Summary
The video covers George Michael’s detailed explanation of the creative process behind his song ‘Waiting for That Day.’ He describes how he approached the composition differently than usual, starting with a mood rather than a complete song idea. Michael explains his decision to use the famous James Brown ‘Funky Drummer’ sample, which he notes was heavily used in many top 30 hits at the time. He deliberately slowed down this sample and combined it with contrasting folk guitar elements and 60s-style keyboard sounds reminiscent of Procol Harum. The artist emphasizes how this was his first track on the album where he discovered the feel before determining the lyrics or melody, ultimately deciding to create a deliberately ‘white sounding’ influence to contrast with the ‘black rhythm.’
Table of Contents
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Highlights of the Video:
George Michael introduces the song ‘Waiting for That Day’ while recording in West London, explaining that this composition followed an unconventional writing process where he began with a mood rather than a complete song concept.
The Funky Drummer Sample Discussion
Michael discusses his observation that five or six records in the top 30 were using the same James Brown ‘Funky Drummer’ sample. He explains his creative decision to take this widely-used drum track and pair it with completely different, contextually contrasting elements.
Musical Elements and Composition Process
The artist details the layering of different musical elements, including the slowed-down James Brown sample, folk guitar lines (which he describes as ‘un-black as you can get’), backing vocals, and bass. He then incorporated a distinctly 60s-style keyboard sound reminiscent of Procol Harum.
Final Creative Decisions
Michael explains how he kept the guitars low in the mix and describes this as the first track on the album where he discovered the feel before writing the actual song. He deliberately chose to incorporate ‘really white sounding’ influences to contrast with the widely-used ‘black rhythm,’ creating a unique musical fusion.
Transcript:
Speaker 00:01
While recording in studios in West London, George Michael explained the musical ideas behind one of the tracks.
George Michael 00:15
This particular song is called Waiting for That Day.
It wasn’t the normal writing process because I had the idea for the mood as opposed to a song.
I was with some friends and I was complaining about the fact that something like five or six of the records in the top 30 at a particular time were based around a sample of a drum track which was the intro to a James Brown song called Funky Drummer, which has now become like the most well-used drum track of all time, I would imagine.
And I had this idea of taking something or taking that particular drum track and placing something completely different, something completely out of context on the top of it.
The drum track is this, hopefully it should come up now.
Come on.
[DRUM TRACK]
George Michael 01:15
And that is actually the sample of the James Brown record, but it’s slowed down. It’s been slowed down for a number of other records.
[DRUM TRACK]
George Michael 01:32
And then I thought I’d put something completely … completely folk over the top of it. We’ve got some backing vocals there, but this is the guitar line.
[GUITAR TRACK]
George Michael 01:43
Which obviously is about as un-black as you can get.
And then mix the two.
[MUSIC]
George Michael 01:50
Then add a little bit of base.
[MUSIC]
George Michael 01:57
So I started writing around that and then just playing about with the keyboards.
I just found the two chords that went with those guitar chords, but the sound itself um made me think that that maybe I should take the song in a slightly different direction because the sound was this sound.
[MUSIC]
George Michael 02:20
Which is a very very sixties just like Procol Harum or something like that. Very, very sixties sound.
And when you combine it, when you combine these two things … you’re getting altogether different feel.
[MUSIC]
George Michael 02:57
So I actually left the guitars reasonably low down in the mix.
[MUSIC]
George Michael 03:10
So then I basically had to to write something that fit that feel.
And I mean that … this is the first track on this particular album where I’ve just found I’ve found the feel before I had any idea what I was gonna write over the top.
And I tried all kinds of things and at the end of the day I decided to go for the something really, really white sounding influence wise just to kind of offset that very very overused black rhythm.
George Michael 03:48
[Recording the song ‘Waiting for that Day’ in the Studio]
