Chords for Wham! interview 1984
Tempo:
111.15 bpm
Chords used:
G
Gm
A
Ab
D
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
George Michael, Andrew Ridgely, wham, congratulations on all your success.
And, uh, I think you'll find the Butcher's Boys will be whistling that [Gm] next week.
Butchers Boys whistling at us?
Yeah, not whistling at you, no, I suppose.
You met each other at school.
What were your first impressions of each other?
What did you think of him when you saw him first, George?
Keeping it as clean as you can.
Well, it's difficult, really.
And what did I first think of him?
I thought he was, uh, pretty loud.
You know, brash, young thing.
You admired him, in other words.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I thought, now there's a boy I want to sit next to.
Actually, it's not the truth at all.
I was ordered to.
First time I'd ever been put in charge of something.
Yeah.
I think it worked out well.
Were you the big whale in the school?
Were you the head boy or something?
I mean, what was he like?
What was he like?
Strong, silent.
Yeah, pimples.
Actually, yeah, it was like, you know, all the stuff that you've [A] read in the papers.
Uh, [Ab] fat, ugly, spotty.
[G] You know, it's all trying to get this ugly duck thing image across.
Yeah.
When do you turn into the spot?
Well, you know, this is what we're waiting to see.
Obviously, you're happy with the success,
and obviously, it's made an enormous change in your life.
But are you happy with being famous,
with being recognized everywhere,
with having teenagers screaming at you?
Do you [G] like that aspect of it?
I mean, apart from being on stage, in your social life?
Um, I think everything is relative, really.
I mean, for every high, there's a low, I suppose.
And obviously, a lot of things are limited now, uh, socially.
But, um, I think if we weren't happy, we wouldn't be doing it,
so we wouldn't be trying to achieve more, which is
Andrew, do you still get on pretty well together?
Did you ever get on well together?
Is it just a professional partnership?
Are you friends?
It took a few adaptions along the way, you know,
to get to cope with different situations.
Because obviously, you know, we'd never worked or been in business together.
So, you know, you learn your friendship in a different sphere, in that respect.
You had a bit of publicity about having your face altered at a party or something.
I know.
It doesn't sound too good, does it?
Is it?
What happened?
Oh, I chose the wrong model.
One small step on my road to perfection, you know.
You weren't happy with the hootie that God gave you, then?
No, it became unhappy.
I got a few whacks on it when I was younger.
And they said, boy, when you're old
A picture of him as a baby had this [D] perfect straight nose.
But it isn't like people in popular music to own up to the fact
that they've had their nose straightened.
I think that's a problem generally, isn't it?
We have time.
Yeah, and you haven't been all that kindly handled by the critics, have you?
Not the music critics.
Only the public like it.
It's the usual syndrome.
But I mean, why do you think the critics are inimical to you?
Why do you think they give you so much
I think it's exactly that.
I think it's because [F] we do own up to everything that we do.
We're very honest about how we market ourselves.
We're probably the only band at the moment
who are [G] totally unashamed of being screamed at.
And I think it's like we do everything that everyone else does.
Only everyone else is very subtly camouflaged in the ways of selling themselves.
And we just think, you know, there's no reason that you don't have to
It's not insulting your public to do it and to tell them you're doing it
because they enjoy it just the same way.
I mean, marketing is marketing and image is image.
No one thinks that's really us.
I think deep down, I don't think anybody thinks that we're
What we portray ourselves to be in our videos or anything.
But because we make it so obvious that we're mucking about,
I think people
We like blow other people's cover.
And it's irritating to a lot of people.
What are you going to do when it stops?
What am I going to do?
Hopefully I'll retire with grace.
I'll do something with grace.
Nice go.
I'm going to retire with grace.
Better once or twice, you know.
But won't that be hard if you've enjoyed the extrovert behavior,
you've enjoyed the adulation?
How are you going to stop?
I think actually that there's a general misconception
which will pass over the next 10 or 15 years.
I mean, if the music industry lasts that long.
But I think that the new wave of groups that are screamed at
and made a lot of fuss about in the papers and everything,
there is a basic difference between us and the screams of 10 years ago.
And it's funny enough, it seems to be the beginning of every decade.
You get the screamers.
[C] This decade, there's been ourselves and three or four other groups.
But this time, they seem to be writing for themselves with very few exceptions.
And so you're basically a lot more in control of your [Eb] situation
than say the Bay City Rollers in the early 70s
or David Cassidy or the Osmonds, whoever, who are being written for.
And when they actually became too old for their fans,
the songwriters like dropped them like hot bricks.
You know, they didn't want like has-beens to do their songs.
They wanted to make money out of them.
And so they weren't as in
The artists themselves weren't in control of their destinies.
I think a lot of the new ones are.
So it's actually going to be interesting to see how long everybody lasts.
I mean, after this, we can go into other things, obviously, if you get bored.
But I don't think [G] it's a matter of
I'm prepared after this.
Are you?
Yeah.
He's ill.
You're a very lucky man.
Are you jealous of his solo success?
Don't mention the solo success.
No, I feel I'm a big part of it, you know.
Actually, we did write the record together.
We wrote it years ago.
A long time ago.
As long as neither of you turn into all-round entertainers, we'll be very happy.
We're the ones pretending to be 18-year-olds.
Exactly.
Ah, well, actually, we had to before, didn't we?
George and Andrew, thank you.
Thanks very much.
[G] [N]
And, uh, I think you'll find the Butcher's Boys will be whistling that [Gm] next week.
Butchers Boys whistling at us?
Yeah, not whistling at you, no, I suppose.
You met each other at school.
What were your first impressions of each other?
What did you think of him when you saw him first, George?
Keeping it as clean as you can.
Well, it's difficult, really.
And what did I first think of him?
I thought he was, uh, pretty loud.
You know, brash, young thing.
You admired him, in other words.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I thought, now there's a boy I want to sit next to.
Actually, it's not the truth at all.
I was ordered to.
First time I'd ever been put in charge of something.
Yeah.
I think it worked out well.
Were you the big whale in the school?
Were you the head boy or something?
I mean, what was he like?
What was he like?
Strong, silent.
Yeah, pimples.
Actually, yeah, it was like, you know, all the stuff that you've [A] read in the papers.
Uh, [Ab] fat, ugly, spotty.
[G] You know, it's all trying to get this ugly duck thing image across.
Yeah.
When do you turn into the spot?
Well, you know, this is what we're waiting to see.
Obviously, you're happy with the success,
and obviously, it's made an enormous change in your life.
But are you happy with being famous,
with being recognized everywhere,
with having teenagers screaming at you?
Do you [G] like that aspect of it?
I mean, apart from being on stage, in your social life?
Um, I think everything is relative, really.
I mean, for every high, there's a low, I suppose.
And obviously, a lot of things are limited now, uh, socially.
But, um, I think if we weren't happy, we wouldn't be doing it,
so we wouldn't be trying to achieve more, which is
Andrew, do you still get on pretty well together?
Did you ever get on well together?
Is it just a professional partnership?
Are you friends?
It took a few adaptions along the way, you know,
to get to cope with different situations.
Because obviously, you know, we'd never worked or been in business together.
So, you know, you learn your friendship in a different sphere, in that respect.
You had a bit of publicity about having your face altered at a party or something.
I know.
It doesn't sound too good, does it?
Is it?
What happened?
Oh, I chose the wrong model.
One small step on my road to perfection, you know.
You weren't happy with the hootie that God gave you, then?
No, it became unhappy.
I got a few whacks on it when I was younger.
And they said, boy, when you're old
A picture of him as a baby had this [D] perfect straight nose.
But it isn't like people in popular music to own up to the fact
that they've had their nose straightened.
I think that's a problem generally, isn't it?
We have time.
Yeah, and you haven't been all that kindly handled by the critics, have you?
Not the music critics.
Only the public like it.
It's the usual syndrome.
But I mean, why do you think the critics are inimical to you?
Why do you think they give you so much
I think it's exactly that.
I think it's because [F] we do own up to everything that we do.
We're very honest about how we market ourselves.
We're probably the only band at the moment
who are [G] totally unashamed of being screamed at.
And I think it's like we do everything that everyone else does.
Only everyone else is very subtly camouflaged in the ways of selling themselves.
And we just think, you know, there's no reason that you don't have to
It's not insulting your public to do it and to tell them you're doing it
because they enjoy it just the same way.
I mean, marketing is marketing and image is image.
No one thinks that's really us.
I think deep down, I don't think anybody thinks that we're
What we portray ourselves to be in our videos or anything.
But because we make it so obvious that we're mucking about,
I think people
We like blow other people's cover.
And it's irritating to a lot of people.
What are you going to do when it stops?
What am I going to do?
Hopefully I'll retire with grace.
I'll do something with grace.
Nice go.
I'm going to retire with grace.
Better once or twice, you know.
But won't that be hard if you've enjoyed the extrovert behavior,
you've enjoyed the adulation?
How are you going to stop?
I think actually that there's a general misconception
which will pass over the next 10 or 15 years.
I mean, if the music industry lasts that long.
But I think that the new wave of groups that are screamed at
and made a lot of fuss about in the papers and everything,
there is a basic difference between us and the screams of 10 years ago.
And it's funny enough, it seems to be the beginning of every decade.
You get the screamers.
[C] This decade, there's been ourselves and three or four other groups.
But this time, they seem to be writing for themselves with very few exceptions.
And so you're basically a lot more in control of your [Eb] situation
than say the Bay City Rollers in the early 70s
or David Cassidy or the Osmonds, whoever, who are being written for.
And when they actually became too old for their fans,
the songwriters like dropped them like hot bricks.
You know, they didn't want like has-beens to do their songs.
They wanted to make money out of them.
And so they weren't as in
The artists themselves weren't in control of their destinies.
I think a lot of the new ones are.
So it's actually going to be interesting to see how long everybody lasts.
I mean, after this, we can go into other things, obviously, if you get bored.
But I don't think [G] it's a matter of
I'm prepared after this.
Are you?
Yeah.
He's ill.
You're a very lucky man.
Are you jealous of his solo success?
Don't mention the solo success.
No, I feel I'm a big part of it, you know.
Actually, we did write the record together.
We wrote it years ago.
A long time ago.
As long as neither of you turn into all-round entertainers, we'll be very happy.
We're the ones pretending to be 18-year-olds.
Exactly.
Ah, well, actually, we had to before, didn't we?
George and Andrew, thank you.
Thanks very much.
[G] [N]
Key:
G
Gm
A
Ab
D
G
Gm
A
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
George Michael, Andrew Ridgely, wham, congratulations on all your success.
And, uh, _ I think you'll find the Butcher's Boys will be whistling that [Gm] next week.
Butchers Boys whistling at us?
Yeah, not whistling at you, no, I suppose.
You met each other at school.
What were your first impressions of each other?
What did you think of him when you saw him first, George?
Keeping it as clean as you can.
Well, it's difficult, really.
And what did I first think of him?
I thought he was, uh, pretty loud.
_ You know, brash, young thing.
You admired him, in other words.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I thought, now there's a boy I want to sit next to.
Actually, it's not the truth at all.
I was ordered to.
_ _ _ First time I'd ever been put in charge of something.
Yeah.
I think it worked out well.
Were you the big whale in the school?
Were you the head boy or something?
I mean, what was he like?
What was he like?
Strong, silent.
Yeah, pimples.
Actually, yeah, it was like, you know, all the stuff that you've [A] read in the papers.
Uh, [Ab] fat, ugly, spotty.
[G] You know, it's all trying to get this ugly duck thing image across.
Yeah.
When do you turn into the spot?
Well, you know, this is what we're waiting to see.
Obviously, you're happy with the success,
and obviously, it's made an enormous change in your life.
But are you happy with being famous,
with being recognized everywhere,
with having teenagers screaming at you?
Do you [G] like that aspect of it?
I mean, apart from being on stage, in your social life?
Um, I think everything is relative, really.
I mean, for every high, there's a low, I suppose.
And obviously, a lot of things are limited now, uh, socially.
But, um, I think if we weren't happy, we wouldn't be doing it,
so we wouldn't be trying to achieve more, which is_
Andrew, do you still get on pretty well together?
Did you ever get on well together?
Is it just a professional partnership?
Are you friends?
It took a few adaptions along the way, you know,
to get to cope with different situations.
Because obviously, you know, we'd never worked or been in business together.
So, you know, you learn your friendship in a different sphere, in that respect.
You had a bit of publicity about having your face altered at a party or something.
I know.
It doesn't sound too good, does it?
Is it?
What happened?
Oh, I chose the wrong model.
_ One small step on my road to perfection, you know.
You weren't happy with the hootie that God gave you, then?
No, it became unhappy.
I got a few whacks on it when I was younger.
And they said, boy, when you're old_ _ _
A picture of him as a baby had this [D] perfect straight nose.
But it isn't like people in popular music to own up to the fact
that they've had their nose straightened.
I think that's a problem generally, isn't it?
We have time.
Yeah, and you haven't been all that kindly handled by the critics, have you?
Not the music critics. _
Only the public like it.
It's the usual syndrome.
But I mean, why do you think the critics are inimical to you?
Why do you think they give you so much_
I think it's exactly that.
I think it's because [F] _ we do own up to everything that we do.
We're very honest about how we market ourselves.
We're probably the only band at the moment
who are [G] totally unashamed of being screamed at.
_ And I think it's like we do everything that everyone else does.
Only everyone else is very subtly camouflaged in the ways of selling themselves.
And we just think, you know, there's no reason that you don't have to_
It's not insulting your public to do it and to tell them you're doing it
because they enjoy it just the same way.
I mean, marketing is marketing and image is image.
No one thinks that's really us.
I think deep down, I don't think anybody thinks that we're_
What we portray ourselves to be in our videos or anything.
But because we make it so obvious that we're mucking about,
I think people_
We like blow other people's cover.
And it's irritating to a lot of people.
What are you going to do when it stops?
What am I going to do?
Hopefully I'll retire with grace.
I'll do something with grace.
Nice go.
I'm going to retire with grace.
Better once or twice, you know.
But won't that be hard if you've enjoyed the extrovert behavior,
you've enjoyed the adulation?
How are you going to stop?
I think actually that there's a general misconception
_ which will pass over the next 10 or 15 years.
I mean, if the music industry lasts that long.
But I think that the new wave of groups that are screamed at
and made a lot of fuss about in the papers and everything,
_ there is a basic difference between us and the screams of 10 years ago.
And it's funny enough, it seems to be the beginning of every decade.
You get the screamers.
_ [C] This decade, there's been ourselves and three or four other groups.
But this time, they seem to be writing for themselves with very few exceptions.
And so you're basically a lot more in control of your [Eb] situation
than say the Bay City Rollers in the early 70s
or David Cassidy or the Osmonds, whoever, who are being written for.
And when they actually became too old for their fans,
the songwriters like dropped them like hot bricks.
You know, they didn't want like has-beens to do their songs.
They wanted to make money out of them.
And so they weren't as in_
The artists themselves weren't in control of their destinies.
I think a lot of the new ones are.
So it's actually going to be interesting to see how long everybody lasts.
I mean, after this, we can go into other things, obviously, if you get bored.
But I don't think [G] it's a matter of_
I'm prepared after this.
Are you?
Yeah.
He's ill.
You're a very lucky man.
Are you jealous of his solo success? _
Don't mention the solo success.
No, I feel I'm a big part of it, you know.
Actually, we did write the record together.
We wrote it years ago.
A long time ago.
As long as neither of you turn into all-round entertainers, we'll be very happy.
We're the ones pretending to be 18-year-olds.
Exactly.
Ah, well, actually, we had to before, didn't we? _
George and Andrew, thank you.
Thanks very much. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [N] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
George Michael, Andrew Ridgely, wham, congratulations on all your success.
And, uh, _ I think you'll find the Butcher's Boys will be whistling that [Gm] next week.
Butchers Boys whistling at us?
Yeah, not whistling at you, no, I suppose.
You met each other at school.
What were your first impressions of each other?
What did you think of him when you saw him first, George?
Keeping it as clean as you can.
Well, it's difficult, really.
And what did I first think of him?
I thought he was, uh, pretty loud.
_ You know, brash, young thing.
You admired him, in other words.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I thought, now there's a boy I want to sit next to.
Actually, it's not the truth at all.
I was ordered to.
_ _ _ First time I'd ever been put in charge of something.
Yeah.
I think it worked out well.
Were you the big whale in the school?
Were you the head boy or something?
I mean, what was he like?
What was he like?
Strong, silent.
Yeah, pimples.
Actually, yeah, it was like, you know, all the stuff that you've [A] read in the papers.
Uh, [Ab] fat, ugly, spotty.
[G] You know, it's all trying to get this ugly duck thing image across.
Yeah.
When do you turn into the spot?
Well, you know, this is what we're waiting to see.
Obviously, you're happy with the success,
and obviously, it's made an enormous change in your life.
But are you happy with being famous,
with being recognized everywhere,
with having teenagers screaming at you?
Do you [G] like that aspect of it?
I mean, apart from being on stage, in your social life?
Um, I think everything is relative, really.
I mean, for every high, there's a low, I suppose.
And obviously, a lot of things are limited now, uh, socially.
But, um, I think if we weren't happy, we wouldn't be doing it,
so we wouldn't be trying to achieve more, which is_
Andrew, do you still get on pretty well together?
Did you ever get on well together?
Is it just a professional partnership?
Are you friends?
It took a few adaptions along the way, you know,
to get to cope with different situations.
Because obviously, you know, we'd never worked or been in business together.
So, you know, you learn your friendship in a different sphere, in that respect.
You had a bit of publicity about having your face altered at a party or something.
I know.
It doesn't sound too good, does it?
Is it?
What happened?
Oh, I chose the wrong model.
_ One small step on my road to perfection, you know.
You weren't happy with the hootie that God gave you, then?
No, it became unhappy.
I got a few whacks on it when I was younger.
And they said, boy, when you're old_ _ _
A picture of him as a baby had this [D] perfect straight nose.
But it isn't like people in popular music to own up to the fact
that they've had their nose straightened.
I think that's a problem generally, isn't it?
We have time.
Yeah, and you haven't been all that kindly handled by the critics, have you?
Not the music critics. _
Only the public like it.
It's the usual syndrome.
But I mean, why do you think the critics are inimical to you?
Why do you think they give you so much_
I think it's exactly that.
I think it's because [F] _ we do own up to everything that we do.
We're very honest about how we market ourselves.
We're probably the only band at the moment
who are [G] totally unashamed of being screamed at.
_ And I think it's like we do everything that everyone else does.
Only everyone else is very subtly camouflaged in the ways of selling themselves.
And we just think, you know, there's no reason that you don't have to_
It's not insulting your public to do it and to tell them you're doing it
because they enjoy it just the same way.
I mean, marketing is marketing and image is image.
No one thinks that's really us.
I think deep down, I don't think anybody thinks that we're_
What we portray ourselves to be in our videos or anything.
But because we make it so obvious that we're mucking about,
I think people_
We like blow other people's cover.
And it's irritating to a lot of people.
What are you going to do when it stops?
What am I going to do?
Hopefully I'll retire with grace.
I'll do something with grace.
Nice go.
I'm going to retire with grace.
Better once or twice, you know.
But won't that be hard if you've enjoyed the extrovert behavior,
you've enjoyed the adulation?
How are you going to stop?
I think actually that there's a general misconception
_ which will pass over the next 10 or 15 years.
I mean, if the music industry lasts that long.
But I think that the new wave of groups that are screamed at
and made a lot of fuss about in the papers and everything,
_ there is a basic difference between us and the screams of 10 years ago.
And it's funny enough, it seems to be the beginning of every decade.
You get the screamers.
_ [C] This decade, there's been ourselves and three or four other groups.
But this time, they seem to be writing for themselves with very few exceptions.
And so you're basically a lot more in control of your [Eb] situation
than say the Bay City Rollers in the early 70s
or David Cassidy or the Osmonds, whoever, who are being written for.
And when they actually became too old for their fans,
the songwriters like dropped them like hot bricks.
You know, they didn't want like has-beens to do their songs.
They wanted to make money out of them.
And so they weren't as in_
The artists themselves weren't in control of their destinies.
I think a lot of the new ones are.
So it's actually going to be interesting to see how long everybody lasts.
I mean, after this, we can go into other things, obviously, if you get bored.
But I don't think [G] it's a matter of_
I'm prepared after this.
Are you?
Yeah.
He's ill.
You're a very lucky man.
Are you jealous of his solo success? _
Don't mention the solo success.
No, I feel I'm a big part of it, you know.
Actually, we did write the record together.
We wrote it years ago.
A long time ago.
As long as neither of you turn into all-round entertainers, we'll be very happy.
We're the ones pretending to be 18-year-olds.
Exactly.
Ah, well, actually, we had to before, didn't we? _
George and Andrew, thank you.
Thanks very much. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [N] _ _