George Michael: "Freedom! '90" (1990)

"Freedom! '90" (also known simply as "Freedom") is a song written and performed by George Michael, and released on Epic Records in 1990. The "'90" added to the end of the title is to prevent confusion with an international hit by Michael's former band, Wham!, also titled "Freedom".

The song was a highly-praised confessional project from Michael, acknowledging his fortune and luck from his early days with Wham! - referring directly to Andrew Ridgeley as his "buddy". The cleverly worded song was initially promoted as describing Michael's effort to break free from his publishing contract with Sony Music. However, as Michael's sexuality came to light eight years later with his arrest in a public bathroom in April 1998, the song became equally recognized as a one that describes the struggles of being a closeted homosexual. Michael has since been open about his orientation.

According to wikipedxia, as if to reinforce the song's sentiment, Michael refused to appear in the music video - which was directed by David Fincher and shot by Jeff Cronenweth - and instead recruited a number of supermodels (including Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford, and male models John Pearson, Mario Sorrenti, and Peter Formby) to mouth the words. It also featured the destruction of the three items from "Faith" that had come to symbolize Michael's career at that point: his leather jacket (burned), jukebox (exploded) and guitar (exploded).


- Lyrics:

I won't let you down
I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound
It's the one good thing that I've got
I won't let you down
So please don't give me up
Because I would really, really love to stick around

Heaven knows I was just a young boy
Didn't know what I wanted to be
I was every little hungry schoolgirl's pride and joy
And I guess it was enough for me
To win the race? A prettier face!
Brand new clothes and a big fat place
On your rock and roll TV
But today the way I play the game is not the same
No way
Think I'm gonna get myself happy

I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I told you so
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone else I've got to be
Take back your picture in a frame
Take back your singing in the rain
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now
Is take these lies and make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take

Heaven knows we sure had some fun boy
What a kick just a buddy and me
We had every big shot good-time band on the run boy
We were living in a fantasy
We won the race
Got out of the place
I went back home got a brand new face
For the boys on MTV
But today the way I play the game has got to change
Oh yeah
Now I'm gonna get myself happy

I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I stopped the show
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone I forgot to be
Take back your picture in a frame
Don't think that I'll be back again
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now
Is take these lies and make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take

Well it looks like the road to heaven
But it feels like the road to hell
When I knew which side my bread was buttered
I took the knife as well
Posing for another picture
Everybody's got to sell
But when you shake your ass
They notice fast
And some mistakes were built to last

That's what you get
I say that's what you get
That's what you get for changing your mind

And after all this time
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes
Do not make the man

I'll hold on to my freedom
May not be what you want from me
Just the way it's got to be
Lose the face now
I've got to live
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