Can You Remember? -- A Serious Look At Child Prodigy Michael Jackson Before His Fall -- Page 5
By the mid-1970s, The Jackson 5 were re-thinking their act. They must have feared that they would be singing their teen puppy love anthems for the rest of their lives when they signed on for a stint in a Las Vegas casino and a TV variety show. Although hokey at times, these episodes can be a gas on YouTube. (Looks like they have been removed.) David Letterman even appears in one before his talk show days.
Here is Jackson singing “Never Can Say Goodbye” in 1975 during the Moving Violations tour. You will note that his feminization continued:
Jackson’s well of talent included music writing. In his early-20s he wrote “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” and the smash hits “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” on his “Thriller” album, the best-selling album of all time. But this gets us a well past his child prodigy territory.
As a coda to our look at this child prodigy let’s look at Michael Jackson in a performance of “Rock With You” from his 1979 solo record “Off The Wall.” “Off The Wall” was the first of Quincy Jones’ two records with Jackson. The second was “Thriller.” For many of us our first exposure to Michael Jackson was his Quincy Jones-produced records, and they mark his launch into solo superstardom.
During the below performance, Jackson might have been effeminate but he wore no female make-up and had a healthy thing for Diana Ross. In fact, he even looked like a handsome young man. No one would have predicted what was to come. (He might be singing live to a pre-recorded musical track in this video.)
Much more has been said about Jackon's tragic adult life. Viewing his life as a whole, it seems that after Thriller’s huge success Jackson became unmoored. He developed a megalomania that was evident in much of his later music. This megalomania and isolation from anyone that would criticize his choices in his behavior and appearance led to his downfall.
How nice it would have been if he had just somehow faded away at this point in his life and left us with this rich history of recordings and triumphant TV and concert appearances to focus on. One can almost hear little Michael from Gary, Indiana back in 1969 plaintively singing to us, “Can you remember?”
