After a string of near-death experiences over the last few years, singer George Michael was found dead today. From drugs to heart attack or a mixture of both are, reportedly, to blame, although the real culprit may be none other than Michael himself – essentially he was on a self-driven path to suicide. He was a troubled soul – authorities say he died ‘peacefully’. But it was not always so. He had acquired global repute almost the first time he cut the single titled ‘Careless Whisper’. It was a touching tale of betrayal by a man, and the girlfriend walks in and finds the couple in flagrante delicto – sexual misconduct. She walks out – forever. The song’s lyrics reflect the pain and agony of the guilty man as he realises the extent of his loss as days pass by. The lyrics are haunting and make tears well-up in the eyes easily. The first time anyone hears the song, it virtually overpowers you. The video is almost as powerful as it is simple in its rendition. The song was reportedly penned by him when he was just 17!
George went on to release a number of other albums, but they never came close to getting him the kind of attention that ‘Whisper’ did. The quality, the sound, the feelings, the emotion just wasn’t there. Like a number of other artists, George was fated to go down as an one-hit artist. The fact was probably not lost on George himself. It haunted him through his most productive years. He tried desperately to get back into that groove, but failed. George was reportedly on drugs and his efforts to climb back to the heights, that his first hit put him on, proved elusive. That did not stop him, at first. He kept releasing records. But time took its toll on him and gradually, he came into the news regularly not because of what he was doing inside the recording studio but outside. His fandom, though, remained loyal and he could conjure up attention, if not from his songs, then his lifestyle, which was colourful to say the least.
As things got worse and his life went into an irreversible tailspin, it was just a matter of time, before most everyone knew, Michael would be found dead. It was not a matter of ‘if’, it was more like ‘when’. A number of near-death experiences put things in perspective. The reason behind the collapse of the George Michael ‘persona’ was nothing else but the fact that he never was able to command the adulation of his peers and fans as he could not get genius-level quality back into his music. In short, he died trying. And for that single fact, perhaps, he deserves a place alongside the best singers. But that surely cannot be the reason to put him on a pedestal that icons deserve.