Faith by George Michael: Secretly One of My Favorite Albums of the 80’s

Faith by George Michael: Secretly One of My Favorite Albums of the 80’s

When I look back as an adult at the time of my life spent at Union Middle School I tend to smile a lot. I am one of the only people on the planet that really enjoyed middle school. At age 11 I already had more cassettes, more concerts under my belt, and a fairly extensive concert/rocker t-shirt collection than pretty much everyone else on campus. I had the reputation for being Union Middle’s ultimate rocker and I was very proud of it. However, very few rocker/metal heads can listen to hard rock and/or metal 24 hours a day. Everyone regardless of what their musical preferences are, needs an outlet for something deviating from their normal musical rotation. At this point in my life that deviation was the music of Elton John and Billy Joel. As much as my rocker friends would tease me if they caught me with my Elton John and Billy Joel cassettes, at the same time both of these artists have a few songs that actually really rock, so after the teasing they were usually ok with me listening to these guys. Anything mainstream pop I hated with a passion and avoided like a horrible disease and the music of The New Kids On The Block and Milli Vanili I especially had unbridled hatred toward. However, a very talented singer/song writer would emerge that would break through my massive and well-constructed “I hate fluffy, mainstream, wussy, pop music” wall.

In 1987 I was watching MTV and for the very first time I saw the music video for the song “Faith” by George Michael with my Dad and my brothers. For what it’s worth I thought the song was kind of catchy, but it was mainstream pop and I immediately dismissed it. But oddly, if the music video for “Faith” was on the TV or if I heard “Faith” on the radio, I would very nonchalantly give it a listen and if someone was with me I would pretend to hate the song.

A few months later I was watching MTV and I saw the music video for George Michael’s next single “Father Figure”. It had a very alluring bass line and drum beat, the keyboards were smooth and melodic, and then the soulful voice of George Michael brought it all together. I thought “Father Figure” was one of the coolest songs I had ever heard. This song was as pop love song as it got and I loved it. But at the same time I saying to myself “what the hell is wrong with you? This is 100% fluffy pop that the girls listen to!” I was trying so hard to passionately hate George Michael’s music, but that blasted MTV and mainstream radio was making not hearing his music extremely difficult and the more I heard these songs the more I liked them. As the album of Faith became more and more popular and “One More Try”, “Monkey”, and “Kissing a Fool” were released as singles I thought all of those songs were great too. I just kept thinking to myself this can’t be happening! I can’t like this guy’s music! At age 11 my ultimate rocker/metal head reputation had to be maintained at all costs. I very openly hated George Michael, but very secretly I thought his music was awesome.

During the summer of 1988 I spent a lot of time riding my bicycle or rollerblading through my neighborhood. One particular day I needed a break from my cassettes for an afternoon and I was flipping around the radio stations as I rollerbladed around. “Father Figure” came on the radio and I started to sing with it. Toward the end of the song I turned from 1300 East on to Mockingbird Lane and it appeared there was no one outside so I sang along it a little louder. When the song ended I stopped to put in a cassette and out of nowhere I heard someone clap. A girl in my neighborhood had caught me singing along with “Father Figure”. My heart about sunk into my stomach. The prospect of having my whole neighborhood and later Midvalley Elementary School knowing that I was into the music of George Michael would have made my life a living hell and my well-earned ultimate rocker reputation at age 11 would have gone straight down the toilet, or to quote Bart Simpson “I’m afraid the girls with laugh at me, I’m afraid the boys will pound the living snot out of me.” I immediately put a cassette in my Walkman and got away from the scene of the crime as fast as I could. I was completely embarrassed that I got caught. However, this particular girl took pity on me and did not say anything to anyone in the neighborhood (or if she did, no one she told confronted me with it). When school started up again I was on the school bus one morning and “Father Figure” came over the radio. I sat on the bus pretending to hate the song and the girl that caught me singing “Father Figure” just looked at me and smiled. I’m positive I turned bright red followed by pale white. But she never said anything to anyone. It was our little secret.

Thankfully for my sanity eventually the songs from Faith were moved out of heavy rotation on MTV and mainstream radio and I was able to get my life back. For most part other than my run in with Faith nothing else mainstream pop ever appealed to me much. But from here on out I had a soft spot for George Michael. When his second album Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 came out in 1990 my older brother purchased a copy of it. I would occasionally borrow it from him, but I did not dare bring it to school. I did not want to get caught with it. But once again “Freedom ‘90” and “Praying for Time” were very secretly two of my favorite songs of 1990.

Now transitioning forward to the year 1999, I was working as a shipping clerk/delivery driver for a book bindery in Salt Lake City. The job was very physically demanding, but I really enjoyed it. Once my van was loaded I would drive around making deliveries for the bindery and enjoying music on my trusty cassette Walkman. I borrowed my Brother Alan’s cassette of Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 and I really got into it. It was the perfect complement to all of the Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad, New York Dolls, Danzig, and other random stuff I was into. One day I was in Graywhale CD and I saw a used CD of George Michael’s Faith and I decided to buy it. I still remember the look the cashier gave me when he looked at the CD and looked back at me. He had a look on his face that pretty much said “you aren’t really buying this are you? Are you really going to listen to this?”

Twelve years after it was released I listened to the whole CD of Faith for the very first time. Faith is truly the perfect mix of top notch pop melodies with R & B beats and vocals. “Father Figure” is still my favorite song on Faith and it’s just a very enjoyable and fun album all the way around. Besides Faith being a #1 album on the Billboard top 200 pop chart it was also #1 on the Billboard R & B chart, George Michael being the very first Caucasian artist to top the R & B chart. It’s amazing that when I was older and wiser at age 21, as much as I still very proudly hold and maintain the ultimate rocker reputation, I was perfectly ok and comfortable listening to George Michael. The look that I got from the dude at Graywhale CD I have since gotten from several of my friends when they see the CD in my collection or on my iPod. Regardless, this is truly one of the finest and best pop/R & B albums ever made and I am no longer embarrassed to admit that this was secretly one of my favorite albums back in the 80’s.

So Amazing, So Different, So Brilliant, So Peter Gabriel

So Amazing, So Different, So Brilliant, So Peter Gabriel

In 1986 the infrastructure for cable television finally made its way to Sandy, Utah.  I still remember the day we got a flyer on the door from Insight Cable letting us know they were ready to install cable in our neighborhood.  My Dad was completely ecstatic that finally ESPN and MTV were coming to our house.  I was excited that finally I was going to have more than 5 channels.

Back in the good old days before MTV stood for Mundane Teenage Vomit it once stood for Music Television and it showed music videos instead of 24 hours of reality television.  Prior to having MTV the only access I had to music video were shows like Solid Gold and very rare concerts on PBS and specials on network television.  Having access to MTV was a huge deal.  I still remember watching Utah Jazz games and Major League Baseball with my Dad and brothers and flipping back to MTV during the commercial breaks.  One thing that made MTV unique (and sadly led to its downfall to a degree) is the variety of music on MTV.  As much as hard rock and heavy metal very much ruled my world in 1986, MTV was very influential in facilitating a forum in which I was exposed to music, both awesome and terrible, that I would not have initially been exposed to otherwise.

I was already a huge fan of the Phil Collins era of Genesis at age 9.  However, at that time I had no idea Peter Gabriel was the original lead singer of Genesis or that he had a very extensive solo career.  One Saturday morning after Saturday morning cartoons ended my brother Scott and I were flipping through the channels, ended up on MTV, and I saw the video of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” for the very first time.  It was by far the coolest and most unique music video I had ever seen.  It fits the music perfectly and showcases a plethora of animation and film styles.  Peter Gabriel really put his acting skills and creativity to the test just to make this music video and pulls off a masterpiece.  Even people who are not fans of Peter Gabriel’s music love this music video.  In addition, the music video for “Sledgehammer” became a new benchmark for the quality and creativity of music video as an art form.  Musically “Sledgehammer” is the perfect mixture of Latin drum beats, jazzy horns, mixed with rock and roll and a quirky set of lyrics.  As much as the music video got my attention, the song is just plain awesome and has made a very lasting impression on me.

In 1987, my father joined the BMG music club with the offer of get 10 cassettes for the price of one.  What made this offer ever cooler is that my father let me and my brothers pick two cassettes each for the mail in offer and I picked the cassettes of Vital Idol by Billy Idol and So by Peter Gabriel.  A couple of weeks later the cassettes arrived in the mail, and I went bicycling through my neighborhood with So playing on my Walkman.  I’ll be the first to admit this album musically was not what I was expecting at all.  I completely expected all of the songs to be in the vein of “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time”.  To be honest after my first listen I did not really know what to even make of it.  I gave it a couple of more listens, but I just could not get into So. 

In 1989, the movie Say Anything starring John Cusack came out and MTV started to play the music video for the Peter Gabriel song “In Your Eyes”.  The first time I saw the video for “In Your Eyes” I was completely taken back.  It was simply one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.  At this point of my life knew a very extensive amount of love songs, power ballads, lust anthems, and romantic songs from Broadway, but none of these songs actually reflected what I thought love was really about.  What made “In Your Eyes” so special to me is that as I heard Peter Gabriel sing it is that I knew Peter Gabriel meant every word of it and I could feel that.  It was a song that really spoke to me about what I perceived love to be about, love is not always easy or instant, and there are a lot of ups and downs, but seeing that love in a girls eyes, is what makes it worth it.  I was 12 years old when “In Your Eyes” was a hit song and I hit that special time in a boy’s life when out of nowhere, girls are now exceptionally attractive and I had my very first crush on a girl in my neighborhood named Jennifer L.  At this point in my life I was the neighborhood metal head, bicycle and roller blading dare devil, and in all reality the odd and kind of there kid (I’m sure there is one in every neighborhood).  I wanted Jennifer to like me so bad, but I just did not know how to act around her, she would only talk to me if she really, really had to, and my attempts to impress her were horrible at best.  But I had a very hopeless crush for the first time in my life and I lived for just seeing Jennifer at school or around the neighborhood.  “In Your Eyes” at that point really summed up how I felt about her, however, such as the case with most first crushes, nothing ever happened between us, but the memories are very precious to me.  “In Your Eyes” is currently in a six way tie with “More Than Words” by Extreme, “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” by Meat Loaf, “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” by Air Supply, “She’s Got a Way” by Billy Joel, and “The Flame” by Cheap Trick as my favorite love song ever.

Thanks to MTV showing the video of “In Your Eyes” at age 12 I decided to dust off my cassette of So, hopped on my bicycle and gave it another listen.  This time the album blew me away from the from the sounds of the Hi Hats that open the song “Red Rain” the album captured me.  Every song on the album is unique and yet they blend together so perfectly.  The most miraculous thing at this point is I was listening to a lot of AC/DC, Rush, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns n’ Roses, and Aerosmith, and yet Peter Gabriel fit in perfectly with all of it.  Forgiving the fact that radios and Walkman’s were banned at Union Middle School and would be confiscated if a teacher caught me with one, I always had mine with me, and would listen to songs as I walked from one class to another (provided I wasn’t chatting with my friends).  Because I had so many cassettes I usually had two different tapes with me almost every day and my friends were always interested in what the tapes of the day were.  All of the heavy metal stuff my friends were pretty cool with and envious of, if I brought Elton John, Billy Joel, or James Taylor I usually got teased pretty bad by my rocker friends, and surprised and impressed my other friends, but for some reason, everyone was pretty cool with Peter Gabriel.  He was one of the first musicians I was ever into that for the most part, everyone liked him.  Heavy metal and Peter Gabriel could co-exist very well in my musical universe and So became one of my favorite albums.

When I was 15 years in 1992 old I was a sophomore at Hillcrest High School and I was happy as a clam.  I loved the whole experience.  My last class of the day was an LDS Seminary class where our course of study was the New Testament.  Many of my best friends in High School I met in this seminary class.  Our classes always started with a prayer, a spiritual thought or song from a member of class, and then our lesson for the day.  A very sweet girl, who would become one of my best friends in High School and the first girl I would ever ask on a date named Amy gave the spiritual thought to start the class one day and she played the song “Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel and shared a scripture.  I’ll be honest in saying that “Don’t Give Up” was at that time what I considered to be the weakest song on So.  At this point it had been a couple of years since the last time I listened to So and this time “Don’t Give Up” sounded amazing and the message of the song reached me. 

Now we fast forward about 10 years.  It’s January of 2003, I have earned my Associate of Science in General Studies from LDS Business College and I transferred to Utah State University and relocated to Logan, Utah.  I was very excited to arrive at Utah State University and I had been looking forward to going to school there for quite some time.  However, I was working part time for $7.00 dollars an hour and financially I was dirt poor and struggling to support myself in Logan, Utah.  In order just have enough money to buy groceries I had to stop buying CD’s for a little while which was a huge sacrifice for me.  During this period of my life I went through my old cassettes and CD’s that I had not listened to in a very long time and I was able to find some hidden gems in my own music collection which helped to make up for not being able to buy new music.  One day when I came back to my apartment after a long day of classes my roommate had downloaded a bunch of music and we listened to a bunch of it together.  He then played the song “Red Rain” by Peter Gabriel.  Forgiving the fact I had heard this song before, it had been 10 years since the last time I heard it and I don’t know what came over me, but this time “Red Rain” just penetrated me to my very core.  The song literally took my breath away.  At this time I was in my first Calculus class and a C++ software programming class that were incredibly difficult and were literally eating up every ounce of my time just to stay caught up in the classes.  To make things more difficult there was a lot of tension between me and my roommate.  “Red Rain” summed up exactly how I felt and the huge amount of stress I was going through.  After I listened to “Red Rain” with my roommate I immediately went into my bedroom, dusted off my cassette of So and for the first time in at least 10 years I cranked it up on my Walkman and went for a nice long evening walk through Logan, Utah.  Once again So completely blew me away.  I just could not get enough of it and it became of my very favorites when I was attending Utah State University.   I would later dust off my old cassette of Security by Peter Gabriel and that very quickly became another favorite. 

While I was attending Utah State University I was finally able to pay off my car which made my financial situation a lot better.  I bought several of Peter Gabriel’s other albums and really enjoyed them.  At the same time I was a fan of progressive rock, and other than “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”, I had never heard any of the songs of the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis.  I bought the CD’s of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Genesis Live by Genesis and just was completely floored by both of them.  Peter Gabriel is a much different musician in Genesis compared to his solo career, but the music he creates in Genesis is the some of the best progressive rock ever made.  I would own all of the Peter Gabriel era Genesis CD’s before I graduated college.  Peter Gabriel was very much part of the soundtrack of my life while I attended and graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Finance from Utah State University.

When it’s all said and done So is Peter Gabriel’s most successful album.  It received four Grammy award nominations, is noted on several best albums of the 80’s and best albums of all time lists, several of its songs have been recorded by other artists (Queensryche has a superb cover of “Red Rain”), and it is hailed by many critics and fans alike as Peter Gabriel’s masterpiece.  Peter Gabriel this year is celebrating the 25^th anniversary of So by performing the entire album of So live on his upcoming tour and I will be at his Las Vegas show this October.  Peter Gabriel’s So holds a very special place in my heart, the album has expanded my musical horizons and has several of my most cherished memories tied to it.  I am glad that this is an album that is loved by so many people and will continue to stand out for years to come.