Bow Your Head. The King is Dead.

This has to be the blow heard round the world. June 25th, 2009:
The day the King of Pop died.

My late father-in-law called it 10 years ago. Michael Jackson was on TV defending himself yet again for some inappropriate interaction with a kid, or for proclaiming that he was not bleaching his skin, or, and this is the best one, saying that he had NOT had any plastic surgery!!

My father-in-law shook his head and said "This guy's not going to make it past 50."
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
"He lived too much too fast, and that just can't go on for long." He said.

I really didn't think that was a solid theory. I still don't.
Yet here we are, with one of the world's all-time greatest talents leaving us at EXACTLY the age of 50. My father-in-law's deadline.

He had lost some lustre of late, to be sure, but Michael Jackson, until today was still the King!

There was controversy and there was weirdness, but when MJ came to town, people were always there to greet him. Not just our town, but any town, practically anywhere in the world. This guy fascinated everyone, and he did so from the tender age of 5.

Sadly almost anything you say about Michael has either already been said, or it's just obvious. To say he was one of a kind would imply too many things I don't wish to discuss, so instead, I will recount my recollections.

Born August 29, 1958, he was child number 7 for his parents. With the additions of Randy and Janet,there would be nine in total, at which point I assume Mrs. Jackson's uterus simply disintegrated.

By the time he was 11, he was playing with his brothers in the Jackson 5, with a hit record and loads of adoring fans.
I remember the Jackson 5 (That's right, I'm old, so what!?). I remember their variety show. I remember their Saturday morning cartoon, and I remember when Michael first got together with Quincy Jones to release his magnificent Off The Wall album. As a matter of fact, I still have it. Not the CD, the LP (Okay, I'm old. We get it!)
The big hits were:
Don't Stop Till You Get Enough- a song that to this day, can kick start any party.
Rock With You- with that smooth soul groove that has been much covered, but little improved.
Off The Wall, the title track, which has been sampled, covered and remixed repeatedly in dance music, and the Eddie Murphy imitated ballad,
She's Out Of My Life (Tito, get me some tissue. Jermaine, stop teasing!).
Then somebody heard the B side of one of those singles. A song called Working Day and Night which never became a proper hit but has the freakiest rhythm ever and is still played at sporting events, on TV shows and in commercials!
I wondered how one artist could make one album with so much eclectic great music.
No other pop album in my lifetime even compared.

Until 1983.

That's when Thriller came out (Technically, the end of '82).

The first song I heard was The Girl is Mine, his duet with Paul McCartney. It was good, but not the track that was going to flip the world on its ear. ("Paul, I think I told you, I'm a lover, not a fighter!")

Then, at a time when videos were just starting to shape the music industry in a new way, came Billie Jean. No one knew what this video was about but they had Michael Jackson...dancing...on a street where the cobblestones light up when you dance on them. Then he went for the big finish: the half-kick-leg shake-fake shoe tie. His dancing was so unique that they just let him go. There did not seem to be any choreography.

The turning point was that fateful night of Motown's 25th anniversary.
March 25th 1983.
All the great Motown acts were performing and the Jacksons were all there too. Michael did a medley with his brothers until they suddenly left the stage, leaving him alone to the sound of a familiar new beat, the intro to Billie Jean. In my opinion, this was the moment in which Michael Jackson grabbed the world by the tender parts, never to release them. He started his pelvic thrust to the beat, stood up straight, looked both ways, grabbed his hat, and flung it behind him with such style that no one spoke in anticipation of what was to come. Michael did not disappoint, and as the piece de resistance, hit us with a move that streetdancers had been doing for years, but that would forever become his trademark:

The moonwalk!

Believe me when I tell you that everyone watched in awe for the rest of his performance, rendering anything any other Motown great had done until that very minute, completely insignificant. That was all that would be talked about the next day.

The next thing I remember is being in a shopping mall and seeing a crowd gather in front of the electronics store where the big 36" screen TV was about to play the very newest video for his new song, Beat It.

Up until that moment, all we had seen is Michael with the Jacksons or dancing by himself to his own music, but this viedo was awesome. It was the first time you saw a story being told to a great song that included Eddie Van Halen on guitar, and the greatest choreographed dancing to really ewnhance Michael Jackson's own moves. It was tantamount to the space shuttle's first landing on the moon! Moonwalk and all.

Everyone agreed it was the greatest video we had ever seen......until.....
Thriller!!

Thriller was the mother of all music videos and it's debut was highly anticipated by all. That night, millions of families, mine included, sat and waited and then watched in amazement as the King took it to another level.

By mid-1985, you could still not go to a party without at least one Thriller cut being played, be it PYT, Wanna Be Starting Something or any of the aforementioned.
And just so you don't think it was all dance music, he threw in Human Nature (and they said, "Why, why"?).

From then on, the bar had been raised. Everyone else's best was simply the least we expected from Michael.

He had become so popular that Jewish boys were dressing up as him for Purim. You didn't even need much: One glove, a black hat, and for those fortunate few, a red pleather jacket (What? You think anyone is buying it in real leather?).

I could go on and talk about Bad and Dangerous and everything else, but in my fondest memories, that was Michael Jackson at his best: Young, slick, and still black despite the first of many facial configurations.

So, if his music is his legacy, then we have all received a great inheritance.
We will always have the songs.

Farewell dear Michael. You changed the world.

Go in peace.

This summer will commemorate the 30th anniversary a most glorious era on earth!

No, It was not the space shuttle or Haley’s Comet.

It wasn’t Margaret Thatcher’s election as Britain’s Prime Minister (although that was pretty awesome!).

No, my friends. It was the height of perhaps the most pivotal movement in the history of…pivotal movements.

It was the indisputable peak of music history’s most enduring (but also endearing) blemish.

Yes folks…….‘Twas the age of DISCO!!

Disco hit it’s pinnacle in 1979!

It was everywhere atop the charts, and many radio stations had even gone all disco (with the occasional Al Green tune just to break the monotony).

Saturday Night Fever had been in Theatres for about 2 years, and it’s soundtrack had gone 15x Platinum!
A year earlier, you could not enter a home in North America that didn’t have a copy of that record, but by 1979, many of those homes were buying 2nd and 3rd copies because the 1st was so scratched from being over-played, or because the kids were fighting over which songs to play when they practiced groundbreaking moves, like pointing from left to right while simultaneously doing a pelvic thrust, in front of the mirror.
The craze had reached nauseatingly unprecedented proportions.

Just like any other all-encompassing fad, it was bound to drive you batty eventually.

Like when your wife buys you a bright red satin shirt to go with the tight pair of Sergio Valente Jeans that she has taken the liberty to “bedazzle” and tells you it’s the perfect outfit for your buddy’s party. So you break them in while you shop for a Roller Boogie lunch box for your son at K-Mart where Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive is playing over the P.A. (and you are still oblivious as to how annoyingly insidious that song would one day become).
Your daughter comes along to see if she can get a shiny pair of hot pink stretchy pants to wear on her date with some guy who’s trying desperately to look like Andy Gibb with an open leather vest and who drives one of those Trans Ams with a T-roof and the eagle on the hood.

So there you are shakin’ your booty with your Boogie Woogie Dancin’ Shoes on when unbeknownst to you, some rock radio jock in Chicago gets fired because his station switches to an all-disco format. Remember, this was back in the day when radio DJs actually chose and played their own music.

This DJ, Steve Dahl, landed a job as the morning man for a rock station where he began his infamous crusade against what he referred to as “Disco Dystrophy”, an infectious disease that had become a social pandemic. His followers were essentially white folk who couldn’t dance, I assume, but I have no factual basis for that statement, so I digress.

Their objective was clear, and their slogan was simple:

DISCO SUCKS!

No room for ambiguity there.

So that’s when it happened. July 1979. The great “Disco Demolition” at Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox. The promo took place during a night time double-header between the Sox and Detroit Tigers. Anyone bringing a disco album to the game would be admitted for just 98 cents. Between games, DJ Steve Dahl would blow up those disco albums with fireworks.

Sure. It sounds like a great idea when you say it like that, but over 75,000 people showed up and the huge box containing the records was rigged with what was essentially a small bomb! When it exploded, the bomb tore an enormous hole in the grass! Now, I’m not the most manly sporty type, but it is my understanding that baseball players actually use that little portion of ground. They even have a name for it. It’s commonly referred to as ….THE OUTFIELD!!

The next thing you know, thousands of fans are rushing the field, lighting fires, rioting, destroying the batting cage and stealing bases (no pun intended), but DJ Dahl had already escaped just as he discovered that his listeners were essentially insane.

Disco Sucks? You suck, Steve Dahl!

Okay, honestly, I could live 200 years without ever hearing I Will Survive, YMCA or Staying Alive again, but what about Off The Wall by Michael Jackson, He’s The Greatest Dancer by Sister Sledge, or Got To Give It Up by Marvin Gaye. Everyone remembers Shame by Evelyn "Champagne" King and who can forget Push Push In The Bush by Musique?
Ring My Bell by Anita Ward, or I Love The Nightlife (on the disc ra-howwwnd, yeah!) by Alicia Bridges.

I wish I could have been there. Disco sounds like a blast! (okay, that time the pun was intended)

To quote the inimitable Zohan, “disco disco, good good”.

Happy Anniversary!

"Oldies" is not a genre!

It has recently come to my attention that some people do not know the rules of music conversation. You see, one of the greatest catalysts for dialogue is music. After all, who doesn't like music? The question is never whether or not you like music, rather what kind of music you like.

(Note: If your answer is "I don't really like music.": I congratulate you for having the courage to expose that lameness that ensures you go through life with as little joy as possible. Fair or not, you will be judged on that statement, so give it some thought.)

My favourite answer is "House" or "Trance". Not because there is not some great music being stolen....er, uh... created... in that genre, but if that is what you put on at home, it is a pretty good indicator of exactly what point you are at in your life, and it doesn't really further the conversation, does it? That type of music is as fleeting as Susan Boyle's fame. How many times can you refer to a song's "really cool beat"? To be fair though, it has it's rightful place in the clubs and can draw you in under the right circumstances.

The term "Oldies but goodies" was actually coined by a radio jock named Art Laboe in the mid-50s in reference to the "good music" that was around before that "Rock n' Roll drivel". You know. The music that would be around long after Rock n' Roll was dead.

Then in the 70s, those same kids (now adults)preferred those Rock n' Roll "Oldies" to the "noise" being produced by flash-in-the-pan types like Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Who, Dylan and other silly artists merely perpetuating a mindless fad that was sure to disappear at any moment due to it's lack of substance. After all how can 5 part harmonies and lyrics like Pink Floyd's "Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies. Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, Ice is forming on the tips of my wings. Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything." ever be expected to compete with the poetry of Perry Como's "Hot Diggity, Dog Diggity, ooh what you do to me."? Substance indeed!
Ah, the oldies but goodies!

First of all, the term "Goodies" has a whole different connotation in the current Hip-Hop landscape, and an "Oldie" is anyone who doesn't know that.
My niece thinks the first Black Eyed Peas CD is a "Classic oldie" and she eventually might be right, but I assure you that it is currently neither!

I recently had a conversation in an office with a young lady who, upon hearing that I was a long-time DJ, excitedly told me about a club she goes to every week for what is know as "Way-Back Wednesdays". Her friends join her as they muse over the sweet old days.... OF THE 90s!!!! I suddenly felt too old to muster the strength to smack her with my bag-full of 45s! Her, and the callow bunch that run that promotion. I won't even bore you with the details of "Retro Thursdays" which plays 80s music all night long.
The Motown label is an outstanding example of good branding. So great a brand that it is commonly referred to as a genre unto itself, and while that may just be the case, it doesn't include much of the talent attributed to it. For example, the following acts were never a part of Motown...ever!

Aretha Franklin
Ray Charles
Jackie Wilson
Percy Sledge
Wilson Pickett
Sam & Dave
Otis Redding
Sam Cooke

Get the picture?
Ask anyone under 30 to name 10 Motown artists and they'll use at least 3 of the above without ever approaching 10.
Still, for those of us who know, Motown pretty much IS a genre. It had it's own style: Slightly overproduced soul music, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Note: A fitting tribute is Raphael Saadiq's last release, The Way I See It, containing new songs that you would swear were old Motown standards. Hey, if you didn't know, now ya know! Check it out.

So here are the acceptable designations for genres relating to musical eras:

Big Band
Crooners
Rock-a-billy
Psychedelic Rock
Motown
(Note:As a genre, it refers primarily to Motown's hey-days which were the 60s and 70s.)
Disco 70s (Included Soul, R&B and anything by Stevie, Barry, Rev. Green, Teddy, etc.)
Classic Rock 70s
80s New Wave
80s Rock
80s Hair bands
80s Funk
90s Grunge
90s R&B
90s House

Everything else is simply Pop.

In case you noticed, it's not that there was no Soul in the 80s. It's just that it was barely a genre. After the death of Marvin gaye in '83, the closest we came to good soul in the 80s was the watered down sound of Lionel Richie, Diana Ross and DeBarge. Freddie Jackson seemed to be paving the way for the R&B style of the 90s when suddenly came Anita Baker and her Diva-ness Whitney Houston. Anita came and went, but Whitney changed the landscape of her genre forever. You can thank her for the fact that every song's original melody is bypassed for 5 minutes of gratuitous vocal acrobatics designed to show off the singer's vociferousness rather than letting us hear the @#$%*@# song!!

So go on and enjoy the nostalgic sounds of the early millenium.

'Twas a simpler time, no?