Was ‘One More Try’ George Michael's ‘Stairway To Heaven’ ? - Part 1 of 2

1987 George Michael - Faith (US version)
(CBS/Epic Records catalog #460000)
Side A - track #4 : One More Try

Was ‘One More Try’ George Michael's ‘Stairway To
Heaven’ ? - Part 1 of 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In website Who2 says “Wham! disbanded after a fare-
well concert at Wembley Stadium in 1986. George
Michael quickly remade his image, shifting from clean-
cut pop star to leather-clad, stubble-chinned hunk”.
However, the leather-clad convulsive appearance may
be traced back to Wham's funky period of ‘Young guns
go for it’ & ‘Wham rap’.  

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou’s single released in
1983 ‘Bad Boys’ by the artist Wham! [the cover art
copyright is believed to belong to the label, Innervision
Records, or the graphic artist(s)], goes further and shows
a free stubble-chinned image but flavoured with a tacked
leather-clad when he was just 19 (1982), age which some
physicians define as the second puberty stage when
muscle reaches its peak mass and strength. 

 

Georgios Kyriacos finally abandoned his clean-cut pop
star approach when with his polished and enhanced
stubble-chinned hunk image released ‘Faith’ 1987 album.
Even Quincy Jones got stunned when Gloria Stefan
announced him winning the ‘Favorite Male’ prize in the
Soul/R&B category. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Faith’ was the 1st soloist album by a non-AfroAmerican
artist to reach the chart Nº1 in the Rhythm & Blues style
(contained in broader Soul Music genre):
A) SoundOnSound
     Classic Tracks: George Michael ‘Faith’
“A transatlantic chart topper following its October 1987
release, as well as the first record by a white artist to hit
the top spot on Billboard's R&B chart, Faith won the 1989
Grammy Award for Album of the Year, en route to selling
more than 20 million copies worldwide. What's more, its
four US number ones — the title track, 'Father Figure',
'One More Try' and  'Monkey' — made George Michael
the only British male singer to achieve this feat with a
single LP.”
“The musicians on Faith included guitarists Hugh Burns,
Robert Ahwai, JJ Belle and Roddy Matthews; bass player
Deon Estus; keyboardists Chris Cameron, Betsy Cook and
Danny Schogger; drummer Ian Thomas and percussionist
Andy Duncan. Each of their contributions was overdubbed
in order to assemble the tracks in piecemeal fashion, yet
it was George Michael who played all of the instruments
on 'I Want Your Sex' (Part 1), 'Hard Day' and, with the
exception of Matthews' guitar, 'Monkey'.”  

’One More Try’ mainstream reviews give us a traditional
outlook of Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou’s state of
mind:
1) Rolling Stone
    The best of the pop icon’s hits, duets & reinventions
 “A Number One song on Billboard's Hot 100 and Hot
Black Singles in the late spring of 1988, ‘One More Try’
comes from the perspective of someone burned by an
elder's love, but forever enticed by the heat emanating
from its flame. Michael's carefully measured vocal perfor-
mance, from his hesitant singing at the song's outset to
the wounded wail he lets fly on its chorus, gives the listen-
er an up-close perspective on the heart-rending trip.”  
2) Billboard
    'One More Try' Is George Michael's Soul-Bearing,
     Slow-Burning Masterpiece
“That vulnerability is the key to ‘One More Try’, a song
about a boy who has been spurned by an older lover”.
" ’One More Try’ may be his best on record, a textbook
example of how soul can often be a matter of control”.
“Such unspoken connections lends ‘One More Try’ its
considerable power. Perhaps its foundation is reconstitu-
ted soul-gospel”.
“Once ‘One More Try’ is heard on its own (not surroun-
ded by other hits), its austere ache and intimacy are
heightened so dramatically, it almost seems like the
listener is eavesdropping on the singer's private pain.”

But the main peculiarity of Georgios Kyriacos Panayio-
tou’s outfit in ‘Faith’, wasn`t his thick blonde hair, black
leather jacket, white t-shirt, blue jeans, metal-tipped ankle
boots, dark shades, or even his designer stubble: it was his
cross earring. a symbol of his distinctive sense of identity
as developed through social interaction (self-development)  
and a sign that his super-ego was operating as his moral
conscienceness.

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was one of
the most influential modern scientists to put forth a theory
about how people develop a sense of self. He believed
that personality and sexual development were closely
linked, and he divided the maturation process into psycho-
sexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. He
posited that people’s self-development is closely linked
to early stages of development, like breastfeeding, toilet
training, and sexual awareness (Freud 1905).
Psychological theories of self-development have been
broadened by sociologists who explicitly study the role
of society and social interaction in self-development.
Charles Cooley and George Mead both contributed signi-
ficantly to the sociological understanding of the develop-
ment of self. Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan
developed their ideas further and researched how our
sense of morality develops. Gilligan added the dimension
of gender differences to Kohlberg’s theory.
Theories of Self-Development

There is an interesting non-mainstream ’One More Try’
review in the ‘cosmic american blog’ titled
"One More Try"? More Like "Let's Film This Video
In Only One Try"
Published in 2018 by username little earl (loves music
of the '80s).

However, little earl‘s review (and psychological elabo-
rations) should be accompanied by a supportive glossary
and goes like this:
                                                          [quotes (A) thru (N)]
> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (A)
Minimalism. It worked for Hemingway (01). It worked
for Beckett (02). It worked for every cross-legged Japan-
ese monk who ever jotted (03) down a haiku (04) in a
bucolic spring garden. But what their brands of minimal-
ism were clearly lacking ... was stubble.
…………
Glossary (A)
…………
(01) Hemingway’s Iceberg theory -
The iceberg theory or theory of omission is a writing tech-
nique coined by American writer Ernest Hemingway.  
When he became a writer of short stories, he retained this
minimalistic style, focusing on surface elements without
explicitly discussing underlying themes. Hemingway
believed the deeper meaning of a story should not be
evident on the surface, but should shine through implicitly.
In chapter XVI of ‘Death in the Afternoon’ he compares
his theory about writing to an iceberg.
(02) Beckett -
Irish writer Samuel Beckett stripped away words until he
arrived at the core elements of speech that merely gestured
to an intended meaning.
(03) jotted -
Written down quickly.
(04) haiku (the world’s shortest form of poem) -
Haiku use only 17 syllables, which consists of 5-7-5.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (B)
"One More Try" is '80s pop music stripped to its barren (5),
brutal core (6). There is nowhere to hide, no relief from
the endless onslaught (7) of Michaelian passion. All must
bow to the unadorned intensity of the piece. "One More
Try" is like George Michael's version of "In the Air To-
night" (8)  ... but sexier. It's George, an organ, a drum
machine, and God, alone in a room, face to face, battling
it out for the sanctity of one man's soul. And the drum
machine is arguably winning.
…………
Glossary (B)
…………
(5) barren -
(of land) Too poor to produce much or any vegetation.
(6) core -
Essence, basis, body, bottom line, crux, foundatio, heart.
(7) onslaught -
A fierce or destructive attack.
(8) "In the Air Tonight" -
Song by Phil Collins- 'In The Air Tonight' (Official Music
Video).

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (C)
Imagine the conversation at the record company when
George handed this one in. "Nice George, it's really lovely,
killer demo, so ... what's the final version going to sound
like?"
"This is the final version."
Jaw, meet floor.

And it's nearly six minutes long! He practically dares the
listener to lose patience. But I'm with you Georgie Boy,
I'm with you to the bitter end. Frankly, when I was a kid,
I probably did find this song a bit boring, but when I was
a kid I also ate uncooked Top Ramen noodles with the
MSG-laden flavor mix sprinkled in between the crevices,
so what the fuck did I know? I'll tell you what I didn't
know: I didn't know what true heartbreak was. Actually,
even now I'm not sure I know what true heartbreak is.
But what I know is that George knows.

I also know this: "One More Try" couldn't have skated
by on such a sparse arrangement if it hadn't been, at its
core, a fundamentally well-structured composition.
Sure, production-wise, it sounds like a hit from 1988, but
compositionally, this sucker could have been a hit in
1968. Think of what Otis Redding (9) or Etta James (10)
might have done with it on a muggy summer night at
Muscle Shoals.
…………
Glossary (C)
…………
(9) Otis Redding (King of Soul) -
It was unlike anything Redding had ever written, influ-
enced by his admiration for the Beatles’ classic “Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. Otis played
The Beatles’ album constantly during a week he had
spent on a houseboat in Sausalito when performing at
San Francisco’s Basin Street West in August 1967.
Just sitting’ on the dock, looking out at the bay, it’s easy
to see where Otis got the inspiration for the song,
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay”.
(10) Etta James (Queen of Soul) -
Jamesetta Hawkins, better known by her stage name Etta
James, was an American singer of the Soul Music Genre,
including Jazz and Rhythm & Blues styles; she was con-
sidered one of the great voices in the history of Rhythm
& Blues.
Note: Soul Music Genre, this item is clarified after quote
          (N). See Appendix I.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (D)
Do I even detect a little Pachelbel's "Canon In D" in
the chord progression? (11)  Screw 1968; it could've
even been a hit in 1688. Like the never-ending "Canon,"
"One More Try" circles and circles and circles without
ever seeming capable of resolving its underlying tension,
as a wary, bruised George pleads desperately with a
potential new lover that he just isn't ready to love again,
damn it, oh, fine, what the hell. Indeed, when the backing
slows to an agonizing crawl (12) in those last few seconds
and George finally finds it within himself to open his
wounded heart to humanity once more, it's like one of
those moments at the end of a Bresson film (13);
…………
Glossary (D)
…………
(11) Pachelbel's "Canon In D" in the chord progression? -
Pachelbel "Canon In D"
is a sequence structure based on a Semiphrase, this is 2
measures. The sequence is of 8 quarter note chords in
simple 4/4 meter.
‘One More Try’ in F
is a sequence structure based on a Period = 8 measures.
The sequence is of 16 dotted half note chords in compound
12/8 meter.
Note: this item is developed after quote (N).
          See Appendix II.
(12) agonizing crawl -
Move on hands and knees.
 (13) Bresson film -
With Robert Bresson, less is always more. The French
director Robert Bresson was known for his sparse film-
making, with a minimalist style emphasizing the audience’s
gap-filling ability. The trust he had in his audience to draw
the logical and aesthetic lines between his cinematic
implications made his films great and their fans complicit
in their greatness.
“When we listen closely to what sort of information we get
through sound we realize Bresson is more generous and
trusting to the ears than he is to the eyes”; “The ear is more
creative than the eye, if I can replace a shot by a sound I
prefer the sound. This gives freedom to the imagination of
the public. This phenomenon helps you suggest things
rather than having to show them.”

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (E)
as with Michael in his jail cell at the end of Pickpocket
(14), or the donkey in the field at the end of Au Hasard
Balthazar (15), one senses all discord finally turning to
harmony, and the work reaches an unexpected but
entirely logical state of grace [sheesh, I'm starting to
sound like Professor Higglediggle (16) here]. Note, also,
that the very last lines are the only time George even sings
the title of the song.
He could have called it "Ain't No Joy For An Uptown Boy,"
but that wouldn't have quite captured the mood of the piece,
I suppose.
…………
Glossary (E)
…………
(14) Pickpocket -
A 1959 film by French director Robert Bresson.
(15) Au Hasard Balthazar -
A film by Bresson premiered in the 1966 Venice Internatn’l
Film Festival and awarded with OCIC Prize (Catholic Inter-
National Film Organization), along with San Giorgio and
New Cinema Prizes.
(16) Professor Higglediggle -
Professor Higglediggle or Professor Igglepiggle ? 

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (F)
Of course, Pachelbel and Bresson don't exactly ooze (17)
sultry (18) R&B vibes. I can sit here and tell you how
soulful "One More Try" is, but don't take my word for it:
in addition to hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it also,
somehow, some way, topped the Billboard R&B chart.
And George Michael was many things, but one of those
many things was not black. Look out, Hall & Oates (19).
…………
Glossary (F)
…………
(17) ooze -
Intransitive verb. 1 : to pass or flow slowly through or as
if through small openings or interstices. 2 : to move slowly
or imperceptibly (the crowd began to ooze forward. 3a : to
exude moisture. 3b : to exude something often in a faintly
repellent manner ooze with sympathy.
(18) sultry -
Oppressively hot and close or moist; sweltering: a sultry day,
oppressively hot; emitting great heat: the sultry sun; charac-
terized by or associated with sweltering heat: sultry work in
the fields; characterized by or arousing passion: sultry eyes.
(19) Hall & Oates -
Daryl Hall and John Oates, known as Hall and Oates were
the Quintessential 1980s Pop Duet. 

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (G)
I guess George was feeling cocky (20) at this point, because
when it came time to shoot the video, he decided to make
it even more minimalist than the song itself. As the camera
fades up, we find George sitting pensively (21) in a dusty
room, obscured in shadow, with a ghostly light pouring in
through two stained glass windows behind him. And then
the camera holds that shot. And holds it. And holds it.
And it's mesmerizing (22).
…………
Glossary (G)
…………
(20) cocky -
Being over self confidence and self-assertive
(21) pensively -
Thoughtful, thinking, reflective, contemplative, musing,
meditative, introspective, prayerful, philosophical, cogitati-
ve, ruminative, absorbed, engrossed, rapt, preoccupied,
deep in thought, immersed in thought, lost in thought, in a
brown study, broody, serious, studious, solemn, dreamy,
dreaming.
(22) mesmerizing -
Hypnotizing, mesmeric, captivating, enchanting, fascinating,
enthralling, charming, spellbinding, bewitching, magnetic.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (H)
You can't turn away! There's not a single cut, and yet one
feels an entire narrative of longing, doubt, regret, and hesi-
tation unfolding before one's eyes. The viewer doesn't even
get treated to a close-up of his singing, bearded visage (23)
until the 2:47 mark (24). Now that's balls (25).
…………
Glossary (H)
…………
(23) visage -
Countenance, aspect, expression, face, features, look, mien.
(24) 2:47 mark -
In fact the ‘Faith hallmark bearded visage’ is 1st shown at
02:08 at the opening of Period #3 (stanza reprise).
(25) Now that’s balls -
In our humble opinion, by this time in his review, Cosmic
American / ‘little earl’ is already aroused.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (I)
it probably took them about twenty minutes to film the
video, and about ten minutes to edit it. I'll bet half the
budget simply went to George's makeup (26).
…………
Glossary (I)
…………
(26) George’s makeup -
 ‘little earl’ (in the 19th century the title became merely
honorary, and did not carry any function. Today the earls
are members of the nobility of the United Kingdom),
might be right.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (J)
And why is there so much dust in the room? Did they
think about vacuuming? Or maybe they could have just
opened up one of those stained glass windows, you know,
let a little air in. Wait. Maybe that grey haze is supposed
to be George's aura. And why are the love seat and the
floor covered with sheets? Is George squatting (26) in
someone else's posh (27) London apartment? No, I've got
it: they were trying to protect the upholstery (28) from
his continually dripping (29) sexiness.
…………
Glossary (J)
…………
(26) squatting -
Crouch or sit with one's knees bent and one's heels close
to or touching one's buttocks or the back of one's thighs;
OR, unlawfully occupy an uninhabited building or settle
on a piece of land.
(27) posh -
Rich, fancy, elegant, stylish, in an upper-class way.
(28) upholstery -
Soft, padded textile covering that is fixed to furniture such
as armchairs and sofas.
(29) dripping -
To have a lot of juice or sauce and showing it off to every-
one around.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (K)
Professor Higglediggle's analysis:
The boldly static image that opens the piece attempts to
confront the psychologically dormant and/or sociologically
neutered (30) viewer with a (re)contextualized (re)creation
of that very dormancy and impotence, partially echoing
Warhol's antagonistic, neo-subversive Empire (31) and
Sleep (32), only lacking those works' intangible post-
Brakhage (33) élan (34).
…………
Glossary (K)
…………
(30) neutered -
Castrated, mutilated, spayed, sterilized.
(31) Empire -
A 1964 silent film by Andy Warhol. The film runs eight
hours, five minutes and consists of a single Black & White
shot of the Empire State Building.
(32) Sleep -
Another 1964 Andy Warhol’s silent film. The film runs
five hours, twenty minutes and consists of a single Black
and White shot of  John Giorno sleeping, his close friend
at the time.
(33) Brakhage -
Stan Brakhage was one of the most influential filmmakers
in American avant-garde cinema.
(34) élan -
Èlan vital is a term coined by Henri Bergson, French phi-
losopher, in his 1907 book ‘Creative Evolution’, meaning
a creative principle immanent in all organisms and respon-
sible for evolution. 

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (L)
The artist's failure/refusal to properly decorate, light, or
heat ("I'm so cold inside") his dwelling suggests his nominal
(35) inability to live within the capitalist framework of
Thatcherite (36) England, although the income generated by
his music ironically further propagated the system he sought
to oppose.
…………
Glossary (L)
…………
(35) nominal -
Avowed, plausible, professed, purported, apparent.
(36) Thatcherite -
Thatcherism represents a belief in free markets and a small
State.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (M)
Furthermore, Michael's toothless (37) plea (38), "Cause
teacher, there are things/That I don't want to learn" may be
read as ineffective anti-authoritarian posturing (39), what
Barthes (40) referred to as Doxa (41), as opposed to the
preferred Para-Doxa (42).
…………
Glossary (M)
…………
(37) toothless -
Lacking in force or sharpness, dull, ineffectual.
(38) plea -
Petition, prayer, solicitation, supplication, imploration.
(39) posturing -
Masquerade, playact, pose, fake it, make a show, pass for.
(40) Barthes -
Roland Barthes, French essayist and social/literary critic
whose writings on semiotics, the formal study of symbols
and signs, helped establish structuralism and the New Cri-
ticism as leading intellectual movements.
(41) Doxa -
From a sociology background, doxa refers to the common-
sense's organised representations. While before, myth and
knowledge worked together (the myth was the mean of
knowledge), nowadays (for Barthes) there's a divorce bet-
ween knowledge (episteme) and myth, which creates doxa.
In classical texts you will find doxa used to mean delusion
in contrast to aletheia/truth. In platonic discourse, it is
used to mean probabilistic, fallible knowledge in opposition
to episteme, which is absolute and unchanging knowledge.
In Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, when doxa is used with
habitus, doxa is used to mean tacit knowledge, common
sense, the collective opinion, the rules we agree upon to
playing a certain game for example, while habitus is the set
of skills to playing that particular game. You can see that it
is ideologically beneficial to identify and interact with
societal doxai.
(42) Para-Doxa -
A Paradox is a statement that is seemingly contradictory or
opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true; or a self-
contradictory statement that at first seems true; or an argu-
ment that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions
by valid deduction from acceptable premises.

> ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (N)
However, his pseudo-rejection of this educational figure
may be refer, in a Lacanian (43) sense, to buried childhood
trauma, given that the "last teacher [he] had made [him] cry.
…………
Glossary (N)
…………
(43) Lacanian -
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (1901-1981) was a major
figure in Parisian intellectual life for much of the twentieth
century. Sometimes referred to as “the French Freud”, he
is an important figure in the history of psychoanalysis.
Like Freudian critics, the Lacanian pay close attention to
unconscious motives and feelings, but instead of excavating
for those of the author or characters, they search out those
of the text itself, uncovering contradictory under currents
of meaning, which lie like a subconscious beneath the
'conscious' of the text.

Note:
Professor Higglediggle might be little earl’s alter ego, far-
most little earl’s super ego.
An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means alternative self,
which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or
true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will re-
quire finding one's other self, one with different personality.
Alter ego is also used to refer to the different behaviors any
person may display in certain situations. People suffering
from dissociative identity disorder (DID) aren't aware of
their other personality while people with alter ego are
aware and are driven by it (i.e. once upon a time Will
Smith’s Fresh Prince).

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Freud's model of the psyche (personality),
the Id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that
contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories,
the super-ego operates as a moral conscience, and the ego
is the realistic part that mediates between the desires
of the Id and the super-ego. 

Appendix I:
If Classical Music Genres are (alphabetical order): Avant-
Garde, Baroque, Classical, Crossover, Chamber Music,
Chant, Choral, Early Music, Impressionist, Medieval,
Minimalism, Modern Composition, Opera, Orchestral,
Renaissance, Romantic ; styles contained in Soul Music
Genre are (alphabetical order): Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Mo-
town, Ragtime, Rhythm & Blues, Spirituals. These styles
originated in the African American community throughout
the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s. Thus, the
Afro-American Music Genre (aka Soul Music Genre)
combines elements of all these styles.

Appendix II:
About ‘Cosmic american blog’ quote (D), glossary item
(11) Do I even detect a little Pachelbel's "Canon In D"
in the chord progression?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pachelbel "Canon In D" is a sequence structure based on a
semiphrase = 2 measures. The sequence is of 8 quarter note
chords in simple 4/4 meter. The bass voice repeats the same
two-bar line throughout the piece, thus is an ostinato.
In music, an ostinato is a phrase (a typical phrase consists
of 4 measures) or semi-phrase that persistently repeats in
the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch.
The ground bass (ostinato) of Pachelbel's Canon has a
4th ↓ 2nd ↑ pattern and is made of two bars and eight notes
being the ground of the eight chords of the canon.

‘One More Try’ in F is a sequence structure based on a
Period = 8 measures. The sequence is of 16 dotted half
note chords in compound 12/8 meter. The bass line of  
‘One More Try’ doesn’t follow any pattern.
Perhaps what username little earl (‘cosmic american blog’
titled "One More Try"? More Like "Let's Film This Video
In Only One Try") has detected for associating these pieces
is that in both cases the 1st three chords have the same
I – V – vi progression :

 

                                                     continued in Part 2 of 2