George Michael on ‘Praying for Time’

George Michael explains that meaning behind the lyrics for his song ‘Praying for Time’

“It’s very difficult to really express what I was trying to say with Praying For Time. And when there is any subject which you really feel strongly about, especially if its complex, it’s very difficult to actually be eloquent about it and really get your point across. I think the actual lyric probably has much more power than me trying to explain it. I think it’s the type of song that so many people will have different interpretations. I wrote it, really, thinking just in terms of the way people act. I think people’s, uhh, lack of compassion for one another… and trying to work out why people are like that these days. And increasingly like that.”

“The first two lines of the chorus, the lines – Its so hard to love, there’s so much to hate – came into my head, and very often that’s the way a song will start with me, just a lyric will come into my head…I remember when it came into mine, I was just driving along, just on my way to get, you know, some gas…And it just came into my head. Its almost like you get a little message. Then you have to work around that, think of a melody for those words. And once you’ve got that nucleus, then, then you’re inspired to write the rest of the song. But it was something that I wrote it in about two or three days. I have no idea, really, why I wrote it. It just came very strongly to me. But all the best things come to me that way, you know. You almost feel like a channel when that happens.”

“I think there’s a lot less John Lennon in there than people relate to it… I think that the thing that I associate with John Lennon is simply the vocal sound. And there was this kind of very close, repeat, kind of echo that Lennon used a lot, especially in the Phil Spector sessions.”

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