Last christmas meaning gay
George Michael (courtesy georgemichael.com)
Heart failure killed George Michael, 53, on Christmas 2016. Wham’s 1985 hit “Last Christmas” will never sound the same.
Michael’s songs poeticized queer yearn for and charted hits. Although many ’80s stars embraced gender-bending and flamboyance, appreciate Prince, David Bowie, Boy George, and even Michael Jackson, Michael pushed further, with lyrics that endure as thinly veiled expressions of queer love.
Wham’s breakout second album, Make It Big (1984), catapulted young Michael and Andrew Ridgeley to worldwide notoriety. From the start, their songs oozed with queer resonances, which haven’t been fully unpacked in most of the articles written in Michael’s wake.
The success of “Careless Whisper” (1984) surprised even Michael himself. As he explained to People, “I don’t comprehend why it made such an impression… But it’s ironic that I wrote it when I was 17 and didn’t know much about anything. Certainly nothing much about relationships.”
Michael wrote the song to be conspicuously ambiguous about the gender he desired. All the references to “you” and “we” quit us in the dark. That ambiguity allowed listeners acros
26 "Last Christmas" - Wham!
writer George Michael
"It doesn't matter that the speaker misread the relationship. What matters is that we, the audience, can identify with him. And perhaps in that way, we truly learn the definition of Christmas."
Part of the UncoolTwo50 project, marking the best singles from 1977-99.
Written one afternoon in 1984, "Last Christmas" is a simple tale of love, rejection, and regret.
Last year, George met someone. They were looking for sympathy, company, perhaps a no-strings-attached shag. George wanted there to be strings, he thought there was more emotional connection than was reciprocated. And when it came, the rejection really, really stung.
For a year, George has been licking his wounds, building up this brief fling into something bigger than it really was. Hyperbole is his weapon, ideas like "your soul of ice", "you tore me apart" abound in the verses; perhaps "the very next day, you gave it away" is a similar misremembering.
And now, he's not entirely surprised to find his erstwhile paramour doesn't recognise him. George remembers, because it meant
Anyonewhohas been forced to endure American general radio in December is familiar with the usual procession of old Christmas hits; many recorded with big bands and famous period singers from the 40s and 50s onward. But, aside from modern reworkings of old songs like "Silver Bells" and "Silent Night," two original Christmas songs survived the synthetic, neoliberal capitalist wave pools of the 80s and 90s: Mariah Carey's "All I Need For Christmas is You," and Wham!'s "Last Christmas."
Since its release in 1984, "Last Christmas" has sold more than 1.77 million copies in the UK alone, and has been covered countless times in several languages across the world -- most recently by "Call Me Maybe" hitmaker Carly Rae Jepsen in sustain of her recent album EMOTION. It is an odd staple of holiday radio; while it is certainly not the only holiday classic to deal with loneliness, alienation and more mature themes like adultery, it is one of the scant holiday pop standards to evoke issues of gay loneliness and alienation -- possibly being the only gay trendy Christmas song.
And indeed, "Last Christmas" seems to chug valiantly along with a metallic, iron-tasting grief, like curling up alone beside
A Closer Look At ‘Last Christmas’ By Wham!
Posted By Mark Dursin on Jan 4, 2018 |
Tough listening to “Last Christmas” this season, huh? Every time I heard the Wham! classic, I couldn’t help but recall the terrible fact that George Michael passed away on December 25, 2016. So, last Christmas– adequately, Christmas 2016– was indeed George’s last Christmas.
A Closer Look At ‘Last Christmas’ By Wham!
Perhaps the one-year anniversary of George Michael’s death was the reason why I looked a little more deeply into the lyrics “Last Christmas” this season. Now, you might be thinking, “Just how deeply can you look at this song? Is there really THAT much to it?” And that’s where you’re erroneous. Indeed, like a glass of eggnog that has been secretly spiked, this song has an unexpected kick to it.
But before I get to the hard-core analysis, I just want to point out something curious I noticed about the song’s core metaphor. If you recall, the chorus says, “Last Christmas I gave you my heart/ But the very next day you gave it away.” Now, I get how you can figuratively give your heart to someone. (I’m thinking Lloyd Dobler’s “I gave her my heart and she