While we await Seldervi's offering, I figured I would write down the brand, new idea that struck me yesterday evening. Initially, I believed it had to be a project focused on Michael's solo adult career. But since Xeones didn't specify it, I took the liberty to go into a completely different direction. So here is my little (sub)mission..............for tonight.
Album name: the Jacksons (Re)-UNITED - meaning ALL of the brothers, including Jermaine
Concept behind the album: Michael & bros re-record some of their back catalog, including their biggest hits, but also a few of the more obscure songs PLUS a surprise, completely new tune
Years recorded: let's say 2007-2009, but when it comes to Michael, time was a most relative question. In any case, it would have been well after Michael’s trial; that sweet man needed his breathing space after that ordeal.
Motivations for the album:
- Michael’s gesture of gratitude first and foremost towards his family for standing by his side in his darkest hour
- reintroducing to the world the vast array of talent in the family
- a good will gesture to the former labels for their formative role and the good memories, by providing them with some additional sales.
Target audience:
- mostly J5/Jacksons fans that saw them grow up and grooved to their tunes and TV shows, but also folks like me who discovered so many of their songs decades after they recorded them.
Tracklist:
Can you feel it
Reach out, I’ll be there
We can change the world
Dancing machine
I want you back
Bridge over troubled water
The love you save
One more chance (J5 tune)
I wanna be where you are (Michael solo tune, re-recorded as an adult)
Be not always
Forever came today
Destiny
I’ll be there
The eternal light
Someday at Christmas
SURPRISE TUNE (unknown title) – preferably some funky, uptempo number or a mid-tempo one
2300 Jackson street – including ALL of the singing talent in the family, all generations (3T and everyone else)
Songs that get left out:
ABC
Never can say goodbye
One more chance (Jacksons tune)
This place hotel
Who’s loving you
Blame it on the boogie
Live performance – ONE special concert at a big location in the US or maybe even in Gary itself, to make it an absolute homecoming, preferably sometime during spring or summer, to have the best possible weather.
Why only one concert and not a new tour? Well, we all know how much Michael ‘loved’ to tour. Therefore, I believe it is completely unrealistic and unfair on the part of anyone and I reaaally mean everyone (from music labels and business partners, to his siblings and his fans) to expect him to do dozens upon dozens of shows. I am convinced he could have shown his gratitude to the family, make the fans rejoice and the naysayers shut up with just a few, brilliant performances.
The concert would be the perfect opportunity for the world premiere of the new song and so provide the maximum possible exposure to the album. The concert would end with a huge choir of the ENTIRE family coming together on stage. Special guests would also include Berry Gordy, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Suzanne de Passe. The album would be released the week after the concert.
Allowing a few months for editing and production, preferably around the winter holidays, a DVD of the concert would be released with the double aim of maximizing the sales and provide the visual experience to those who could not attend the concert in person.
In between those moments, a couple of vids could be made – one for Be not always, which would not feature any of the brothers, just powerful visuals reflecting the lyrics(á la MITM, HTW and Cry) and one for the new song, a video in which all of the brothers would appear. Needless to say that it would have a generous budget, state of the art visual effects and a storyline.
Hurdles to overcome:
- sorting out potential copyright and distribution issues with Motown and Epic. Something tells me that harmonizing the agenda of so many busy, globe-trotting people wouldn’t be a problem
Stick around long enough and I may be end up liking you also. If not, I can always go like this------->:girl_tantrum: