The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)

"The Killing of Georgie Parts 1 and 2"
Single by Rod Stewart
from the album A Night on the Town
B-side	"Fool for You" (UK) "Rosie" (US)
Released	13 August 1976 (UK)[1]
Genre	Pop rock soft rock progressive pop
Length	6:30
Label	Riva (UK) Warner (US)
Songwriter(s)	Rod Stewart
Producer(s)	Tom Dowd
Rod Stewart singles chronology
"Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" (1976) "The Killing of Georgie Parts 1 and 2" (1976) ""Get Back" (UK) (1976)" (1977)
Music video
"The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)" on YouTube

"The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)" is a song written and recorded by Rod Stewart and released as a track on his 1976 album A Night on the Town. The song tells the story of a gay man who was killed in New York City. A two-part song, Part I was the more popular hit and was blended into the more melancholy and sombre Part II.

The song was released as a single in August 1976 and spent ten weeks on the UK Singles Chart, reaching a peak position of No. 2.^[2] It charted moderately well elsewhere, reaching No. 25 in the Netherlands, No. 30 in the US and No. 33 in Canada.

Lyrics

The song briefly tells the story of George, an unidentified gay man who was a friend of Rod Stewart.^[3] When young Georgie reveals his sexuality to his parents, his father asks, "How can my son not be straight, after all I've said and done for him?" Georgie, cast out by his Scottish parents, heads for New York City after seeing it on television. Upon arriving in New York, he becomes successful and popular in Manhattan's upper class, "the toast of the Great White Way". The narrator visits him in Summer 1975, when Georgie tells him he's in love; the narrator is pleased for him. Georgie irons his jeans and then attends the opening night of a Broadway musical, but has no interest in lingering afterward so he leaves "before the final curtain fell" and heads crosstown. Walking "arm in arm" with his male companion at 1AM, he is attacked near East 53rd Street by a New Jersey gang of thieves waiting in a car on a "darkened side street", and one thief inadvertently kills him. The narrator remembers Georgie's advice on living life to the full while young, before it ends. The second part of song has the narrator pleading that Georgie stay.

Stewart admitted taking poetic license with actual details of the murder, in service of the song.^[4]

Background

In the May 1995 issue of Mojo, Stewart explained: "That was a true story about a gay friend of [Stewart's earlier group] The Faces. He was especially close to me and Mac [Faces' pianist Ian McLagan]. But he was knifed or shot, I can't remember which. That was a song I wrote totally on me own over the chord of open E".{cn}} The switchblade knife in the song's lyrics implies that Georgie was stabbed to death.

When he was asked about writing a song with a gay theme, Stewart said, "It's probably because I was surrounded by gay people at that stage. I had a gay PR man, a gay manager. Everyone around me was gay. I don't know whether that prompted me into it or not. I think it was a brave step, but it wasn't a risk. You can't write a song like that unless you've experienced it. But it was a subject that no one had approached before. And I think it still stands up today".^[5]

Part II provides a coda to the song and employs a melody similar to The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down". In a 1980 interview, John Lennon said, "the lawyers never noticed".^[6] Stewart noted: "It does sound like it", adding "I’m sure if you look back to the 60s, you’d find other songs with those three chords and that melody line".^[4]

Reception

Billboard said that the lyrics were "a topic of social import" and that Stewart's "gravelly" vocal performance contrasted well with the melody.^[7] Record World said that "Stewart 's saga of the death of a gay friend has received much FM play and been hailed as a breakthrough for the artist."^[8]

Charts

References

External links

• "The Killing of Georgie" at Discogs (list of releases)

This page was last edited on 2 March 2024, at 08:26