Motown were prodding their proteges into too many markets. They were fearful that the Jackson 5 might be outsold by white teeny-bop competition like the Osmonds so they tried to make the group even cuter as all-round entertainers.
They dabbled in rock with a hit version of Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" or a later track "I Am Love" disfigured by the most atrocious pomp-rock guitar and keyboards. Somehow Michael Jackson retained much of his bounce and verve but he was always dangerously close to being swaddled in the material.
Even in their heyday, Motown had directed their acts to record albums for the lucrative Las Vegas circuit so these policies weren't novel. The real change was the label's incapacity to create any striking, compensatory records. "I Want You Back" seemed a far distant echo.
For their final album, "Dancing Machine", the label belatedly realized the danger as the group locked into the pre-disco styles coming out of Philadelphia that reached their peak with the Trammps. It was the first hint of a new mature style but Motown wasn't to benefit. Their contract over, the group crossed to Epic.
Yet even if their career had been artistically erratic, the adolescent Jackson surely gained by his grooming in the hit factory. Motown gave him an ideal professional education, even sending a choreographer, Suzanne de Pazze on the road with them.
Joe Jackson gave him his basic training, Motown was his finishing school. It was the company's misfortune that Michael Jackson's graduation took him off their campus.
The label-change to Epic also brought a name-change to the Jacksons. Brother Jermaine had married Berry Gordy's daughter and stuck with his father-in-law's firm recording as an intermittently successful solo act. The Jacksons kept it in the family. the youngest brother Randy replaced him.
The revised group's first port of call was Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. While the Jacksons' artistic fortunes had been fluctuating at Motown, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff had created Motown's first real rival since Stax, Philadelphia International, with the invaluable aid of the distribution muscle of CBS. To all concerned, it must have seemed the natural alliance to direct the Jacksons on a new path.
But there was one regrettable hitch. By '76 Gamble and Huff's own inspiration was also flagging and many of their most talented associates had quit to set up their own operations. Built on the same assembly-line principles as Motown, the Philly scene was also suffering the same disintegration of success as had afflicted the original model.
The Jacksons linked with Gamble and Huff two years too late to produce a masterpiece. "The Jacksons", their eponymous Epic debut, was pretty much your standard black album of hits and filler. As if nobody wished the Jacksons to be over-identified with the classic Philly sound, Gamble and Huff's production downplayed standard elements o their formula. "The Jacksons" is unmarked by the warm pervasive electric keyboards, vaguely jazzy guitar and vibes associated with Philly. Unfortunately, Gamble and Huff's fading commitment shows in their replacement: an overlay of characterless strings.
Yet the album served one basic purpose. Spotlighting both the group's and particularly Michael's new maturity, they were no longer assigned those cutesy Sesame Street ballads. At least, they were now hit-making on more acceptable terms.
In June '77 "Show Me The Way To Go" entered the British charts in the exact same week as the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen". Unlike the Pistols' provocation, it officially reached number one.
With the Pistols' controversy at its most noisome, "Show Me The Way To Go" hardly registered outside pop quarters. Yet even if it didn't attain the same standards as Michael's later dance monsters, the single did presage the future in his racing, scatting improvisation over the fade.
For the rest, they enjoyed a few less notable hits and "Keep On Dancing" finds Michael doing his vocal exercises over a disco beat. He was also now writing his own material; "Blues Away" and "Style of Life" the latter in partnership with brother Tito but both were less than astounding blueprints..
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Bill Graham 
