OLDER CLASSIC ALBUM THE PLAYERS RELEASED CLASSIC 14 May 1996 LABEL Virgin/Dreamworks/Aegean PRODUCED BY George Michael and Jon Douglas ENGINEERS Charlie Brocco, Paul Gomersall, ALBUM Chris Porter, Ren Swan RECORDED AT Sarm West and Metropolis Studios, London PERSONNEL George Michael – lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, OLDER percussion, programming, arranger, producer; Hugh WORKING THROUGH THE GRIEF OF LOSING HIS PARTNER, Burns – guitar; Danny GEORGE EMERGES FROM A SELF-IMPOSED PERIOD OF SONGWRITING Jacob – guitar; Alan Ross – guitar; John SILENCE WITH A POIGNANT MASTERPIECE LACED WITH HOPE… Themis – guitar; David STEVE HARNELL Austin – keyboards; Chris Cameron – keyboards, strings; t took George Michael record, featuring splashes of in 1993. Jesus To A Child, the experience of losing Anselmo, David Clews – more than half a decade brass and occasional string almost unbearably poignant the period of grief, roughly keyboards; Nick Murdoch – piano; Jon Douglas – keyboards; to release the follow-up to arrangements. One of the ballad that opens the album, two years where I didn’t write Jo Bryant – backing vocals; David Clayton Listen Without Prejudice major musical inspirations – served as the first of many a note of music [came before] – programming; Pete Gleadall – programming; Steve I Vol. 1, but spurred on Older is dedicated to him in tributes to Anselmo on Older. the absolute knowledge that McNichol – programming; Stuart Brooks – trumpet, flugelhorn; by personal tragedy and a the liner notes – is Brazilian Within a week of writing it, the next album I was going John Thirkell – trumpet, flugelhorn; Steve Sidwell – trumpet; Chris Davis dogged defiance, he created composer Antonio Carlos George was singing it in front to write would be about grief – saxophone; Andy Hamilton – saxophone; Phillip Smith – saxophone; his finest work – the expansive Jobim, credited with bringing of the Brandenburg Gate and recovery. Older is my Fayyaz Virji – trombone third solo album Older. bossa nova to the masses and at the MTV Europe Music greatest moment. George himself sees the the man behind the iconic hit Awards in November 1994. “I sat at a keyboard and record as his most artistically The Girl From Ipanema. “I wrote the best, most healing played a very simple string accomplished, and, in his Even more fundamental piece of music. It was all part, stream of consciousness the sessions and the pair pain with fast love, simple to the genesis of the systems go from that moment rubbish comes out of my When you find homeland, it became the most love… George immediately hit it off. as that. There’s not one track commercially successful of his eventual record thematically on,” Michael revealed. head, then I sang ‘like Jesus during filming of Themes of grief, recovery that’s not about Anselmo or career – a record-breaking is George’s late partner In the Freedom documentary to a child’ and I thought ‘Oh the video for Jesus and mortality are threaded the risk of AIDS [for example, six singles reached the Top 3 Anselmo Feleppa, who died the singer added: “The whole my God, that’s him [Anselmo] To A Child throughout Older’s 11 tracks. Spinning The Wheel].” across a two-year span. and me’. I was so excited that The finely-honed collection For a six-month period while Older was released on 14 I finally had been able to put came together slowly, with he was recording Older, May 1996, three days after “I sat at a keyboard and played a simple string my feelings about Anselmo Michael spending three years George felt in reasonable the Knebworth feeding frenzy part, then I sang ‘like Jesus to a child’ and into words.” working on the new material. spirits but then discovered that saw Oasis sell 250,000 Returning to Sarm West It’s arguably the most that his mother had been tickets in the blink of an eye. thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s him and me’. I was Studios where he cut Listen diverse LP of his career. diagnosed with cancer. Britpop was at its peak, but so excited I had finally been able to put my Without Prejudice Vol. 1, this After the elegant opening She died of the disease in George was in no mood to time George had Jon Douglas ballad comes the upbeat, February 1997. Indeed, as feelings into words” GEORGE MICHAEL hang on to the coattails of on board to share production dancefloor-friendlyFastlove , George worked through his this Anglocentric revisionist duties on three tracks. which explores the theme grief for Anselmo and worry movement. Typically, he stuck Douglas had a background of using promiscuous sex about the health of his mother, to his guns, and Older’s in soul and R&B, having as escapism. Meanwhile, the tone of the LP veered reference points remained his already worked with Eternal, Spinning The Wheel flips the between searing insights into trademark touchstones of soul, TRACKLISTING Gabrielle and Pauline Henry theme of promiscuity to warn loss and devastation and a R&B and pop, only this time (he’d later be behind hits for of its danger in an era where defiant sense of hope. The often given a jazzier twist. SIDE A SIDE B Louise Redknapp and team the spectre of HIV and AIDS bare-bones It Doesn’t Really Although Michael deftly Jesus To A Child The Strangest Thing up with Sugababes, Kylie and remained a major concern. Matter – just a beatbox, weaved in synthesised Fastlove To Be Forgiven All Saints, alongside further “For anyone who had a simple keyboard and a few electronic touches to the Older Move On collaborations with George). clue about symbolism, I was piano flourishes – leaves up-tempo tracks and the Douglas first met the singer in coming out,” George later George’s vocal space to Spinning The Wheel Star People stripped-back minimalism 1995 while producing Lisa explained. “Fastlove makes breathe on a song that seems It Doesn’t Really Matter You Have Been Loved of It Doesn’t Really Matter, Moorish’s cover of the Wham! me laugh because it’s all measured and philosophical the overall ambience of Free classic I’m Your Man. Michael about cruising and covering about a relationship that’s Older is of a more organic provided backing vocals on © Duncan Raban/EMPICS Entertainment my pain, blunting out that now in the past. 64 65 CLASSIC ALBUM OLDER Snapped outside the stars’ Performing Star People hangout of the glitzy Spago at the MTV Europe Music restaurant in Beverly Hills, Awards at Alexandra California, August 1997 THE BIG Palace, 1996 PICTURE THE VIDEOS © Richard Young/REX/Shutterstock JESUS TO A CHILD DIRECTOR: HOWARD GREENHALGH George’s devastating tribute to his late partner, Anselmo Feleppa, is packed full of imagery of grief and loss. Allusions to solitude abound in the promo, and the pain in his eyes is clear for all to see. Although this introspective ballad was an unorthodox lead single for Older, its importance in Michael’s back catalogue cannot be overstated. A No.1 in the UK, it set the success of its parent album in motion. youtu.be/zNBj4EV_hAo FASTLOVE DIRECTOR: VAUGHAN ARNELL & ANTHEA BENTON A sinisterly-lit George holds court in a speaker-packed chair with a remote in hand as he flips through countless exotically-garbed virtual reality-style sex partners, both male and female. The “For anyone who had a clue about symbolism, ‘Fony’ legend written on the side I was coming out. Fastlove makes me laugh of his headphones is a knowing because it’s all about cruising and covering my nod to his major label contract dispute. The rainstorm sequence pain, blunting out that pain with fast love, simple sees George reinstate his as that” GEORGE MICHAEL trademark Wham! clap, looking cool amid the downpour. youtu.be/SHAQlFq6TFg But the songwriter’s torture There’s spirit, too, in the is never too far from the confrontational Star People, SPINNING THE WHEEL surface. The world music where George distances DIRECTOR: VAUGHAN ARNELL & ANTHEA BENTON vibe of The Strangest Thing himself from the showbiz Like Fastlove, this quintessential Nineties vid was helmed by inhabits a track shot through pack, musing that their Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton. Ditching Fastlove’s futurism, with pain where “time has desperate search for fame Spinning The Wheel opts for been twisting the knife”. and approbation comes from moody black and white, making George’s heart-on-the-sleeve a need to fill the hole of an full use of the song’s jazzy lyric adds: “Take my hand; unhappy childhood. inspiration – we could almost be Lead me to some peaceful The heart-breaking You in a pre-war Harlem nightclub. land that I cannot find inside Have Been Loved – once Perched behind a keyboard, my head”. The wistful Burt again written as a tribute George is on finger-snapping Bacharach and Antonio to Anselmo – is a desolate form for this subtle warning Carlos Jobim-influencedTo Be ballad of loss and a return to against unprotected sex. Forgiven is similarly pained the idea of an unloving God youtu.be/qSoMTkn_Qfg (“Save me from myself”). touched upon in the previous But Older’s story can’t album’s Praying For Time. An OLDER be summarised as one-note ode to humanism in a cruel DIRECTOR: ANDY MORAHAN wallowing in self-pity – world, its tone is measured – With regular videographer Andy Morahan back behind the lens, Michael’s a far more rounded a songwriter at last at peace this was a stately affair set in dusty, sun-drenched countryside. songwriter than that. Move with the traumas that have Featuring George shot in focus On is a wonderful anthem befallen him.