darkroman said:

luvgirl said:

darkroman said:

Prince is good but c'mon, George Michael is in a different league.

.

GM may not release three albums a year but his writing and production is of pure quality.

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GM has been very open and honest about the time when Prince rang him to get support for his 'Slave' campaign. To quote GM, he told Prince to "f**k Off".

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GM has always stood up to other stars as he doesn't subcribe to celebrity. He once slapped down Madonna once for being rube to a studio runner at Sarm West Studios.

.

[Edited 12/10/16 8:45am]

i think they were joking. anyway, i'm actually old enough to remember when most critics thought George Michael was just that, a joke. The years have changed that, but he really hasn't had a hit in what? over twenty years? I haven't listened to his few albums that he's released. Are they any good at all? if they are, what's good about them? which songs?

PeteSilas said:

I figured, I, personally, always liked a lot of GM's music but I never thought of him as someone in prince's league as an artist/musician/innovator/artist. His voice is great though and he was a great Pop songwriter.

He hit on him and Prince was homophobic.

2freaky4church1 said:

He hit on him and Prince was homophobic.

you must be joking.

destinyc1 said:

CatB said:

George and Prince thought very highly of one another. They became friends over their battles with the record companies. Actually it was thanks to George that I met Prince and George was also in the audience at P's aftershow that night.

Tell us more.Love them both

Nothing more to tell. That's how I first met Prince and it happened because of George.

FunkiestOne said:

He probably never said it. And if he did say it, it was clearly an off-handed comment. Not that I care if he was a GM fan or not, but don't assume 3rd hand reports are true.

- Agree.

.

George is very underrated. He is seen as a ´pop star´ most of the times, but he is actually a very good producer and songwriter. And singer too, obviously.

GustavoRibas said:

FunkiestOne said:

He probably never said it. And if he did say it, it was clearly an off-handed comment. Not that I care if he was a GM fan or not, but don't assume 3rd hand reports are true.

- Agree.

.

George is very underrated. He is seen as a ´pop star´ most of the times, but he is actually a very good producer and songwriter. And singer too, obviously.

maybe he is but he's not great as an artist, great singer sure, but I think he's a full step below MJ and Prince in the artist category. That's no insult, i enjoy GM's work and he had plenty of hits in the 80's, i just do not think he had that little extra to put him in the category of the truly great. Not to mention, i've never seen the dude play an instrument. and he did talk plenty of shit himself, i remember in the eighties reading that he said something like "if you expect to see a bunch of backup dancers you're going to be dissapointed because it's just me" an obvious dig at MJ. I remember seeing him and boy george singing on a motown special and both sounded like shit next to the likes of stevie wonder and smokey robinson, however, George did improve as a singer and he was probably better than Prince in that one area, depending on what you like.

PeteSilas said:

maybe he is but he's not great as an artist, great singer sure, but I think he's a full step below MJ and Prince in the artist category. That's no insult, i enjoy GM's work and he had plenty of hits in the 80's, i just do not think he had that little extra to put him in the category of the truly great. Not to mention, i've never seen the dude play an instrument. and he did talk plenty of shit himself, i remember in the eighties reading that he said something like "if you expect to see a bunch of backup dancers you're going to be dissapointed because it's just me" an obvious dig at MJ. I remember seeing him and boy george singing on a motown special and both sounded like shit next to the likes of stevie wonder and smokey robinson, however, George did improve as a singer and he was probably better than Prince in that one area, depending on what you like.

.

- Yes, I wouldnt compare him to Prince, but he is way more talented that people think he is. He is credited for playing instruments on his albums, but I never saw him playing live.

.

And he could have been very acid, but I doubt that Prince would say this seriously about him. Specially in public.

TWO TALENTED VETERANS!

Disappoints me Prince said that, like to know where and when. Especially as many of us are George Michael/Wham! fans too, and would find that offensive.

.

I agree with you guys, GM is intelligent and thoughtful in his music, which is great and melodical, he has a great songwriting talent and a god given vocal talent. Prince should have saved his abuse for lesser artists like Nicki Minage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR8mQEudGi8

http://prince.org/msg/8/401363

FUNKNROLL said:

George Michael's solo albums are solid. Older is quite astounding. MTV unplugged will be released for the first time in 2017. Faith Listen Without Prejudice Older MTV unplugged Great stuff.

george stole so much from Prince and MJ, look at the titles of his albums faith and older, it's his version of the one word albums of MJ (thriller,history,bad,invincible). One great thing about Prince was he never did a whole lot of repeating himself, he just didn't, you didn't see him coming out with Purple Rain 2, or naming albums orange snow or any shit like that, he had the balls to do new things and he had the balls to ditch most of his fans after PR. Way more active than both of the other guys, i don't see how there is any comparison myself. Prince fans bitch and moan and complain but he spoiled us, roughly an album a year and I've probably listened to all of them more than i've listened to any of MJ or GM's albums, although I love their work too.

2020 said:

Not the brightest bunch in this thread.... The comment was in 1991 P was pissed at one of his employees leaving him to go work for some wanna be P was right to say this as in the grand scheme of music GM ain't shit! Also from then article I enjoyed P chiding his publicist in the 90s when she came to work dressed way down with him saying to her "Going Fishin?" Hilarious!

ya, prince was hilarious people need to stop taking everything so literally and out of context. I don't think he often or maybe even ever said anything publicly about any other artist. I heard him say that they named MJ's album bad because terrible wouldn't fit on the cover or something to that effect but i don't know if he said that in public or not. He'd hint at mj like wearing one glove and then pulling it off and dropping it to the floor but no, i can't think of him saying anything directly about anyone.

FUNKNROLL said:

George Michael's solo albums are solid. Older is quite astounding. MTV unplugged will be released for the first time in 2017. Faith Listen Without Prejudice Older MTV unplugged Great stuff.

.

Older is a real good album. Like the title says, it shows a more mature and introspective George, who had been listening to brazilian genius Tom Jobim.

Prince's publicist had to leave in the middle of the Diamonds and Pearls tour because GM was going to be shooting a video. He was leaving for a couple of days and Prince said, "What do you want to do that for? George Michael? George Michael ain't shit." I think Prince would have said this about anyone that his publicist was having to leave to work with in the middle of a tour, especially around that time when he was doing 50 concerts between April 3rd and July 12th.

benni said:

Prince's publicist had to leave in the middle of the Diamonds and Pearls tour because GM was going to be shooting a video. He was leaving for a couple of days and Prince said, "What do you want to do that for? George Michael? George Michael ain't shit." I think Prince would have said this about anyone that his publicist was having to leave to work with in the middle of a tour, especially around that time when he was doing 50 concerts between April 3rd and July 12th.

he left mid-tour? doesn't sound professional, maybe there were other factors. I remember reading how Elvis refused to re-hire a pianist who chose another artist over him or rather, tours happening at the same time, it didn't sound egotistical, just more like, "well, if he wants to work for someone else, let him". I'm wondering if Prince was driving the publicist batty because he tended to do that to people. you want good people you should treat them right, many people stayed with Prince just because he was prince and or the money but he could be pretty mean to them. I read that he said Matt Fink should be left in someones closet, sometime around graffiti Bridge. Shortly after that, he hired pretty boy tommy whatshisname. On the other hand, most people, especially musicians need to be ridden to get things done. I get the feeling though that Prince would be doing that under any and all conditions in those days. I had heard he mellowed as he got older, seemed that way, and he also worked with even better musicians who didn't need as much coaching.

laurarichardson said:

PeteSilas said:

mechanicalemotion17 said:

PeteSilas said:

he left mid-tour? doesn't sound professional, maybe there were other factors. I remember reading how Elvis refused to re-hire a pianist who chose another artist over him or rather, tours happening at the same time, it didn't sound egotistical, just more like, "well, if he wants to work for someone else, let him". I'm wondering if Prince was driving the publicist batty because he tended to do that to people. you want good people you should treat them right, many people stayed with Prince just because he was prince and or the money but he could be pretty mean to them. I read that he said Matt Fink should be left in someones closet, sometime around graffiti Bridge. Shortly after that, he hired pretty boy tommy whatshisname. On the other hand, most people, especially musicians need to be ridden to get things done. I get the feeling though that Prince would be doing that under any and all conditions in those days. I had heard he mellowed as he got older, seemed that way, and he also worked with even better musicians who didn't need as much coaching.

This reminds me of a story Kenny G would tell when he headlined at a music venue I worked for. Apparently his long time sound guy once left him to go work for Michael Bolten. Kenny G did hire him back but he never let up on ragging him about it. From my observations of the way Kenny spoke to him tho and all of the F-bombs Kenny thru his way.....it was certainly easy to see why he left [Edited 12/11/16 1:54am]

Working for both Kenny G and Michael Bolton in one's career: that's the most tragic life I can imagine.

databank said:

Working for both Kenny G and Michael Bolton in one's career: that's the most tragic life I can imagine.

Hahaha

I remember that Miles Davis was upset that Darryl Jones left him to play with Sting. He wrote in his autobiography.

And Zappa was mad at Bowie for ´stealing´ the great guitar player Adrian Belew ("F you, Captain Tom" )

.

http://ultimateclassicroc...ian-belew/

PeteSilas said:

FUNKNROLL said:

George Michael's solo albums are solid. Older is quite astounding. MTV unplugged will be released for the first time in 2017. Faith Listen Without Prejudice Older MTV unplugged Great stuff.

george stole so much from Prince and MJ, look at the titles of his albums faith and older, it's his version of the one word albums of MJ (thriller,history,bad,invincible). One great thing about Prince was he never did a whole lot of repeating himself, he just didn't, you didn't see him coming out with Purple Rain 2, or naming albums orange snow or any shit like that, he had the balls to do new things and he had the balls to ditch most of his fans after PR. Way more active than both of the other guys, i don't see how there is any comparison myself. Prince fans bitch and moan and complain but he spoiled us, roughly an album a year and I've probably listened to all of them more than i've listened to any of MJ or GM's albums, although I love their work too.

I have to start this by saying I'm a Prince fan of some 33 years, and I think the man was a once in a lifetime artist who I fortunately got to see live in concert twice. I bought every album, joined every website, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, with that out of the way..... what on earth are you talking about?

George Michael stole from Prince and MJ by releasing his 'versions' of one word albums? So because 'Faith' had a one word title it was his version of Thriller or Bad? That's possibly the most ludicrous statement I've ever read on here. Hmm, maybe he stole from Paul Simon and it was his version of 'Graceland' or he stole from The Beatles and it was his version of 'Revolver?' Come to think of it, I think MJ stole from The Beatles by naming all his albums with one word titles after Revolver. See.... ridiculous.

So Prince didn't do a lot of repeating himself and didn't make PR 2 or Orange Snow; what's that got to do with George Michael? George didn't do Faith 2 either, or a follow up to Older, called Older Still. If we're talking balls.... after selling 10 Million copies of Faith in the U.S with the world at his feet at the age of 24, George took a couple of years out, and instead of making Faith 2, he completely ditched his Faith image, refused to make videos, and produced a stunning album of grown up, largely un-commercial songs, that were instantly going to alienate him from 90% of the teenyboppers who adored him in 1987.

He had previous form for doing this too, having also quit Wham! in '86 (which was really GM solo anyway, with his pal standing at his side) when he was selling records by the millions. By 24 he had completely changed image twice and re-invented both himself and his sound TWICE... and by 27 he had nothing left to prove and so let the music to do the talking.

So please, don't talk to me about balls, or re-invention, or the ability to ditch fans when at the top of commercial success. Old Georgie boy been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt.

You're right in that George hasn't been nearly as Prolific as Prince, and you're right that Prince spoiled us. On that we can agree. I'm not writing this to hail George Michael as somehow better than Prince, because 1. That is always subjective and never provable one way or the other, and 2. I don't actually prefer GM to Prince. I just found many of your points to be largely of the head scratching variety.

Yewdale said:

PeteSilas said:

george stole so much from Prince and MJ, look at the titles of his albums faith and older, it's his version of the one word albums of MJ (thriller,history,bad,invincible). One great thing about Prince was he never did a whole lot of repeating himself, he just didn't, you didn't see him coming out with Purple Rain 2, or naming albums orange snow or any shit like that, he had the balls to do new things and he had the balls to ditch most of his fans after PR. Way more active than both of the other guys, i don't see how there is any comparison myself. Prince fans bitch and moan and complain but he spoiled us, roughly an album a year and I've probably listened to all of them more than i've listened to any of MJ or GM's albums, although I love their work too.

I have to start this by saying I'm a Prince fan of some 33 years, and I think the man was a once in a lifetime artist who I fortunately got to see live in concert twice. I bought every album, joined every website, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, with that out of the way..... what on earth are you talking about?

George Michael stole from Prince and MJ by releasing his 'versions' of one word albums? So because 'Faith' had a one word title it was his version of Thriller or Bad? That's possibly the most ludicrous statement I've ever read on here. Hmm, maybe he stole from Paul Simon and it was his version of 'Graceland' or he stole from The Beatles and it was his version of 'Revolver?' Come to think of it, I think MJ stole from The Beatles by naming all his albums with one word titles after Revolver. See.... ridiculous.

So Prince didn't do a lot of repeating himself and didn't make PR 2 or Orange Snow; what's that got to do with George Michael? George didn't do Faith 2 either, or a follow up to Older, called Older Still. If we're talking balls.... after selling 10 Million copies of Faith in the U.S with the world at his feet at the age of 24, George took a couple of years out, and instead of making Faith 2, he completely ditched his Faith image, refused to make videos, and produced a stunning album of grown up, largely un-commercial songs, that were instantly going to alienate him from 90% of the teenyboppers who adored him in 1987.

He had previous form for doing this too, having also quit Wham! in '86 (which was really GM solo anyway, with his pal standing at his side) when he was selling records by the millions. By 24 he had completely changed image twice and re-invented both himself and his sound TWICE... and by 27 he had nothing left to prove and so let the music to do the talking.

So please, don't talk to me about balls, or re-invention, or the ability to ditch fans when at the top of commercial success. Old Georgie boy been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt.

You're right in that George hasn't been nearly as Prolific as Prince, and you're right that Prince spoiled us. On that we can agree. I'm not writing this to hail George Michael as somehow better than Prince, because 1. That is always subjective and never provable one way or the other, and 2. I don't actually prefer GM to Prince. I just found many of your points to be largely of the head scratching variety.

it wasn't just the one word titles either, it was the whole image shit. It's not just George Michael, most people tend to repeat things that work really well whether it's music or any other endeavor. GM was still using the same poses into the grunge age and I can still remember thinking that he was stuck and that that kind of posturing just would not work in that era. MJ made the same mistake, just repeating the same things over and over again but i think he did acknowledge grunge/industrial with his own brand of brilliant new funk on blood on the dance floor. GM? I wouldn't know, I'd lost interest by then, i'll be honest, i never liked posers, I didn't even like a lot of things Prince did in that regard but he still was just too good to be denied. Georgie lost my interest with the mediocre "Listen Without Prejudice" not a bad album, just not as good as faith and without a single song as good as his previous hits. And, like I say, i think that 80's period of the artist as a larger than life god was tiring for the public. I think that's why grunge was able to hit like it did, of course I know that the grungers (I never liked it) were just as self-absorbed but, they stripped away all that glitz and glamour along with the ridiculous hair of the eighties. Anyway, you do have my curiosity piqued, i'll check out older but I thought listen without prejudice was mediocre, even the stevie wonder cover was bad. Don't get me wrong, i'm a wham/GM fan, always was but I don't think he's quite the artist as Prince. Still, some of those songs were utterly brilliant, personal faves, a different corner, I'm your man, I want your sex. Maybe he could have been better, he had the gifts, he certainly didn't seem to work at it like Prince.

mechanicalemotion17 said:

PeteSilas said:

he left mid-tour? doesn't sound professional, maybe there were other factors. I remember reading how Elvis refused to re-hire a pianist who chose another artist over him or rather, tours happening at the same time, it didn't sound egotistical, just more like, "well, if he wants to work for someone else, let him". I'm wondering if Prince was driving the publicist batty because he tended to do that to people. you want good people you should treat them right, many people stayed with Prince just because he was prince and or the money but he could be pretty mean to them. I read that he said Matt Fink should be left in someones closet, sometime around graffiti Bridge. Shortly after that, he hired pretty boy tommy whatshisname. On the other hand, most people, especially musicians need to be ridden to get things done. I get the feeling though that Prince would be doing that under any and all conditions in those days. I had heard he mellowed as he got older, seemed that way, and he also worked with even better musicians who didn't need as much coaching.

This reminds me of a story Kenny G would tell when he headlined at a music venue I worked for. Apparently his long time sound guy once left him to go work for Michael Bolten. Kenny G did hire him back but he never let up on ragging him about it. From my observations of the way Kenny spoke to him tho and all of the F-bombs Kenny thru his way.....it was certainly easy to see why he left [Edited 12/11/16 1:54am]

jeez, i didn't know kenny was such a diva.