George Michael Is Gone, But His Butt Will Prevail and Outlive Us All
“Resist, and die. Surrender, and live eternally. My butt will prevail! It will outlive us all! For I have achieved perfect butt-ness!” — Dana Carvey spoofing George Michael, Saturday Night Live 1989
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Laugh off George Michael and his butt all you want, but just think about what he achieved with his debut record Faith. The album spawned six Top 5 singles, including three #1’s. Maybe that doesn’t impress you if you only regard George Michael as a fluffy, superfluous, expendable pop star that was nothing more than a maleable product of the record industry. But when you consider he wrote all of those songs by himself, and had a total of one song with a co-writer on the entire Faith album, while also producing the entire record by himself, this was and is uncharted territory for a pop star achieving that caliber of success, or really for any musical artist no matter what the genre, or what era.
Taylor Swift had a similar record with Speak Now where she wrote and produced it herself, but it didn’t achieve nearly the universal acceptance of Faith. George Michael and Faith were music in 1988. Period. The album has now sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. And most who say they didn’t find any of thw blockbuster songs on that album fetching, or at least a guilty pleasure, are lying through their teeth. Go listen to “One More Try” and tell me there isn’t something there.
And for those who profess that it takes an army of songwriters, producers, programmers, and samples to make a hit record, let’s hold up George Michael’s Faith as a prime example of why that mentality is folly, and the downfall of modern American anticlimactic pop music.
But where was George Michael in early 1989 when it came time to accept the Grammy for Album of the Year for Faith? He was a no show—struggling to come to grips with becoming an international pop star from some cheesy songs, and wanting to distance from certain efforts he expended promoting the album. George Michael actually wanted to do something with the bully pulpit he found placed at his feet. This eventually put him at polarizing odds with the same industry that had crowned him king, and George Michael would never achieve the same level of success or attention that Faith delivered.
George Michael’s next album Living Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was a total departure from the image-driven and commercial rollout of Faith, and Michael refused to cut any videos for it, or participate in any promotion of it. He wanted people to take him seriously as a songwriter—something they probably should have done with Faith, but “I Want Your Sex” and the image-driven posturing got in the way of the general populous realizing just what an achievement of independent resolve Faith had been.
That’s why it was just about perfect and prescient when Saturday Night Live’s Dana Carvey decided to spoof George Michael and his butt when Michel’s name was heavy in the zeitgeist after not showing up to accept his Grammy.
Though the Saturday Night Live skit might be lost in time, George Michael’s butt wasn’t. There’s even a Facebook page for it, which posted on Sunday, “This page was made out of love and good-natured appreciation of our favorite musician. So sorry for this loss, may we celebrate his memory for years to come and keep his music bumping. Sending love to his family.”
Just like his butt, there’s some strange perfect-ness to George Michael passing away on Christmas—a holiday he celebrated in song better than most modern artists. And isn’t it poetic that he would die in 2016—a year that seems to be reserved for the passing of many of those musical and cultural misanthropes inevitably alienated from a world that misunderstands their contributions, and the motivations behind them.
Scotty J
December 26, 2016 @ 1:26 pm
Not only did he write almost the entire ‘Faith’ album he also played all the instruments on it. From about the summer of 1987 when the whole ‘I Want Your Sex’ brouhaha came about (and doesn’t that sound mild in retrospect) through 1989 he was beyond huge. I saw somewhere that he is still the most played artist in British radio history to this day.
Martha
December 26, 2016 @ 2:05 pm
That’s what I was about to say in regards to playing all the instruments on the album. No denying the man had talent, even when he was with WHAM! That song “Everything She Wants” in my opinion was a great pop song.
Gena R.
December 26, 2016 @ 1:34 pm
“Look at it! Accept it! … The worst thing you could do is try to ignore it!” 😀 That’s literally the first thing I thought of when I saw this headline.
But yeah, George had some good music (“Faith” and “Freedom ’90” are my faves, and I would also recommend his performance of “Somebody to Love” with Queen from the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute concert), and he will certainly be missed. 🙁 RIP George.
PCS22401
December 26, 2016 @ 1:59 pm
Write up on NPR. His legacy goes well beyond his music (and his butt)…
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/26/506998666/after-george-michaels-death-stories-emerge-of-his-quiet-generosity
Buford Cusser
December 26, 2016 @ 4:44 pm
Faith is an undeniably tremendous success story. I can’t listen to that album while riding in my vehicle without without blissing out and finding myself transported to my destination unaware of anything that transpired from the moment I put that CD in. But, Michael got derailed after creating that album. His record company wasn’t showing him the promotion that they were heaping on company mate Michael Jackson. Michael should have at least been as popular as Michael Jackson in that time period. Jackson never recorded an album that compares with the achievement George Michael accomplished. And that left a bad taste in Michael’s mouth that he never got over. He never again climbed as high.
Bertox
December 26, 2016 @ 6:42 pm
We lost another great one, 2016 is one cruel mofo. My favorite song of his is “Tonight,” with “One More Try” a very close second. His talent and body of work are exceptional and undeniable. Thank you for this informative and proper tribute to a legend. Rest in peace, Mr. Michael.
NightHawk
December 26, 2016 @ 7:16 pm
As far as I’m concerned, 2016 should be declared “The Year Creativity Died.” We’ve lost countless bright minds like David Bowie, Prince, and George Michael (not trying to exclude the country music deaths here, just going off the top of my head) while the mainstream has been overrun by music the sounds like it could’ve been written by a five year old. Even in country music, the Hag died, and this Metro-Bro craze is still holding out. Too many creative geniuses have left us this year, and we’re left with mindless drivel that wasn’t inspired, wasn’t given time and attention needed to let it flourish, but was pumped out to make quick money. Fuck you 2016
Ron_Jeff
December 27, 2016 @ 7:02 am
As someone who has spent over 30 years in radio, in a variety of formats, I have never been a big fan of the hits…They are nearly always the catchy, earworms that sell the albums that contain the real meat. The deeper cuts are nearly always more representative of who an artist really is, and that couldn’t be more true than with George. You’ll be missed.
jessie with the long hair
December 27, 2016 @ 8:02 am
I always thought “Faith” would get covered by a country artist at some point. With it’s Bo Diddley like beat and dueling rock-a-billy guitars “Faith” could have been a great song for Dwight Yoakam to cover.
Doug
December 27, 2016 @ 9:31 am
Thank you for this. It perfectly describes my own dismissal of George Michael, based on all the emphasis on image, the obvious commercialism of “I Want Your Sex,” etc., without ever listening to his music. For that reason I was surprised the last couple of days to read the tributes to Michael from so many artists I respect….he obviously was much more worthy an artist than I’d given him credit for. So the last hour I’ve been listening to “Faith” on Napster (nee Rhapsody) and it’s great! When will I learn to not make so many snap judgements?!
Trigger
December 27, 2016 @ 10:09 am
About two or three months ago, I heard “One More Try” somewhere, maybe a commercial or on a podcast or something, and it stimulated me to read up on George Michael, just because I can’t say I had even thought about him since the late 80’s when I was a kid hearing all of those “Faith” songs on the radio. I was blown away to find out that George Michael wrote all of those songs, produced them himself, and as others have pointed out here, played many of the instruments. This was a level of musicianship I just wasn’t expecting to find from what I thought was a flash-in-the-pan pop star. I’m sure many are wondering why a country website that usually goes to battle with pop stars would care about George Michael, but I think his story offers some great insight about what truly resonates in music. Today with professional songwriters, super producers, and sessions musicians, the human element is scrubbed out of music. George Michael’s “Faith” proves that when you give artists creative freedom, they can thrive.
Maur
May 30, 2017 @ 11:21 am
Listen to “Listen without Prejudice” or Ladies and Gentleman” Watch UTUBE video “Living For The City” with Stevie Wonder and catch his rehearsal with Queen for the FM concert. He just blows everybody else out of the water.
Mark
December 28, 2016 @ 3:48 pm
I still have my original cassette copy of Faith that I bought at K-Mart in 1988. I liked the Wham! stuff, too, as would any 80’s kid, but that Faith album….that was something different, altogether. Rockabilly-inspired guitar licks on the title track, the middle-eastern vibe on “Father Figure”, and even some classic jazzy-ness on “Kissing a Fool”. Somebody else said it earlier in this thread, but that album always has, and always will, transport me to another place in my mind. “Praying for Time”, off the next album, had a similar feel, to me. RIP, George, and thanks for the music.
Lone Wolf
December 29, 2016 @ 4:41 pm
George Michael was included in a group of British singers…along with Lisa Stansfield and Annie Lennox, among others…who sounded so soulful that you wouldn’t know what they looked like unless you saw their videos “Faith”, as a whole, seemed to appeal to a lot of different age groups, too, as well as genres other than pop. His remix of “Monkey” got some airplay on WAMO, the only r & b station in Pittsburgh (which is back but not nearly as good as it was). “Kissing A Fool”‘ found its way in adult contemporary radio. Yes, he virtually did the entire CD on his own and along with all the great titles everyone here has posted, ‘Jesus To A Child’ deserves an honorable mention.
Toby in AK
December 29, 2016 @ 7:36 pm
No homo I really wanted to be George Michael when I was 12 because all the girls I knew went insane for him.
He’s also responsible for introducing me to my love of dancing, which in a way led me back to country music
I always took it for granted that the song Faith was at least partly inspired by country telecaster guitar