This column may contain strong language, sexual content, adult humor, and other themes that may not be suitable for minors. Parental guidance is strongly advised.
In the latest of 2016’s cruel twists, George Michael passed away on Christmas Day, yet another pop icon gone too soon, found dead in bed from an apparent heart failure.
George Michael burst onto the music scene in the mid-’80s as one of the pop duo, Wham!, with school friend Andrew Ridgeley. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-go,” their first hit single, was a breezy, bubbly, lighthearted confection, aimed at teenage listeners. It was cute and catchy, and he was the kind of cute that had teenage fans screaming in droves. What with his pretty boy looks, complete with a full head of shampoo commercial-worthy hair, puppy dog eyes, smooth voice and sexy moves.
He wrote most of his songs, often about love and desire, and despite the bouncy beats, there was always a whiff of subversion in the lyrics, of flawed but hopeful romance. In “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” there’s a subtle, slightly ominous allusion to infidelity, while affirming the rapturous feelings of love:
You put the boom-boom into my heart
You send my soul sky high when your lovin’ starts
Jitterbug into my brain
Goes a bang-bang-bang ’til my feet do the same
But something’s bugging you
Something ain’t right
My best friend told me what you did last night
Left me sleepin’ in my bed
I was dreaming, but I should have been with you instead.
In “Everything She Wants,” there’s a realization that love does not guarantee bliss:
Some people work for a living
Some people work for fun, girl, I just work for you
They told me marriage was a give and take
Well, show me you can take you’ve got some giving to do
And now you tell me that you’re having my baby
I’ll tell you that I’m happy if you want me to
But one step further and my back will break
If my best isn’t good enough
Than how can it be good enough for two?
I can’t work any harder than I do
In retrospect, it’s rather daring of George Michael to coat such realities about love and life in layers of pop, but one wonders if anyone really parsed through the lyrics beneath the catchy melodies. At any rate, his music did deepen and veer away from pop designed to appeal to a teenage market into pop with a strong infusion of soul once Wham! disbanded and he went solo, though he did continue to pen infectious tunes and dance anthems. And while always reticent to discuss his sexuality—naturally his music seemed to celebrate heterosexual love, but that was almost certainly a career strategy—he did come out in 1998, after being charged with lewd conduct and arrested in a men’s room in Beverly Hills. Later in life, he described himself in interviews as bisexual rather than gay.
When asked for their favorite George Michael songs, most people readily list “Freedom 90,” “Faith,” “Careless Whisper,” and “Father Figure.” My favorite has always been “I Want Your Sex,” which was released via the Faith album in 1987. It had all the hallmarks of a great George Michael song: catchy, sexy, subversive, defiant, fantastic to dance to and sing along with, not to mention its accompanying music video was bold and risqué and pretty damn hot. Small wonder several radio stations in the US limited its airplay.
Indeed, the lyrics were pretty explicit for the time, and no doubt parents all over the world would have preferred that their impressionable young teens not dance and lip-synch to it, declaring “Don’t you think it’s time you had sex with me…” Next to Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Kanye West, and The Weeknd, however, George Michael’s lyrics seem innocent and refined.
Like his contemporaries, David Bowie and Prince, two other music greats claimed by 2016, George Michael promoted sex positivity, acknowledging sex as a natural part of life, as the once scandalous lyrics of his sex positive anthem illustrate:
It’s natural
It’s chemical (let’s do it)
It’s logical
Habitual (can we do it?)
It’s sensual
But most of all…
Sex is something we should do
Sex is something for me and you
Sex is natural – sex is good
Not everybody does it
But everybody should
Sex is natural – sex is fun
Moreover, as the artist himself made clear, this song was not a paean to the thrills of casual sex but a seductive defense of the joys of monogamy. “This song is not about casual sex,” he stated in the introduction to the music video. Throughout the video, the word “EXPLORE” is suggestively painted in red on the lingerie clad woman lying in bed; as is the word “MONOGAMY” written on her bare back. At the end of the video, the words are joined together to urge the viewer to “EXPLORE MONOGAMY.”
As the lyrics stated, “Sex is best when it’s one on one.”
Then again, monogamy may be desirable, but isn’t for everybody.
So in the spirit of George Michael, go forth and copulate. And whatever kind of sex you’re having, always make sure it’s consensual and safe—from the perspective of disease prevention, sexual gratification, emotional resilience, and the law.
B. Wiser is the author of Making Love in Spanish, a novel published earlier this year by Anvil Publishing and available in National Book Store and Powerbooks, as well as online. When not assuming her Sasha Fierce alter-ego, she takes on the role of serious journalist and media consultant.
For comments and questions, e-mail b.wiser.ph@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author in her private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of Preen.ph, or any other entity of the Inquirer Group of Companies.
Photo by 1001 Video Clips
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