WHAM! – "Edge Of Heaven"

at the time i was quite caught up with their final single being An Event and i absolutely loved eoh and thought it was incredibly exciting. as for now, okay, it’s a bit too obviously confected and forced, but i still think it’s pretty exciting. the way everything is pounding and pushing forwards, the ba ba bas, the way the chorus spirals upwards and upwards, the extra “believe me baby, one day..” bit. george may be trying to remind everyone of the good times without putting the neccessary work in, but i’d still rather have that than many things (including a fair amount of what was to come from him). probably an 8 from me.

Ooops! Looks like I stepped on a Wiki mousetrap. Apologies all.

I thought that this was okay when I was 13, but a bit minor in relation their earlier singles.

I prefer the remembered version of this that I have in my head to what it actually sounds like; rasping, arid, blaring… above all far too effortful. It makes me think that George had a sore throat at points. The pastiche idea is fair enough, but this should either sound nimble and fleet-footed or a bit more organic.

The phenomenon of the big star getting to #1 with less and less distinguished material is horrible to behold. Simultaneously busy and boring, this is the sort of suckily self-impressed record that I suspect turns people off pop music, creates indie-kids, etc.. Hang the dj.
3

This has a lot in common with the Jam’s “Beat Surrender” a deliberate farewell single ,available in a VFM double pack and a long way from the artist’s best.Unlike that record which was a musical bridge to Weller’s subsequent work with The Style Council this sounds more like a mopping up exercise deploying familiar trademarks in a rather tired fashion. On the plus side it did avoid the self-valedictory bullshit that Foxton and Buckler reluctantly had to accompany.

On a personal note this began a string of George Michael chart toppers that accompanied milestone moments in my life. I graduated to this one and he was also there when I started work and when I met my future wife (with his last one to date). In fact only The Police stopped him being there when I left school in 83. This isn’t the song I most associate with leaving university though. That last Saturday I was waiting for my housemate to return so I could say goodbye and looking around for something in his tape collection to play. After a desperate rummage through Phil Collins, Elton John and lord help us George Melly I found a Steely Dan compilation and played “Haitian Divorce”. That line “Day by day those memories fade away” seemed very apt and the moment stays with me.(Leaving school by contrast was a real anti-climax as you’re only with those doing your last exam and I don’t think there was anyone from my first day in primary school there.)

It’s OKish but compared to the pastiche/homage that’s coming next this is thin stuff. GM seems content to go through the motions and just as the video seems to be a montage of images from or references to previous videos so this song echoes previous hits.
GM reminds me of Bryan Ferry in the way in which his music increasingly resembles polished exercises in style and becomes consequently less interesting as his career develops.

# 14 Yes – I made that same comparison in the “Different Corner” thread. What makes it worse in GM’s case is all the b/s about the record companies not respecting his right to artistic freedom and then when he wins the case he just sounds exactly the same as before !

Ok after my initial “factoid” was rightly slapped down, I am confident on this one:

It’s Danny John-Jules of Red Dwarf Cat fame who leaps up on stage in the vid.

I have yet to hear any of the other songs on the EP but this sounds as if they really are out, going, no really they are going thank you very much. Is Andrew Ridgeley the luckiest man in pop? I think so. And now George Michael goes off to record an album that will conquer America and help end Reaganrock, thank goodness.

@21, TimD. I’d never noticed the howl after the end of the song before (or the few seconds of studio noise that accommpanies it). Thanks. I’m pretty sure, however, that that’s not been a background noise problen for me, rather I’ve just never enjoyed the song enough to actually listen all the way to the end! Anyhow, I agree that it’s a nice touch – emphasizing yet again the ‘ladies and gentlemen, thank you and goodnight’ character of the record, and, I assume, literally picking up on the earlier barks/whines accenting the ‘like a doggie barking at your door’ line. I guess this is as good a time as any to salute Michael’s incredible musicianship and studio prowess (i.e., along with his great voice). My understanding is that from the very beginning he arranged and produced every Wham record and as time went on played more and more of the parts. Yet, in an era of extreme self-promotion, he never swanned around pronouncing himself to be this great studio genius or musical polymath the way Prince kinda did (a lot of Michael’s fans probably just assumed that there was, say, a Trevor Horn or Quincy Jones behind Michael and Wham making everything sound great, etc.). It’s an impressive performance (esp. by someone so young), even though for me it meant that Michael’s stuff grew more and more claustrophobic over time, and that mainly his collaborations worked for me from here on.

Lastly, listening to Edge of Heaven for the first time in many years, it’s been reminding me of something fairly recent, and it’s taken me until just now to pin down what that is: the guitar sound and yeah yeah yeah’s are somewhat similar to a (viciously South Park-lampooned!) part of U2’s Vertigo.

@ 20, Lena. What Reaganrock did Faith help end? And why didn’t Joshua Tree (let alone Hysteria or Aerosmith taking their newly Run DMC-gifted cred. to the bank) more than cancel any such alleged effect out? (I’ve never thought of Faith as a cultural turning point the way, say, Appetite for Destruction, Jane’s Addiction/Lollapalooza, Stone Roses, then Nevermind absolutely were. But maybe I’ve missed something.)

This peaked at #10 in the U.S., and like “Different Corner”, it has all but been forgotten. Too bad. Michael is clearly enjoying crafting hit singles, and while this isn’t as good as “I’m Your Man” it still deserves more airplay than it’s gotten since it slid off the charts some 20 years ago. I give it a 7.

I’ve just given this a spin on the videogram, not as bad as I was expecting. In fact I remembered the chorus hook straight away. Like the rhythm on this more than the relentless I’m Your Man style Motown-pastiche beat. It’s more syncopated. Can do without the guitar solo though. A 5 or a 6.

baby-boomer conversation is on this thread: relevant extended comments by koganbot, rosie and me, tho several others are contributing

Don’t think I’ve ever heard this before, and can’t say I feel as if I’ve missed anything.

#12 Mike. Steely Dan. Now THAT’s More like it!

Always rather liked this one: felt stronger, somehow, than the previous Motown pastiches. For those of us who – at that time – couldn’t stand Wham!, there was also the comfort that this was goodbye (by this point they were long since a girl’s band, though at the time of Wham Rap and Young Guns, they were widely admired at our school by every single lad who went on to become a B-boy. Gateway rap, perhaps).

Anyway, I suspect Jens Lekman was listening: A Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill sounds like the indiepop version of Edge of Heaven.

Re 33: Peter Saville did the sleeve for I’m Your Man (or, more likely, a Saville underling). Haven’t got a copy to check but I’m guessing this is his work too.

@22: Faith, paired with Guns ‘n’ Roses, effectively marked the end of Reaganrock – that being anything & everything from Huey Lewis & the News to Starship, Billy Ocean to Kenny Loggins, Bruce Hornsby to Lionel Richie, Whitesnake to Mr. Mister and yes even John Parr – they all had #1 singles, more than one in some cases, and after late ’88…not so much. (I might also include Ratt & Motley Crue, though not Twisted Sister, if only for their giving the kid the immortal phrase “I wanna rock” in one of the funniest videos ever.)

Huey Lewis released a jazz fusion album, Bruce Hornsby abandoned his sound (though the songs he still wrote in that style and gave to Don Henley and Bonnie Raitt still turned into big hits in 89 and 92(?)), Starship broke up, Lionel Richie stopped recording for a decade: not sure how many of these can be tied to George Michael (he’s not a freemason by chance is he?). Whitesnake peaked alongside George Michael (enough that you could as easily claim Whitesnake killed his career in the States as the reverse), Motley Crue had their biggest album in sales, airplay, and hits after Faith, their second biggest the same year as Faith, the same year Ratt had their last big hit (of how many total – four?). What I could vaguely buy Faith bringing about was the death of buppie domination on R&B radio – black radio resistance to hip-hop was very very real, rooted mainly in generational and class divide, and Faith’s success (esp it’s AMA win as best r&b album) was fairly controversial, at least as a symbol that something was wrong (imagine a take on DORF) that’s more Jet than the Nation); w/ hip-hop meanwhile doing very very well on pop radio, Mtv, and in sales that ‘black’ radio was meanwhile much more receptive to a white brit doing wet behind the ears Marvin, a smarter Michael Bolton really, than to pick yr golden age hip-hop act (esp at a time when hip-hop was getting increasingly politicized) had to provoke some self-examination (nevermind it was just bad business). Enter New Jack Swing to give R&B radio an option besides embracing Brand Nubian, etc and exit any future for George Michael (or Michael Bolton) on black radio.

I’m sticking, clearly, to the simple yardstick of US #1 singles; if you look at, say, this list and, oh, this one, you’ll see a whole new set up that has not changed very much since. And it started to change in late ’87-’88, more or less.

it’s along time since i read it, but doesn’t nelson george’s book “the death of rhythm and blues” explicitly cite george michael’s success as a symptom: not because he was white and lame, but because he was a young brit who was making better music than the then-soul industry

(note: “death of r&b” as title — r&b so far from being killed off that [insert present-day delight/despair here])

our first year of listening w/out prejudice (unless it’s against noted hitmaker john parr).

nearly cited george’s death of rnb except i haven’t read it in ~20 yrs and couldn’t remember his take on george michael or luther vandross or anita baker or jimmy jam & terry lewis or whether or not new jack swing even enters into it (do remember his concern over michael jackson and prince’s playing to a white audience).

The death of Reaganrock is from Popstrology, which Ian Van Tuyl wrote a few years ago; he ends the book with Richard Marx, in 1989, but specifically says that it took Michael AND Guns ‘n’ Roses to eliminate the compromise of corporate ‘rock’ that had (partially, I’ll admit) taken over the charts. I mentioned 1991 to specifically show the gulf between the singles and the albums.

(I agree that nothing is ever really ‘killed off’ in music as much as it becomes deeply uncool/unfashionable to the ‘kids’ – and can be rescued/resurrected a generation later, much to the perplexment and even dismay of those who never liked it in the first place.)

PS Is the book still in print? Be curious to read it.

The idea of Guns’n’Roses killing off corporate rock is a little odd. They may have dissed the man but musically it was all so stagnant*. I know it’s just me…

Easier to spot in Britain I’d say, Lena – corporate ‘pop’ effectively on borrowed time once Happy Mondays/Stone Roses appeared on the same TOTP in ’89 (opens small can of worms, stands back…)

*I’d take Richard Marx’s Hazard over the entire G’n’R catalogue.