The Freedoms of George Michael
He proved he could still move records even after he discarded his teen idol image, and after the world knew he was gay.
George Michael was already a big star by the time I was developing musical tastes. I knew I liked his music; my sister had introduced me to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” and the many hit singles from Faith had already entered that rarefied sphere of cultural ubiquity that ensures their longevity in the karaoke songbook.
But he was an unusually self-referential star, and that made becoming a George Michael fan into something of a project. He had the habit of titling his songs and albums with numbers, as though he were Wagner, one of the first albums I owned, cruelly teased my appetite for a sequel that never came. And then there was the puzzle that was “Freedom! ’90."
