Despite the fact that there was such turmoil in the family, the group still had work to do on the road. When Jermaine came back to the house a few days later to rehearse for the show, he and Katherine had a loud discussion about his decision not to sign the CBS contract. Katherine was angry with him, and she let him know it. Jermaine reminded her that Berry Gordy had been the one ‘who put steaks on our table and teeth in our mouths’. Katherine couldn't believe her ears. ‘We were already eating steaks in Gary,’ she told her son heatedly. ‘And as for the teeth he put in Jackie's and Tito's mouths, he's recouped that money hundreds of times over, you can be sure of that.’ (However, it doesn't seem likely that the Jacksons were ‘eating steaks in Gary’.)
The next stop for the group was the Westbury Music Fair on New York's Long Island. On the way, Michael attempted to act as referee between Jermaine and Jackie, who argued loudly about the question of Motown versus CBS. In the end, the brothers, with the exception of Michael, had completely turned on Jermaine. ‘They couldn't understand how they could go one way and I the other,’ Jermaine remembered. ‘It was tense. It was bad.’
Michael adopted a more even-handed position than his brothers. ‘I thought he would see things our way, eventually,’ he later recalled. ‘I never had a doubt things would work out.’
In some ways, the familial pressure manifested itself in predictable ways. Hazel, who almost always travelled with the group, had become protective of her husband, not allowing him out of her sight. One of the group's road managers recalled, ‘After we checked into the hotel in Long Island, we were all down in the lobby having fun, the other brothers and their friends. I went up to Hazel and Jermaine's suite to see where Jermaine was, but Hazel said that Jermaine couldn't “come out and play”. I thought that odd, and pushed her on it. She got upset, “I said, he needs his rest. Now, please go. Leave him alone.” Jermaine didn't have a performance until the next evening, with the group. Why did he suddenly need more rest than the others? Hazel continued, “I said he can't come out, so he can't come out. And that's final.” It seemed that her whole thing at that time was to separate Jermaine from his family.’
Jermaine has said that, prior to the group's leaving for New York, Berry Gordy sat down with him and Hazel ‘and told us that the first loyalty of a husband and wife must be to themselves, not to anyone else, not to anything else in the world.’ According to Jermaine, Berry said, ‘Whether it's me and Motown or the Jackson family and CBS, everything comes second to yourselves as man and wife, because you are the two people who are going to have to live with each other and with whatever decisions you make.’
Berry's diplomacy aside, he most certainly recognized the truth: Jermaine would not be able to leave Motown, not if he wanted to stay married to the boss's daughter.
After The Jackson 5's first performance at the Westbury Music Fair, the telephone rang in the dressing room. It was Berry calling for Jermaine.
As his family watched Jermaine's face for a hint as to what the conversation was about, Jermaine clutched the telephone tightly. He didn't say much, other than goodbye. He exhaled deeply, and he hung up.
‘Okay, I guess I gotta go,’ Jermaine announced.
‘Now? We go on in thirty minutes!’
‘How're we gonna work around you?’ Jackie gasped, incredulously.
‘I can't believe you're doing this to us,’ Tito added.
Everybody was talking at once, Joseph's voice being loudest of the din. ‘Are you crazy?’ he stormed. ‘We're your family. Not the Gordys. What's wrong with you, Jermaine? You ain't going nowhere, boy.’
Berry had demanded that twenty-year-old Jermaine make the most important decision in his life, and make it right then, right there: Motown or CBS? The Jacksons or the Gordys. His birth family or his family by marriage?
Whether Jermaine acted on impulse or understood the ramifications of what he was about to do, he rushed out of the dressing quarters with tears in his eyes. ‘I'm outta' here,’ he said. He took a car to his hotel room, where he packed his suitcase in about five minutes. ‘What's goin' on? What's goin' on?’ Hazel wanted to know. Jermaine could not speak through his racking sobs. ‘We're leaving,’ was all he could say. A black Motown stretch limousine waited to whisk the couple to the airport, and then back to Los Angeles.
‘We were surprised, really in shock, absolutely stunned,’ Marlon later remembered. ‘It was like a dream, Jermaine getting that call and then walking out on us like that. We were about an hour from show time. The place was already packed. We had a show to do. We couldn't dwell on any of it. Michael was crying, and I said, “Not now, Mike. We have fans out there. We have to buck up.” Wiping his eyes, he said, “I can do it, Marlon. But, later, we gotta deal with this. We gotta get Jermaine back.”’
That night, The Jackson 5 exploded on to the stage of the Westbury Music Fair with such elation, no one in the audience would ever have guessed the backstage drama that had just unfolded. Michael's first responsibility was to his audience. He was just sixteen, but he knew what he had to do. During ‘Dancing Machine’, he whip-lashed the mike stand into a wobble, did a motorized shuffle across the stage as if he were a robot, and then executed a split at the precise moment the stand crashed down upon his shoulder. He then looked at the instrument with a disdain that implied mortal insult. The crowd roared its approval.
This journalist – a teenager at the time – was present for this show, a Jacksons' performance still recalled with vivid clarity. Though Jermaine was missed – Michael announced that he had the flu – it was still a dizzying performance.
During an ironic tribute to the Motown Sound, Michael prowled the stage like a fierce, balletic wolf – ‘I Want You Back’, ‘ABC’, ‘The Love You Save’, ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’, all the Motown hits and more were performed with graceful and often demanding choreography. Whatever it took to please his fans, that's what Michael did, transforming, as always, personal frustrations into sheer energy. While accepting his audience's approval, he seemed purged of all anxiety. Once again, he was with the only people he knew he could completely trust: his fans.
The plaintive riff from The Jackson 5 hit ‘I'll Be There’ rang even more bittersweet as Michael performed it during this evening's show. Without any rehearsal, Marlon stepped in and took Jermaine's ironic lines. ‘I'll be your strength,’ he sang, ‘I'll keep holding on.’ Marlon had always been underrated as a singer, never having had a chance to truly shine in his brothers' shadow. Tonight, he held his own, and against great odds. Still, Jermaine belonged on that stage, in his rightful place next to Michael. It just wasn't right.
By the time the youngsters were finished, members of the audience were bouncing out of their seats; there were three encores. But afterwards, backstage, there was no music, no partying, no laughing as usual after a stellar performance. Everyone returned to his own dark mood. ‘Why does the show have to end?’ Michael asked his brother Jackie. He seemed disheartened. Though he tried and tried to hide his feelings, they always seemed to show. ‘I wish it could just go on for ever.’
I walked over to Michael. ‘Hey, man, what happened to Jermaine?’ I asked. ‘But, what a great show, anyway,’ I added. ‘Wow, man. Wow.’ If it was possible for a teenage admirer to be too fawning, I wasn't aware of it at the time. ‘What a great show that was,’ I went on. ‘My God. The whole thing was just so… cool.’
Michael accepted my compliments with a soft, sad smile. ‘Thanks. Jermaine will be back,’ he said. ‘He's… sick.’
Joseph sat in a corner silently. It appeared that the act – his family – was breaking up, and that there was nothing he could do about it. Anyone looking at him would have been heartbroken by his forlorn expression. He seemed uncharacteristically vulnerable as he sat slumped in a chair, shaking his head as if to say, I just don't understand it. How in the world could this have happened?
Michael went over to his father and studied him. He put his hand on Joseph's shoulder. There was a moment between them, a genuine�
� moment.
Suddenly, Joseph stood up. In a matter of seconds, he went from sadness to fury. ‘It's my blood that flows through Jermaine's veins,’ Joseph bellowed. ‘Not Berry Gordy's. Not Berry Gordy's.’ Then, he stormed out of the dressing room and slammed the door behind him.
What's in a Name?
It seemed, at first, that leaving Motown would be easier than Joseph thought it would be. Berry Gordy had done nothing to prevent their departure; he was preoccupied with Motown's film business, anyway, and didn't seem too dismayed by the fact that The Jackson 5 was leaving the company. As long as he had Jermaine in his corner, and had won that particular battle, Berry seemed satisfied. Because he did not want to deal with Joseph anyway, Ewart Abner was the one handling most matters concerning The Jackson 5, during their final days at Motown.
But few acts have ever left Motown without at least a little melodrama. Unbeknownst to Joseph, Berry Gordy had one more surprise in store for him.
In the last week in June 1975, Berry Gordy's vice-chairman of Motown telephoned Joseph Jackson with a bombshell: Motown owned the name The Jackson 5. The group could leave Motown, Joseph was told, but they would have to leave the name. ‘Jackson 5’ would stay behind with the company.
‘What are you talking about?’ Joseph demanded, according to his memory. ‘We came to Motown as The Jackson 5. That's my family name.’
‘I don't know if you came here as The Jackson 5, or not,’ Michael Roshkind told him, ‘but you're sure not leaving as The Jackson 5, I can tell you that much.’
‘What the hell do you mean?’ Joseph asked.
‘The fact is that there are probably forty thousand people named Jackson running around this world,’ Roshkind said. ‘We made five of them stars. We can find five more if we have to, and we can make them stars, too,’ Roshkind said.
‘Why, you son of a bitch,’ Joseph exclaimed. He slammed the phone down.
As it happened, clause sixteen of the Motown recording contract, which Joseph had never read but had signed in 1968, stated, ‘It is agreed that we [Motown] own all rights, title and interest to the name “The Jackson 5”.’
Furthermore, to insure the company's ownership of the name, on 30 March 1972, after The Jackson 5's first string of hit records, Motown applied to the United States Patent Office to register the logo ‘Jackson 5’. The name ‘Jackson Five’ and ‘Jackson 5’ were also exclusively owned by the Motown Record Corporation.
Of course, Joseph could have registered the names ‘Jackson Five’, ‘Jackson 5’, and any other name he wanted to hold on to – had he only thought to do it. It simply had not crossed his mind. However, it had been common practice for Motown to register the name of its acts, whenever possible. The company had done so with The Supremes, the Temptations… and with many of its acts over the years.
With this latest salvo, the group's departure from Motown had become bigger than the record business, it was now a battle between two families: the Jacksons and the Gordys. It seemed to some observers that anything Berry could do to demonstrate his power to an ever-scrutinizing record industry and press, he would do, even if that meant preventing the boys from using their name. ‘That was hardball, of course,’ Michael told me, later.
Michael was actually intrigued by Berry's tactic regarding the group's name. ‘I never even thought of that,’ he said. It was as if he was as much a student of Berry's as he was an adversary. While the other brothers watched, waited and fumed, Michael learned. ‘I want to know how he did it,’ Michael said of Berry's having registered the name. ‘I'll have to remember all of this,’ he added, as if stockpiling information for future use.
There was another family meeting. What do we do now?
‘If Berry owns the name, he owns the name,’ Michael said, according to his memory. ‘We don't have to be The Jackson 5, do we? I mean, can't we just be The Jackson Family? Or The Jacksons?’
‘We might not have a choice,’ Joseph said. ‘It makes me sick to lose that name. All the work we put into it.’
‘And you know damn well that they ain't gonna use it,’ grumbled Tito. ‘It'll just be wasted.’
Tito was correct. Once Motown claimed the name, there wasn't much they could do with it, other than to market old products by the group.
The Jacksons Leave Motown
On Monday 30 June 1975, Joseph Jackson arranged a press conference to announce the family's new affiliation with CBS. With over eight months still to run on the Motown contracts, Joseph seemed more eager than ever to leave Motown. Even though he was extremely busy at this time dealing with Diana Ross and post-production on her film Mahogany, Berry fought back. On the morning of Joseph's announcement, Michael Roshkind told the press that if CBS expected to get all of the members of The Jackson 5, they would be disappointed – meaning that Jermaine would never leave Berry's side. Furthermore, Roshkind said, ‘There is no way the group will ever sing under that name for anyone else. They'll never get all five members of the group, and they won't be getting The Jackson 5.’
Earlier that morning, Berry had one of his lawyers send a telegram to Arthur Taylor, president of CBS Records, warning him that his company had better not host a press conference relating to The Jackson 5 since Gordy had exclusive rights to ‘issue authorized publicity’. When Berry learned that Taylor planned to ignore the warning, he sent him another telegram warning him that he'd better not refer to the group as The Jackson 5 at the media summit since Motown owned exclusive rights to that name.
The press conference took place at the Rainbow Grill atop the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. As a room full of reporters and photographers recorded the event, eleven members of the Jackson family were solemnly ushered into the room single-file by a CBS publicist. There were no smiles. Each Jackson took his seat on the dais, where ten high-backed black chairs were arranged behind a long, narrow table. All of the family members, with Jermaine conspicuously absent, put forth a united front to announce the group's signing with CBS, effective 10 March 1976, the day their Motown contracts expired. Katherine, Maureen (Rebbie), LaToya, Janet and Randy had been told by Joseph to be present in order to demonstrate family solidarity.
The atmosphere was sombre, such as one might find at a meeting at the United Nations. Joseph – stage right, at the end of the dais – in a dark pin-striped suit, announced that the Jacksons had signed with CBS Records; he then turned the floor over to members of the family.
Jackie explained that the group – referred to that afternoon as ‘The Jackson Family’ – was signing with Columbia, ‘because Columbia is an album-selling company, and albums is what really makes you known.’ When asked if the group had tried to renegotiate with Motown, he answered, ‘Yes, but the figures, they was just Mickey Mouse.’
Michael, in a black velvet jacket and matching vest, didn't have much to say. ‘I think the promotion will probably be stronger,’ he observed, meekly. He seemed awkward and uncomfortable, especially when contrasted with his confident brothers. It was painfully obvious that Michael wished he were somewhere else. ‘I think Motown did a great job for us,’ he said, tentatively. Joseph shot him a hot look. Michael caught the current and quickly added, ‘But, now, things will be even better.’
‘How will all of this affect your relationship with Berry Gordy?’ asked one writer.
Everyone on the dais looked to Joseph for an answer. He shrugged his shoulders and forced a thin smile. ‘You take it as it comes,’ he said. ‘Next question.’
‘Will Jermaine be joining the group?’
Again, Joseph answered. ‘Yes. But it'll take a while. Next question.’
‘Why isn't Jermaine here?’
‘Next question.’
After the press conference, Berry Gordy filed a lawsuit against Joseph Jackson, The Jackson 5 and CBS, seeking five million dollars in damages for signing with CBS before the Motown contract had expired. Joseph countersued, claiming Motown owed the family royalties, unpaid advances, and expenses. Joseph thought Motown owed them money. Wrong
. He owed Motown money. For by the terms of their contract, The Jackson 5 were liable for the costs of all of the songs they recorded for Motown, including the ones that were not released.
To say that Motown had kept the boys busy would be an understatement. Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 recorded 469 songs for Motown in the six years from 1969 to 1975. That's about seventy-five songs a year, which is astonishing considering that this isn't all the boys did for a living. Besides having to learn those songs before they could record them, they also rehearsed their ever-changing stage show, toured the world with their act, appeared on many television programmes – including their own specials – sat through countless interviews, posed for innumerable photos (there are thousands of photos of the boys the public has never seen), and also tried to have the semblance of a personal life outside of show business.
Of those 469 songs recorded by The Jackson 5, only 174 were actually released, or 37 per cent. The other 295, it was decided by company producers and Berry Gordy, were not up to Motown's standards. Therefore, much to the group's chagrin, the Jacksons owed Motown over $500,000 for songs that the public had never even heard. ‘That sucked,’ Joseph later said. ‘They really got us good.’
Michael Jackson, who was about to turn seventeen in August 1975, was sceptical. He had begun to have serious doubts about Joseph's ability as an entertainment manager. To his way of thinking, his father had made some major mistakes: he gave away Jermaine, he gave away their group name, and now he had to give away a lot of money, paying for songs that had never been released. ‘Maybe we shoulda’ read that contract,’ Michael said, bitterly.
Michael Jackson Page 16