Old Guy Radio: The Jackson 5

[dlgood]

So, death of Michael Jackson. Prodigious Talent. Extraordinary Weirdness. We were touched by his concern for children. We were concerned by his touching of children.

(Note: all links point to YouTube. Enjoy them.)

So, me being me, I decided to delve back into his catalog and listen to it over and over again. And watch the videos. Everything about the Thriller album was huge, and that was certainly my introduction to Michael Jackson... the songs, the style, the dancing. (Because I had no f'ing clue about Jeffrey Daniel of Shalamar at the time...) It wasn't much past "Bad" where MJs style/appearance/showmanship transitioned past "weirdness" into "creepy" and trumped his artistry for me. And honestly, much of his adult music sounds dated to me, no matter how good it was relative to it's time. And I do still really like "Off the Wall" and many of the songs on "Thriller". Hip-Hop just came along and passed him by.

Michael Jackson - She's Out of My Life (1979)

On the other hand, the Jackson 5 songs, to me, are utterly fantastic and close to ageless. The outfits are dated (not too much in 1969, but mind meltingly bad later) . And many of the songs (though not all) have to be sung by teenagers. (ABC, the Love You Save) But Berry Gordy's songwriting team nailed this stuff. And Michael is undeniably a prodigy. Let's review a few clips from their 1969 and 1970 Ed Sullivan appearances:

Who's Loving You

There's some stage-y interplay, but here's Michael absolutely killing on a Smokey Robinson song. Might be the definitive version. He's 11, but he doesn't sing like a kid - very soulful. Again, prodigious talent - I wonder if people guessed there was something wrong with it at the time, or if everybody just saw the smile and marveled at the performance. (Quick note: New Jack Girl Group En Vogue also did a great cover/sequel follow to this song as "Hold On".)

I Want You Back

This is just about a perfect song and performance; the choreography supplements the song perfectly (it helps that Michael moves like a mini James Brown) and the bass lines and chord progressions are as good as any number ever recorded - which is why it's so heavily sampled (starting with their second single "ABC"). Between those two songs, it's not hard to see why they wowed Sullivan and became such instant sensations. "I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll be There" - all of their first four singles hit #1. And I think all of these songs hold up very well. Mostly, the songs are pop, but there's real talent and depth in the performance. Consider the J5 cover of "Doctor My Eyes" - which I prefer to Jackson Browne's original. (Because of, get this, Jermaine's part.)

And then, Michael's voice changes. And we get Dancing Machine:

Which kicks ass. I'm enthralled by "The Robot". It's neat checking out the clips, because he never does it the same way.

Even now, these are infectious. I can't help but still feel that extreme talent needs to show itself - but certainly, I'm troubled by the confluence of celebrity, the industry - and youth. We know now a lot about the home life, and this kid must have been under an unimaginable amount of pressure to just keep performing. Maybe better parents would have protected and nurtured him better. But this is not an uncommon (though much freakier) case...

It's just - there's talent (Tito, Jackie, Marlon) great talent (Jermaine) and truly transcendent talent (Michael).

As a special treat, the brothers popping & locking with Dom DeLuise.

Comments

[rollfresh.livejournal.com]

thanks for the old mj videos, must have been hard to find all the old ones on youtube. youtube search is really annoying these days to me.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I don't mind searching, because I'm in a real mood to revisit that stuff. The bigger challenge was finding good quality clips.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that vid, Dave. When we were watching all the Michael Jackson stuff going on during the Gathering, my first thoughts went to the Jackson 5, because that's the Michael I really remember. I was not paying much attention to him by the time the 80's rolled around.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. For me, I'm sure my first memory would have been seeing "Billie Jean" on Friday Night Videos. (We didn't have cable.)

But when he got huge, my sister was a big fan and my mom played the Jackson 5 stuff for her. Of course, the local UHF station was re-running the old Jackson 5 cartoons from the early 1970s.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Oh, my God, I'd totally forgotten about those (the Jackson 5 cartoons).

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

You mean this:



You're welcome.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Great collection!

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

The clips from the Carol Burnett show were great. Plus, Dancing Dom DeLuise...