Michael (Franz Ferdinand song)

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"Michael"
Franz Ferdinand Michael.jpg
Single by Franz Ferdinand
from the album Franz Ferdinand
B-side
  • "Love and Destroy"
  • "Missing You"
  • "Don't Start"
  • "Tell Her Tonight"
Released16 August 2004 (2004-08-16)
Studio Gula (Malmö, Sweden)
Length3:21
Label Domino
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Tore Johansson
Franz Ferdinand singles chronology
"The Dark of the Matinée"
(2004)		"Michael"
(2004)		"This Fffire"
(2004)

"Michael" is a song by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand. It was released as the fourth single from their eponymous debut studio album on 16 August 2004 through Domino Records. The song was notable for its homoerotic lyrics such as "stubble on my sticky lips" and "beautiful boys on a beautiful dancefloor".

Contents

"Michael" released in multiple formats, including a 7-inch vinyl, two 12-inch vinyls, and two CDs. The second CD that was released was pulled from stores a day after its release due to chart ineligibility as it had three tracks on it instead of two, which is the allowed number of tracks for the CD2 format. It was later re-released with only two tracks. The song experienced commercial success, peaking at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart, number 39 on the Irish Singles Chart, and number 15 on the Finnish Singles Chart.

Composition and lyrics

Frontman Alex Kapranos stated in an interview to the UK magazine Boyz that the song was written about two friends of his: "It was one night when me and the band were out with friends from Glasgow, and we went to this warehouse dance party thing called Disco X. It was a very debauched night and these two friends got it together in a very sexy way." [1]

Reviewer Alexis Petridis praised the song's "intriguing combination of sly humour and bug-eyed lust, as if the song's central character started camping it up for a laugh and ended up in rather deeper water than he had anticipated...You simply don't get songs like Michael very often in current rock music." [2]

Secret message

Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg
Franz Ferdinand - "Michael" excerpt
An excerpt of the secret message from "Michael"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The song contains a secret message from 1:35 to 1:39 saying, "She's worried about you, call your mother", if played backwards. According to "franzferdinand.net," bassist Bob Hardy was getting a bit worried about calling his mother back home, so the band added the backwards lyrics in as an homage. Hardy has said that he has no knowledge of the lyrics being there and he thought it was just a positive message to put on the track.[ citation needed ]

Release

The song was released in the UK on 16 August 2004 as two CD singles and a 7-inch single. [3] Due to a breach of UK chart rules by providing three tracks on the CD2 format instead of two, in what the band described in a press statement as a "silly schoolboy error", sales of the original CD2 format were disqualified. The disc was withdrawn within a day of release, to be replaced by the end of the week by a two-track version, omitting "Tell Her Tonight". This track was released as a free download from Franz Ferdinand and Domino Records' websites from 17 August. [4] Despite this, the single still reached number 17 in the UK and number 39 in Ireland. [5] [6]

Music video

The music video for "Michael" features the band members playing at an underground dance club. A man walks in and studies himself in a mirror, before joining the club. Throughout the video, the occupants are being replayed over and over as like in a short video, and show absolutely no emotion whatsoever, as the band plays. The man dances on the dance floor, but the occupants stare at him with murderous intent, and one sheds a tear, the man realizing that due to him not rewinding over and over, the occupants have found an outcast, or something of a sacrifice. The occupants form a circle around the man, and they tear out the man's arm, which emits a white beam of light, and the occupants stand in a circle as light overtakes them. The final scenes show the bands with multiple limbs. Alex Kapranos has three arms and a double-sided guitar, Nick McCarthy has two heads, Bob Hardy has four arms and two stomachs, and Paul Thomson also has three arms and plays the drum with three sticks.

Alternative version

The song was recorded alternatively in May 2004 in Hamburg, Germany, as a duet, and it was originally intended for release as a single. Without changing the lyrics, the reworked track was meant to take the perspective of a male love interest and female love interest fighting over Michael. Catriona Shaw of the band Queen of Japan provided the female vocals of this version of the track. In the end the band felt that the homoerotic undertones of the song became too diluted, so decided not to use it for the release of the track as a single and stuck with the original album version. [7]

Track listings

All tracks are written by Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy except where noted

UK CD1 [8]
No.TitleLength
1."Michael" 
2."Love and Destroy" 
3."Missing You" 
UK CD2 [9]
No.TitleLength
1."Michael" 
2."Don't Start" 
3."Tell Her Tonight" (Paul sings) 
UK 7-inch single [11]
No.TitleLength
1."Michael" 
2."Michael" (Simon Bookish version) 
UK 12-inch single [12]
No.TitleLength
1."Michael" 
2."Love and Destroy" 
3."Don't Start" 
European CD single [13]
No.TitleLength
1."Michael" 
2."Love and Destroy" 
US 12-inch single [14]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Michael" (album version)  
2."Dark of the Matinée" (Headman remix)
  • Bob Hardy
  • Kapranos
  • McCarthy
 
3."This Fire" (Playgroup remix)  
4."Michael" (Thomas Eriksen remix)  
2011 digital download [15]
No.TitleLength
1."Michael"3:24
2."Love and Destroy"3:29
3."Missing You"3:12
4."Don't Start"2:53
5."Tell Her Tonight" (Paul sings)2:57

Charts

Chart (2004)Peak
position
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista) [16] 15
Ireland (IRMA) [6] 39
Scotland (OCC) [17] 15
UK Singles (OCC) [5] 17
UK Indie (OCC) [18] 3

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References

  1. ↑ Sheffield, Rob (6 July 2004). "All the Young Dance Whores". The Village Voice . Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  2. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (30 January 2004). "Franz Ferdinand CD review". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week . 14 August 2004. p. 29.
  4. ↑ "'Michael''s Mistake!". NME . 17 August 2004. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Irish-charts.com – Discography Franz Ferdinand". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  7. ↑ "Audio: Franz Ferdinand - Michael Duet"
  8. ↑ Michael (UK CD1 liner notes). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. RUG184CD1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  9. ↑ Michael (UK CD2 liner notes). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. RUG184CD2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  10. ↑ Michael (UK CD3 liner notes). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. RUG184CD3.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  11. ↑ Michael (UK 7-inch single sleeve). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. RUG184.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  12. ↑ Michael (UK 12-inch single sleeve). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. RUG184T.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  13. ↑ Michael (European CD single liner notes). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. RUG184CDW.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  14. ↑ Michael (US 12-inch single sleeve). Franz Ferdinand. Domino Recording Company. 2004. DNO 998.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  15. ↑ "Franz Ferdinand - Michael (EP)". dominorecordco.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  16. ↑ "Franz Ferdinand: Michael" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  17. ↑ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  18. ↑ "Official Independent Singles Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
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