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Thank You Michael
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07-07-2009 10:28pm#1On Thursday about 12 nights back I was prepping my show for the next day on RTE Pulse, in between I was checking music sites and DJ blogs to make sure my content and music was as upfront as possible.
I also had Facebook open and when I hit refresh I saw a few "Michael Jackson dead?" type of updates, some "switch on Sky News" texts to me followed and when I did I saw that their source was TMZ! I thought that this was about as reliable as any showbiz site - i.e. not very and I was surprised that Sky were taking it seriously.
As the minutes went by however it was looking more and more serious. The 'cardiac arrest" report went to ' in a coma" to finally the news that "The LA Times are confirming the death of Michael Jackson"
I went to Wikipedia and it had crashed! When it came back seconds later I read with a terrible numb feeling that there were talking about Jackson in the past tense. "Michael Joseph Jackson is an American recording artist, entertainer and businessman" became "Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer and businessman"
Still in shock I immediately changed the last hour of my show and started work on a one hour MJ special. To get it spot on it took 2 hours to prep properly (and I wasnt even sure if Id be allowed do it on a dance station) but luckily I got an email from the Pulse PD early the next day and he shared my view that Michael wasnt just king of pop, he was king of the dancefloor.
Its hard to pinpoint the first time I heard a Michael Jackson record, before Thriller Ive a very vague recollection of hearing him on the Dublin pirates and as Ive mentioned before an uncle of mine used to live with us back then who was a club DJ - so Im pretty sure it was his wondrous 12" of Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) that he dug out of his record box one day that was my first experience of the Jackson sound. When I hear it today Im still mesmerized by every single second of its 9 minutes. Its the ultimate dance track.
But it wasnt until 1983 that I became a proper fully fledged fan of Michael. In the summer of that year I had to undergo some serious surgery in Cappagh hospital, it was an operation that upto a year previous had been done in 3 parts but they now could do it all together. "Great" I thought.The downside to this was the rehabilitation time, the time you had to spend in plaster and all that fun stuff ;o) When all was said and done I spent 3 months there and was bored after week 1. As a kid I wanted to get out of the bed, cause mischief, flirt with nurses and wander into rooms I wasnt supposed to be in. Instead I was stuck in bed in plaster from the waist down, with just RTE 1 and 2 on the TV, a lunatic with a twitch in the bed facing me who had a guitar and kept singing "Stairway To Heaven" and my comics. I was going around the twist! But then my uncle dropped up a Walkman. And inside it was this shiny blue cassette on Epic Records. It was Thriller. The weeks that followed were much, much easier and Id discovered the music, the voice and the production of Michael.
What can you say about Thriller that hasnt already been said?
Billie Jean; probably the most recognisable intro in the world and a bassline that still makes crowds cheer, and lately - scream.
"PYT"; many a fans favourite and the 80s pirates adopted this tune as their own.
"Wanna Be Startin Something": One of Michael's finest dance hours. Ive interviewed/spoken to many DJs over the past 10 days and this constantly comes up when you ask "whats your fav MJ tune?"
Then there was Beat It - Michael fused pop and rock effortlessly. One of my favs "Human Nature", where you could visualise what Michael was singing about such was the amazing soundscape - the production and layering on this track in particular is mindblowing.
And of course the album's title track and the most famous pop video of all time. When I saw this for the first time I had nightmares for a week and was promptly banned by the parents from seeing it again. Of course I still took sneaky looks at it on a self made compilation video tape
Thriller
After Thriller I wanted to go back to what Id missed out on. When I got out of Cappagh my uncle introduced me to the early Jackson 5 stuff and then - the album I consider his finest (just ahead of Thriller) - Off the Wall.
Listening to this album with headphones on for the first time was like been dropped and dipped into a barrel of timeless funk and soul, there's no other way I can describe it .... "Rock With You", "Dont Stop Till You Get Enough", the Paul McCartney penned "Girlfriend",
"I Cant Help It" written by Stevie Wonder,
the stunning title track, the happy frenzy of "Working Day And Night"
(I defy you not to dance to this
)
and 'Get On The Floor"
and "Burn This Disco Out" where Michael keeps mentioning the club DJ in the lyrics.
I thought this was very cool.
At this stage I wanted to be a DJ like my uncle, wanted to do radio like the DJs I was listening to on Nova and wanted to be doing clubs like the one I heard Jim Kenny doing on Sunshine 101. And those lyrics of "Burn This Disco Out" were painting some of this picture in my mind's eye:
"So DJ spins the sounds, there aint no way that you're gonna sit us down. Gonna dance till we burn this disco out" - what a feckin' tune!
What an album. Its easily in my all time Top 3.
Like Thriller and Bad it was all done under the watchful eyes and trained ears of Quincey Jones. A marriage made in production heaven. A lot of people say Quincey made Michael but Id disagree. He complimented him very, very well but all you have to do is listen to Michael's demo of "Dont Stop Till You Get Enough" pre Quincey to know that the ideas and the soul were all there already with Michael, they just needed guidance.
"Off The Wall" still sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday, not 1979.
So I started getting more and more into Michael's early catalogue; "Music And Me" (sorta sums up his life),
"I'll Be There", "Stop The Love You Save", "Mama's Pearl", "Dancing Machine",
"Who's Loving You" (the best kid vocal of all time?)
"ABC", "Aint No Sunshine", 'Never Can Say Goodbye"
Michael's first solo single "Got To Be There" (another magnificent vocal)
and the song that has been labeled by many music historians as the best Pop song of all time - "I Want You Back". Originally considered for Gladys Knight & the Pips and later for Diana Ross, somehow the 11 year old Michael wrapped his head and heart around lyrics of adult romance, performed them with the professionalism of a musician who'd listened hard to the likes of Sam Cooke, James Brown and Ray Charles – and then injected them with the energy of a child. It was and is an extraordinary sound and my favourite "pure pop" track of all time. And it also introduced me to my favourite label - Motown.
Then the band left Detroit for more creative control with Epic records, Jermaine stayed with Motown and was replaced by the youngest brother Randy and they re-named themselves The Jacksons. Michael's voice found its groove and the highlights included:
"Can You Feel It" (one of the most instant basslines ever)
the aforementioned "Shake Your Body",
"Show You The Way To Go"
(soso video quality but a very rare Top Of The Pops studio appearance)
"Enjoy Yourself"
"State Of Shock" with Mick Jagger (the first record I ever bought and a song that was intended for Freddie Mercury on guest vocals)
and "Blame It On The Boogie".
I remember interviewing Tim Hannigan in the mid 90s on Club FM, he was there in person in the studio and we were doing one of the mental Sound Crowd specials we'd do now and again. He was armed with fresh new Mr Spring material, exclusive never heard before Sound Crowd bootlegs and the maddest new Dutch dance out at the time. But before we did anything. Before we played any of that Tim announced "we're going to clean the transmitter with some pure funkiness" - he presses play and out comes "Blame It On The Boogie" on probably the most hardcore dance station of the 90s what a legend.
After Thriller came Bad - not as good as the 2 albums before but still wall to wall hits, tracks you can still play today and arguably Michael's most popular song; "Man In The Mirror"
The day it was released my Dad got up early and went off into town, not telling a soul where he was going and taking a tenner from the Mam's purse - she thought he'd gone on the piss! He returns with the "Bad" record, a cheeky smile on his face and Im sure he'll never forget the look on mine. I dont think I left the bedroom for a week and not a lot of homework was done for a month. The highlights included Siedah Garrett and Michael getting each others voice in the exact same key where there's times you cant tell who is who on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"
and monster hits like the title track and "The Way You Make Me Feel". I also remember radio stations playing the CD bonus track "Leave Me Alone" and everybody saying how they could hear the difference in the digital sound
and then there was the very under-rated duet with Stevie Wonder "Just Good Friends", it was crazy this was the only song that wasnt released as a single from the album but a testament to Michael that 10 others were
"Dangerous" was next. I bought this album in HMV Henry St on the day of its release and played it to bits. Probably his most under-rated work. The album cover was art in itself, everytime I looked at it I noticed a new detail. It also contains lyrics to a certain song that I always thought of if things werent exactly going my way back then, very few artists have done this with me with lyrics or music - Michael is one, Stevie Wonder is another. The album also contains the Teddy Riley produced gem "Remember The Time", Slash on guitar on "Give In To Me", the last ever song on Pulse 103 - "Gone Too Soon" and probably my favourite video of his - "Black Or White" I'll always remember the Top Of The Pops premiere
The second CD on the History album saw Michael continue with more classics like "Stranger In Moscow" with its strange yet hypnotic production, "You Are Not Alone" (prob my favorite ballad of his and we got to see Lisa Marie Presley's arse in the video - so win win)
and the track that kept the first single released by The Beatles in 25 years off the top of the chart and claimed the 1995 Christmas Number One - "Earth Song"
After a 6 year sabbatical Michael returned with "Invincible' but he fell out with Sony and it never really got pushed or marketed properly. Yet "You Rock My World" is still playable today in any RnB set. This is the only MJ album I havent fully listened to properly as I was getting more into Stevie Wonder's stuff at the time but I'll be rectifying that in the coming weeks.
What else was there?
There was the Alan Coulthard megamix of Michael. A Nova staple track and made using just 2 turntables, a reel to reel and a flange machine. It launched the DMC into the monster DJ company it became and made every Disc Jockey around the world ask "how did they do that?", including me.
There was reading his Biography "The Magic And The Madness" by Randy Taraborelli about 3 times in as many years. Randy has known and studied the life of Michael since he was ten and he doesnt hold back in any aspect of his life. Its a "warts and all" account and the only book you ever need to read on the man
There was buying the Jacksons "Live" double album and pretending to be Michael on stage for 15 mins a day in my room (in between a make believe radio show on Energy 103)
There was going into school in 1991 and hearing Capital 104 playing "Black Or White" for the first time on Irish radio and me singing it in my head for the rest of the day. When Michael released a video it was an event on MTV and the same went for radio when the first single from an album was unleashed.
There was waking up at 5am in 1992 and walking into town with my then girlfriend for tickets to see Michael on stage at Landsdowne Road. The gig itself is still the best Ive attended. The atmosphere in the stadium was voltaic and the buildup was masterful. Nobody knew how to crank up tension on stage and then release it like a cannonball to screaming fans like Michael. And then to top it off? Well put on a rocket packback and fly off as the finale of course. It wasnt Michael, we all had a feeling on that. But he swapped with the stuntman so quickly that nobody noticed or cared. I'll even forgive him for using Kriss Kross as the support act!
There was the time I was doing an open air "disco" in 1985 in my front garden for the local kids with just one turntable and I left my copy of The Jacksons "Victory" album out in the blistering heat while I got my dinner. I came back to find it in the shape of one of the free plastic records that used to come with Smash Hits. Warped is not the word! My sister was laughing so hard I thought we were going to have to call her an ambulance and much to the chagrin of the local kids the rest of the "disco" was canceled.
And so much more.
My work schedule has meant Im only today getting a chance to put these thoughts down but I thought if I didnt do it by the time Michael's funeral came around then I never would.
Today the world says goodbye to a man who Ive no doubt will still be revered in 500 years time the way classical composers are today. Some are calling him the Elvis of our generation, Im going to call it like I see it and say he was bigger than that, but thats just my opnion. Elvis was listed as a co-writer on 11 tunes but only actually co-wrote one. Michael wrote a legacy of hits. Thats the key difference to me.
My top 5 fav MJ tunes: (I could easily do a top 50)
5) Will You Be There
4) Rock With You/Dont Stop Till You Get Enough (can never separate these two)
3) I Want You Back
2) Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)
and his most sublime track ever (though its not well known)
1) I Wanna Be Where You Are (from 1972 and never, ever fails to make me grin from ear to ear)
Rest In Peace Michael (at last maybe he'll get some). Thank you for making music that made the hairs literally stand up on my neck, thank you for your energy, thank you for the bassllines, the dancing, the videos, the concerts, the perfectionism, the precision, thank you for the melodies, but above all .... thank you for making us smile.
Thank you Michael
Jason10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSM3BJrhdU
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_hz2am90HkComments
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partyatmygaff wrote: »
That said, I can't wait to see the new material he had made that was unreleased and the new music video and the rehearsal footage, his last greatest works.
The album (co-produced by Will I Am and partially recorded in Ireland) was all but finished. Really lookiing forward to it. There must be hundreds of un-released gems lying in the vaults. Its an awful shame we dont fully appreciate the living when they're alive!
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