track 20: freedom [back to reality mix]

In the early version of my autobiographical mix tape, this is the start of a new chapter, the second disc of the box set in my head. It was called 1990-1993: An Addiction Is Born. Because, as I mentioned, for my 17th birthday, I was given my first CD player. It was a portable player with a tape deck and a radio. It was just as thrilling to me as getting my first MP3 player years later. On my birthday that year, I got a bunch of great CDs: Sinéad's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got and The Lion and the Cobra, 'til tuesday's Everything's Different Now, Tracy Chapman and, from my dad's friend Linda, The Go-Go's Greatest.

But really, my first CD was the single for George Michael's song "Freedom."


My birthday is on December 12th, so in addition to shopping for that, everyone's going all crazy looking for Christmas presents, too. My dad always needed a hand at the mall, so usually, he'd take me or my brother on these trips with him. Usually, Linda would come alone and we'd go to Cutler Ridge Mall (which is a neighborhood in the southern region of Miami) because it was usually the least crowded.

I had asked for a CD player and was hoping it's what I'd get. However, I have to confess, I spied Linda buying that Go-Go's album and that's when I knew I was definitely getting it. So I secretly bought the "Freedom" single.



The first time I played it was on my dad's roommate's player after school one day. I'm not sure if it actually had the original recording, but it did have a great b-side called "Fantasy" and the [back to reality mix] Which. Is. AWESOME. At the time I flipped out because he was sampling (which was sorta new then) from Soul II Soul's "Back to life," Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo stance" and Sinéad O'Connor's "I am stretched on your grave." It wasn't until like 15 years later, working at Barnes & Noble when I heard that familiar piece of music and realized that Sinéad had sampled the drum solo from a James Brown song called "Funky drummer" - but that dizzying string bit from Sinéad's song was there as well, so who knows. It wasn't only the beginning of my CD addiction, but a long phase where I was crazy about singles & remixes- but only the sort of remixes that deconstruct a song and turn it into something amazing and new. I was bored with a simple extended dance remix, but something like this one... well, listen for yourself: Here's a video someone edited together to the remix. It's better if you close your eyes and simply listen.



To this day, hearing the original version of "Freedom 90" is a little jarring to me, because this is the one that I adore. I think I got the full length album Listen Without Prejudice, vol. 1 for Christmas and it was quite beautiful. It's even the sort of album that I think I appreciate more with time than I did when I was a 17 year old high school student. George's subsequent albums have had good moments, but usually left me cold. I remember liking his first solo album, Faith a lot when I had it on cassette. But Listen Without Prejudice is simply a perfect record.