Very sadly, George Michael, died today, 25 December 2016 (aged 53). Michael was a leading figure in the Brit Pop explosion of the early 80’s with WHAM! and went on to have a stellar career as a soloist.

Michael is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 120 million records worldwide. He achieved seven number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart and eight number-one songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. Michael won two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and six Ivor Novello Awards.

Out of all the George Michael songs I could have chosen to post, such as ‘Faith’ and ‘Freedom’ I decided on ‘Praying For Time’. I like the idea that he mentions God, Jesus and Lord in this song – the despairing words from a man who is looking for answers to the questions of life in a turbulent world and feels the answers are to be found in prayer!  Or perhaps I’m reading too much into this! 

Do you think we have time?
Do you think we have time?

These are the days of the open hand
They will not be the last
Look around now
These are the days of the beggars and the choosers

This is the year of the hungry man
Whose place is in the past
Hand in hand with ignorance
And legitimate excuses

The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure
If we have too much
But we’ll taking our chance to say
I sang twenty years and a day
But nothing changed
The human race found some other guy
And walked into the flame

And it’s hard to love, there’s so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it’s much too late
Well maybe we should all be praying for time

Do you think we have time?
Do you think we have time?

These are the days of the empty hand
Oh, you hold on to what you can
And charity, charity is a coat you wear twice a year

This is the year of the guilty man
Your television takes a stand
And you find that what was over there is over here

So you scream from behind your door
Say what’s mine is mine and not yours
I may have too much but I’ll take my chances
I sang twenty years and a day
‘Cause nothing changed
The human race found some other guy
And walked into the flames

It’s hard to love, Jesus, there’s so much to hate
Hanging on to hope, there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it’s much too late
Then maybe we should all be praying for time

Do you think we have time?
Do you think we have time?
Lord, give us time

Those of you who are avid George Michael fans will notice these lyrics are different from the single/album version that you may be familiar with. This version is taken from his live album ‘Symphonica.’ 

You can enjoy the above version live at the Royal Albert Hall above or here or the MTV Unplugged version here

My article ‘Use Your TIME Wisely’ for January 2017 edition of the Billericay ‘Around Town Magazine’ might be an interesting read here