George Michaels: Orchestral manoeuvres
Talk for a moment about some of the songs on your new album Symphonica – the Rufus Wainwright song Going To A Town – what lyrics in that do you absolutely love?
British singer George Michael performs on stage during his European tour, “Symphonica” at the Palais Nikaia in the French riviera city of Nice on September 22, 2011. AFP PHOTO VALERY HACHE
George Michael (GM): “Do you really think you go to hell for having loved?” is a gorgeous line. I love the fact that there are no gay references. It’s the way it should be. We all know that the best Tennessee Williams work was when he couldn’t say what he wanted to say.
The less is more thing can create the most beautiful lyric. I tend to always want to be understood so I try to simplify what could get very lyrical with what I do. I go for somewhere in the middle; there are metaphors there but I don’t want them to be lost on people.
I’m not saying that this metaphor would be, but when you think that really it’s a song about Iraq and gay marriage together, which are two things that became close to my heart in their own ways, I think it’s a gentle indictment of what’s gone on in recent years.
Another song you’ve performed live is the New Order song True Faith.
GM: I’d never really listened to the lyric before and what happened was I went home and turned on the TV to VH1 and they were in the middle of an Eighties blast and the video came on of Freedom with Andrew (Ridgeley) and I in China in 1985. Then straight after that True Faith came on and I suddenly heard the lyric and I thought “Wow!” You know I could have done the same thing I did with Outside and just come out with Inside and made a clever video about being in prison but I thought I didn’t want to do that.
I didn’t want to make light of it, particularly because it was nothing like the entrapment situation in Los Angeles, where I felt there was a political responsibility to take the mickey out of the situation.
So why not take a song that people would never expect to be interpreted in this way and actually show the pathos of these lyrics? They are amazing. The line about how you push your friends away for drugs – the line says “That’s the price that we all pay when valued destinies come to nothing”… What an amazing way to describe a friendship – “valued destiny. I just thought people should hear that.
British singer George Michael performs during his new European tour, Symphonica: The Orchestral Tour, at the Prague State Opera house on August 22, 2011 in Prague. AFP PHOTO / MICHAL CIZEK
Going back to the Symphonica tour: did you chose opera houses and the like because you had such a big orchestra – over 40 players?
GM: I think the show in the Royal Albert Hall was probably the best performance I have given in my life as a vocalist, and I knew that would come out of a combination of the support of the audience at such close range, and the fact that I can hear myself so well in an opera house. The acoustics are built for singers.
When I’m really relaxed enough I can hear myself: I sing the way I do in the studio. Getting the actual balance of instruments right in the room is essential for a singer if they want to give any detail to what they do. I’ve never been happier playing live – this has been the most incredible experience.
