Mike’s brilliant career

Originally published in Hot Press Volume 11, Issue 19, 1987

It’s been five years since Michael Jackson released the best selling album of all time, Thriller. In the absence of a follow-up, the intervening period has seen the world media foraging for the slightest item of trivia on the reclusive star. Now with the Release of Bad and the opening dates of his first solo world-tour, the focus has shifted away from the man’s personal foibles and back to his music. Here Neil McCormick charts the phenomenal career, and looks at the formative years of the most enigmatic and successful solo artist of the decade.

“Your butt is mine” snaps Michael Jackson in a raw-throated, stacatto outburst of cocksure, animated aggression. With the first words on his first album in five years he stakes his claim on you and me and everyone else who made him the most popular performer on earth. He’s back! The brother from another planet, looking like an alien, sounding like an angel. And he wants you back.

It’s been a long time coming. Work was begun on the follow up to the biggest selling album ever sometime in 1985. Release dates have been tentatively announced and mysteriously put-back numerous times. The media was keyed up for a blitz first in Spring 86, then in Autumn. The merchandising machine got on the move – there was a 3-d Disneyworld movie extravaganza, a line of Michael’s pets (toy animals inspired by his backyard menagerie) and even perfume bearing the Thriller’s seal of approval… but no record.

Hard facts were hard to come by on what was going on in Westlake Audio Studios in LA where the secrecy surrounding album’s recording would certainly put MI5 to shame, but as 87 dragged by with still no sign of finished product, worrying rumors began to do the rounds; Michael had been sent back into the studio by his record company because they weren’t satisfied with the album; he was fiddling incessantly with the mixes because he was so afraid of public reception; the mini-movie video he had filmed for the first release was a complete disaster; he kept changing his mind about what the first single would actually be…

This was the big one of course, so a little paranoia was perfectly in order. To date, Thriller, released in December 82, has sold approximately 38.5 million worldwide, making it not just the biggest selling album of all time but putting it far, far ahead of any other album which has previously held that distinction. ‘Thriller’ earned more than 150 gold and platinum around the world, and won Michael virtually every notable popular music award, including 8 Grammys, 7 American Music Awards, 4 Black Gold Awards and 4 American Video Awards (though he didn’t perform quite so spectacularly in the Hot Press Readers Poll). The numerous singles released off the album accrued sales in excess of 20 million and the ‘Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller’ video sold over 900,000 making it the largest selling music home video ever, ever, ever.

And it’s not just Michael Jackson with his astonishing 42 per cent royalty rate and his record company Epic (a subsidiary of CBS) who reaped the rewards of Thriller’s unprecedented success. Black acts took heart as Michael’s videos broke the unspoken apartheid practised by MTV, exposure which had become essential for reaching the rich mass white market, thus paving the way for such cross-over successes as Prince and Run DMC. And the record industry as a whole celebrated the fulfilling of a new-Beatles fantasy, the theory being that Michael was helping people rediscover the record-buying habit. Once in the record store they were fair game for everyone.

Michael Jackson was the key figure in the upswing of the music industry’s fortunes in the '80s. The nervous anticipation surrounding the release of his new album was not so much hung on the issue of quality as the question ‘how many people would throw good money after Bad? Could it equal Thrillers’ success? Could it beat it? A lot of people want to see Michael Jackson fulfill his impossible dream, but nobody wants it like Michael Jackson. Here he comes now, strutting, sliding, snarling, pouting, seizing the moment with all the means at his disposal – that voice (Hee!), those eyes (Oooh!). He wants your butt. He wants it bad.

There are a lot of strange stories about Michael Jackson. Here’s another: A tour manager (who later worked with U2) when working on the Jacksons' 1984 tour was invited by the star to come round and have a look through his personal library anytime he was stuck for something to read. One day the tour manager took him up on this, knocking on the door of Michael’s trailer and asking if he could look for a book. Michael duly led him to a large flight case that went everywhere on the road with him. It opened up to reveal racks and racks of books, books of all shapes and sizes but only one category: fairy tales. They were all fairy tales.

Who (or what) is Michael Jackson? For such a world famous figure there is little of substance known about him. Oh his eccentricity is legendary: Whacko Jacko the recluse who lives with his mother and two sisters in a huge mock-tudor mansion with an amusement arcade, a Disneyland ride with life size working model pirates, a 32-seater cinema constantly showing favoured movies such as ET or The Elephant Man, and a menagerie including a llama, a giraffe, a snake, and a chimpanzee called Bubbles that he dresses in a tuxedo.

We’ve all heard the ones about his oxygen chamber that was going to help him live to 150; the $100,000 dollars he has spent remaking and remodelling his face to apparently eradicate his black features (and in the process wind up looking like a refugee from a sci-fi movie); the surgical mask he took to wearing in public to shield him from germs; the department store mannequins he collects and reportedly talks to as his friends; his attempts to buy the remains of John Merrick, the Elephant Man; his identification with the character of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up.

Rumor, speculation and innuendo abounds about his sexuality (or lack of it); 28 and never been laid, never shaved, voice hasn’t broken – he must be some kinda goddam faggot! But for all the bizarre facets of his (intensely private) public persona the key to all the interest in his music through which he struts with an assuredness and sharp, finger-on-the-pulse wit that is almost completely at odds with his shy, neurotic, overgrown adolescent image. The three key, self-penned tracks on Thriller deal with sex and betrayal (‘Billie Jean') paranoia and confrontation ('Wanna Be Startin’ Something') and macho violence ('Beat it'). He can sing a love song more tenderly than any man alive (witness ‘She’s Out Of My Life’ from Off The Wall) while on the title track of his new album he lets rip with an awesome black streetwise aggression that’s more than a match for any young pretenders to his crown.

He is renowned for the degree of control he maintains over all aspects of his music and marketing is an astute and apparently quite hard-hearted businessman, frustrating his friend Paul McCartney’s ambition to own his own songs when he outbid him for ATV Music, paying 48 million dollars for a catalogue including most of the Beatles hits, the hottest publishing property there is.

“Michael’s an emotional star child, but he’s in full control,” director Steven Spielberg has said. “Sometimes he appears to people to be sort of wavering on the fringes of twilight, but there is a great conscious forethought behind everything he does. He’s very smart about his career and the choices he makes.” His lawyer, John Branca, remarked “Part of him may be a ten year old with all the enthusiasm that implies – that’s the part that gets all of the publicity. But the other part is a 60 year old genius. He’s the shrewdest artist I’ve ever come across.”

The key to the glaring contradictions that make-up Michael Jackson could not be found in the musings of the star child himself. Michael Jackson in his own words would be a slim volume in more ways than one: he rarely gives interviews and rarely allows interviewers to penetrate beneath his (surgically enhanced) skin when he does. Yet the source of those contradictions is the very source of his quite extraordinary talents and the motivation to keep him aspiring for bigger and better when he has already achieved more than most people dare dream of.
For Michael is the product of a unique environment, almost literally raised for super stardom. Michael’s father, the patriarchal Joe, a steel-worker and part time R&B guitarist had his elder sons Tito, Jackie and Jermaine form a group as soon as they showed an interest in music. Marlon was the next to be enlisted and the four would practice in the house with the (then) youngest Michael singing and dancing along. An excellent mimic and filled with all the boundless energy and enthusiasm to be expected in a five year old, he was soon elected lead singer of the group.

The Jackson 5 despite their youth were a hardworking unit. Driven on by their ambitious father, Michael and his brother’s time was largely divided between school, rehearsal and live performances. There would be support gigs with the likes of James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Gladys Knight and Michael would be in the wings, watching the every moves of these inspirational headliners. Early footage of the junior Jackson shows him whirling and dancing and shaking and yelling like a miniature James Brown, hogging the limelight from his less exuberant brothers.

By the time Michael was 11 years old he was a pop star. Signed to Motown the Jackson 5 had four consecutive number one singles ('I Want You Back', 'ABC', 'The Love You Save' and 'I’ll Be There'.) In the Motown studios the tracks were written and produced by The Corporation (a catch all name for half a dozen writers and musicians) with little input from the group but for a young person, absorbed in music and eager to learn, they provided a unique education.
Unlike the other Motown boy Wonder, Stevie, Michael never received specific tutorials. He learned by the same process of mimicry he practiced all along. Consequently Michael is an instinctive rather than a trained musician: but look at what his instincts are based on! From his early childhood music was the central core of his life and all through his teens he was surrounded by and working with some of the finest pop writers and musicians in the world. And getting a chance to hone his newfound skills in the most demanding environment imaginable – on stage. Small wonder that by the time the Jacksons moved to Epic in the late '70s, and began to take control of their own music, they were able to revitalise their flagging career by making some of the most inspiring dance music of the time with 'Destiny' and 'Triumph'. Michael in particular showed he had learned his lessons well when he recruited Quincy Jones to produce the ground-breaking solo album Off The Wall, selling 7 million records and all but eclipsing the success of his brothers. Michael was writing an increasing number of songs and by Thriller his own material provided the album’s indisputable highlights, songs of a quite startling maturity and inventiveness. It’s interesting to note that his attitude to songs is that “they just come out of nowhere”. “The whole thing is strange,” he has said, “You hear the words, everything is right there in front of your face. And you say to yourself, I’m sorry, I just didn’t write this. It’s there already.”

Michael’s musical upbringing gave him an unnerving pop instinct together with the skills of a veteran: 20 years of high class experience being filtered through someone still possessing the vitality and imagination of youth. But it took its toll in other ways. The Jackson family was a protectively insular unit from Michael’s earliest days, living, playing and working together. La Toya, one of Michael’s three sisters (and now a recording artist in her own right) commented: “We’ve always lived apart from everyone else. He (their father) didn’t encourage us to have friends outside the family and didn’t like us going outside with other kids.”

Michael moved from this to the even more extreme insularity provided by the Motown Corporation, which founder Berry Gordy ran as a tight ship, another family unit with an often paranoid mistrust of the intentions of outsiders. Michael was a showbiz child, spending much of his time in rehersals or onstage, receiving his education in tutorials, having all his decisions made for him by his manager/father and his record company. His social contact with ‘ordinary people’, especially children his own age, was almost non-existent. When he did see them they were usually screaming at him. “I hate to admit it”, he has said, “but I feel strange around everyday people. See my whole life has been onstage. And the impression I get of people is applause, standing ovations and running after you. Being mobbed hurts! You feel like you’re spaghetti among thousands of hands. They’re just ripping you and pulling your hair, and you feel that any moment you’re just gonna break. In a crowd I’m afraid. On stage I feel safe. If I could I would sleep on stage, I’m serious.”

Michael Jackson grew up lonely and isolated, in a world where he never had the chance to develop the ordinary social mechanisms for dealing with other people, where his main refuge was his imagination which he has indulged with essentially childish abandon, where his only true solace, his principal source of joy, is his work. “Onstage is the only time I really open up”, he reflects. “I say to myself , ‘This is it. This is home. This is where I’m supposed to be, this is where God meant me to be’. I feel so free, so unlimited on stage. Performing is better than anything else I can think of!” You couldn’t dream up a more perfect musical superstar! A young man with the talent and instincts of a veteran whose ambition is total because in a very substantial, spiritual sense, his work is all he’s got.

Michael Jackson’s latest piece of work is, of course, “Bad”, released at the beginning of this month to almost uniformly glowing reviews. But could it possibly be as successful as “Thriller”? No act, apart perhaps from Elvis and The Beatles in earlier, less mega-selling days has ever followed up one of those all-time record-breaking albums (The Bee Gees ‘Saturday Night Fever’, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’) with anything quite so world beating. In fact such successes have often presaged a swift descent into oblivion (witness Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ and Peter Frampton’s ‘Frampton Comes Alive’). Pop history tells us that if Bad equalsOff The Walls sales of eight million, it will have done extremely well; fifteen million would amaze most industry observers; twenty million would be beyond any reasonable persons wildest expectations. But it seems, Michael Jackson will be happy with nothing less than forty million, and he seems uniquely placed to re-write pop history.

Bad is a stunning creation, state-of-the-art chart music – essentially insubstantial songs, built on a lean propulsive rhythm section raised up to epic proportions by a warmth of production rarely heard in modern machine funk and driven home by the astonishing vocal dexterity of MJ himself, working over each lyric as if his life depended on it. It is perhaps the ultimate throw-away late-eighties pop record: one you’d never throw away. The songs deal with the same kind of topics as those on ‘Thriller’, ranging from fear and paranoia to boundless optimism, from threatened violence to pleas for world harmony, from requited to unrequited love. There is no track quite as strikingly constructed and utterly involving as ‘Billie Jean’, though he perhaps gets closest (and closest to home) on the neurotic and nasty anti-groupie assault ‘Dirty Diana’. The songs on Bad are lyrically witty, snappy, pleasing but undemanding and despite Michael taking eight song-writing credits they reveal little of singer; they are showpieces, not expressions of his point of view.

In its first week ‘Bad’ slipped well over two million copies in America alone, while in Britain it sold over 600,000 in its first week of release, breaking the record U2 had set by nearly two to one. This was an impressive start, but who knows where it will go from here? Too much should not be expected immediately: it is very easy to simply state that Thriller sold over thirty-eight and a half million, but it is more interesting to chart the progress of those sales.

Thriller was released in December ’82 to mixed reviews. In retrospect it is difficult to understand how such an innovative album could be written off as bland but that was the general reaction in the British music press. “I hope Michael and Quincy have enjoyed themselves over the past four years because it would be awful to think that it took them the best part of that time to make a record as weak as this”, wrote Gavin Martin in the NME. Fortunately for Hot Press’ reputation, Bill Graham’s view was both more positive and insightful, pronouncing Jackson ‘the one American still under 25 who’s a genuine, unassailable STAR of the first magnitude’. The first single preceding the album, was the pleasant if innocuous McCartney duet 'The Girl Is Mine'. By the end of the tear both the single and the album had sold over a million.

At the beginning of ’84 ‘Bilie Jean’ was released as a single in the US, taking six weeks to top the charts. The video of ‘Billie Jean’ did not emerge until mid-February, and, seizing the popular imagination, it propelled the album to the top of the US charts where it was to remain until May, helped by a third massive hit single (and impressive video) ‘Beat It’. In the middle of May, as Thriller, after a phenomenal period of success, began to slide down the charts, Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an American TV special. The Jacksons appeared and at the end of their performance Michael did a solo version of ‘Billie Jean’, an electric dance performance that included the now famous backwards ‘moonwalk’. The next day Thriller leaped back to the top of the charts where it remained for a couple of months. More singles were released and by the end of the summer the album had sold ten million copies in America and roughly the same worldwide, but its days as a number one seemed over. Then in December ’83 the 14 minute ‘Thriller’ horror video was released and the album leaped to the top of the charts for the third time. As Michael scooped up all the world’s major end-of-the-year music awards Thriller continued to sell in astonishing quantities and by the beginning of ’85 it was acknowledged as the largest-selling album in history.

Everything Michael did kept Thriller selling. The Jacksons’ ’84 tour, ostensibly to promote their victory album, kept the sales of Michael’s solo release turning over. When Michael burned his hair filming a Pepsi commercial, Thriller sold 700,000 copies the following week. Can Bad emulate that kind of performance? It certainly has enough potential hit singles – there were seven taken off Thriller, while Bad cheekily announces on its cover ’10 Brand New Hits’, listing every track on the album. The Martin Scorcese short film/video for the title track didn’t create the intended stir, though it was a talking point nonetheless. There will be more videos, and with a performer as exciting as Jackson they will always be impressive at the very least. There are a series of Michael Jackson Pepsi Cola ads about to appear on your TV screens – no burning hair but tightly edited and entertaining ads that will promote the star and his product, as much as the drink he was paid 15 million dollars to endorse (even though he never has to be seen actually holding the cans of cola which, as a health food addict, he would not drink anyway). His first solo world tour started in Tokyo on September 12th and rolls on through Australia and New Zealand before hitting America in March and maybe, if we’re lucky, Europe in about eight months time. Jackson live, an awesome performer in his favoured element, will doubtless help keep his myth alive and his album in the charts. And who knows what other suprises the child star has in store? Spontaneous combustion on stage? Anything is possible.

But to match the sales of the biggest selling album ever Bad has to have an X-factor that no one can pin down. What actually made Thriller strike such a chord in the popular imagination? How much did it have to do with the music, the star and the mood of the times? Nelson George, Billboard critic, author of The Michael Jackson Story and a man often considered the most incisive commentator on black popular music in America, ventured: “What’s important about Michael is his dedication. He’s innately gifted, but also totally disciplined. Besides what is Superman if not a child’s fantasy of omnipotence? Kids have always liked that kind of stuff. Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas thrive on it. Michael is just symptomatic of an adolescent phase in American popular culture.”

Has American and world popular culture moved beyond adolescence? Has Michael’s superhuman myth been brought down to earth by the intervening years of ‘Whacko Jacko’ publicity – or is he about to tap once again right into the mainline of popular desire? I’ll let Michael have the last words and leave him spitting, snarling, squeezing them out as only he can: ‘They say the sky’s the limit – and to me that’s really true. And my friends you have seen nothing – Just wait ‘till I get through!’