Billy MacKenzie

The Soul That Sighs

For my tribute to Billy MacKenzie this year on the anniversary of his death I'm leaving his time with The Associates to others. I'm focusing on the recordings he made in the year before he died. Creating an imaginary album, The Soul That Sighs, containing some of his finest work from that period.

The inspiration for this was a George Michael special on TV on Saturday. It reminded me of this piece I wrote in celebration of George’s Older. It became an exercise in discovering links between two of the great male singers. I end by selecting 11 tracks that compliment the style and formula of Older. I hope they can be listened to together and enjoyed as one. RIP George and Billy.

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Older

As is my want this is a fairly self-indulgent post looking at two of my favourite singers George Michael and Billy MacKenzie. Trying to join some dots in their lives and ultimately finding a chasm in their careers but a thread that joins them together in the mid 90s. Where did this idea come from? Well, George Michael’s classic Older from 1996 has been reissued. It’s really special. I’ve noticed real love for it everywhere. George himself said in a Red Line interview:

“I’m very proud of Listen Without Prejudice. But I think the whole experience of losing Anselmo; the period of grief, which was roughly two years that I didn’t write a note of music. And then, the absolute knowledge that the next album I was going to write would be about grief and recovery. Older is my greatest moment. And as I’ve said before I don’t ever want to be that inspired again.”

Wow! There’s so much out there written about Older . This from Ian Wade for Classic Pop Magazine is the best I’ve read and where I found the above quote.
There really isn’t much more I can add to Ian’s article but while I was listening to Older I began to think about Billy MacKenzie, as you’ll know this often happens with me. In particular his 3 CD release from earlier this year, Satellite Life: Recordings 1995-1996 . There is a very similar feel to Older . The songs were recorded over the same period as Older so I assume some similar techniques were used. Both records contain songs of introspection and loss. A mix of old school torch songs and upbeat dance numbers sung of course in those voices.

Certainly as singers there is much to compare between the two. I’ve often imagined George singing the pants off Party Fears Two . So once this spark was ignited, I began searching for any connections between the two. Billy was 6 years older than George. He was from Dundee and George from Bushey, hardly cosmopolitan starts for either of them. They both met musical partners that brought out the best in them. Ridgely and Rankine entirely different characters and talents but just as important in allowing George and Billy to fly.

In 1982 the year The Associates commercial candle shone brightest Wham! burst on to the scene with Young Guns (Go For It) . They were allowed on Top Of The Pops despite it stalling outside the top 40. Unheard of in those days. George’s slick coordinated dance moves light years away from Billy’s off the cuff pissing about. They were in the same charts, on the same shows but playing a completely different game. One demanded they stay there in the full glare of being pop stars, the other didn’t really care. I loved them both. One ticking all my cool needs, the other satisfying all my sheer fun pop wants.

An observation I made while looking back was that Wham’s 1983 and 1984 albums were named Fantastic and Make It Big while The Associates albums from 1982 and 1985 were called Sulk and Perhaps . Telling? Maybe, they definitely sent out different messages to the record buying public. George wanted to make music, he wanted everything, embraced it all and all it demanded of him. Billy wanted to make music but just didn’t care for the promotion, the repetition, the hard yards. Both with talent to burn and voices to die for. One popped in, the other souled out.

This from an old MacKenzie website further proof that while George had his eyes firmly on the prize Billy’s were elsewhere.

Another time George Michael rang Billy to ask him to attend the party where his Faith album was released. (It’s rumoured he wanted Billy to sing) Billy said he couldn’t go as it was the end of the racing season and he had to attend that race meeting as one of his dogs needed to win that race to become Scottish champion. George wasn’t very pleased and said “Fuck off MacKenzie. You’re mad”. (There are differing versions of this story and how George responded. I imagine a head shake and a laugh accompanying the words)

I dug around for any other connection between the two and it appears they did connect occasionally. Again over Billy’s whippets.

From The Scottish Sun in 1994

He (MacKenzie) said: “They’ve been on videos and made cameo appearances on my record sleeves. If I have not got a dog with me people will ask me where they are. George Michael has seen them and asked for advice about his Labrador Hippy. I told him not to feed him any kebabs!”

So where is this ramble going? Well, we’ve identified that George and Billy started with ambition, with partners to lean on and around the same time found fame, George took it and set off to the stratosphere squeezing every last drop out his talent and himself. Billy took it and bought Whippets drifting in and out of the business. Both arrived at the mid 90s having taken very different routes to get there. Neither completely without personal and public issues never really resolved. This is a fantastic insight and recognition of their different takes on fame and fortune. From an interview in 1990 with Billy by Randy Haecker

We’ve had about a dozen Top 50 hits, which is fine, I like it like that. I get congratulated by people like George Michael, who says ‘I love the way that you do things, you just suit yourself’. He knows that it’s not money that brings happiness. He’s got 65 million dollars, but I wouldn’t want that. It would be a curse. Unless you’re going to do something with that … it’s like excess baggage to me. George is somebody who realizes that I could’ve cashed in.

I’d love to find out more about their relationship. They clearly knew each other and it would appear spoke from time to time. If I could do just one podcast. Imagine a couple of hours with those two and a microphone….. In a chat with Billy’s chief collaborator Steve Aungle to accompany the release of Satellite Life we spoke about many things. Unfortunately, George didn’t come up. I wish I’d asked now. Who knows perhaps someone will read this who can fill some gaps?

So here we are, between 94 and 96 George worked on Older for his fancy new label Virgin. As we know from Ian’s piece it was inspired by the loss of George’s partner. While at the same time Billy was working on a number of projects and a load of songs hoping a label, any label would take him. During this period Billy lost his beloved mum. Another connection. All of this has left me wondering what if a major label had taken a punt on an older more mature Billy MacKenzie. What if out of those sessions Billy had put together his own version of Older a grown up, reflective, powerful record. So, taking George’s Older as the template I’ve chosen 11 tracks from Satellite Life that could have become Billy’s version. A what might have been. I think it works. These two albums (one real, one from my imagination) from these two extraordinary artists with their god given talent, complex characters, ups, downs and ultimately tragic endings (Billy at 39 and George at 53) complement each other perfectly. Both rewarding the listener who invests just a fraction of themselves compared to what George and Billy put in.

Again, there is so much out there written about George and Billy, their lives, their talent, how they handled it (or not), their music and their premature deaths. This is merely a muse on their differences, their similarities and a wish that they’d both got older, much older.

Two albums by two artists that i hope can be listened to as one…