Thursday, Jul. 02, 2009
Podpicks for July 2, 2009
In honor of the Glove One's swan song, we offer up the following Michael Jackson-related tracks for downloading (hee-hee!) to your iPod or other personal media device.
"With A Child's Heart" by Michael Jackson - As a world on edge waited for any source other than TMZ to confirm the worst - that the reigning King of Pop was indeed no more - there was hardly any mention of the albums "Got To Be There," "Ben," "Music & Me" or "Forever, Michael." With his soul still stuck in headline purgatory, the press had already lazily carved both his body and his body of work into two easy pieces: adorably gifted child star and insanely rich superstar. In between times as the Gary, Ind. wunderkind and Epic's cash cow of the '80s, MJ recorded four true solo records in Detroit filled with awesome covers and that pure Holland-Dozier-Holland goodness. This opening track from 1973's "Music & Me" was originally a minor hit for Stevie Wonder, and aided along by producer Hal Davis' glockenspiel and Jacko's fuller, on-the-cusp-of-puberty vocal, the song got as far as no. 14 on the U.S. R&B charts. "With a child's heart, turn each problem into play," a carefree Jackson urges. Death, however, should never be a concern for children, and I'd like to think it never was for Michael Jackson - the perpetual man-child.
"There Must Be More To Life Than This" by The Jacksons and Freddie Mercury - By 1984, Michael Jackson was off the wall and on his way to thrilling more than 100 million stereos. The last thing he needed was to get the band back together. As such, "Victory" was the last Jacksons record to feature Michael and the only one where all six brothers - Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, M.J. and Randy - can be heard together. In retrospect, I suppose there simply wasn't room for someone like Queen's flamboyant frontman Mercury. A shelved but nonetheless remarkable outtake from the "Victory" sessions, Mercury's playing the piano here, trading couplets with Michael about racial tolerance, social injustice and world peace - causes all close to his philanthropic heart. Both Michael and Mercury would go on to record better, more famous duets, but listening to two of the best entertainers the pop world will ever know singing about issues bigger than themselves reminds us of just how great these two performers actually were. Robbed from our grasp well before they deserved to go, "What good is life?," the duo questions. With a quiet resignation they both agree, "In the end, we all must die."
"Will You Be There (Theme from Free Willy)" by Michael Jackson - "Hold me, like the river Jordan," an earnest Michael first beseeches, backed, appropriately enough, by a soulful electric piano and fervent gospel choir. Forget for a moment that this incredibly poignant tune comes from a Warner Bros. summer tearjerker about a truant boy and his affable orca. In reality, this is the song of a man beaten down, exhausted and despondent, asking - no, begging - for someone to save him. Forever branded a freak and a pervert (and as odd as Jacko was, I'll always maintain that he was not a child molester) he wonders, when his own time comes, "will you care enough to bare me?" Fraught with near Biblical supplication - "lead me, lift me, love me ... free me" - Michael's spoken word postlude reads, in fact, like a lost Scripture. Whereas in the movie Jesse eventually unshackled Willy from his Sea World bondage and returned him safely to his family, alas, Michael Jackson ended up like the real life orca Keiko - dead from as of yet unexplained causes. And just as Captain Ahab never did get revenge on his whale, Michael Joseph Jackson perished on June 25, 2009 without public salvation.