by Joseph Vogel
Thank you to the many publications from whose archives I drew, especially Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Ebony. And also to the publications and editors for whom I have written, including The Atlantic, The Guardian, Slate, Forbes, PopMatters, and HuffPost.
Thank you to Merrimack College for a generous research grant that allowed me the time and resources to finish this book. Thank you to President Chris Hopey, Provost Allan Weatherwax, Dean Sean Condon, Chair Steve Scherwatzky, and administrative assistant Helene Nicotra. And to my research assistants, Calvin Evans and Kristin Cole: I really appreciate all your work under tight deadlines.
A huge thank-you to my family. You have sustained me and inspired me through years of challenging work, occasional triumphs, frequent uncertainty, crazy schedules, impossible juggling, and marathon writing sessions.
And finally: thank you to Michael Jackson—for the music and the magic.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION: A GREAT ADVENTURE
“He’s just freeing it”: Regina Jones, “V Vintage: Michael Jackson 2001 Interview,” Vibe, May 4, 2010. Originally published March 2002.
“the breathtaking verve of his predecessor”: Jim Miller, “The Tour, the Hype, the Hysteria,” Newsweek, July 16, 1984.
“In person you felt”: Anjelica Huston, “Remembering Michael,” Time, June 26, 2009.
“You hold it”: Bob Colacello and Andy Warhol, “Michael Jackson,” Interview, October 1982. Republished August 31, 2011.
“The greatest education in the world”: Michael Jackson, Moonwalk (New York: Doubleday, 1988), p. 54.
“My father’s group played”: Ibid., p. 40.
“I carefully watched all the stars”: Ibid., p. 52.
“Most of the time I’d be alone backstage”: Ibid., p. 53.
“After studying James Brown from the wings”: Ibid., p. 52.
“She was art in motion”: Ibid., p. 68.
“He would always come into the studio”: Stevie Wonder, “Remembering Michael,” Time, June 26, 2009.
“I’ll never forget his persistence”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 77.
“I love great music”: Jones, “V Vintage: Michael Jackson 2001 Interview.
“He wanted to be the best of everything”: Quincy Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 230.
“dissect[ing] all the big selling records”: Note from the Michael Jackson Estate.
“I have all kinds of tapes and albums”: Catherine Dineen, ed., Michael Jackson: In His Own Words (London: Omnibus, 1993), p. 38.
“The melodies. They are so lovely”: Robert Hilburn, “The Long and Winding Road,” Los Angeles Times, September 22, 1985.
“anybody he thought would”: Greg Tate, “Michael Jackson: The Man in Our Mirror,” Village Voice, July 1, 2009.
“If you take an album like Nutcracker”: Bryan Monroe, “Q&A: Michael Jackson in His Own Words,” Ebony, December 2007.
“In film, you live the moment”: Michael Jackson, interview by Jesse Jackson, Keep Hope AliveTM with Reverend Jesse Jackson, WGRB-AM 1390, Chicago, March 27, 2005.
“The oft-repeated conventional wisdom”: Hampton Stevens, “Michael Jackson’s Unparalleled Influence,” Atlantic, June 24, 2010.
“I am a slave to the rhythm”: Michael Jackson, interview by Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, February 10, 1993.
“When you’re dancing”: Ibid.
“has some of the same qualities”: Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, p. 230.
“He goes from basso low E up to G”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (London: Pan Books, 2004), pp. 455–56.
“Jackson was a dancer at heart”: Neil McCormick, “Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and Bono: Great Singing Is About More Than the Notes,” Telegraph, June 30, 2009.
“He starts with an entire sound and song”: Michael Goldberg, “Michael Jackson: The Making of ‘The King of Pop,’ ” Rolling Stone, January 9, 1992.
“One morning [Michael] came in”: “Post Here If You Worked on Michael Jackson’s DANGEROUS Album,” Gearslutz, June 27, 2009.
“Music is tapestry”: Joy T. Bennett, “Michael Jackson: Then & Now,” Ebony, December 2007.
“He was a consummate professional”: Brad Sundberg, “One Year Later,” BSUN Media Newsletter, June 25, 2010.
“He’ll say: ‘Can I hear a little more piano’ ”: Bruce Swedien, In the Studio with Michael Jackson (New York: Hal Leonard, 2009), p. 11.
“All of Michael’s recordings were done”: Author interview, Bruce Swedien.
“[He] just started asking me”: Author interview, Bill Bottrell.
“When you did something [Michael] liked”: Author interview, Brad Buxer.
“I don’t categorize music”: Jones, “V Vintage: Michael Jackson 2001 Interview.”
“bizarre disintegration”: Brooks Barnes, “A Star Idolized and Haunted, Michael Jackson Dies at 50,” New York Times, June 25, 2009.
“Given the tumult”: Josh Tyrangiel, “Michael Jackson Dead at 50: A Life of Talent and Tragedy,” Time, June 25, 2009.
“The underlying sweetness that had”: Jon Pareles, “Tricky Steps from Boy to Superstar,” New York Times, June 25, 2009.
“Jackson’s career arc from beloved child star”: Armond White, Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles (New York: Resistance Works, 2009), p. 4.
“Though he aimed bigger and broader”: Jody Rosen, “King Michael,” Slate, June 26, 2009.
“Many of his most affecting performances”: Jeff Chang, “The Man in the Mirror: Remembering Michael Jackson,” Facing South, June 26, 2009.
“Black people cherished Thriller’s breakthrough”: Greg Tate, “I’m White! What’s Wrong with Michael Jackson,” Village Voice, September 22, 1987.
“Even though rooted in black experience”: Michael Eric Dyson, “Freedom Fighter,” Ebony, September 2009.
“From a child to older people”: Piers Morgan, “My Pain,” Mirror, April 13, 1999.
“fawn in a burning forest”: Jay Cocks, “Why He’s a Thriller,” Time, March 19, 1984.
“Today was a seminal moment in Internet history”: Linnie Rawlinson and Nick Hunt, “Jackson Dies, Almost Takes Internet with Him,” CNN, June 26, 2009.
“the most influential artist of the twentieth century”: Stevens, “Michael Jackson’s Unparalleled Influence.”
“From Compton to Harlem”: Tate, “Michael Jackson: The Man in Our Mirror.”
“It was a moment”: Rob Sheffield, “Not Like Other Guys: Rob Sheffield Remembers Michael Jackson,” Rolling Stone, June 29, 2009.
“He will go down in history”: “Michael Jackson Was One of World’s Greatest Ever Entertainers, says Barack Obama,” Mirror, July 3, 2009.
“a hero of the world”: “Michael Jackson Is Dead: World Mourns His Death,” Telegraph, June 26, 2009.
“a close member of our family”: “Michael Jackson Memorial,” Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2009.
“It’s so sad and shocking”: Murray Wardrop, “Michael Jackson: Tributes Flood in,” Telegraph, June 26, 2009.
“In a desperate attempt to hold on to”: Hillary Crosley, “Madonna Pays Tearful Tribute to Michael Jackson at 2009 VMAs,” MTV, September 13, 2009.
“He is emotionally distraught”: “Stevie Wonder ‘Distraught’ Over Michael Jackson’s Death,” The Oklahoman, June 26, 2009.
“We were awestruck by California”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 69.
“an almost calm certainty”: Lisa Marie Presley, “He Knew,” MySpace, June 27, 2009.
“Who wants mortality?”: Bennett, “Michael Jackson: Then & Now.”
“It’s an adventure”: This Is It, directed by Kenny Ortega (Columbia Pictures, 2009),
DVD.
CHAPTER 1: OFF THE WALL (1979)
“invented modern pop as we know it”: Rob Sheffield, “Not Like Other Guys: Rob Sheffield Remembers Michael Jackson,” Rolling Stone, June 29, 2009.
“It is a crisis”: Jimmy Carter, “Address to the Nation on Energy and National Goals: ‘The Malaise Speech,’ ” July 15, 1979. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
“I think that’s the psychological reason”: Steve Demorest, “Michael in Wonderland,” Melody Maker, March 1, 1980.
“entirely in tune with the times”: Anthony DeCurtis, “Michael Reinvents Pop,” Rolling Stone, July 2009.
“a strangely innocent boy-child in the era”: Rob Sheffield, “When Michael Became Michael,” Rolling Stone, July 2009.
“Disco was diametrically opposite”: Daryl Easlea, “Disco Inferno,” Independent, December 11, 2004.
“The attacks on disco”: Craig Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race, and the Soul of America (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), p. 209.
“utterly beguiling, brimming with boundless”: Timothy White, Rock Lives: Profiles and Interviews (New York: Holt, 1990), p. 457.
“I think every child star suffers through this”: Michael Jackson, interview by Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, February 10, 1993.
“My father would kill me”: Ibid.
“I had very few close friends at the time”: Michael Jackson, Moonwalk (New York: Doubleday, 1988), p. 123.
“I guess I want to bring them to life”: Gerri Hirshey, “Life in the Magical Kingdom,” Rolling Stone, February 17, 1983.
“like a little kid in a playground”: J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (London: Pan Books, 2004), pp. 167–68.
“My complexion was still a mess”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 140.
“I like how different it feels”: White, Rock Lives, p. 457.
“confusion. He knows that he has problems”: Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, p. 178.
“Michael was the best thing that came”: Quincy Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 229, 231.
“[Jackson] had the wisdom of a sixty-year-old”: Ibid., p. 230.
“All those records in the past”: White, Rock Lives, p. 457.
“I actually got a chance to watch”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 123.
“wanted to sound cleaner and more funky”: Ibid., p. 149.
“worked with the smartest, hippest pop”: Ibid.
“a fantastic record, combining the relentless”: Sheffield, “When Michael Became Michael.”
“Throughout the ages”: The Jacksons, Destiny, Epic Records, 1978, vinyl record. Liner notes.
“MJ will be my new name”: Note from the Michael Jackson Estate.
“Quincy does jazz, he does movie scores”: Demorest, “Michael in Wonderland.”
“He marched back into Epic”: Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, p. 232.
“There’s nothing inside of me that wants”: White, Rock Lives, p. 457.
“I was looking for someone who would give me that”: Demorest, “Michael in Wonderland.”
“Quincy and I talked about Off the Wall”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 163.
“That’s why I wanted to hire an outside producer”: Ibid., pp. 155, 158.
“I admired disco, don’t get me wrong”: John Moore, “Quincy Jones Planned Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to ‘Take Out Disco,’ ” Oakland Press, November 24, 2012.
“He knew Los Angeles better than Mayor Bradley”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 156.
“one of the best songwriters”: Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, p. 223.
“Rod was a kindred spirit”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 158.
“one of the best pairs of ears”: Bruce Swedien, In the Studio with Michael Jackson (New York: Hal Leonard, 2009), p. xiii.
“These records would never have the same dynamic”: Ibid.
“It was the smoothest album”: Tamika Jones and John Abbey, “Michael Jackson’s Peacock Music,” Blues & Soul, August 28, 1979.
“We were just taking a lot of chances”: Quincy Jones, Off the Wall (special edition), Sony, 2001, compact disc. Originally released in 1979.
“On a couple of tunes the band was there”: Jones and Abbey, “Michael Jackson’s Peacock Music.”
“We tried all kinds of things”: Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, p. 232.
“He can come to a session”: Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, p. 185.
“he came in the studio”: Bryan Monroe, “Q&A: Michael Jackson in His Own Words,” Ebony, December 2007.
“Michael’s approach is very dramatic”: Nelson George, Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection, Sony, 2004, compact disc. Liner notes, p. 23.
“It was a phrase that was used in New York”: Peter Feely, “The Making of Michael Jackson,” TimeOut Dubai, December 24, 2013.
“a photo taken at a graduation”: Anthony DeCurtis, “Michael Reinvents Pop,” Rolling Stone, July 2009.
“Fans and industry peers alike”: Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness, p. 187.
“If you asked me to choose”: Mark Fisher, “And When the Groove Is Dead and Gone,” in The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, edited by Mark Fisher (Washington, DC: Zero Books, 2009), p. 13.
“a dance album released”: DeCurtis, “Michael Reinvents Pop.”
“most intricately timed, fully textured, glossily sensual”: Barney Hoskyns, “The Boy Who Would Fly: Michael Jackson,” NME, September 17, 1983.
“I remember where I was when”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 176.
“Jackson felt that the music industry”: Sheffield, “When Michael Became Michael.”
“That experience lit a fire in my soul”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 184.
“Rosetta Stone for all subsequent R&B”: Robert Dimery, 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (New York: iUniverse, 2010), p. 443.
“possibly the most thrilling intro”: Paul Lester, “Michael Jackson’s Twenty Greatest Hits,” in The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson, p. 24.
“ten seconds of perfect pop tension”: Hirshey, “Life in the Magical Kingdom.”
“That’s his free at last, free at last”: Bad 25, directed by Spike Lee (Optimum Productions, 2012), DVD.
“ ‘Don’t Stop’ practically leads you by the hand”: Fisher, “And When the Groove Is Dead and Gone,” p. 13.
“guitars chopping like kalimbas”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 161.
“mean whatever people want it to mean”: Chris Cadman and Craig Halstead, Michael Jackson: For the Record, 2nd ed. (Bedfordshire: Authors Online, 2009), p. 75.
“hearing in [his] head”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 161.
“Michael is rarely discussed”: George, Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection. Liner notes, p. 23.
“perfect for me to sing”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 158.
“Is there any record”: Fisher, “And When the Groove Is Dead and Gone,” p. 13.
“softened the attack”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 158.
“the most purely joyful moment”: Steven Hyden, “Favorite Songs,” A. V. Club, March 13, 2009.
“rhythmic monster….When Talking Heads cut”: Kenneth Partridge, “Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall at 35: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review,” Billboard, August 8, 2014.
“one of the greatest bass players to ever”: Daniel Kreps, “Brothers Johnson’s Louis Johnson, Michael Jackson Bassist, Dead at 60,” Rolling Stone, May 22, 2015.
“Louis Johnson gave me a smooth enough”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 160.
“Not a lot of people give ‘G
et on the Floor’ ”: Andre Grindle, review of Off the Wall, Amazon, June 26, 2009.
“When I listened to the records”: Feely, “The Making of Michael Jackson.”
“Every note and hit”: Jason Heller, “George Duke,” Pitchfork, August 7, 2013.
“At one point”: Timothy Pernell, review of Off the Wall, TheMidnightMan.com [inactive], July 9, 2009.
“I love Paul McCartney”: White, Rock Lives, p. 457.
“It’s a very mature emotion”: Jones, Off the Wall (special edition), Sony, 2001, compact disc.
“He takes huge emotional risks”: Stephen Holden, review of Off the Wall, Rolling Stone, August 1979.
“I had been letting so much build up”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 163.
“He cried at the end of every take”: Jones, Off the Wall (special edition), Sony, 2001, compact disc.
“He asked me to go to the premiere”: “Michael Makes HIStory,” Vibe, June–July 1995.
“one of the loneliest people”: Jackson, Moonwalk, p. 162.
“about knowing that the barriers”: Ibid.
“[It] became a Jackson signature”: George, Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection, p. 23.
“a lot more Latin influenced”: Greg Phillinganes, “Season 1, Episode 10: Greg Phillinganes” (lecture, Red Bull Music Academy, Montréal, December 13, 2016).
“Quincy set up the parameters”: Ibid.
“very nocturnal”: Bad 25.
“an immediate zone—that yearning”: “Our Favorite Songs,” Time, July 2, 2009.
“Michael…came back with a totally different arrangement”: Carole Bayer Sager, They’re Playing Our Song: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), p. 122.
“was always on fire”: Patti Austin, interview by Joy Behar, The Joy Behar Show, CNN, October 14, 2011.
“His energy was over the moon”: Emily Cary, “Patti Austin Sings Ellington,” Washington Examiner, December 26, 2011.