I didn’t expect to write anything else today. I expected to get down to enjoying the holiday with friends and family. During a lull between events, I hopped on twitter to find a tweet, only a minute or so old, from the BBC saying that George Michael, the more prominent member of the 1980’s band Wham had died. I was quickly hunting for information. At first it looked like it might be fake, but then the other British news outlets started to post about it, followed by the usual update on search engines and Wikipedia; that’s when I finally told my friends it was real.
What a Christmas present from the world, this news coming at the same time a friend of mine lost their father earlier this morning.
2016 was already slated to go down as a year full of celebrity deaths of all types – actors, musicians, politicians, and even astronauts, it seems no one could avoid the reaper this year. It hurts, heavily, to lose family. It also hurts people to lose celebrities, those who we sometimes consider to be effectively family. We often know more, and sometimes care more about them than we do people in our day to day lives, and regardless of if that is a good or bad thing, the fact is that it’s how we sometimes feel about them.
I for one thing George was a very talented artist, and while I’m one of the many people who primarily love his 1980’s hit “Careless Whisper”, I do enjoy many other tracks from both his solo career and his days as part of Wham. I just have to be in the right mood, of course.
Careless Whisper happened to make number 4 on my Top 80’s songs not by Michael Jackson list, and is always a song I enjoy listening to, in both it’s normal and extended mixes.
Uhg, this isn’t the news I wanted today, on top of both good and bad. Thanks 2016, you even have successfully annoyed me with your constant taking of awesome people: Pete Burns, John Glenn, Ed Mitchell, and now George Michael, among others.
Let’s hope 2017 is a little more forgiving. Perhaps I’ll take some time tomorrow to listen to more of his library and enjoy it, for his sake. I’m sure it’s what he, like any artist, would want.