Clap Until Your Hands Hurt: A Tribute To Pop's Greatest Icon.

I'm going to talk about Michael Jackson, and I'm going to do it right. I'm going to separate him, and the music he made, from whatever else he did in his life. See, Mike didn't give us music, he gave us MOMENTS. Who doesn't remember the Motown 25th anniversary show, where MJ broke out the moonwalk for the first time? If you have a hard time recalling, get at your boy, I've got it on VHS. Watching a moment like that just lets you know. This is greatness, and anything below this isn't, so don't even bother.

What were you doing when you were 6? Think about what Jackson was doing, and if it measures up, let me know.

See, 'cause I grew up around Motown music, just a bit, and people need to remember....the Jacksons came along in Motown's second wave. The Temptations had suffered deaths, the Supremes were on their last leg (mostly due to Diana Ross being horrible, but I digress...), Martha hated the Vandellas. So, Berry Gordy, being one of the greatest record men of all time, stumbled upon this 6 year old kid, singing with his brothers. Much could be said about Joe Jackson, and what he put his children through to be great, and by all accounts Michael got it the hardest, but he also got it IN the best. If you're lucky enough to find some old original video of a 7 year old Michael, watch the natural ability. The movement, the swift and effortless vocal transitions...and the great thing, the thing that always makes me smile the most is that the J5 were having songs written for them, and covering songs that a pre-teen obviously shouldn't have been singing. Tell me you don't crack a smile when you hear little Mike sing "I wanna be your sugar daddy/give you honey/all my money"...and J5's version of Smokey's "Who's Lovin' You" might be the greatest example of the fact that Jackson was just as much of a crooner as Sinatra, as he stretches out each note to it's fullest emotion, and evokes hints of Otis Redding...PLEADING for you not to "worry your pretty little head" about what he's doing these days, because thanks to you, he's the most miserable 11 year old on his block. Jackson was more of a traditional soul singer than anything, which is what gets forgotten in all of the King Of Pop rhetoric. He borrowed, as all great soul singers do. He had, of course, Otis' pleading, James Brown's demanding yells, Aretha Franklin's vocal runs, and the charisma of Stevie Wonder. Of course his brothers, namely Jermaine deserve some respect for Mike's legacy during this part of his career, as do Holland-Dozier-Holland, (*sigh...) Diana Ross, And Berry Gordy.

The Jackson 5 have become like Funkadelic in some ways. Oversampled, overexposed, and therefore not appreciated. Ghostface's "All That I Got Is You" samples my favorite J5 song, "Maybe Tomorrow"...and that is one of about 4 J5 samples that I can appreciate. I was so happy when years ago, after the success of Jay-Z's "H To The Izzo", Kanye West denounced sampling the Jackson 5. If only more people would take note. I mean, how many times can we REALLY hear "I Want You Back" used?

After the brothers left Motown, and eventually parted ways, Jackson had a few of his greatest, and most under appreciated songs, "Ben" and "Music and Me", before launching into his solo career, and look...I'll say it. Thriller isn't the end all/be all. Off The Wall might be better than Thriller, because it's a youthful, excited amateurish attempt at a brilliant talent having creative control for the first time in their lives. It rings much like Kanye West's College Dropout. You get the feel that Mike just walked into the studio, looked around for his brothers, and father, and when they didn't pop out, he ran to the boards and just played with everything. It's also important that Quincy Jones gets due credit. Jones is the greatest producer of black music ever. Period. The next closest, individual (outside of Motown's "team") might be Dr. Dre, and he's got a ways to go. Detractors, even myself to a point, will say that Jackson had more help than any other artist in the 80's, so towering over the 80's in the way he did was inevitable. 2 Months ago, I was chatting with a peer who turned to me and said, "Man...what if Prince had Quincy Jones?? Prince and Q would kill!" See, I'm not so sure that they would. Prince is an incendiary talent, who when faced with the prospect of giving up complete control of his art, proves to be erratic. It's a personality. Michael Jackson is an egomaniac, don't get me wrong. But, at least for those 3 80's albums with Jones (Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad), he knew that he was an egomaniac that needed help to reign in his sound.

He's got the greatest, and let me be clear, GREATEST pop ear ever. No one appreciates that. Do you know how many hooks you could pull out of "Billie Jean"?? the entire song is like one long hook. Every instrument could be parted out, and made into it's own. From the dumdumdum-dum-dumdum-dumdum of the bass, to the light synth riff. No one else can even TOUCH that. Jones might have refined it, and reigned it in, but that's natural. The greatest musical part of Jackson's career comes at the end of "She's Out Of My Life" off of Off The Wall. Towards the end, you actually hear him breaking down and slightly crying. I would kill to hear a musician putting that much emotion into their music today. I'm not talking about the contrived middle aged guys screaming on stage about heartbreak, when they're happily married (I'm looking at you, Chris Carraba), I'm talking about writing, and singing a song that says "Well, shit...I liked this girl more than I ever knew, and now she's gone, and I want to be sad, so here's REAL sad." Jackson covered so many different spectrums of music, even his disco was good. And NO disco is good, but "Burn This Disco Out"??? yeah, you know that's hot.

Something (Something ELSE....remember, we're sticking to music here) happened to MJ in the 90's. Obviously he had his scandals, and maybe that took a toll on him, but I think the musical landscape just changed, and he lost his way. Bands like Weezer and Nirvana changed what pop music meant, and he wasn't Blues enough for R&B, but seemingly too black for pop, no matter how much he tried to lighten himself up physically. His critics became harsher, citing his inability to write lyrics, and his reliance on superior studio wizardry to flesh out his sound, detractors even complained about his spectacle videos. But still, through it all, you just got the sense that he was larger than life. I got his last studio effort, Invincible , the one with "You Rock My World" on it, and there were flashes there, flashes of what made him great, and still relevant.

A few years ago, my friend John and I went into a store, and bought these DVDs of Jackson's music videos. THOSE were events. Regular scheduled programming would be interrupted for a Jackson video. I remember, in 1991, the NBA playoffs were interrupted for the video premiere of "Remember The Time", and I bugged the fuck out, not 'cause I was made about the game, just because that was pop, at it's peak, and I knew it. Even at that young age, I knew it. No one can shut it down like that anymore. His videos MEANT something, whether you're watching him lean all the way forward in "Smooth Criminal", and then lose it like "How did he DO that???", or watching possibly the greatest dance move ever, the "card dealing" move in "Beat It" (again, if you don't know what I'm talking about....get at me.), his creative control always yielded great results. I miss that, even in his final big video, the aforementioned "You Rock My World" Chris Tucker, and various other stars came out.

Jackson may inspire a lot. But there can never be another. Pop's climate isn't ready for another one of him. Justin Timberlake may be the closest we get. I've had moments watching Timberlake where I feel like 15 years from now, I'll be telling some kid, "Look, I saw THAT guy when he was in his 20's, and he fucking KILLED"....but it's just not the same.

And it never will be.

Rest in Peace, MJ.

And everyone do me a favor, put aside his personal life, and find, download, or borrow a copy of "Maybe Tomorrow" for me....and move yourself to feel something. Anything.