BEFORE: Just a couple more Rock Docs in the Doc Block, then I can start the final week and a half about other creative types of people who are not musicians or singers. Can't wait, sounds like a plan. But before I get there, let's send out a special Birthday SHOUT-out to Brian May from the band Queen, born 7/19/47 and turning 77 day. He appears in today's documentary about Wham!, I'm presuming it's in footage from Live-Aid. Happy Birthday to the band's lead guitarist and in-house astrophysicist, and no, I'm not joking.
His band-mate, Freddie Mercury, carries over from "The Greatest Night in Pop", and so does George Michael and a few other blokes too.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "George Michael: Freedom" (Movie #3,017)
THE PLOT: Through archival images and footage, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley relive the arc of their career as Wham!, from '70s best buds to '80s pop icons.
AFTER: Linking-wise, this worked out rather well because both yesterday's film and today's film used the same footage, from the Band-Aid single recording session - so there's a LOT of people crossing over via archive footage, like at least eight.
I just went back and read my review of the George Michael doc from four years ago, and man, I remember how confusing it all was. I was really affected by that video for "Freedom '90" because it was supposed to be a video about George finally figuring out who he was, and then this was somehow symbolized by him not appearing in the video at all, except seen behind the camera, pretending to direct the video, only he did NOT direct the video, David Fincher did, so why lead us to believe that he did? Then he hired five of the top female models in the world to appear in the video in completely over-the-top outfits, because what could possibly tell me more about what it's like to be a gay man struggling with his sexuality than images of beautiful women? There's no level on which this made any sense.
Then after the video came out, his record company sued him because they had a different definition of what it means to "appear" in a music video. They felt he had not done the minimum amount of work to personally promote the song by hiring female models to lip-sync to his vocals. George Michael then sued his record company because his contract with them was so all-encompassing that it essentially was a form of modern-day slavery. There are a few lessons here, first is that anyone making a movie or a commercial or a music video should make damn sure that it's simple to understand. Secondly if you don't want to fulfill the terms of a recording contract, that's fine, just maybe then don't sign the contract. However, if you have a chance at being rich and famous, then sure, go ahead and sign, but then you have to follow the terms of the contract or you get NOTHING, good day, sir.
When I combine the knowledge of that incident with what I saw and heard in this documentary, a more complete picture of George Michael starts to emerge, and man, did he complain a lot. In this Netflix doc, he's heard complaining about how hard it is to start a band, make a demo recording and get it out to all the record companies within walking distance - really, it sounded like he was willing to throw in the towel if he didn't find fame overnight. Then he complained more about Wham! having a few minor hits, but after two albums they still hadn't had a number one single. His record company sent him all the way to the U.S. to have "Careless Whisper" recorded at Muscle Shoals studio, and yep, you guessed it, more complaints. George didn't like the way it was mixed, so he demanded that he get another chance to mix the song and act as the song's producer (in addition to singer and songwriter). THEN he's got the nerve to complain about how hard it is to be a record producer, when he got exactly what he wanted, the chance to re-mix the song the way it should sound, according to him, and really, not everybody gets that opportunity to record their song ONCE, let alone twice.
So he complained when he wasn't famous yet, and then once he became famous, he found a way to complain about THAT. Je-SUS, George Michael, can't you just learn to be happy and maybe enjoy the ride? Wham! was selling out stadiums and finally got that #1 single, plus a number one album, and all he could bitch about is then was hard it is to be in the public eye and the fact that women wouldn't leave him alone. Of course we all know now that he wasn't into women, but he put himself front and center and wore those tiny little swimsuits in music videos, what did he THINK was going to happen? Finally he reached a point in his life where he'd come out as a gay man, at least to his close friends, but then he felt forced to continue this double life, where he didn't yet talk about his sexuality in interviews, he maintained this charade where he was appealing to screaming female fans, and well, we all know from the Rock Hudson documentary that leading a double life is not really going to work out in the end. But great, one more thing for George Michael to complain about.
The ultimate bitchiness probably came when George came close to his latest imaginary self-imposed career goal, to have four number one singles in the U.K. in one year, and his plan was to make this happen by recording "Last Christmas" and releasing it for the holiday season in 1984. But wouldn't you know it, he got called to appear on the Band-Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas" and with it's all-star line-up (including himself) that song went straight to #1 and that kept "Last Christmas" in second place on the charts. So sorry, George Michael, you. wanted four number one songs and you only got three, I know you must be absolutely devastated, and I don't know how you're going to be able to carry on. Give me a damn break.
Look, I appreciate that he knew he was going to have a smash hit with "Careless Whisper", and sure, you shouldn't release a track if it's not up to your standards, I get that. But he and Andrew Ridgeley wrote the song very early in their band's history, and then they just had to sit on it for several albums until the song was ready for the world, and vice versa. But then even though it appeared on Wham's second studio album "Make It Big", it was released as a solo single, which doesn't seem quite fair to Ridgeley. Or in some markets the song was credited to "Wham! featuring George Michael" which makes even less sense.
I'm going to fall back on one of the other recent rock docs I watched to maybe get some insight here to the Michael-Ridgeley partnership. I think Andrew Ridgeley was kind of the Brian Jones of this band, he was the alpha when the band started, and George Michael (or "Yog", as he's constantly called in this doc for some reason) was just happy to be singing in a band. Yes, there was a time when George Michael was happy and not complaining about something, as strange as that sounds. But time went by, and George found his voice and learned a few things about himself, and this gave him a bit more confidence as a songwriter and as a performer, and it seems it was a lot like Mick Jagger taking the lead in the Stones. What was left for Andrew RIdgeley to do, if George was writing the songs, singing lead on them, producing the album and directing the music videos? Not a whole heck of a lot, I think. By moving on to releasing a solo album, George Michael essentially kicked Ridgeley out of his own band, or perhaps it's more accurate to say that he dissolved Wham! so he could be a solo artist. Ridgeley was left to sing backing vocals at Live-Aid and then he needed to figure out a better way to meet girls than just sleeping with the women that George Michael turned down. It's sad, really.
The band really only lasted four years, which is pretty good for a band with two Alphas, but the writing was kind of on the wall once George Michael became that second Alpha. A final word of warning tonight, if you watch this doc it means that you will probably have to hear the song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", there's just no way around it. I know, I know, once the 1980's ended you hoped that you would never have to hear it again, but unfortunately that's not the way these things work.
With archive footage of Andrew Ridgeley (last seen in "Last Christmas"), Bono (also carrying over from "The Greatest Night in Pop"), Phil Collins (ditto), Bob Geldof (ditto), Sting (ditto), Stevie Wonder (ditto), David Bowie (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), George Harrison (ditto), Mick Jagger (ditto), Elton John (ditto), John Lennon (ditto), Paul McCartney (ditto), Boy George (last seen in "Keith Haring: Street Art Boy"), Connie Chung (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Mark Dean, Helen DeMacque, Aretha Franklin (last seen in "Belushi"), Tony Hadley, Shirlie Kemp, Brian May (last seen in "Elton John: Becoming Rocketman"), Philip Oakey, Simon Napier-Bell, Kyriacos Panayiotou, Jerry Wexler (last seen in "Muscle Shoals"), Paula Yates,
RATING: 4 out of 10 scrapbooks kept by Andrew Ridgeley's mum
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