Us Michael Jackson fans are a funny lot (some funnier than others) and like to complain, you may argue we have a lot to grumble about with the way the man was treated but also we’re never bloody satisfied. My favourite gripe is “Michael Jackson was under-rated”, which bearing in mind he’s one of the most successful artists of all time with the best-selling album of all time, that’s pretty funny.
Anyway, I digress already. The point I was going to make is that as a song-writer then the man probably was under-rated. When you consider that the man wrote the vast majority of his adult material single-handedly and that catalogue includes ‘Billie Jean, Beat It, Earth Song, Who Is It, They Don’t Care About Us, Black or White, Wanna be Startin’ Somethin’ and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’ alone, that’s pretty good!
But what occurred to me last week was another area, how does this sound – ‘Michael Jackson – the musical risk taker’?
I hear a lot about Bowie and Prince for example and how they are musical chameleons and have taken risks throughout their career which may well be true. But because Michael has been so successful and is mainly known for his pop music which people can be very snobby about, I don’t think that he’s recognised enough for being musically risky.
Let’s look at his back-catalogue from Off The Wall onwards and see some cases in point.
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough from Off The Wall
We take it for granted now, but Off The Wall was a debut adult solo album that Michael was staking his whole reputation and future career on. It was already a risk that he had asked Quincy Jones from the jazz genre to produce it, but then kicking the album off with a track that was over 6 minutes long and began with a spoken intro. This isn’t a man who is playing things safely.
Beat It from Thriller
Michael is the epitome of genre fusion, you listen to Dangerous and you have pop, rock, soul, gospel and even opera for example. But in 1982 this was pretty much unheard of, so taking a black artist known for soul disco Motown primarily and getting a white heavy metal guitarist to play lead on it was one hell of a gamble. We know how it paid off now, and with this & Billie Jean Michael broke musical and racial barriers to become the first black artist on MTV.
Smooth Criminal from Bad
I remember playing the Bad album on day of release and there is always at least one track on an MJ album that you just can’t believe your ears on first few listens. For me this was Smooth Criminal. From the startling open, to the heartbeat, to the staccato rhythm, to the syncopated vocal, to that repeated refrain of ‘Annie, are you okay’ to the Police announcement, to the falsetto ‘I Don’t know’ ad-lib – the song on paper is completely mental, but it works unbelievably well and quickly became an MJ classic. Pair the song with the stunning short film and you have a piece of musical history.
Dangerous the album
I’ll highlight specific songs shortly, but for the moment let’s just look at the full package. The year was 1991 and the CD was well and truly music’s foremost medium. Instead of having most albums 45-50 minutes long we could now have up to 77 minutes of music. So Michael decided to take advantage of this. This meant that he didn’t have to trim songs to make them fit or throw amazing pieces away. On Dangerous none of the 14 songs fade out, they all have a beginning, middle and an end. Many of them are over 5 minutes long. It’s a far cry from the more instant pop previously heard from him. The whole album is themed, is darker and more adult. It’s a work of two halves where lead single Black or White breaks the album in two and those who have waited patiently are treated to the best work of MJ’s career as genre bending, vocally stunning, perfectly produced works such as Who Is It, Give In To Me and Will You Be There are delivered to an unsuspecting fan. It can be frustrating that the casual listener may never have heard of these, despite them being Top 10 hits in many countries. There was so much more to his catalogue that the radio friendly pop he is known for.
Will You Be There from Dangerous
You want evidence of risk taking? This song is 7 minutes and 40 seconds long. It includes a prelude featuring the Cleveland Orchestra performing a portion of Beethoven's ninth symphony. The segment is from the fourth movement and is a lesser known portion of the famous "Ode to Joy". It ends with a spoken poem. He cries on it. Evidence given.
The HIStory album
Michael could have taken the easy option after the 1993 allegations, made a nice, easy pop album reminiscent of Thriller with radio friendly hits on it. But no, he came out fighting. If you want to know how Michael Jackson felt about his treatment and the state of the world in 1995 then listen to this album. The closest to a concept album that he made, the music starts with vitriol, hatred, frustration and pain but ends with positivity and laughter. It’s not as 100% cohesive as earlier works but is absolutely stunning and musically risk taking for the examples given below.
Scream from HIStory
The first two tracks on HIStory instantly shows how Michael had changed musically. The feedback fuelled mechanical introduction on Scream illustrates the confusion and bitterness of the track’s sentiment. He even swears in it – we’re not messing around here! For a lead single, its very un-radio friendly but the sentiment needed expressing and it needed to be Track 1
They Don’t Care About Us from HIStory
It amazes me that Michael wrote this years before HIStory and was originally touted for Dangerous as it seems to be an instant reply to the allegations. Again like Smooth Criminal, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing at first, from the chanted intro to the earworm of a drum hook that is repeated beautifully throughout the song. Lyrically and musically, again this man isn’t resting on his musical laurels. I’ve said many a time that there are certain songs in MJ’s catalogue that only he could make, this is one of them.
Little Susie from HIStory
Another track over 6 minutes and again preluded by orchestral works, but then you hear a child playing and singing, you get a sense of the eerie, the macabre and before you know it you are immersed in a story of child neglect with the end result of a dead young girl covered in blood with no-one to care. The song is heart-wrenching as are the vocals. It is even too hard for some stalwart fans of Michael to take, with many not liking it & questioning its inclusion on HIStory, but for me it is a stunning piece of work and a hidden gem.
Morphine from Blood On The Dancefloor
A song about personal drug addiction to prescription medication from the same man that wrote happy pop songs like ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Remember The Time’. Again, the risk in this is immense, not to mention the comprehension that Michael can feel comfortable & confident enough to bare his soul like that.
The Lost Children from Invincible
You won’t find many moments of risk taking and innovation on Michael’s last album but giving credit where its due including a track called ‘The Lost Children’ is the height of a man saying F you. It’s brilliant in its non-conformity and bullishness. Musically, again it’s so different to what a ‘pop’ artist should be doing; it’s saccharine and lullaby-like and the record company must have been despairing at its inclusion. I love the thought of Michael standing his ground and his self-confidence in making it stick.
So there you are, many examples of a quality you can add to vocalist, songwriter, producer, dancer and performer; Michael Jackson – the musical risk taker.
Anyway, I digress already. The point I was going to make is that as a song-writer then the man probably was under-rated. When you consider that the man wrote the vast majority of his adult material single-handedly and that catalogue includes ‘Billie Jean, Beat It, Earth Song, Who Is It, They Don’t Care About Us, Black or White, Wanna be Startin’ Somethin’ and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’ alone, that’s pretty good!
But what occurred to me last week was another area, how does this sound – ‘Michael Jackson – the musical risk taker’?
I hear a lot about Bowie and Prince for example and how they are musical chameleons and have taken risks throughout their career which may well be true. But because Michael has been so successful and is mainly known for his pop music which people can be very snobby about, I don’t think that he’s recognised enough for being musically risky.
Let’s look at his back-catalogue from Off The Wall onwards and see some cases in point.
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough from Off The Wall
We take it for granted now, but Off The Wall was a debut adult solo album that Michael was staking his whole reputation and future career on. It was already a risk that he had asked Quincy Jones from the jazz genre to produce it, but then kicking the album off with a track that was over 6 minutes long and began with a spoken intro. This isn’t a man who is playing things safely.
Beat It from Thriller
Michael is the epitome of genre fusion, you listen to Dangerous and you have pop, rock, soul, gospel and even opera for example. But in 1982 this was pretty much unheard of, so taking a black artist known for soul disco Motown primarily and getting a white heavy metal guitarist to play lead on it was one hell of a gamble. We know how it paid off now, and with this & Billie Jean Michael broke musical and racial barriers to become the first black artist on MTV.
Smooth Criminal from Bad
I remember playing the Bad album on day of release and there is always at least one track on an MJ album that you just can’t believe your ears on first few listens. For me this was Smooth Criminal. From the startling open, to the heartbeat, to the staccato rhythm, to the syncopated vocal, to that repeated refrain of ‘Annie, are you okay’ to the Police announcement, to the falsetto ‘I Don’t know’ ad-lib – the song on paper is completely mental, but it works unbelievably well and quickly became an MJ classic. Pair the song with the stunning short film and you have a piece of musical history.
Dangerous the album
I’ll highlight specific songs shortly, but for the moment let’s just look at the full package. The year was 1991 and the CD was well and truly music’s foremost medium. Instead of having most albums 45-50 minutes long we could now have up to 77 minutes of music. So Michael decided to take advantage of this. This meant that he didn’t have to trim songs to make them fit or throw amazing pieces away. On Dangerous none of the 14 songs fade out, they all have a beginning, middle and an end. Many of them are over 5 minutes long. It’s a far cry from the more instant pop previously heard from him. The whole album is themed, is darker and more adult. It’s a work of two halves where lead single Black or White breaks the album in two and those who have waited patiently are treated to the best work of MJ’s career as genre bending, vocally stunning, perfectly produced works such as Who Is It, Give In To Me and Will You Be There are delivered to an unsuspecting fan. It can be frustrating that the casual listener may never have heard of these, despite them being Top 10 hits in many countries. There was so much more to his catalogue that the radio friendly pop he is known for.
Will You Be There from Dangerous
You want evidence of risk taking? This song is 7 minutes and 40 seconds long. It includes a prelude featuring the Cleveland Orchestra performing a portion of Beethoven's ninth symphony. The segment is from the fourth movement and is a lesser known portion of the famous "Ode to Joy". It ends with a spoken poem. He cries on it. Evidence given.
The HIStory album
Michael could have taken the easy option after the 1993 allegations, made a nice, easy pop album reminiscent of Thriller with radio friendly hits on it. But no, he came out fighting. If you want to know how Michael Jackson felt about his treatment and the state of the world in 1995 then listen to this album. The closest to a concept album that he made, the music starts with vitriol, hatred, frustration and pain but ends with positivity and laughter. It’s not as 100% cohesive as earlier works but is absolutely stunning and musically risk taking for the examples given below.
Scream from HIStory
The first two tracks on HIStory instantly shows how Michael had changed musically. The feedback fuelled mechanical introduction on Scream illustrates the confusion and bitterness of the track’s sentiment. He even swears in it – we’re not messing around here! For a lead single, its very un-radio friendly but the sentiment needed expressing and it needed to be Track 1
They Don’t Care About Us from HIStory
It amazes me that Michael wrote this years before HIStory and was originally touted for Dangerous as it seems to be an instant reply to the allegations. Again like Smooth Criminal, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing at first, from the chanted intro to the earworm of a drum hook that is repeated beautifully throughout the song. Lyrically and musically, again this man isn’t resting on his musical laurels. I’ve said many a time that there are certain songs in MJ’s catalogue that only he could make, this is one of them.
Little Susie from HIStory
Another track over 6 minutes and again preluded by orchestral works, but then you hear a child playing and singing, you get a sense of the eerie, the macabre and before you know it you are immersed in a story of child neglect with the end result of a dead young girl covered in blood with no-one to care. The song is heart-wrenching as are the vocals. It is even too hard for some stalwart fans of Michael to take, with many not liking it & questioning its inclusion on HIStory, but for me it is a stunning piece of work and a hidden gem.
Morphine from Blood On The Dancefloor
A song about personal drug addiction to prescription medication from the same man that wrote happy pop songs like ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘Remember The Time’. Again, the risk in this is immense, not to mention the comprehension that Michael can feel comfortable & confident enough to bare his soul like that.
The Lost Children from Invincible
You won’t find many moments of risk taking and innovation on Michael’s last album but giving credit where its due including a track called ‘The Lost Children’ is the height of a man saying F you. It’s brilliant in its non-conformity and bullishness. Musically, again it’s so different to what a ‘pop’ artist should be doing; it’s saccharine and lullaby-like and the record company must have been despairing at its inclusion. I love the thought of Michael standing his ground and his self-confidence in making it stick.
So there you are, many examples of a quality you can add to vocalist, songwriter, producer, dancer and performer; Michael Jackson – the musical risk taker.
