Michael Jackson: His Music, Performance and Genius

By Les Nicholls

Michael Jackson made music because he wanted to be loved back and that was what drove him to be as good and as perfect a performer as he could be. That someone so talented and loved by millions should die so young is tragic. Although aged just 50 when he died, his career spanned over 40 years.

During that time he recorded the best-selling album of all time, pioneered the music video and redefined what it was to be a pop star. Multitalented, he was singer, dancer, performer, composer, choreographer, record producer, actor, businessman, and philanthropist. For many he was the greatest entertainer of all time and he was an inspiration for performers across all music genres.

This book is not a detailed biography, neither is it a detailed commentary on the various controversies, media speculations and accusations. This book is about the singer, performer and musical genius that was Michael Jackson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716296796

Book preview

Preface

On June 25th, 2009, one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived died from a cardiac arrest.

His personal physician, Conrad Murray, had administered various medications to help him sleep at his rented mansion in Los Angeles. Paramedics arrived in minutes after receiving a 911 call. They found that Michael Jackson was not breathing and started CPR which they continued en route to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre, and for more than an hour after arriving there, but their valiant efforts were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm Pacific time.

His death was apparently caused by a Propofol overdose. News of his death spread quickly online, causing some websites to crash from the massive increase in web-traffic as fans searched frantically in disbelief hoping that this news was not true. Sadly the shocking news was true, and TV stations all over the world began showing his music videos, as well as quickly produced specials featuring reactions from fans, other musicians and celebrities.

To the horror of his millions of fans, Michael had joined a long list of celebrities who died much too young. Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse to name just a few. The extent of a person’s fame is sometimes realised by the fact that people often remember where they were and or what they were doing when hearing of that persons death.

It may seem strange to begin this book with the saddest moment in that person’s life, but the shock of his death felt by so many in just about every country of the earth shows the extent of his popularity and fame. This is despite some awful accusations and a court case that he had to endure, and of which he was completely exonerated. Yet as is often the case, just being accused is sometimes enough to ruin a person’s reputation in the eyes of many, there are those who still doubt his innocence and his name is still being smeared. Other books have reported on these things, and it is not the purpose of this book to revisit that part of Michael’s life in detail, but it must be stated that he was proved innocent and exonerated in a court of law by a jury, and not through some legal technicality, but by the so-called prosecution evidence being presented, argued and proven false.

His personal life is not the subject of this book either; he was a family man, but his lifestyle was one that many would consider unconventional. However, there are others who live unconventional lives, but they are not subjected to the same level of criticism and bad press that Michael had to endure. How many of us would be happy to see every rumour and interpretation of our actions reported and exaggerated? Few of us are ever subjected to the level of sensational and at times maliciously motivated interpretations of the things we have said and done, but this is what Michael Jackson had to endure.

What this book will concentrate on is the music, the performance and the genius of the King of Pop.  We will look at the songs he recorded, those written by him and the ones written by others that he made his own with his amazing vocal ability. The title of genius is used all too freely at times, but in the case of Michael Jackson it is certainly true of his musical ability, and the impact that he has left on music will remain with us for a very long time. He did not invent or originate any particular genre of music, but he popularised many and even broke down barriers between certain types of music, winning fans from the world of rock, pop, soul and jazz.

What cannot be denied is that he was an incredible performer, a man who commanded any stage that he was on; a man, who sang, danced and performed in such a way that you could not take your eyes off of him. He did not necessarily invent many of the dance moves he incorporated into his routines, but he did them in such a way that they are forever associated with him. He was an incredible solo artist and also an amazing front man, even as a very young boy he stood out as he performed with his brothers as part of The Jackson 5, and later The Jacksons.

Early Influences

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When the Jackson brothers formed a band in Gary, Indiana, under the supervision of their Father it quickly became obvious that Michael should be the lead singer, even though he was the youngest in the band, at that time, and all of his brothers clearly had a lot of talent. It might have seemed a more logical decision to have Jermaine as the lead singer, since not only could he sing, but he was clearly very good looking and would appeal to teenage girls and that lucrative record buying market. But Michael clearly stood out, both as an amazing vocalist and as a performer, so Jermaine would become the bands second lead vocalist and Bass player.

I am sure that most fans reading this book will already know the history of the family, Michael was the eighth of ten children; he had three sisters Maureen, better known as Rebbie, La Toya, and Janet and five brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and the youngest brother Randy. Brandon Jackson, Marlon's twin brother, died hours after birth.

The Jacksons were a working-class African-American family that lived in a two-bedroom house on Jackson Street. His father, Joseph, had been a boxer, but was working as a crane operator at U.S. Steel, and he also played guitar with the Falcons, a local rhythm and blues band. Michael’s mother, Katherine worked a part-time job at the local Sears store. They were a poor, but happy and close-nit family.

From a very young age, Michael had a good ear for music and an eye for performance, among the artists he loved to watch and listen to were Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis Jr, Marcel Marceau, Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Wilson, Frank Sinatra, Bob Fosse, James Brown, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Chuck Berry, The Temptations, Etta James, Ray Charles and Mavis Staples and it is not difficult to see how these would all influence the performer that he was to become. In order to fully understand what a great performer Michael became, it is important to consider some of these influences on him.

Even before he had become famous with his brothers, Michael was well known as a great performer; those who knew him as a young boy would say that he would find it hard to stand still while singing and that he would often emulate the dance moves of Jackie Wilson and James Brown as he sang.

Michael loved to watch Fred Astaire movies and he even dedicated his 1988 biography Moonwalk to Astaire. Following the 1983 performance of Billie Jean for the Motown 25 TV special, it is reported that Astaire contacted Michael to compliment him on his performance and that on visiting Astaire’s home, Michael taught him how to moonwalk, whether this is true or not, it is hard to say. The move Michael did for the first time on that TV special, and that came to be called the Moonwalk, was in fact an old dance move called the Backslide, and the chances that a dancer of Fred Astaire’s calibre would not to know how it was done seems unlikely.

In 1943, the first Backslide was said to have been performed on screen by Bill Bailey in the movie The Cabin in the Sky, but it had been performed by Cab Calloway as far back as 1932 so it was far from a new dance move. However, we will say more about this iconic dance move later.

Michael is said to have identified with the silent movie star Charlie Chaplin on an emotional level, maybe it was because he felt that they shared the experience of a prematurely terminated childhood. Or maybe he saw elements of himself in the way that Chaplin portrayed an inner sadness while performing comedy. Michael had often stated his love and admiration for the famous screen clown and his recording of the song Smile, one of his favourite songs was in fact written by Charlie Chaplin and is sung by Michael with such deep emotion. During Michael’s memorial concert in 2009, his brother Jermaine sang ‘Smile’ and Brooke Shields mentioned that it had been Michael’s favourite song.

Michael had been a fan since he was a young child and aged nine he drew a picture of Charlie Chaplin, which has since been circulated on the Internet. The image also shows that Michael had considerable artistic talent from a very young age.

There are other similarities between Michael and Charlie. Both men have used their artistic talents to educate as well as to entertain. Chaplin made the most of his fame to highlight injustice, his famous speech from his movie The Great Dictator, focused on human rights and inequality. Michael also used his fame to highlight many of the world’s problems, human injustice, famine, poverty and the threat to the world’s ecology.

While on a visit to the UK in 1979, Michael dressed up as Chaplin on the road where he had once lived, and a series of black and white photos were taken by British photographer Tony Prime.

Some years later, during his Bad Tour, in June 1988, Michael visited Charlie’s Widow Oona Chaplin at her home in Switzerland.

Another influence on Michael was Sammy Davis Jr. Michael had in common with Sammy that they had both been child performers, a very young Sammy had been in his parents vaudeville act, performing as an amazingly talented tap dancer, he later went on to become a very talented singer, musician, dancer, actor and comedian. He also became famous as one of the Rat Pack alongside Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and he was also known as Mister Show Business.

Michael loved to watch his singing and dancing and on Sammy’s 60th anniversary special he sang the song You were there, to Sammy.

At that anniversary show, Sammy said of Michael that he was more than a friend, he’s like a son, I’ve known him since he was six years old and I’ve watched the growth in the man and how he’s grown as a performer, he’s fantastic, I don’t think he’s scratched the surface of where he’s gonna wind up in this business, it’s frightening to see him on stage He then performed a version of Bad, adding his usual comedic input, much to the delight of the crowd.

Michael and Sammy maintained a mutual respect and friendship throughout their lives. The two performers were similar in that they had an incredible and diverse amount of talent; they could sing, dance and entertain and they had that rare ability to dominate a stage and hold an audiences attention.

The mime artist Marcel Marceau also had an influence on Michael who said that he was a great guy. I used to go to see Marcel Marceau all of the time, before Off The Wall; I used to sneak in and sit in the audience and watch how he would defy the laws of gravity, like he was stepping on air. Marcel Mangel, to use his real name, discovered Charlie Chaplin when at the age of five his mother took him to the movies. He would later entertain his friends by doing Chaplin imitations, and he dreamed of one day starring in silent movies himself.

During the German occupation of France, Marcel and his younger brother Alain started using the surname Marceau in order to avoid being identified as Jewish. Marcel first used mime in order to keep Jewish children quiet while he helped them escape to neutral Switzerland. Pretending to be a boy scout, he evacuated a Jewish orphanage in eastern France and led them to safety in Switzerland. He made this perilous journey three times, saving hundreds of Jewish orphans.

At age 16 Marcel fled with his family to Limoges, France. Sadly in 1944 his father was captured and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was killed. However, his mother survived.

There have been suggestions that Marcel inspired Michael’s famous Moonwalk, and whereas this is unlikely, it is possible that Michael was influenced by the dramatic way that the mime artist performed, especially his walking against a windstorm routine. Michael was certainly fascinated by watching Marcel and the dramatic way that he could move may have had a conscious or unconscious influence on the way that Michael danced. There is little doubt that Michael had a lot of admiration for Marcel, and the two formed a friendship that lasted for many years until Marcel’s death in 2007 at age 84.

Jackie Wilson was a very big influence on Michael, as he was for many other performers, Jackie was an innovator, and even Elvis Presley admired him and copied many of his moves on stage.

Michael dedicated his Grammy win for Thriller, when it won album of the year in 1984 to Jackie, saying Some people are followers and some people make the path and are pioneers. I’d like to say Jackie Wilson was a wonderful entertainer.

However, although Michael admired him as a performer and imitated some of Jackie’s dance moves, their lives could not be more dissimilar. Jackie Wilson had taken up boxing at age 16, although he registered himself as an 18-year-old. He was very successful as a boxer, but his mother worried for his health and pressured him to change his career, so he took to music. Both of his parents were into music, but his alcoholic father was mostly absent and out of work, and by the time Jackie was nine, his parents had divorced.

From a young age Jackie had started drinking and although he sang in the church, he was not very religious, unlike his mother who was active in the church and sang in the choir. However, as part of the Ever Ready Gospel Singers, Jackie enjoyed the money that the quartet earned from performing in local churches.

Sadly by the age of 15, he had dropped out of high school and twice spent time at the Lansing Corrections system for juveniles. At just 17 he married Freda Hood and became a Father. His fortunes changed when he met fellow boxer Berry Gordy, Jr. who would go on to create Motown.

There are, however, clear indications of how Michael was influenced by Jackie Wilson. Michael would watch transfixed as Jackie performed and he would try to mimic his many famous moves. Jackie had a dynamic performing style, and he was nicknamed Mr. Excitement due to his ability to wow audiences when performing.

He was famous for his knee-drops, splits, spins, back-flips, sliding one footed across the floor, and basic boxing steps such as shuffling; many who saw him live said his performance was electrifying.

After his 16-year-old son, Jackie Junior was shot and killed on a neighbour’s porch near their Detroit home in 1970, the singer fell into depression, and he started living mostly as a recluse, abusing drugs and alcohol to mask the pain.

On September 29, 1975, while performing on stage, he suffered a heart attack and hit his head as he fell. He