From a benefit performance at which Wham! were discovered to be lip syncing rather than performing live, Horton carries the story to the recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” where former Jam lead singer Paul Weller chastised Michael in front of the who’s who of British popular music. In the chapter humorously titled “Politics (the pop remix),” Horton addresses Michael’s philanthropy and social consciousness, which was largely not publicized during Michael’s lifetime. His recounting of Faith runs chronologically through development and production but is also rich with backstories that highlight the histories of specific musicians who played on the tracks as well as Michael’s inspiration and processes that predate the production of the album.
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He couldn’t care less.” Even if he did not know the technicalities of how to get there, Horton writes that “it’s always clear how focused Michael was on what he wanted, but it wasn’t about expertise, it was about feel.”Īs a music journalist with an extensive publication list, Horton pulls together disparate narrative threads from his interviews to create a solid narrative about both Geroge Michael and the album.
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He didn’t get involved in the technicalities of Synthi code and synchronization and MIDI offsets and all that. Duncan said that Michael had a process similar to Stevie Wonder, one of the artists Michael admired deeply and hoped to emulate: “George was similar in the way he had a phenomenal ability to conceptualize a piece of music and keep it in his head. Percussionist Andy Duncan, who played on the Faith track “Hand to Mouth,” explained Michael’s visionary perfectionism to Horton. Where many young, upcoming artists might be impatient with rerecording tracks, Michael insisted on multiple takes until he was satisfied. Producer and recording engineer Chris Porter, who was part of the small core group that worked closely with Michael, told Horton that he was surprised by Michael’s diligence in finding just the right sound for his vocals. Horton reports that even while still with Wham!, Michael had a focused idea of how he wanted a song to sound. Embittered by critiques that Wham! was just a pop group lacking any real musical credibility, Michael set out to tell a different story. After Wham! ended its run in 1986, Michael began work on his first solo project, which would become Faith. Michael had a brief but brilliant run as half of Wham!, the 1980s pop duet that sold more than 30 million records in a four year span. Rightly so, though: Horton establishes that Michael had a very specific artistic vision for both his image and his music, and he was unyielding in bringing that vision into being. Reading Matthew Horton’s 33⅓ book on George Michael’s Faith, one might come to realize that Michael was a bit of a control freak.
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