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Confession: I have only just started listening to The Jacksons and Jackson 5

Dan

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Hi everyone. I have been an MJ fan since I was 8 years old. I know Michael's music, performances and works like the back of my hand. I can tell you which track is on which album and what year it came out and I know every twist and turn in every song, as I am sure most of us here do too.

However, for some reason I always separated the Jacksons and the Jackson 5 albums and even Michael's albums from when he was younger too. It was never out of distaste or dislike, I have just always been focused on Off the Wall to Xscape and never thought about it. But now I see them all as one, the journey of Michael Jackson, if you will.

I don't know why it's taken so long, especially since I adore funk (I know some of the Jackson 5 and Jacksons work can get pretty funky). I have always known quite a few Jackson 5 and Jacksons things, you can't be an intense MJ fan and not get exposure to that work but I'm glad I'm actually starting to listen to it now!

I count myself lucky, whilst we're hoping for new music, I am discovering old music as of it were new!

Is anyone else in the same boat?

~Dan~
 
I don't see nothing wrong with this. Michael had a lot of music. to real with you I don't put Michael Motown days with his adult days. yes their all basically the same but that's how I like it.

lately I been relistening to everything so for me it like a rediscovery and more refresh in my mind.

so I don't see nothing wrong with this. some fans mostly newer younger fans don't know his Motown songs. or newer fans haven't even listen to adult Michael albums but has listen to his Motown albums.

so do you. you are not less of a fan because you just now listening to those albums.

hope you have fun.
 
I put Destiny and Triumph at the same level of his adult solo albums. Brilliant and underrated work
 
analogue said:
I put Destiny and Triumph at the same level of his adult solo albums. Brilliant and underrated work
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This is what I was going to say. Triumph especially, probably my favourite to listen to these days simply because I've heard all of his solo stuff way more.
 
Dude, I'm very jealous of you to be just starting to discover all that stuff!!! I was pretty far into my MJ fandom when I finally did my homework and took notice of all the Jackson 5/Jacksons material out there!! I had an amazing time scouring record stores in person and online for vinyl copies of all those albums, most of which weren't released on CD at the time when I was building my collection. Speaking of vinyl, just the other night I finally tracked down an affordable copy of the rare 1979 Jackson 5 album "Boogie" on vinyl......that has been a holy grail of my collection for a loooooong time!!! Anyway I'm kinda accidentally thread-jacking lol.........have fun on your musical adventure!!
 
i still don't listen to J5 stuff..
 
J5 is a total different kettle of fish. But Jacksons is essential. Michael was writing/recording these songs in 1978 (the year before Off the Wall), in 1980 (the year after Off the Wall) and 1984 (2 years after Thriller). This period of creativity for an artist like Michael cannot be ignored.
 
You are not alone. (Terrible pun intended.) I have zero interest in anything from the Jackson 5, and very little interest in anything from the Jacksons. I only really care for Triumph, and even then there are a couple songs ("Your Ways," "Everybody") that I could easily do without.

I don't necessarily dislike their music; I just find it to be, in large chunks, derivative and uninteresting when compared with Michael's solo material.
 
AlwaysThere said:
You are not alone. (Terrible pun intended.) I have zero interest in anything from the Jackson 5, and very little interest in anything from the Jacksons. I only really care for Triumph, and even then there are a couple songs ("Your Ways," "Everybody") that I could easily do without.

I don't necessarily dislike their music; I just find it to be, in large chunks, derivative and uninteresting when compared with Michael's solo material.
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Horrifying.
 
Loneman1 said:
Dude, I'm very jealous of you to be just starting to discover all that stuff!!!
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I echo this feeling, the discovery phase is just so great! :) :listeningtomusic

kai said:
i still don't listen to J5 stuff..
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AlwaysThere said:
You are not alone. (Terrible pun intended.) I have zero interest in anything from the Jackson 5, and very little interest in anything from the Jacksons.
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:scream:

ChrisC said:
Horrifying.
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This.

Just kidding of course. ;) But still, even though the cataloge of the J5 is huge, if you go through them you'll find some real gems. MJ's voice is amazing and I adore the energy of the Motown sound anyway.


But... but... but... no love for Destiny?! :(
 
Ok if any of you do change their minds some day I'd say the album ABC is the best of the Motown period. My favorite tracks on it are "la la means I love you" which is a delfonics cover but Michael sounds glorious, very passionate, goosebumps all over my body each time. Then there is "Don't know why I love you" which is a Stevie Wonder cover which I love for the very same reasons as above. Also listen to it on the J5 live at the forum album where it is even better!
Another great track is "true love can be beautiful" which has a very sweet chorus and melody.

Now that's a studio album, when you really want to hear Michael at his very best you need to listen to the already mentioned "live at the forum" album. You'll notice that the J5 were as good as any act during this time. Michael sounds great, lovely interaction with the crowd and of course the brothers playing their stuff instead of session musicians, often having to be creative to recreate the songs for a liveshow.

As for The Jacksons stuff I really don't think you have a case by not listening to them, as said it is the Michael we all love from OTW and Thriller at his very best vocally.
 
The reason I never really wanted to listen to this material in the past is because I was connecting it too much with his childhood. It's not like there was no interest, but it did sting in a weird painful way when I wanted to listen to it.
 
I don't listen to the Jackson 5 very often but I do listen to Destiny and Triumph quite often. If you love the Off The Wall album, you'll love both of these especially, Triumph
 
To be honest... I still have to discover The Jacksons and Goin' Places. I heard some tracks of those albums, but never bothered to listen to the whole albums. I love Destiny and Triumph, because they have Michael's creativty all over, but I alwys felt The Jacksons and Goin' Places were just albums with Michael as a singer, but not his vision.

Please tell me I am in for a treat! ;)
 
For me personally, the music he recorded during his years at Motown is the most important to me. I will always love his adult music but if I had a choice I would take his Motown masters over Epic. I've done exhaustive research on these years and these sessions and producers. I'm not talking as much about the Motown era "hits". I'm more interested in the album and deep cuts as well as the around 150 recordings from those years that have still to be released. I know every inch of every song from the Motown era. It's the most satisfying to me. Plus, I enjoy his live performances from the 70's so much better. The dancing was more pure and interesting during the years he was at his least popular (75-77ish). The shows were so pure and live and in the moment. I appreciate his later tours but they were so planned and vocally not as interesting because there was so much lip syncing going on in later years. I feel like you really need to absorb every piece of music he recorded to get the full picture of his talent. The Philly years are also so overlooked and unknown. I think GOIN' PLACES is his best album VOCALLY and his best vocal performance of all time is EVERYBODY'S SOMEBODY'S FOOL on BEN. That vocal is just so deep and emotive. I can never get over how brilliant that vocal is. I prefer him as a vocalist which is primarily what he was in the 70's. I love his writing and productions from later years as well but the vocals when he was interpreting other material he did not write is where I find him the most magical. I always thought to myself, if I had to choose one set of recordings to take to a desert island it would be the 469 recordings he did during the Motown years. That is all I need. That is the magic. I know most will not agree or do not really know the Motown material well besides the big early J5 hits and Ben but I implore you to dig deeper and really understand what made him magical in the first place during those formative years.
 
You talk with so much passion about it, makes me want to listen to it right now :) Thank you!
 
I've talked about this before but I gotta give another shout out to Michael's awesome vocal delivery in Torture. The moment I'm talking about is ''Every little thrill you find here, is simply for the thrill you're after'' part. The way Michael sings that has a real haunting feeling about it, and I love it
 
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