I
was watching Michael Jackson's recent
CBS TV Special, a big hit for The Gloved One, and made a couple of observations.
Marlon is a very, very good dancer. They'd always cast Marlon as
the dancer of the group (I guess because he's a horrible singer,
despite a big Top Ten hit in the 80's). Marlon threatened to
upstage Michael during most of their time together onstage. He
had a fluidity of motion and a seductive creativity that belied
his 40+ geezer status.
The truly annoying Usher floated out during the finale and just
cleanly took Michael out. His estimable vocal skills
notwithstanding, Usher is an outstanding dancer, something I was
told but never really paid much attention to until this tape.
Usher almost literally wiped the floor with Michael, floating
around the superstar in concentric circles with silky martial
arts inspired moves.
Then Chris Tucker, of all people, emerged and Michael had
trouble keeping up with him. Michael was clearly exhausted by
that time, to be fair, and these kids were at least 20 years
younger than him and had been chilling out backstage while
Michael was coming off of several big dance numbers. Still, it
was a bit unsettling to see the chink in the armor, perhaps a
precursor to a bloated, aging Jackson, say, at 62, still trying
to moonwalk and knee swing in painful exercises in denial.
Jackson looked uncomfortable and, frankly, reluctant to be there
or reluctant to perform. The whole thing seemed forced upon him,
like his father, the sinister Joe Jackson (who, like sister
Janet, was consciously absent) was still calling the shots.
Jackson looked like he was getting through a task, the same vibe
I have when I'm mowing my lawn. Michael was mowing the lawn.
With still very good singing and familiar yet precision-tuned
dancing, Michael had the power and the chops but none of the
love you'd expect from a 30th Anniversary celebration. This was
most evident during the forced, stilted banter between himself
and his brothers. He spoke to them as though they'd just met,
which, I might guess, wasn't far from the truth.
Michael looked like he needed to do this, like his career was on
the line, and that seemed, to me, to humiliate him. To have to
perform, to sing for his supper like some moonwalking Wayne
Newton, seemed to be the burden of the evening. Michael
performed like a man who needed the money, if not the fame, a
hit album would bring him. He seemed to have a lot riding on
Invincible, his first all-new release in nine years.
The whole experience might have been humiliating for Jackson,
who is haunted by rumors of financial troubles, and who finds
himself, in his mid 40's, just a shade or two away from Elvisian
retirement from the American pop consciousness. He's become a
quaint anachronism, an 80's icon who has squandered his
relevance on eccentricities.
Michael also lowered the key of most of his music, driving his
brothers into the basement, so he wouldn't have to push as hard.
This is a fairly common practice among pop stars. Some of
Michael's vocals were canned but, to the credit of his techs, I
really had a hard time telling the canned or looped vocals from
the live ones. If he looped at all, it would surprise me as
there were enough flat and missed notes left in to convince me
that was actually him singing.
I'm genuinely surprised this special isn't out on DVD by now
with "bonus" footage. I felt the DVD issuance was a foregone
conclusion and natural marketing extension of this push for
Invincible, his recent dud album. Perhaps there are legal or
rights issues involved. Perhaps Tommy Mottola, whom Jackson
vilified and accused of racism, put the kibosh on any DVD
release. Perhaps Michael got into a snit with his brothers (the
post-Victory Tour squabbling squashed a feature film
documentary. They'd shot millions of feet of footage over
several months; that footage is now in canisters in a warehouse
somewhere because, as I heard it, the brothers could not come to
terms and, by the end of the Victory tour, were traveling
separately and not speaking to one another (or, at least, to
Michael). Perhaps the Jackson CBS Special met the same fate.
All things considered, however, it was a great show. Jackson
remains a riveting performer, even if we have seen all of these
routines before (it looked like a dinner theater career
retrospective, which, I suppose, was precisely the point).
Amid the recent turmoil between Jackson and Sony Music, his
record company (Jackson accusing Sony President Tommy Mottola of
being a racist and accusing the company of deliberately tanking
Invincible, Jackson's newest release, by, I suppose, spending
only a mere $10 million promoting it), it occurs to me what
course Jackson should take. I've no doubt Sony is squeezing his
shoes for the reported $200 million loan Jackson has apparently
defaulted on, and that Sony and/or Mottola sees Jackson's
remaining half of the ATV Music publishing catalog (which
administrates the rights to the Beatles songs) as their obvious
goal in recouping that investment. I'd likely stop short of
agreeing Mottola (obsessed ex-husband of the half-black Mariah
Carrey) is racist, but ruthless? More than likely. If Sony/Mottola
is squeezing Jackson for the ATV catalog, and this seems more
than likely, then tanking Invincible would be consistent with
that goal.
On the other hand, Invincible was not a great album. Had it been
released in 1987, it would have been. Michael, apparently,
thinks it is still the 80's, and his whole act is still very
80's. Invincible's big “hit,” The Rodney Jerkins-produced You
Rock My World, was, at best, a kind of retro groove track with a
nice 80's disco vibe slowed into a 90's post New Jack Swing
tempo. In fact, nearly all of Invincible sounds like that,
sounds like a hearken back to The Good Ol' Days. And Jackson
really needs to come to terms with the fact that those days are,
in fact, long gone. His CBS special, as good as it was, was an
homage to all of that. A teary-eyed retrospective of when he
was, indeed, the King of Pop, and when Pop actually sounded like
that. Jackson's charges against Sony/Mottola would have more
credence if Invincible was a good record, which it is not. It's
not a terrible record, but it is not a hit record. So, whether
his complaints are justified or not, Jackson comes across more
whiny than credible, and all Mottola really has to do is say
nothing at all to make Jackson look all the more irrational.
Also, Jackson's increasingly reported financial troubles provide
a larger context to his attacks on Mottola. Mottola may, very
well, be threatening Jackson, who is reportedly up to his
mascara in loans, or, alternately, a desperate Jackson may be
attempting to turn public opinion on Sony/Mottola in order to
exert pressure on Sony/Mottola to either pony up a better deal
with Jackson or release him without taking ATV from him. It is a
curious situation any way you look at it.
So, what should Michael do? If he really wants to stick it to
Sony? Reunite with his brothers. The five dancing drones who
constitute a lot of dead weight and headaches for Jackson, The
Jacksons are, to my understanding, currently without a contract.
Michael has his own record label (through Sony), but he'd be
wiser to sign The Jacksons with J Records and let Clive Davis
resuscitate the family act. If Jackson really wants to prove it
was the evil company and not the lame record that did him in,
that's the way to prove it: a new Jacksons album, with Michael
positioned in some legally defensible way to keep Sony's paws
off of it. And, with a guy like Clive Davis at the wheel,
hopefully the Jacksons album we'd get would be closer to the
fabulous Destiny than the embarrassment Victory.
If the huge numbers for the CBS broadcast proved anything (of
course, Jackson did stack the deck by having so many guest
stars, but I digress), it's that the public is still interested
in seeing him with his brothers, as much as that may chagrin
him. And, family disputes notwithstanding, this time, he may
need them more than they need him.
Not sure what The Gloved One's next move will be, but I am sure
we'll all be watching.
Christopher J. Priest
18 September 2002
editor@praisenet.org
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