Being something of a smug bastard when growing up, I knew what music I liked and pretty much frowned on everything else. It was like I had the secret of music and no-one else understood it. I sneered at the pop charts, the pretty-boy new romantic and new wave bands, laughed at punk and was just totally disinterested in disco, ska, reggae and the rest of the huge musical spectrum that failed to fit in to my narrow music worldview. Even if I heard a song that I had to admit was good, I wouldn't: if it was by a band or artiste I didn't like I would pretend I hated it, though secretly liking it. Someone would say "but don't you like that song by them" and I'd reply with "Shutupshutupshutup!" Yeah I know: the maturity and arrogance of youth, huh?
But life gets you in the end, and what goes around comes around. I've already faced my demons last year in my tour though the music of boybands, and been more than a little embarrassed to have to agree that some of their music isn't as bad as I had made it out to be, and indeed I recall hearing Westlife's "Flying without wings" and Take That's "Rule the world" and thinking, in my secret heart, man those are good songs, while the more abrasive, arrogant part of me refused to accept that and tagged the songs as crap, not because they were (which they weren't) but because of who it was by.
So now I'm (a lot) older and (a little) wiser, and I've come to realise, a little late, that it's not who plays the music but the music itself that's important. To paraphrase something I heard once, it's the song not the singer, and if I happen to enjoy a song by band A or artiste B, it doesn't mean I (have to) like all their music, or that I instantly become a fan. Almost following on from yesterday's new section, "The Albatross", I may become one of those people who buy, or listen to, one song, and never go any further with that artiste. But the fact remains that there is music in my collection now that I would never have envisaged listening to, never mind owning, thirty years ago. Ah, how age changes you!
Where did you heart go? --- Wham --- 1986
When I first heard this I do admit that I thought "hold on, that's a Wham! song! That's pretty damn good!" but I more or less steered clear of it because of who Wham! were, and how much I, at the time, hated them for their pretty-boy image and dominance of the charts with uptempo, dancy, pop tunes. This was taken from the last album released by Wham! in 1986, "Music from the edge of Heaven" as well as "The final", the latter of which was basically a greatest hits album, both released just prior to the band breaking up ahead of George Michael's shot at the solo limelight. It was also the B-side of their last number one hit single, the eponymous "Edge of Heaven". It makes a lot more sense to me now that I read that the song is in fact a cover version, which is not surprising as it was, at the time, totally different to anything else these guys had released. In fact, the only song comparable at all is 1984's "Careless whisper" from the second album, and when released as a single it was credited to Micheal only, and in effect became his first number one.
"Where did your heart go" was originally written by and performed by electro/funk/disco outfit Was (Not Was) but did not chart for them. When George Micheal rearranged it for Wham! --- Andrew Ridgeley not only had no input into the process but it looks to me like he didn't even play on the song --- he kept it fairly true to the original, and the result is a laidback, soft, melancholy love song that yearns for answers to questions that rarely yield such. It has some lovely smooth sax care of Andy Hamilton, and quite a downtempo South American feel to it. Although not his own composition, it shows the direction George Michael was leaning in, and foreshadows great ballads like "Father figure", "A different corner" and "Kissing a fool"; more mature, thoughtful songs that would often take a look at social issues, and culminate in, for me, his most telling and powerful song, "Mother's pride".
It's clear at this point that Ridgeley is surplus to requirements, and Michael does not need him. He has built his career to date on the success of Wham! but he knows he is the only real member: he writes almost all the songs, does the arrangement and production, and takes the lion's share of the vocal duties. He is, quite literally, the voice of Wham! and everyone knows it. No-one is going to wonder what happened to "the other guy", and indeed Ridgeley will later give up the pretence of a musical career. But this song does show that George was beginning perhaps to realise that the Wham! formula had been stretched as far as it could reasonably be expected to be, and it was time for a change. The party was over, but for him, a whole new one beckoned.