Michael's tight schedule in 1979

[dethorro]

I was looking at the Destiny Tour page on Wikipedia and it says that the Destiny Tour started on January 22nd 1979 and that the 1st leg ended on June 10th 1979.

The Jacksons performed 73 concerts all over Europe, South Africa and the United States during this first leg (plus an additional 56 dates after Off The Wall came out).

My question is: How did Michael have enough time to record the whole Off The Wall album?

I know that they started recording at Allen Zentz Recording and at Cherokee Studios in December 1978 and that they ended in June 1979, but Michael was away from L.A for almost the whole January - June 1979 period. He came back in late March and had about 3 weeks time to record but then left again and didn't come back to L.A until mid- June when the album was being mastered.

This means that they had, more or less, 6 weeks time to record the whole album. The whole of December plus the two weeks in March.
That's even less than the time they needed for Thriller. Isn't it crazy how fast he did things earlier on in his career compared to after Thriller?

 

[JichaelMackson]

Perhaps this is a reason why he had so few of his own songs for the OTW album. He didn't have the time basically to work on them. Anyway if you ask me he was on a grueling schedule basically all his life.

 

[mj_frenzy]

I know that they started recording at Allen Zentz Recording and at Cherokee Studios in December 1978 and that they ended in June 1979, but Michael was away from L.A for almost the whole January - June 1979 period. He came back in late March and had about 3 weeks time to record but then left again and didn't come back to L.A until mid- June when the album was being mastered.

This means that they had, more or less, 6 weeks time to record the whole album. The whole of December plus the two weeks in March.
That's even less than the time they needed for Thriller. Isn't it crazy how fast he did things earlier on in his career compared to after Thriller?

Add two more weeks (in total 8 weeks), because there were also the first two weeks of April (1979) when they were recording for the ‘Off The Wall’ album.

The title track and 'Rock With You' were, for example, recorded at the Westlake Recording Studios during those first two weeks of April.

Michael Jackson also had to tour at that period (for the Destiny Tour), so they planned the ‘Off The Wall’ recording sessions with that in mind (hence, the tight schedule of those recording sessions).

He and his team (Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedien, etc) were also all of them younger at that time, as compared to the recording sessions of his subsequent studio albums, so this also helped them to record it in a tighter schedule.

 

[Derek1984]

And then the Triumph studio sessions came right after OTW was released. VERY busy time yet produced the best music of his career during this time.

 

[JichaelMackson]

And then the Triumph studio sessions came right after OTW was released. VERY busy time yet produced the best music of his career during this time.

You can go further back with the 3 year world tour 73-75, various tv appearances, solo and group album recordings, Las Vegas show rehearsing/performing, 76-77 rehearsing and recording of the Jacksons variety show, more studio work, more smaller scale touring, 78 rehearsing/filming of the wiz, more studio recording, another small tour. He was extremely busy throughout his career. Later on in the 80s there would be completely different projects as videoclips, charity, visiting hospitals, buying/planning Neverland, court cases.

 

[Derek1984]

Yeah, there was really no down time at all. Constantly in the studio or on tour. If neither, then writing/recording demos. Throw in some TV show appearances and music videos. I don't think some people realize the work ethic that Michael Jackson had. You don't really think about that.

 

[JichaelMackson]

Yeah, there was really no down time at all. Constantly in the studio or on tour. If neither, then writing/recording demos. Throw in some TV show appearances and music videos. I don't think some people realize the work ethic that Michael Jackson had. You don't really think about that.

But then again this goes for many artists. Prince toured basically every single year from 1979 onwards till he died while recording dozens of albums

 

[ChrisC]

But then again this goes for many artists. Prince toured basically every single year from 1979 onwards till he died while recording dozens of albums

Was Prince as heavily involved in the visual aspects of his artistry? I ask because I never took a large interest in his career. The videos I've seen of his for example seem pretty by the numbers, performance type videos largely. Nothing of the ambition or scope of a Michael Jackson video.