I recently watched Netflix's excellent documentary about Wham! (entitled simple Wham!) and it had me reminiscing about my own relationship with George Michael and Wham!
This is the part of the blog post where, as if I am at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, I bravely stand up and say, "My name is Mark, and I am a Wham! fan."
This is also the part of the blog post where you might say, "Any hipster credibility this guy had is completely shot to hell. I'm done." If that is how you feel, I completely understand. But I must speak my truth, as the saying goes.
My name is Mark, and I am a Wham! fan.
It was probably the summer or early fall of 1984 that I first became aware of Wham! The song was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," and, at first, I didn't like it at all. (I still wouldn't rank it near the top of my favorite Wham! songs, but it is an undeniable earworm). My mother, however, really liked the song. I suppose it reminded her of the 1960s Motown songs that she had grown up and loved as a teenager. "Wake Me Up..." slowly grew on me too. It was undeniable catchy and, in the video, the group seemed to be having tremendous fun. Eventually, as uncool as this may sound, my mom and I shared enthusiasm for this goofy song. At some point that fall of '84, my mom bought the 45 RPM single of "Wake Me Up..." and presented it to me as a gift. (I stil have that 45 RPM single, as well as the ones for "Careless Whisper," "Everything She Wants," "Freedom," and "I'm Your Man").
Wham!'s next single was "Careless Whisper," which is a much more sophisticated and "adult" song than "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." In the accompanying video, George Michael wears a suit which I can only assume is Armani. The lighting is subdued and George is brooding. There is much 'furrowing of the brow" and it must be said that George Michael had two of the greatest eyebrows in pop music history. I aspired to have those epic eyebrows, but don't think I quite achieved it. I doubt few did. The song and video were all that a hopeless romantic teenager like myself needed. Added to this was a girl in my French class whom I fancied also liked the song, and that was it. I'm was a Wham! fan, albeit a secretive Wham! fan.
I knew that liking Wham!, especially for a boy, was totally uncool in my rural Michigan high school. The music of choice among my peers was the likes of Motley Crue, Van Halen, Ratt, Quiet Riot, and Def Leppard. I thought all of that music was complete garbage (with the possible exception of Van Halen. I later came around to appreciating some of Def Leppard's output). I didn't like the way those bands looked, and the cartoonish "aggro" presentation was a turnoff. My musical tastes were more along the lines of Duran Duran, Tears For Fears, U2, The Police, Thompson Twins, a little Beatles, a little Byrds, a lot of Simon & Garfunkel. Basically, absolutely nothing that was cool in my hard rawk, hair metal-obsessed school.
It also has to be said that there was healthy dose of homophobia at my school. Anything that hinted of "gayness," was immediately suspect. (I distinctly remember a kid in my school referring to Tears For Fears as "Tears For Queers"). Though the public didn't yet know that George Michael was gay, he definitely was not particularly macho or "manly," certainly not by the standards of my deeply homophobic high school. Best to keep my fandom to myself. I didn't need to deal with any more crap at school.
On my 17th birthday in March 1985, my mom gave me Wham!'s album Make It Big. I don't remember if I specifically requested the album. In any case, I was happy to receive it. I continued to buy Wham!'s latest singles at the local Woolworth and took my fashion cues from whatever George and Andrew were wearing on the record sleeves or in the accompanying videos. My roundish face and hair (oh, how I miss that hair) allowed me to reasonably approximate George's style--though of course I would tell nobody that was my goal. (In fairness, I also used Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of TFF and Dave Wakeling of General Public as my style inspirations). So, yes, I was completely out of step with the kids in my school. Only if I had discovered punk rock as a high school student could I have been even more on the fringes.
"Everything She Wants" is a song that I consider to be Wham!'s best. Though the synth sound is dated, it still has a slinky and sexy feel to it. "Freedom" is one of the best Motown songs not actually made by Motown. It's amazing how much George Michael perfected that sound. It's not hard to imagine The Supremes performing the song in 1965. Along with Tears For Fears' Songs From the Big Chair and The Hurting, General Public's ...All the Rage, and Prince & the Revolution's Around the World in a Day, the music from Make It Big (and Wham!'s first--and much inferior--first album Fantastic) comprised my summer '85 soundtrack. I wish I could say I was much cooler and was listening to, say, the Dead Kennedys" Frankenchrist and Husker Du's New Day Rising, but that would be a lie. I didn't yet have access to that music nor did I know that it existed.
In November 1985, Wham! released "I'm Your Man", another catchy slab of ersatz Tamla/Motown. The video featured a bearded, leather jacketed George (and Andrew--don't remember what Andrew wears in the video) performing at the Marquee Club in London. I loved the song and honestly, I still enjoy it. Naturally, I bought the single and remember playing the hell out of it during Christmas 1985.
When the year 1986 rolled around, my musical interests steered in other directions. I suppose the attention span of a 17/18-year-old is brief. I have a photographic snapshot memory of being in the backseat of my parents' car, post-high school graduation ceremony, and Wham!'s final single "Different Corner" came on the radio as my mom popped into 7-11 to pick something up. Somehow, that sad and meditative (by Wham! standards) song fit the mood of this life signpost event, this small step into adulthood.
By the time I got to college, I was already into R.E.M. and was about to become much more interested in "serious" music, immersing myself in what was then called "college rock" (Husker Du, The Replacements The Smiths, et al.) as well as taking the deep dive into the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Who. Most of my favorite high school era music was shunted aside. Goodbye George Michael, goodbye Wham!. If George and Andrew weren't cool in high school, you definitely were not cool in college (though for slightly different reasons. Less to do with homophobia--though there was certainly an element of that--and more to do with being "brainless pop").
I hung on to my vinyl copies of Fantastic, Make It Big, and my 12" single of "I'm Your Man" until 1998, when in an impulsive fit, I literally tossed them in a large trash bin in the apartment complex in which I was living. (I compromised and hung on to my Wham! singles). I regret doing that now.
In the last few years, I've come to term with my Wham! fandom and am no longer afraid to admit to it. I bought Make It Big on CD, and just recently bought their final album Music From the Edge of Heaven on CD. I also stopped pretending that I didn't like George Michael's solo stuff and picked up copies of Faith and Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 on CD. (I found both at the local charity shop near my work. Pretty good acquisitions for only about $2 total).
"Listen without prejudice" is the perfect summation of George Michael and Wham!'s music. It may not be edgy stuff, but it does contain some gems. Rid yourselves of any preconceived notions and listen to it on its own terms. You might enjoy some of it. Maybe you'll enjoy all of it.
As for the Netflix documentary, I highly recommend it. There is plenty that I didn't know about George and Andrew's friendship and musical partnership. It made me appreciate them more than I ever did before, and also made me mourn George's death even more than I did in 2016. It was Andrew's confidence that enabled the shy, awkward George to blossom as a musician. It seems a little of that was lost when the group split up. Though George had a largely successful solo career, I'm not sure if he ever achieved true happiness.
This concludes my confession. I hope you will all find it in your hearts to continue on with me and this blog. [Tongue firmly in cheek].
