enjoyable record overall.

This entire extra section - extra song, basically

Another thing is that George sings the hell out of it. As he always does, he's such a pro. It seems unusual to me - I might be wrong - that he has and routinely employs such a wide range from section-to-section and even line-to-line. Like in Outside, or the number of different parts he sings between 1:40 and 2:50 in Shoot The Dog.

I'd hoped DJP might be a fan and we'd get into some serious vocal technique pedagogy on this thread. That'd be ideal.

oh i also really love this song and feel like it gets forgotten, george doing piano house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OMtz_m0y7U

All those RH&B tunes he contributed are marvels.

they make me long for a listen without prejudice vol. 2

"Waiting for that Day" a contender for me. Top 3 at least.

I love this song!

I'm excited about the idea that you could cover a monster hit by an iconic artist, be faithful to it, and yet still make it unrecognisable to most.

Which cover is it? I tried googling it but didn't find anything. I guess it really is unrecognisable.

anyone unmoved by older who hasn't heard the single versions of "star people" and "the strangest thing" should imo. "star people" is so inert on record but "star people 97" is one of my favorite george michael singles and will be really high on my ballot. i like the album version of "the strangest thing" a little more than the single bc

er, bc it's got a v tense atmosphere, but it's also fun to hear it as a house song in the single remix

not that hearing the single mixes of those songs was ever a problem for non-u.s. listeners, but here the only older single I ever heard was "fastlove"

Which cover is it? I tried googling it but didn't find anything. I guess it really is unrecognisable.

Apologies, there's never been such a thing as far as I know. It was the theoretical possibility that I liked - take the extra bit, rearrange it a little, and you'd have a solid gold cover that people would assume was your own original. Unless everyone's been digging the 12" for years, idk - I only heard it yesterday.

the words of this are maybe a bit suspect but it's got an amazing atmosphere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l569XXFTJY

Part III is the best part, but the bontempi backing is weirdly incongruous and a little bit Frank Sidebottom.

George gets a mention in the Liam Gallagher interview in this month's Q:

We went to George Michael's house after the Olympics. Noel was there, might have been with one of Take That. He was down at the bar at the end of the garden. George Michael was on at the Olympics, Beady Eye were on at the Olympics, and where's Noel? Watching it on telly, drinking a cocktail in George's garden. This is the same man who slagged George off for Shoot The Dog. You've got some fucking nerve.

My attention has been drawn to the 1991 Cover To Cover Tour. The youtubes I've seen aren't great quality, which suggests it didn't get filmed properly. It's such a cracking setlist though:

Killer
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
Victims
Father Figure
Fame
Waiting for That Day
Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now
Living for the City
Hard Day
Calling You
Lady Marmalade
Back to Life
Faith
Superstition
Tonight
I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)
Why Did You Do It?
Baby Don't Change Your Mind
Everything She Wants
Desperado
Mother's Pride
What a Fool Believes
Freedom
Ain't Nobody
Suzanne
Do That Thing for Me
I'm Your Man
Every Breath You Take
Sign Your Name
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
Careless Whisper
They Won't Go When I Go
Freedom! '90

He does love a bit of Stevie Wonder. I'm surprised he did Victims though - I was pretty sure he and Boy George hate each other's guts?

Faith was so big that it astounds that it did...OK business in the UK? It's the reverse of Older.

Anybody from the UK can remember/explain why he stalled between Wham! and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down" ? That was the period where he was as big as Madonna, Prince and MJ over here.

I'm looking at his singles chart placement in Wikipedia and his career really went the opposite way in the UK that it did here in North America.

The Faith singles did alright ("Father Figure" and "Monkey" didn't even reach the Top 10 in the UK but they were huge number ones here).

The Listen Like Prejudice ones went mostly nowhere in the UK ("Freedom 90" only got to #28!).

Then everything from his Elton duet onwards went Top 10 overseas whereas over here his performance on the charts really waned after that and he basically disapeared after "Fastlove".

I'd hazard a guess with Faith that the multiple-singles strategy generally didn't produce serial chart-toppers in the UK at that time, maybe because AirPlay didn't count in our charts. I had a look at a couple of similar blockbuster albums from that time: Tango In The Night was all over the place (9-56-5-54-4-60!); even Bad had a couple that missed the top ten.

No idea about LWP. He was pursuing his feud with Sony at that time, but I dunno why that should affect the UK worse than anywhere else.

re the feud, an odd detail I remember is that when he was asked in court how much he was worth, he didn't answer out loud, but instead wrote a number on a card and held it up so the judge could see, but the press and public gallery couldn't. I do wonder what it was he wrote.

I've got a friend who is still owed by that '92 version of "Somebody to Love." Any fans?

i was listening to his cover of "i can't make you love me" on repeat today and unrelatedly i've been crying all day

xpost Looking at the chart runs for his albums in the UK, Faith fell out the top 10 pretty quickly and seemed to stay lower down in the chart for a while. Listen Without Prejudice seemed to do a lot better. Faith never returned to the top five after its second week whereas LWP hung around there and re-entered the top three later on. Obviously the singles from LWP were much more successful at selling the album rather than being hit singles. By Older he managed to have both. The album kept on selling and all six singles hit the top three. Not sure why his profile was so much higher by 1996. It definitely doesn't seem to reflect how commercial his material was. Freedom 90 making number 28 and songs like Spinning The Wheel and Older doesn't really make a lot of sense. No idea what was going on in America. It's pretty shocking that he managed so many number ones from Faith and Fastlove peaked at number eight.

i was listening to his cover of "i can't make you love me" on repeat today and unrelatedly i've been crying all day

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson),

nelsoncholy

No idea what was going on in America.

In North America he was already having huge success with Wham! and it progressed from there when he went solo, which makes sense especially since the Faith singles were so strong.
Was the UK upset at him for dumping Andrew?

new reissue for LWP. the uh.. '25th' anniversary edition
http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/george-michaels-listen-without-prejudice-reissued-as-super-deluxe/

also..

In celebration, we are also bringing you Freedom: George Michael, a stunning new film, narrated by George and co-starring Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Mark Ronson, Mary J Blige, Tony Bennett, Liam Gallagher, James Corden, Ricky Gervais, the Freedom! ’90 video supermodels (Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz and Linda Evangelista) and more.

Stay tuned.

Liam again!

Not sure why his profile was so much higher by 1996.

It was his post-Sony comeback LP.

i don't think I've ever sat down with patience before. "amazing" is of course amazing but so is "cars and trains"!!!

Love Cars and Trains. Have you got to Precious Box yet? That song is incredible.

yeah YEAH Yeah!

badabadabada

yeah YEAH Yeah yeeeeeeeeeeeah!

huh I sorta love everything about patience so far

(I'm at "flawless")

ok wow, "precious box," holy shit

i need the universe to give me a whole george michael microhouse album

Ha, I just kept refreshing the page hoping that your reaction would appear.

I think it's amazing!

how many of you know his duet and co-write for Jody Watley's debut?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WSx7odS9Pc

ok wow, "precious box," holy shit

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson),

holy shit indeed. Sounds like a bald EBTG rip circa "The Future of the Future."

"learn to say no" is kinda the worst song on that record imo

it IS loud

dammmmn: the loathsome Richard "Dimples" Fields co-wrote "Learn to Say No"!

had no idea "if i told you that" existed until recently. weird to hear george singing over a v typical jerkins production

whoa what is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itzpiIzpV-g

goddammit i really want a new george michael album

That was one of the singles he did for his second best of in 2006. The Mutya Buena duet was the other one.

"white light" is also pretty good! jeez

hot damn! "An Easier Affair" is what I want from a "mature" "Freedom '90."

Patience is my favourite of the solo albums. I can kind of see why most of George's recent work has been doing standards - he's such a good vocalist that it must be hard to resist - but I do wish he'd set aside a fortnight's studio time every other year, with some hot kid producer, and just see what happens.

Like Prince, though, he thinks his freedom was so hard fought that he'd balk at having to work with another producer.

That's interesting. I'd never given any thought to George-as-producer before - I guess I'd assumed he was happy to hire his own guns, but I see he gets sole credit on Patience. He does a pretty good job I'd say - it's a pretty dense sound, but doesn't feel heavy at all to me.

I was trying to find news about a new album a while back and came across this from Attitude about him working on new music. It's from June 2014! http://attitude.co.uk/george-michael-im-working-dance-tracks-new-album/

Love this quote at the end.

“I’m too close to the album at the moment to gauge how it stacks up against my other work, so I’ll be interested to know – when it’s released – which of the tracks the public thinks will be the potential classics,” he concluded.

btw i voted

That's interesting. I'd never given any thought to George-as-producer before - I guess I'd assumed he was happy to hire his own guns, but I see he gets sole credit on Patience. He does a pretty good job I'd say - it's a pretty dense sound, but doesn't feel heavy at all to me.

from Make It Big onward he's always produced himself; it was the first time young Soto had noticed such a credit.

Currently going through the back catalogue preparing to vote. Going back to the wham of my youth was so refreshing this morning. Really enjoying patience.

Lost heart trying to parse the Liam quote upthread...

I went to see the Beatles film tonight. They did a feed from the red carpet beforehand and Liam turned up there as well. I haven't thought about him this much in years.

He was with what looked like his two sons. He took them up to the end of the carpet, kissed them goodnight, and went in on his own.

I did not see George there.

How was it?? Everyone's raving about the Shea concert footage.

Was noel still in George's garden?

Yeah, that was the real treat. Really amazing to see the Beatles as a gigging band, on the big screen. It's great footage and they're tight as anything, somehow. I guess it couldn't be anything other than an incredible setlist, but still wow - the sound was terrific too. I laughed at the very idea of closing with I'm Down, though. Also how obviously stoned Paul is, drifting off while introducing songs. John's a great frontman.

I feel like I must have seen it before, but I hadn't obviously. I'd seen clips, but possibly not that many. It *must* have been released before though, as Brian Epstein's name is on the credits. Where's it been all these years? Anyway I sat at the front with the idea that the more it surrounded me, the more it'd feel like I was there. But I realise now that for an authentic experience I should've sat two hundred yards away.

The doc itself was fine, though by now you know them too well to be blown away. At this point it's more like meeting up with your best school friends and seeing they're still the best guys ever. There was still some new stuff though, most obviously the live footage. I read that they'd uncovered, and sync'ed and cleaned up, soundboard recordings, and found a lot more super 8 stuff - so that really was new. Really what I wanted was more and more of that, but it always cut away too soon.

My favourite Beatles bit was Paul talking about the 'bigger than Jesus' apology press conference, and how it's all so horrible that John's dying to break into a joke but knows he can't. They play it and he totally is - you can see the sheer willpower needed to stay contrite for about thirty seconds.

Otherwise the footage of the singing Kop, or New York teenagers losing it ("I love them. Even if I live to be a hundred and five, I will always love 'em.") will never fail to bring the tears.

xp, that was

Anyway enough Beatles, this is the George Michael poll. I have seven or eight ballots, with tomorrow the last day to submit. I had been hoping for double that, so please do get one done if you can.

just finishing off my ballot.. it's incredibly tough this..

the Fabs movie sounds amazing although the separate Shea footage won't be coming out as part of the DVD it seems, there's been a 'rights issue' over the footage!

I'm blown away by "Precious Box." Thanks, y'all.

My ballot is coming soon.

will anyone vote for "Praying For Time"?

i did!

The memory of how startling it was hearing this pushy acoustic lament around Maxi Priest and Wilson Phillips is still fresh.

the og lyric video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b2ZXKX9NSY

I'll be voting

sent!

will send tomorrow

Listening to these GM jams reminds me of what I loved about the Junior Boys. Those first two JB records (Last Exit and So This is Goodbye) are 21st-century Wham. The hooks aren't as sharp but the feel is there.

I can kind of see where you're coming from with that, but I'm not sure there's any indie can really stand up beside George; the vocal gap is always too big.

Speaking of which, here's a bit of toffee from Rolling Stone's review of Fantastic:

Probably the biggest problem with Wham! is that the group lacks a really distinctive vocalist. George Michael's earnest whine is as synthetic and overly familiar as the cheap keyboards so prevalent nowadays.

no one in Junior Boys could sing or had top 40 aspirations

what else they got?

Not to derail this thread, but JB : Wham — similar sighing vocals, like weak GM karaoke, similar melodies and jittery dance grooves. Yes, JB are less chart-friendly without the overt R&B influence but they're from a different era. I hear them as kin. E.g:

https://youtu.be/L7nAgVki33c

Last 24 hours of voting. VegemiteGrrl - get a move on.

Thought for the day: when Wham! played Wembley Stadium in 1986, they did so off a catalogue of less than thirty songs.

and a load of covers too.. among others, Why by Carly Simon!

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/wham/1986/wembley-stadium-london-england-43d3934b.html

does anyone here know of any good writing on "Father Figure". that song is...very important to me.

is it...something special? something sacred?

you could say that

plenty about it here

http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/george-michael-faith.html

http://www.elitedesignweb.com/IMAGES/vote3113.gif

I have sixteen ballots now, so we're officially quorate. That's a cracking effort today, thanks everybody.

I'll count them up at some point tomorrow, and then results probably Monday and Tuesday. I'll post again just to officially close voting, so anybody still thinking of throwing one together - Veg, I'm still looking at you - can still go for it any time 'til then.

PS I've acknowledged all ballots by email. If you haven't heard from me, let me know.

Klata wtf

yeah, I know

I'm going to sneak in a last-minute mini-ballot. Currently listening to Wham! album tracks I haven't heard since about 1985 over breakfast.

NBS

I don't know how to break this to you that it won't be brutal but that dn was an ad jingle for our national enterprise board at least 15 years ago

I'm sorry

that was brutal but neither nasty not short enough

the opening of "Freedom" would make a good ringtone

Freedom Wham or "Freedom '90"?

otm either way

wham, the doo-doo-doo opening would be pretty striking

hellz yeah.

I don't know how to break this to you that it won't be brutal but that dn was an ad jingle for our national enterprise board at least 15 years ago

Seriously????

I'm not gonna have time to put together a ballot after all, sorry Ismael

but i will excitedly follow the rollout

maybe I am the only person who finally figured this out but the church organ intro to 'Faith' is playing the slowed down melody from the 'Freedom' chorus

No worries, I've been out all day anyway - I got into a stupid shouting match in the street with a woman who accused me of harassing her dogs. "How dare you. How dare you," I hissed, jabbing a finger in her direction. Not great, but at least exhilarating. The unpleasant consequence was half-an-hour later, as I was picking my way along a track, I heard more dogs barking up ahead, lost my nerve, and took a diversion across some fields. I ended up in some thick reedbeds, standing water everywhere, sure that my next step was going to leave me thigh-deep in mud. Miraculously, solid ground held out until I reached dry land again.

Anyway arguably I digress - the point is I wasn't holding back specially. I'll close voting now, think about sourceing a few pics, and get things moving tomorrow.

No worries, I've been out all day anyway - I got into a stupid shouting match in the street with a woman who accused me of harassing her dogs. "How dare you. How dare you,"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8DU4TxIw4k

You're amongst friends here, you can tell us, we won't judge you: why were you harassing her dogs?

A George Michael-worthy excuse for hanging round waste ground til dusk on yr own

DON'T BRING ME DOWN

the opening of "Freedom" would make a good ringtone

― droit au butt (Euler), Sunday, September 18, 2016 7:03 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Freedom Wham or "Freedom '90"?

otm either way

― Neanderthal, Sunday, September 18, 2016 7:05 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ringtone: http://picosong.com/Tj3z/
Ringtone '90: http://picosong.com/TjnZ/

I've grown to love this album: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/george-michael-listen-without-prejudice-vol-1/