From today's New York Times:
ONSTAGE IN THE U.S., IF NOT ON THE AIR
By Jon Pareles
July 23, 2008
George Michael started his concert at Madison Square Garden on Monday night with “Waiting (Reprise),” a ballad that concluded: “Is it too late to try again? Here I am.” It was the first of two shows there (the second is Wednesday night) on Mr. Michael’s first American tour in 17 years, and he treated it as a vindication.
Mr. Michael’s music since 1990 has received little play on American radio stations, ever since he unsuccessfully sued his label at the time, Sony, to end a 15-year contract he described as “professional slavery.” His lawsuit charged that Sony failed to fully promote the 1990 album “Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1” because Mr. Michael was determined to set aside his 1980s image as a smiling sex symbol.
“Artists were losing all control as the biggies got bigger,” Mr. Michael said during a long speech from the stage. “And I didn’t think it was fair that I was on roughly a 30-year deal for £500. Somehow I lost that battle.”
He continued: “Basically I went from being just as successful in America as I was in the rest of the world to having a fantastic career in Europe and almost no career here. That was not because Americans don’t like my music.” The reason, he told the audience, was that no one would “play it to you.”
May I just simply say -- boo fucking hoo? Seriously...this is the guy who penned the line "Guilty feet have got no rhythm" and subsequently failed to die of shame.
11 comments:
The dearth of comments speaks volumes.
Well, on the other hand, maybe nobody finds the subject all that interesting.
Hey, it happens.
:-)
Well, on the other hand, maybe nobody finds the subject all that interesting.
Oh, I find Mr. Michael's comment that his post-Listen Without Prejudice music failed in America because "no one would 'play it to you.' quite interesting. Those that wouldn't 'play it to you' includes Michael himself, who hasn't toured an album since LWP. It also didn't help matters that he seemed to be indicating during the interviews he was giving to promote that album that his prior music wasn't a fair and accurate reflection of him as a "serious artist". In spite of that and that his memorable actions of the last decade or so have involved just about anything but music, you would think that he would be thankful that enough people appreciate any of his music to be still be able to fill a place like MSG.
He toured bathroom stalls in the US. Larry Craig is a fan.
Seriously though, who cares? He made cheesy music, got older, wasn't the flavor of the month anymore, the end.
Well, it's true. Guilty feet have got no rhythm.
Steve:
You have to live the curse of being a rock critic: commenting upon music & musicians the rest of us ignore like Georgie M. He is and has always been so off of my music radar I don't think I have thought about him or heard his music in over 10 years.
ROT(Plumber)
Of course you know who else is back: Paul Westerberg. Anyone willing to risk 49 cents can download his new album as one big honking MP3 file for just that many pennies. Just go to Paul’s site & follow the links & instructions he has there.
The problem is he is a wanker. A huge wanker in fact, and aside from some teenie booper music he has done little that comes close to support his immense opinion of himself.
Trey
There are few things worse than an earworm of "guilty feet have got no rhythm"....except maybe "her name was Lola, she was a showgirl"
I always thought it was funny that part of Michaels' lawsuit against Sony was tied to his belief that the label had failed to properly promote Listen Without Prejudice since it didn't sell as well as Faith. The fact Georgie Boy refused to tour behind it or appear in any music videos (not to mention the fact it was intended to sound less "commercial" than his previous work) apparently had nothing to do with it. Plenty of folks have a legitimate beef against their label, but Michaels? Whatta douche!
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