J5 Live at The Forum

You could start a whole new thread just on 'Who's Loving You'.

Possibly Michael's best ever vocal performance.

The spoken word intro is perfectly timed. Funny without being cheesy, and rehearsed whilst sounding ad-libbed.

'I GAVE HER MY COOKIES!'

Then bang, into that classic vocal intro.
Talking about that intro. I always think of the Ed Sullivan version when he's in the middle of his schtick and forgets his line and looks at Jackie for a split second. I still get distressed for him until he recovers, opens his mouth and sings like a 40 year old.

I keep trying to remember if I noticed this at the time, but I was a little kid too, so don't remember. Just remember the thrill listening and watching him sing the song.
 
I just closed the door into my office so I can listen to the album at work.

It's great. - I think I hear too little J5/The Jacksons - and also MJ's early solo albums. Think I will listen to those albums more. There are some true gems.

MJ - and J5/The Jacksons - should have released more live albums.

The other live album - The Jacksons Live - is one of the best albums ever released. The energy is crazy... It's out of this world. Vocals are perfect, energy high, the band is great.... Perfect album. Would have been so cool to attend the actual concert.
 
I just closed the door into my office so I can listen to the album at work.

It's great. - I think I hear too little J5/The Jacksons - and also MJ's early solo albums. Think I will listen to those albums more. There are some true gems.

MJ - and J5/The Jacksons - should have released more live albums.

The other live album - The Jacksons Live - is one of the best albums ever released. The energy is crazy... It's out of this world. Vocals are perfect, energy high, the band is great.... Perfect album. Would have been so cool to attend the actual concert.
Live in Japan is another good one, with Michael's voice well into transition to adult. By far the forum is my favourite album, the 1970 disc. Absolutely flawless.

The Jackson 5's first 3 albums are top class stuff- I havent listened to Maybe Tomorrow in a while, but considering it has Petals and Never Can Say Goodbye, I imagine I will be adding it to the list shortly. Music & Me is a great album too, my favourite solo album of the Motown years.
 
Talking about that intro. I always think of the Ed Sullivan version when he's in the middle of his schtick and forgets his line and looks at Jackie for a split second. I still get distressed for him until he recovers, opens his mouth and sings like a 40 year old.

I keep trying to remember if I noticed this at the time, but I was a little kid too, so don't remember. Just remember the thrill listening and watching him sing the song.

As the kids say..... O M G

Barbee, to quote David Cassidy (I think you're old enough to know!), I think I love you.

I've never seen that performance with the intro - how is that possible.

It's heartbreaking...wow..

And his face at 30 seconds, that's his adult face right there (when he says 'I stepped up to her'). It's the look he does when he's trying to be serious..you know what I mean.

 
As the kids say..... O M G

Barbee, to quote David Cassidy (I think you're old enough to know!), I think I love you.

I've never seen that performance with the intro - how is that possible.

It's heartbreaking...wow..

And his face at 30 seconds, that's his adult face right there (when he says 'I stepped up to her'). It's the look he does when he's trying to be serious..you know what I mean.

Jesus, how had I never seen that intro either? The absolute PANIC on his face. He gets it right back.

Side note, I don;t know why, but I always loved how Michael accidentally hits the microphone after he says "I treated you baaaaaaad...".

Bit of trivia that everyone probably knows.... Imagine, IMAGINE that Berry was furious after seeing the I Want You Back performance from this show because of the slower tempo. I'd say it was the last time he was furious over anything to do with the J5 for a few years
 
Jesus, how had I never seen that intro either? The absolute PANIC on his face. He gets it right back.

Side note, I don;t know why, but I always loved how Michael accidentally hits the microphone after he says "I treated you baaaaaaad...".

Bit of trivia that everyone probably knows.... Imagine, IMAGINE that Berry was furious after seeing the I Want You Back performance from this show because of the slower tempo. I'd say it was the last time he was furious over anything to do with the J5 for a few years

You know when you're growing up & you think you're the only weirdo in the school, and then you find another & you don't feel so alone?

I feel like that right now. I could shed a tear. Totally sincere.
 
You know when you're growing up & you think you're the only weirdo in the school, and then you find another & you don't feel so alone?

I feel like that right now. I could shed a tear. Totally sincere.
Proof that you know someone you're talking to has watched Moonwalker at least as many times as yourself...
 
Stop, even today when I listen to Dancing Machine, I sing "Dont blame it on the sunshiiiine." at the apt part.

I also shout "You Knock Me Off a' my feet now baby, hooooo" during We Are The World, which I think fits as an ad lib.

It;s way better than the MJ Minimix that was released in 1995!
 
Stop, even today when I listen to Dancing Machine, I sing "Dont blame it on the sunshiiiine." at the apt part.

I also shout "You Knock Me Off a' my feet now baby, hooooo" during We Are The World, which I think fits as an ad lib.

It;s way better than the MJ Minimix that was released in 1995!

You're hereby invited to my MJ Saddo Nuances Club.

If you also do the TWYMMF 2 finger/thumb pose he does in the silence after "You Knock Me Offa My Feet Now Baby" you get Gold Membership.
 
You're hereby invited to my MJ Saddo Nuances Club.

If you also do the TWYMMF 2 finger/thumb pose he does in the silence after "You Knock Me Offa My Feet Now Baby" you get Gold Membership.

Of course I do, with added lip choreography.

Bonus points for always associating ET with State of Shock. Always. And acting out the magazine cover during the "we doin it. Hoo! Come own baby!" ad lib...
 
Of course I do, with added lip choreography.

Bonus points for always associating ET with State of Shock. Always. And acting out the magazine cover during the "we doin it. Hoo! Come own baby!" ad lib...

However for years I thought that Human Nature had a video. I recall vehemently arguing with someone that it did as I had seen it and could describe it. Then I realised it was specially done for the Moonwalker anthology. God, what a stupid idiot I felt. We'd got into a proper fist fight about it, clothes were torn and lips were bloodied.

I've made up with my Mum since.
 
As the kids say..... O M G

Barbee, to quote David Cassidy (I think you're old enough to know!), I think I love you.

I've never seen that performance with the intro - how is that possible.

It's heartbreaking...wow..

And his face at 30 seconds, that's his adult face right there (when he says 'I stepped up to her'). It's the look he does when he's trying to be serious..you know what I mean.

I've not seen this for years, the older I get the more amazed I am at just how effortless and phenomenally talented he was at such a young age! He was pretty much still a baby here, it's mind blowing what he was capable of and how natural it was to him.
 
However for years I thought that Human Nature had a video. I recall vehemently arguing with someone that it did as I had seen it and could describe it. Then I realised it was specially done for the Moonwalker anthology. God, what a stupid idiot I felt. We'd got into a proper fist fight about it, clothes were torn and lips were bloodied.

I've made up with my Mum since.
Never know, there could be a full video in the vaults because of it. Then you can break you mom's jaw and all is well.
 
I've not seen this for years, the older I get the more amazed I am at just how effortless and phenomenally talented he was at such a young age! He was pretty much still a baby here, it's mind blowing what he was capable of and how natural it was to him.
Yeah Stacey, the effortlessness is as impressive as the actual performance.
 
I know, the little moments like when he licks his lips he looks so beyond his years!
Yeah, and especially the look in/behind his eyes. You know he's feeling it. It's not some child act entering the Eurovision.

It's a child making an absolute fool of the original, it's so good!
 
Proof that you know someone you're talking to has watched Moonwalker at least as many times as yourself...

Yeah, I have a lot to thank that Moonwalker Introspective for.
I have to say I love you guys. Reading your comments thru the years makes me so darn sorry that I didn't introduce my little nephews to Michael thru Moonwalker. I thought they were too young, so I used to rent it, put them to bed after we watched their movies, and watch it by myself. They were transformer nuts, so they would have appreciated the robot/car transformations more than I did. It would have been perfect. We all could have stayed up all night watching it over and over, not just me.

(I waited for the "infamous" Black or White premiere to introduce them to Michael. Lol. ).

That Human Nature video/non-video is superb. One of my favorite things.
 
(I waited for the "infamous" Black or White premiere to introduce them to Michael. Lol. ).
Sooooooooooooooooo instead of wanting to be a spaceship when they grew up, they wanted to wreck the place!!!!! Hahahahahah

I don't think anyone's too old for Moonwalker. You either take it for what it is, or you'll only disappoint yourself when comparing to The Godfather part II.

That being said, I am DELIGHTED that my little cousins got addicted to Moonwalker last summer, so much that I bought them BAd. I'm not even sure Emma knew the ABC before ABC came on actually....
 
Moonwalker really is a game of two halves.

Half is just a Jackson orgy for us to orgasm over (if you'll excuse the image). The retrospective, MITM live, Speed Demon, Leave Me Alone video all within the first 20 minutes.

Then you have a career high performance from Joe Pesci you have to get through before you get an MJ career highlight of Smooth Criminal. Has he ever done anything better? Then some more cartoon japery until the magnificent Come Together at the end.

i mean, I was 15 years old and an MJ nut when this came out. I thought all my Christmasses had come at once.

A few years later all my Christmasses really did come at once. It's not as exciting as it may sound. It ripped a hole in the space/time continuum and for a while my Dad was also my son and my Mum was also my wife.

Boxing Day was awkward.
 
Moonwalker really is a game of two halves.

Half is just a Jackson orgy for us to orgasm over (if you'll excuse the image). The retrospective, MITM live, Speed Demon, Leave Me Alone video all within the first 20 minutes.

Then you have a career high performance from Joe Pesci you have to get through before you get an MJ career highlight of Smooth Criminal. Has he ever done anything better? Then some more cartoon japery until the magnificent Come Together at the end.

i mean, I was 15 years old and an MJ nut when this came out. I thought all my Christmasses had come at once.

A few years later all my Christmasses really did come at once. It's not as exciting as it may sound. It ripped a hole in the space/time continuum and for a while my Dad was also my son and my Mum was also my wife.

Boxing Day was awkward.
... And a bunny on a motorbike aswell...
 
Ah, that's why his name was Spike...

So in summary, we've covered maternal abuse, time travel and female self-pleasuring in the last few posts. You don't get that in an Invincible thread.

So, let's get back on topic.....

It's this Michael not to mention his adult work that makes me use the word genius for him.

Genius as in Einstein, Newton, Tchaikovsky, not in the overused meaning.

I don't think I'd use that term about any other pop artist. Maybe at a push Prince. But not even Lennon.

Michael had it in his DNA. He was a different type of human being. And as much as I may moan about some of his flaws. Geniuses are flawed because so much of their make up is controlled by their brilliance, there isn't enough scope to adhere to the world's definition of normal behaviours.
 
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Michael had it in his DNA. He was a different type of human being. And as much as I may moan about some of his flaws. Geniuses are flawed because so much of their make up is controlled by their brilliance, there isn't enough scope to adhere to the world's definition of normal behaviours.
I'd agree with this, even going as far as to say that this could be said prior to the Epic years. You could see from the get-go that Michael was not ordinary. Ballads, you'd imagine would be the easiest to "show your emotions", but I think that if you had the volume down you would know what he was singing about, even uptempo, grooves, whatever.

I struggle to consider "Michael Jackson the child", a child. I have Michael Jackson the 11 year old on the same shelf as Levi Stubbs, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves. It's crazy, but I cannot fathom that he is a child singing and performing these songs.

To have this genius so early on, and for it to grow, and continue to grow, can only lead to what Tony has said above.
 
I'd agree with this, even going as far as to say that this could be said prior to the Epic years. You could see from the get-go that Michael was not ordinary. Ballads, you'd imagine would be the easiest to "show your emotions", but I think that if you had the volume down you would know what he was singing about.

I struggle to consider "Michael Jackson the child", a child. I have Michael Jackson the 11 year old on the same shelf as Levi Stubbs, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves. It's crazy, but I cannot fathom that he is a child singing and performing these songs.

To have this genius so early on, and for it to grow, and continue to grow, can only lead to what Tony has said above.

I can't recall the exact quote, but Berry Gordy called him an adult/child genus or something.

In fact...I've just tried to google it & found this one instead, says it much better.

"His behavior was weird, but when you get an artist and a genius, many of the geniuses throughout our whole history were weird. And they did weird things because none of us could understand what was on their mind and why they did what they did"

I didn't realise me & Berry were so alike!
 
I didn't realise me & Berry were so alike!
Think you'd pull Diana Ross though?

He does hit it on the head there. Especially when Michael talked of writing songs- he said he did nothing, that they, paraphrasing "came to him" either from God, or Heaven or wherever he believed them to come from, and he also said it was important not to get in the way of what was coming to him (pity he strayed from this with Invincible).

Even though "Blues Away" is no Billie Jean or Who Is It or Stranger in Moscow, every song he wrote takes a little bit from what he learned in his early years. I can only imagine what he was thinking about on a daily basis. Justin Bieber never struck me as someone who sang his soul out (the kid Bieber). [I actually can't think of any other famous children] but Michael just got it right every time.

When you think of it, he started doing "that" robot when he was only 15. To do it so flawlessly. I'm more in awe of kid Michael these days than I've ever been before.
 
Think you'd pull Diana Ross though?

I'm more of a Velvelettes man.

Yes,'Live At The Forum' will make you revere kid Michael.

No other child singer ad-libs & plays with the melody like that. They sing what they're told to sing.

At many times, he knows he's not going to hit the note so he instinctively changes it, or does a different ad-lib.

I have to remind myself that this isn't him on the Dangerous Tour singing Billie Jean like he has for the last 10 years, these are songs he's known one or two years at most. He's twelve.

HE'S TWELVE.

HE'S ****ING TWELVE

I'm a confirmed aethiest but (to quote Madonna) when I listen to this album "I'm not religious, but I feel so moved. Makes me want to pray."
 
INo other child singer ad-libs & plays with the melody like that. They sing what they're told to sing.
Not for a minute do I believe Michael ever followed a guide vocal. Everything sounds too natural.

For a group that never had a say in anything they did, the authenticity of Michael's delivery makes up for it in bounds, to the point that it does't matter. He may as well have written every song, cos the writer could never tell the story as well as Michael did.
 
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