I was going to write this up as a sort of parody of Eric’s Police review but on re-inspection his post doesn’t really give me anything sufficiently ridiculous to work with. Anyway. I went to see George Michael give the 100th concert of his 25 Live tour. Fantastic show.
The concert really emphasized that “blue-eyed soul”* works a lot better when delivered by a good voice. Michaels sounds great: his voice has a little extra rasp added to its youthful smoothness, but his intonation is good and he delivers a lot of tone over most of the register. “The first time ever I saw your face” got a really gorgeous reading in style that was sort of a tasteful version of the American Idol melisma-fest. By the time he sang the hell out of “Roxanne” I think he was just showing off. We also got to hear some of the big hits: “Father Figure,” “Faith,” and “Careless Whisper” as the first encore.
This gives you an idea of the stage set-up: a huge LED screen that curved from the back to the floor of the stage, then disappeared off the front. This was put to good effect with a combination of artsy screen-saver sorts of visuals mixed with images from Michaels’ career from Wham! to the present. Big screens on the sides of the stage were sometimes synced, at other times just gave a blown-up view of the stage.
The band was on three-tiered risers on either side of the main screen. I counted about fourteen people total: several guitars, bass, a kit drummer, an extra percussionist, keyboards, and some background singers. As you’d expect: tight. They did a nice job with the usual band sounds but also managed to recreate club grooves nicely. The whole production pays a lot of attention to craft– it felt a little like a traveling Vegas show– which by my lights is a good thing.
*Let’s have a loooooong discussion of whether that’s racist.
The Edge of the American West 
32 comments
July 31, 2008 at 9:33 am
bitchphd
Gay.
July 31, 2008 at 9:39 am
Neddy Merrill
Huh? There’s nothing gay about this post. I even took out the paragraph about how great he looked.
July 31, 2008 at 9:40 am
Russell Belding
Used to be really annoyed by his Don Johnson/Richard Nixon “five o’clock shadow,” and his Osmondlike whiter-than-white teeth. Gotten over that, though.
July 31, 2008 at 9:44 am
Vance Maverick
I think B meant that in the high-school put-down sense.
This post confirms my resolve to write a This Day piece for about a month from now (if I can get it past the rigorous review board). In the meantime, how about some real singing?
July 31, 2008 at 9:48 am
Sybil Vane
B is a heterosexist.
I had a cell phone once that played a casio version of Careless Whisper as the ringtone. It was about the happiest thing ever.
July 31, 2008 at 9:49 am
neocynic
The concert really emphasized that “blue-eyed soul”*
*Let’s have a loooooong discussion of whether that’s racist.
I don’t think that’s racist. I mean, the greatest soul singers ever–Otis Redding and Sam Cooke–both had blue eyes, didn’t they?
Didn’t they?
July 31, 2008 at 9:53 am
eric
his post doesn’t really give me anything sufficiently ridiculous to work with
I’ll try harder next time.
I can imagine this being an impressive concert.
July 31, 2008 at 9:53 am
neocynic
And I’ve never heard of Roberto Murolo before today*, but that is some pretty singing.
*Should I have posted this in the “Ignorance” thread, or is lack of knowledge of this singer common?
July 31, 2008 at 9:56 am
Vance Maverick
He’s still famous in Italy, but not I think abroad. I know of him because my mom brought back a disc from Naples in 1950. (His death was front-page news more than 50 years later.)
July 31, 2008 at 10:12 am
Russell Belding
Of course, Pat Boone was the granddaddy of Blue-Eyed Soul, so the genre had nowhere to go but up.
July 31, 2008 at 10:29 am
Bill
Having not yet gotten back to the Shapley-Shubik index of voting power in the thread from days ago…..I will say I saw George at the Honda Center in Anaheim, and show was very good (the video backdrop was fascinating for those with less interest in the music). The only problem was that the Honda Center is a closed concrete box with the acoustics of an abandoned prison. The show would sound better outdoors.
July 31, 2008 at 10:53 am
neocynic
I’ve been struggling since I saw this post to figure out why I so vehemently dislike George Michael. I’ve decided that it’s the same reason I can’t stand Bruce Springsteen or U2–they’re mediocre talents who’ve garnered way more acclaim than they deserve.
But in Michaels’ case it seems less obvious, since he hasn’t been lauded like “The Boss” and U2. I’m not sure how to account for that, except that maybe I think Michaels’ mediocre works have less weight than the unspectacular work of the other two, so it takes less acclaim to tip that balance.
I’m not saying it’s rational–just working it out in public, I guess.
July 31, 2008 at 11:04 am
TF Smith
I met Pat Boone once; he was a utter loon (IMOAAVHO, of course) and looked like he had been pan-fried in butter.
He and the “broken windows” thinker (Wilson? Watson?) were at the Reagan Library advocating omelettes/eggs as US policy for the Middle East; IIRC, Pat thought 5,000 US KIA would be an acceptable exchange for our SOB in Iraq.
July 31, 2008 at 11:05 am
Ms. Fab
I am very pro the phrase “blue-eyed soul.” Who’s it racist against? White people? WTF?
July 31, 2008 at 11:06 am
Russell Belding
I always thought the Jon Landau/Jann Wenner/Dave Marsh Axis of Correct Rock Journalism was largley responsible for Springsteen’s success, although Eric Alterman would probably beg to differ.
July 31, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Gassalasca
I’d just like to say I’m apalled by seeing U2 and Springsteen even mentioned in the same sentence.
I think I’ve always believed, somewhere deep in my heart, that the Boss deserves respect and that Bono and Sting should be gang-raped.
July 31, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Fats Durston
How bout a discussion over whether it’s rockist?
I’m with neocynic*, though I’m bothered even more by spectacularly mediocre movies that receive massive praise and popularity (Jerry Maguire, American Beauty, Full Monty, e.g.).
*Though I think Bruce has produced more than a good album’s worth of songs. And I dislike Michael cause I had to listen to my sisters play “Father Figure” and “Careless Whisper” and that monkey one a million times.**
**And I once had a roommate who bought Andrew Ridgley’s cassingle.
July 31, 2008 at 12:19 pm
neocynic
Gassalasca: I’d just like to say I’m apalled by seeing U2 and Springsteen even mentioned in the same sentence.
I only group them because I dislike them both. The reasons for my dislike are seperate, though.
U2 sucks because they blather pseudointellectual nonsense over the top of a boring guitar-bass-drums foundation. And that blathering is done with a voice (fricking Bono) who sounds like an air-raid siren.
Springsteen sucks because he’s boring. I can’t even begin to examine his lyrical content because instrumentally I’m sedated, and vocally I’m aggravated. He sounds like someone dropped a piano on his foot.
Does that help? My guess is “no.”
Fats Durston: I’m bothered even more by spectacularly mediocre movies that receive massive praise and popularity
Me too. I hate Raging Bull. Nothing notable there, as far as I can see.
Wow. Did I enter an iconoclast contest? I don’t remember doing so, but . . . hmmm.
July 31, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Neddy Merrill
I think this blog is officially against gang rape, but I’m new here, so I don’t know the rules that well.
I’m also kind of dazed by the overwhelmingly 80s concept of “Andrew Ridgley’s cassingle.”
July 31, 2008 at 12:25 pm
neocynic
I’m also kind of dazed by the overwhelmingly 80s concept of “Andrew Ridgley’s cassingle.”
I bought a couple “cassingles” that I assiduously cut to fit my empty cassette cases. But you’re right. That concept didn’t age well.
Wait–what made us think that a recording with a bunch of moving parts and a thin surface would survive? Were we idiots?
July 31, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Neddy Merrill
A moment’s googling reveals that Ridgley is alive and well and living in Cornwall with his wife, who used to be in Bananarama. And on good terms with George Michael. Fantastic. In their honor, my favorite Wham! song.
July 31, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Gassalasca
[i]Springsteen sucks because he’s boring. I can’t even begin to examine his lyrical content because instrumentally I’m sedated, and vocally I’m aggravated. He sounds like someone dropped a piano on his foot.[/i]
I actually agree with this for the most part. Though I’ve found a few gems and I’m trying to wade through the boring music.
And as for movies – I haven’t seen [i]Jerry McGuire[/i], [i]Full Monty[/i] is a wonderful movie but I wasn’t aware of any extensive praising going on, [i]American Beauty[/i] deserves I think all the praise it got, which leaves us with [i]Raging Bull[/i]. I think it’s good and a special movie by many counts but I think I agree it was lauded a bit too much. I mean calling it the best movie of the 80s, come on!
July 31, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Gassalasca
Drat! My italicizing failed. <_<
July 31, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Gassalasca
O, and also, just to make things more interesting, I think The Dark Knight is an excellent film… but definitely overhyped.
July 31, 2008 at 2:19 pm
bitchphd
I’ve been struggling since I saw this post to figure out why I so vehemently dislike George Michael.
Homophobe.
July 31, 2008 at 3:10 pm
neocynic
Har.
July 31, 2008 at 3:22 pm
neocynic
I’ve been struggling since I saw this post to figure out why I so vehemently dislike George Michael.
Homophobe.
More seriously, I really did have to confront this as I figured this out. I was a teenager in the eighties, and I was as likely as anyone to label something “gay” as bitchphd did on the first response (facetiously, I’m guessing). And after I’d dismissed that as a possibility, I started thinking of artists I liked despite their gayitude.
I still like a lot of the Village People’s stuff, even though I got the In the Navy LP when I was ten and then I joined the navy at seventeen but didn’t note the connection.
I like some of Elton John. I really like King’s X. Freddie Mercury was awesome.
My three years in Key West probably cured me of homophobiary, I think.
Since I don’t screen my musical likes for sexuality I’ll have to use those–nope, I like gays.
I’m a big ol’ gay-liker.
But I don’t think bitchphd thought I was serious. But she did give me a good platform to say all this.
Which, I suppose, is about the equivalent of saying “I have a lot of black friends.”
July 31, 2008 at 3:38 pm
bitchphd
So gay.
July 31, 2008 at 7:29 pm
grackle
The only blue-eyed soulist I can think of who deserves the epithet is Van Morrison, but then I’d go with neo on much of this. Equating George Michael with “blue-eyed soul” isn’t racist, only silly.
July 31, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Fats Durston
The only blue-eyed soulist I can think of who deserves the epithet is Van Morrison, but then I’d go with neo on much of this. Equating George Michael with “blue-eyed soul” isn’t racist, only silly.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying in the first sentence–Van Morrison is the only good blue-eyed soul singer? Sure it’s a sub-genre that lends itself to mawkish crap* (and the butt-end of hipper-than-thou jokes), but c’mon: The Rolling Stones, “Got To Get You Into My Life,” Dusty Springfield, Rare Earth and Humble Pie (occasionally), some (UK)Squeeze and Fine Young Cannibals,*** even a few Culture Club and Hall & Oates hits are nice, and lately Jamie Lidell and early Britney Spears. Hell, I even like “All 4 Love,” Color Me Badd’s bubblegum-barbershop-new-jack blue-eyed soul melange.****
George Michael just happened to be singing his blue-eyed soul when the genre was mostly in the toilet (beginning at the same time Al Green abandoned pop music for God: coincidence?!). That, and he has a thin voice.
*The Righteous Brothers, Michael McDonald,** that no-talent ass clown who became famous and started winning Grammys, &c.
**Like the character in Office Space, I’m acquainted with a fellar who shares this name with a former Doobie Brother. Jokes about yacht rock really never get old.
***Technically hazel-eyed soul? Green-eyed?
****Really, this is the last footnote: There are also partisans of English new wave soulsters, Amy Winehouse, and Justin Timberlake.
August 2, 2008 at 4:17 am
George Michael ·
[…] & Accessories News » News News George Michael2008-08-02 06:16:58Did but also managed to … several guitars, bass, a nice job with the usual band […]
August 9, 2008 at 7:26 pm
KRK
I haven’t been around these parts for a while and am looking through what I’ve missed. So I’m chiming in very late to say – yeah! Great, great show.
As for whether George Michael has any claim to blue-eyed soul cred, I’ll just say that if he’s good enough for duet singles with Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Mary J. Blige over the period of more than a decade, then I think he qualifies.