Looking back at M J's finest albums

Some periods in your life tend to be very much connected with external events such as polical history, the whole hype around a film, tv show or for that matter a record.

Given the last time I wrote about him here was way back in 2010 it's time to move on.

I can remember the hype around this Michael Jackson's first solo album for Epic Records in the Fifth Form around September and October of 1979 having read 208 magazine, the teen monthly issued by Radio Luxemburg with features on him and his then upcoming single Don't Stop Til You Get Enough  sandwiched between the ads for Boots No.7 cosmetics and girls intimate products.

Clearly that magazines target was teen girls but they did cover soul and funk music which was popular at the time well and it was clear Big Things were expected of this album.

In due course they did being the home of Off The Wall, Rock With You (the single contains added hand claps) and the poignant She's Out Of My Life.

At this point strangely enough people had forgotten his Motown solo career starting as it did with Got To Be There and running for four solo lps, one being the Ben soundtrack something that British Motown put right in that gap between his Epic albums when they re-released 1975's excellent One Day In Your Life from the Forever Michael album and had a #1 hit with it in the summer of 1981.

That is my British original orange Epic label original which came in a gatefold sleeve which unlike later copies didn't replace the original Rock With You for the single version.

After Off The Wall his next project emerged around October of 1982 with the relatively low key The Girl Is Mine colaberation with Sir Paul McCartney which followed from Michael's cover of his Girlfriend on the previous album.

Like Off The Wall, Thriller was concieved as a luxury project so had a gatefold lp jacket  this time taken up with a posed photograph and the album lyrics this time on the lp inner sleeve.

It was a slow album to sell initially not being helped by being released into the mainly British New Romantic invasion by such acts as ABC, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet whose sound tended to eclipse American soul and funk although it was Shalamar's finest hour in the UK.

Eventually aided by such upbeat numbers as Billy Jean and especially Beat It with Eddie Van Halen's  guitar solo and ground breaking videos, it took off to be one of best selling albums in the UK and the topping the Billboard sales for 1983.

Amazingly six out of nine tracks made it to 7 inch vinyl  or got radio playlisted with the last one being P.Y.T. in early 1984 in the UK.

November's premier wherever in the world you were of the Thriller extended promotional video was an event few of us can forget it moved video on as much as Girls On Film did two years before and like that not necessariily without a little controversy either.

That is my Dutch pressed copy from 1983 - it has Co-production credits to Michael Jackson on the jacket unlike first pressings - and this edition used the American mastering on stampers rather than one made locally.

If you look closely at the label, you will spot both the full track length and also the introduction lengths marked  for DJ's.

This is the promotional leaflet outlining previous Jacksons and Michael Jackson albums included in mine but mine being an early copy makes no reference to Compact Discs and "For Europe cds from the then CBS Group didn't come in until around 1984/5.

For me these two albums remain his greatest solo achievements, the point where he was setting the standard in Soul and Funk rather than playing catch up as with Bad and especially 1991's Dangerous where he copped the New Jack Swing style but seemed out of his depth as some of the controversy  around early versions of lyrics showed what may be fine for some could never be acceptable for a person whose appeal was more universal.

Michael Jackson: Hello There

My childhood overlapped very much with the childhood of an artist who belong to a group many of our year followed and re-emerged in my mid teens raising the bar of soul and r&b music contributing hugely to its soundtrack.

In 2009 the specialty arm of Universal Music Group, Hip-O that do direct orders issued this unusual 3 cd set that actually is a coffee table book with enclosed music covering the early Motown era solo recordings Michael Jackson made.

What makes this desirable isn't just the lovely photos and the write up about his time at Motown as good as that is its the fact you get 6 solo albums of which two are currently unavailable anywhere in the world and the original versions of the tracks that came out in 1984 on the Farewell My Summer Love 1984 album in overdubbed form for the very first time.

There are contained across the cds a good many of his early solo hits  such as Ben, Got To Be There, With a Child's Heart, Morning Glow (a personal favourite owning the original '45), We're Almost There and One Day In Your Life, the last two coming from the 'forgotten' Dear Michael album of 1975 (and 'One Day' was a UK #1 single in 1981). The albums do hold up well despite their years as examples of quality 70's soul.

Amazon UK are currently offering this for less than £10 which is very little for a stash of great material.

Michael in death as in his life remains a mixture of contradictions, intensively successful and yet seeming, lonesome with few true friends, impressively innovative for a period  but failing to respond to the rapid changes in black music from the late 80's onward.

For what it is worth, I feel he had an awful lot of the little boy very much in him which can be evidenced by his many animals that he bought as pets and most famously in the Neverland ranch that became his base and to which he sought to share with others in ways that from an 'adult' prospective may have seemed naive and at best easily misunderstood and ultimately caused him more harm.

The same naivety I feel lay behind the row about the initial lyrics for some of the songs on his Dangerous album of 1991 where he was trying to cop a pose without considering it's impact on the wider audience (and his was a much wider one that any Hip-hop artist). He just didn't see the problem with certain words.

He was a at times flawed adult little boy.

This said I feel in the time since his death many have gotten over the 'Wacko Jacko' tag applied since the mid '90's and have rediscovered his very real abilities.
In some respects he never really 'grew up' being a kid-adult not having anything that resembled a regular childhood and suffered from a abusive father.

Recommended listening:
Jackson Five GOLD UK Motown and Soulsation (1995) US Motown box set - The band he was big part of in the beginning.
M Jackson Anthology Motown (1995) - a condensed history of Michael at Motown that sounds marvellous.
Off The Wall (1979) - The solo album that set the standard
Thriller - One of the of not THE biggest selling album in History it broke new ground mixing rock with Funk.
Bad - The last really innovative album by him.