— Richard Lowe
The Dumper. Few have fallen into it only to climb their way out as frequently as Boy George. Though Culture Club's third album Waking Up with the House on Fire was considered a disappointment by many, it was only on their following long player that the end looked near — and it wasn't going to be pretty either. The dumper surely beckoned for the once imperial Culture Club.
George O'Dowd's heroin habit spiraled out of control but he steeled himself to nab a number one single with his cover of "Everything I Own". It was painfully on the nose but it didn't matter: Boy George was something of a national treasure in Britain and he possessed enough goodwill with the buying public to take him all the way to the top of the hit parade. People wanted to like it but they weren't loyal enough to keep him in Top 40 hits indefinitely. Three more minor hits followed before he was back in the dumper. This time, it looked like it might be for good. Reviewing his 1989 number sixty-eight "smash" "Don't Take My Mind on a Trip" in Smash Hits, Richard Lowe notes that his lack of success is "terribly sad" because he's a "nice bloke, a great pop star and he's yet to make a truly awful record (even his flops like "No Clause 28" and "Keep Me in My Were Rather Good")". Indeed, this second period of dumperhood resulted in some of his best work since the heyday of Colour by Numbers and "Karma Chameleon".
Boy George would end up having seven flop singles on the bounce, a streak that would take him into the nineties and see him adopt the band/collective name Jesus Loves You. He had once been the golden goose for Virgin Records but you've got to think that he was under threat of being dropped at this time. But rather than go the tried and tested cover-version-ofa-famous-ballad route to resuscitate his career, he instead stayed the course. The pop kids would eventually find their way back.
It's hard to say they fully did but he did have spurts of chart action. He once again crawled his way out of the dumper with the fourth Jesus Loves You single "Bow Down Mister". ("Love Hurts" made it part of a double A-side even though it failed to garner much interest; I wonder if it was given co-prominence just in case DJ's were turned off by its companion's religiosity; otherwise, there's not much else to say about it) Less of a nod to underground house music than some of his other recent material, it's still far from being a cynical attempt to give him a hit at all costs.
In pop culture, the Hare Krishnas were those people in orange robes who for some reason were always at the airport. I didn't fly a lot as a youth and so I never encountered them but that was the collective impression (one that would be spoofed by The Simpsons). Not to be simply uttering a bunch eastern mystical babble, they went by the name 'Jesus Loves You'. In 1991, I was a fourteen-year-old atheist who found anything remotely pious to be embarrassing. (I even hated the use of gospel choirs in pop videos, finding them to be the height of groups trying way too hard to be authentic) "Bow Down Mister" didn't have a hope in hell of appealing to me.
But somehow or other it did. It certainly helps that it's as catchy as Richard Lowe says. References to "karma" (if you're a decent person then others will be good to you, which is nonsense) and "kun kun" (something you put in your hair) are there but they don't overwhelm the song. Boy George was said to have been moved by a visit to India and this prompted him to pen "Bow Down Mister" (under the pseudonym 'Angel Dust': good job getting the drugs out of your system there) in tribute. It's not likely he immersed himself in it much since it isn't exactly awash in much beyond cliches about 'sacred cows' and 'lotus flowers' (what, no tantric sex?) and that's for the best.
It says a lot for George's skills as a pop craftsman that he could pull it all together. Lowe likens it to a mix of country and western, gospel and folksy church songs that "trendy vicars put on to "relate" to the kids. All those are there, even if I don't hear much country myself, but there's also some bollywood melodies and some simple house chords at the end. Not unlike West India Company's equally outstanding East meets West extravaganza "Ave Maria", it dabbles in all sorts of styles and philosophies. Rather than being cultural appropriation, it's an example of cross-cultural blending. Though his once silky-smooth voice sounds rougher, he gives an impassioned performance, deftly lagging slightly behind his colleagues in the chorus to a sparkling effect.
Though just a Top 30 hit, "Bow Down Mister" helped Boy George out of the dumper. A re-release of the 1990 Jesus Loves You flop "Generations of Love" (another quality item) gave him a second minor hit before he would be dumper bound once again. Things would be so grave that he would be persuaded to go the cover-version-of-a-famous-ballad route. Luckily, he was Boy George and was up to the task of pulling it off.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
The Beautiful South: "Let Love Speak Up Itself"
"Not their best", admits Lowe, who spends much of his review of "Let Love Speak Up Itself" praising Paul Heaton's talents as a songwriter (he's much better than that "pompous, self-obsessed bore" George Michael, you know; I would agree though I'm not quite as down on George, though I probably would have concurred back then). No, not The Beautiful South's best tune but a worthy one nonetheless. Free of humour and irony, even if "the oldest swinger in town" is an unexpected character, this is about as earnest as Heaton gets. The magnificent "My Book" failed to reach the Top 40 (a major comedown following the number one success of "A Little Time) and this did even worse. In truth, a single no one needed but it's still a fine track on their underrated second album Choke. The Beautiful South had entered their unpopular period which happened to also be their creative zenith. Weird how that works.
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