TRON said:

Yeah, in September 1986 he worked on several tracks for his buddy, David Austin. Among the tracks there were Betcha Don't Like It and Johnny Sex.
George loved both so he claimed the songs for his Faith album. Betcha Don't Like It was simply renamed (Look At Your Hands), Johnny Sex was reworked into... I Want Your Sex,

Again, some fans claim they have this demo... I'm sure some fans do... but they don't share. Only once in a while a demo leaks on youtube (like Moody).

Older and Faith

I may have to revisit Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1

I relate so much to 'Older' and to me that album was George Michael coming out.

I like Faith for just, well, having faith. It was brilliant and I think an effort to match Prince and Madonna, which he did.
[Edited 12/24/08 21:15pm]

Cloudbuster said:

nope....you're wrong.....you meant to say Faith

bboy87 said:

Shut the hell up.

Cloudbuster said:

I'm trying to correct you

bboy87 said:

Don't waste your time trying, you won't swing me.

Cloudbuster said:

If you say Faith, this can be yours

bboy87 said:

Older.

Cloudbuster said:

Faith! lol

Cloudbuster said:

Change it!

I'll give you 24 hours to do so


gently puts gun on table

go ahead, take your time

None really, he has some great songs, but every album even the greatest hits ones are bogged down with unlistenable filler

Huggiebear said:

The only song on Faith that could be called filler is Look at your hands and it's hardly unlistenable. Every other song is brilliant.

bboy87 said:

.
[Edited 12/27/08 5:28am]

mynameisnotsusan said:

"Look at Your Hands" is not filler! Faith and especially LWP are both completely filler-free.

mynameisnotsusan said:

I think the same. If you don't like the term filler one gotta admit it's not necessarily the strongest track on it?

i'd liek to know which of the first three albums has much fillers? LWP has NO fillers! Older is a bit depressive, not one of those "every song could be a single" album... I still like it though. Even the less commercial tracks like To be Forgiven and It Doesn't really Matter. I love them.

AlexdeParis said:

I think it IS. GM should have left it to David Austin. I'm sure Gm didn't have any other songs as an option, but how about heaven Help Me? It#s the better songs, but on the other hand Faith didn't need more ballads. It's a very well balanced album.

graecophilos said:

"Look at Your Hands" is infinitely better than "Heaven Help Me" AFAIC. I don't even like putting them in the same sentence. Ah, opinions...

it used to be Older, because it pretty much summed up how i was feeling about life when i came out.

the more time goes on, the more i return to Listen Without Prejudice

AlexdeParis said:

well, I'm not too keen on HHM either. I just dislike Hands...

I think "Heaven Help Me" is wonderful. Too bad there's not a version with his vocals out there.

TRON said:

Yeah... well, but Deon did his best to sound like George, didn't he?

Have you listened to the 1984 songs "Are You Just Using Me" and "Turn To Gold" too? GM gave them to David Austin, who copies George's vocal style. I actually like Are You Just Using Me. Could have been a nice song on Make It Big!

TRON said:

It would've been a lot better with George on lead, but I still don't think it's as good as "Look at Your Hands," which I love.

This is what GM had to say about LWp this year for an US-magazine...

A: I think of all the albums I've made, Listen Without Prejudice, even though I know it's got some great stuff on it, is the one I listen to the least. I was 26, and I really was sick of where I was -- I suppose I took myself a little too seriously. The title for 18 years has been misinterpreted: The only reason it was called Listen Without Prejudice is because I had just lost all my black radio. I had won a couple huge awards at the AMA that traditionally went to black artists, and I lost all my radio overnight. . . . It's a little too white for me -- I thought it would be taken more seriously, I suppose. Whereas now I don't take anything seriously.

I want to ask the black radio listeners... do you think this was the reason, or one major reason it wasn't played enough? I mean, Waiting For That day surely's not black... but it's basically a blues song, he lifted the chords from the Stone's You Can't Always Get What You Want!

You're misinterpreting his comments. He lost a lot of the support of Black radio after Faith captured some prestigious awards (including the American Music Award for Best Soul/R&B Album). He didn't appear again on the R&B chart until "Killer/Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and his only semi-hit was "Jesus to a Child" (#22).

AlexdeParis said:

oh, i got him wrong. sorry. actually, your version I considered too, but I find that's pretty unfair. So he should not have accepted those awards, and by any respect for the black community... George's music was popular with blacks, so why did the radio stop playing him just because he received a prize that's usually given to blacks??? I mean, skin colour doesn't matter, right? If this would have been true back then, he would have been played. Mmh, this was hard to explain in an foreign language, political stuff always is...

Oh, how did Killer chart? i love his version, but wasn't it a bit too techno sounding for the American market of 1993??

graecophilos said:

As are most things involving race in America, it's not just black and white (pun intended). The Black community was certainly behind him during the Faith era, but there's always been some backlash when white artists win awards like that. For a lot of people, it's a bit like a slap in the face when you consider those awards are usually in place because we were ineligible for other awards. What can I say?

"Killer" only peaked at #88. "Jesus to a Child" reached #22 and "Fastlove" peaked at #44 (interesting that they're all palindromes). His only charting single since was "As," which peaked at #57 based on airplay alone.

Faith i grew up listening to it so it's my fav

LWP is a very close 2nd tho

graecophilos said:

But he's not a black radio artist!
Faith just struck a chord.
One More Try was R & B # 1 but no other singles were.
It was also # 1 on the R & B album chart.

George Michael wasn't looking at Faith as an intro into R & B audiences. IF he was, why abandon that audience you were cultivating?
Listen without Prejudice isn't Black Radio friendly, which was why it was passed over.

SUPRMAN said:

I know he has always been very proud of Faith reaching #1 R&B. As for the singles, none of the others reached #1, but all except the title track charted and did rather well ("Father Figure" #6, "Monkey" #8, ""Hard Day" #21, "Kissing a Fool" #33, and "I Want Your Sex" #43). Add in "Careless Whisper" #8 and his #5 duet with Aretha -- he was a pretty successful R&B artist.

I would've expected "Praying for Time" to at least chart... maybe "Freedom 90" as well.