I think for a lot of folks my age (nearing 40), George Michael played a significant, or at least a partial roll in our collective sexual awakening, be it the young girls who thought he was hot, the young, gay boys who felt the same way, along with a kinship they may or may not have only subconsciously been aware of, and the kids like me who liked to ogle the supermodels the artist frequently had star in his music videos (Cindy Crawford in a bath tub? Oh my). It didn’t matter who or what you were, straight, gay, or bisexual, male or female, black or white; George Michael was here with the sex, and our prepubescent and adolescent minds absorbed it like a handkerchief daubing the sweat from our excited brows.
Is it getting hot in here?
Now, I’m not going to get gross here, or be overly personal in a way that would make far too many of us uncomfortable, but growing up, I was a fan of the man’s music videos, along with a slew of other hot, bothered, and relatively steamy videos that would air in the nighttime hours before my parents would send me to bed. I didn’t care so much for Michael’s music, as it never really existed in my wheelhouse, but the videos certainly held my…attention. But then we got “Freedom! ’90,” the absolutely glorious single from 1990’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, and here we had a video (directed by David Fincher) that featured a bunch of beautiful, sexy models, explosions, and a song that actually kicked ass.
Maybe it’s about coming out. Or maybe it’s about breaking up. Or maybe it’s about saying “fuck you” to a record label, or discarding a manufactured image and past for something that’s more real. It doesn’t really matter. The song kills, whatever it may be about, and my ears and body perk up every single time I hear that opening beat.
“I won’t let you down…”
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