Jesus Loves You - Generations Of Love (12" Totally Outed Mix)

Jesus Loves You - Generations Of Love (Totally Outed Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

George O'Dowd had his first hit at the age of 21 as the lead singer of Culture Club with Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, which reached number one in the UK and across Europe in 1982. It was also a major hit in the US.

Culture Club's next six singles were also huge UK hits: Time (Clock of the Heart) (#3), Church of the Poison Mind (#2), Karma Chameleon (#1), Victims (#3), It's a Miracle (#4), and The War Song (#2).

By 1983, O'Dowd - better known as Boy George - was a household name, a regular fixture in the tabloid press, and listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most photographed person in the world.

Born in South London in June 1961, O'Dowd was the third of six children in a large Irish Catholic family. He had to fight for attention and did so by dressing up, idolising his mother's style: "She was sort of Bet Lynch-y. In the early '70s she had beehives and dresses with daisies on."

His teenage best friend, Jeremy Healy, also became famous in the music industry - first as the dreadlocked singer of Haysi Fantayzee, and later as a celebrity DJ in the 1990s.

By the late 1980s, O'Dowd's career had declined following drug addiction, the breakup of Culture Club, and a solo career that struggled after an initial number one single in 1987 - a cover of the 1974 Ken Boothe hit Everything I Own.

But things were about to change.

While living in New York with the androgynous English singer Marilyn, O'Dowd befriended a Krishna devotee named Daniel. "I liked him, he was funny. He and Marilyn had an argument, though, and every time he came around, Marilyn would say, 'It's those bloody Krishnas at the door.' I'd invite them round partly just to annoy Marilyn."

O'Dowd later traveled to India with Daniel, and his two-month stay inspired Jesus Loves You's 1989 debut album, The Martyr Mantras - which includes Generations of Love.

This was during the acid house revolution, with the Top 40 beginning to be dominated by dance acts rather than just pop and rock bands. O'Dowd embraced the scene, working with his old friend Jeremy Healy's E-Zee Possee act, and launching his own label, More Protein, which released records by Jesus Loves You, E-Zee Possee and Eve Gallagher.

"With dance music, you don't have to have 'a band' anymore," O'Dowd told The Face in 1991. "I bring in people as and when I need them, mixing technology with real musicians and bringing in other people when I want to play live."

O'Dowd became a dance music DJ too, often using the pseudonym Angela Dust. Interestingly, he said he only ever received pushback for his high profile and flamboyant style in gay clubs, while straight club crowds tended to embrace him.

Jesus Loves You had only two UK hits: Bow Down Mister (#27) and Generations of Love (#35) in 1991.

The latter was released with an excellent package of mixes, including versions by Youth, Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne, and Tim Simenon of Bomb the Bass. Featured here is the Totally Outed Mix by O'Dowd himself, with Ben Kape.

The track also features raggamuffin toaster MC Kinky (Caroline O'Shea). Around the same time she also featured on E-Zee Possee's Everything Begins With An E, and Erasure's Take A Chance On Me, from their chart-topping Abba-Esque EP.

A short-lived project then, within an extraordinarily long and colorful career for O'Dowd, but a track that has stood the test of time, and which sounds excellent in this extended version, as it does on the other two mixes on this 12" single.

Year: 1991 Label: More Protein Cat no: PROT 1012