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.