Posted on 06/30/2009 4:59:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
Well said, Chuck. Anyone who thinks Jackson did not have a long lasting positive influence on music has never heard “Thriller.” His personal sin and demons are obvious, no less than those of Alexander the Great, who brutally murdered his best friends while conquering half the known world. It doesn’t lessen their impact.
well said
It wasn't Michael's music, but he sang his lungs out on that stuff.
My favourite angel was Cheryl Ladd. She is the only one still doing much in the entertainment game it seems.
But wait! There’s more! If you call now Billy Mays will throw one in for free!
What, buy one Zombie get one free!
Jackson 5 stuff was good, but I don’t think anyone will challenge the reality of “Thriller” and “Off the Wall” as milestones in rock. Several of the Thriller songs were on the top 100 of all time-—I’m not sure any of the Jackson 5 are.
As a writer and former musician, it's almost like creating extracts a toll from your soul. Think of how many musicians or comedians we say "used to be great," or "used to be funny." Look at Boz Scaggs, who had one album containing 3-4 truly timeless knockout songs, and never put together another solid album or Brett Easton Ellis who never could get another "Less Than Zero."
I'll challenge the notion.
Quincy Jones is the overriding force on both albums, which have waned in influence and impact over the twenty-five to thirty years since their release. "Human Nature" is quite a song, but "Got To Be Starting Something," "Thriller," "Shake Your Body Down To The Ground," "PYT" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" are overblown, childish pablum. I think "Rock With You" holds up very well due primarily, again, to QJ's sparse and tasteful production.
In comparison, "Dancing Machine," "Mama's Pearl," "I'll Be There," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Stop, The Love You Save May Be Your Own," "I Want You Back" and "ABC" are towers of exciting, raw and funky grooviness.
Synths, sequencers and drum machines killed soul and they deadened Michael's long term impact. They sterilized his performances and they robotized his artistry. He expressed nothing but hooplah. He became a phony and he didn't even know it.
You don't believe it now, but you'll watch this perspective emerge in the eyes of the world very quickly. Think Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Ron Howard.
I doubt it. The top 100 of all time are pretty set. And you can scream “producer” all you want-—see Felix Pappalardi with “Disraeli Gears,” or George Martin with the Beatles-—but it’s the artist, not the knob turner.
Or, to cite another, Gene Krupa nearly ruined his life with weed.
If you're talking album sales, of course. Thriller, Bad and Off The Wall sold more copies than any Jackson 5 album, whose output occurred during an era when 45s were the lynchpin of sales.
And you can scream “producer” all you want-—see Felix Pappalardi with “Disraeli Gears,” or George Martin with the Beatles-—but it’s the artist, not the knob turner.
Producers weren't knob turners in the sixties, seventies and eighties. They were creative art directors.
In addition, Pappalardi played viola, trumpet and tonette on Wheels Of Fire and Martin played piano on several Beatles recordings (he also provided orchestration).
In those days, engineers turned knobs. Producers chose which songs to record, they cut the songs down to radio playlength, they selected which instrumental and vocal takes made the album, and they had ultimate sayso over all the artistic decisions made in the recording and mixing of each record. The stereo left-to-right-and-back-again panning on Clapton's solo on "Politician" and the inclusion of "Mother's Lament" on Disraeli Gears? Pappalardi's call. Eight hands on the piano at the end of "A Day In The Life," the sax solo on "Lady Madonna" and the random tape splicing of the organ track on "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite"? Martin's call. Solo trumpet (it might be solo flugelhorn) in the choruses of "Rock With You? Jones' call. It was so through each stage of each album's production.
All of Michael's albums with Quincy are halfway...and I mean halfway...decent. His other solo efforts are musical bologna. I know why.
Soon, the rest of the world will too.
By the way, who’s screaming?
Chuck can be a class act...but don’t tell him I called him “Chuck”.
"Billy Jean" and "Thriller" make the lists. I don't think a single J5 do. And yes producers were creative, but still relatively insignificant. It's the songs and the singers, not the arrangers, who are the draw.
And Krupa’s idol, Bix Beiderbecke, drank himself to death at age 28.
My 1970s band, "Rampage," opened for "Steppenwolf" and the "James Gang" (can you say, Tommy Bolin, dead of drug OD?). Our bass player died at my age of a heart attack, but it was 100% related to his abusive lifestyle.
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