PicoBlog

Bear with me, this intro’s worth it… I think…

Motown is synonymous with Detroit. After all you get “Motown” as a take on “Motor City”. Well, despite being Black-owned and stocked with mostly Black acts from Detroit, Motown in the late 1960s was enthralled with the idea of suburban flight just like White America.

Sure, Detroit’s uprising against the police in 1967 didn’t help the city’s image as “business friendly”, but the writing had been on the wall for Detroit—and other Midwestern industrial cities—for quite awhile before the 1960s rebellions.

Once the powerhouses that fueled the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II, cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and a host of others were unceremoniously left adrift by the federal government in the 1950s. The feds began lavishing more and more funding for new Cold War defense facilities on the West Coast and in the South. Whatever largess from the feds remaining in the Midwest funneled to the suburbs courtesy of the Highway Act of 1956. Although the effects of this monetary pipeline became unmistakably evident by the 1970s, the hollowing out of America’s urban cores in favor of the suburbs was already well underway by the end of the Eisenhower Administration.

In a nutshell, this is how the West and the South became the Sun Belt while the Midwest became the Rust Belt.

This is also, in part, how Berry Gordy in the late 1960s set his sights on Los Angeles to further enrich Motown. LA was where the action was. The possibility for more music, but also movies and television. Sunny Hollywood is more glamorous than the frozen Great Lakes. Gordy’s California Dream was only further enhanced when the Supremes and Temptations had successful television specials in 1968 and 1969.

In ‘69, Gordy began moving Motown’s main operations to LA. The move was finally, officially completed by 1972.

So, what the hell does this have to do with the Jackson 5?

Well, by 1969, Motown was also in a bit of decay and mayhem mirroring the growing Rust Belt. The Temptations were pretty much the only group from the label’s Golden Age that were still running relatively smoothly despite personnel trouble. Looking at you David Ruffin.

As for the other major artists from the Golden Age…

• The Miracles— churned out respectable hits, but no smashes in years as lead singer Smokey Robinson focused more and more on his corporate responsibilities at Motown.

• The Supremes—in tatters as Diana Ross effectively recorded as a solo artist during the late ‘60s and officially left the group at the end of 1969. The remaining Supremes rebounded in the very early 1970s scoring some hits, but they were essentially toast by 1972.

• Martha & the Vandellas—basically defunct by 1969 and officially defunct by the time Motown settled for good in LA.

• The Marvelettes—defunct.

• Four Tops—in a mighty slump that only stopped once they left Motown in 1972

• Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder—still solo hit makers, but increasingly combative with Motown’s refusal to let them produce their own records.

Again, you might ask, what the hell does this have to with the Jackson 5?

Well, the Jackson 5 were the final monstrous hitmaking group to emerge as a classic Motown act. Whereas future Motown hitmakers like Rick James and the Commodores were self-contained acts, the Jackson 5 were fed songs written and produced by the Motown staff perfectly crafted to be radio smashes.

And as fate would have it, this first big act for Motown during their Sun Belt era on the West Coast was from the Rust Belt of the Midwest.

The Jackson brothers—Michael, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, Marlon, and Randy—were from Gary, Indiana. Even other Midwestern cities look down upon Gary, but the brothers became a formidable live act thanks to their natural talent and their father’s merciless assholery drilling them to his idea of perfection.

There is some legend mixed up in how Motown got their sights on the Jackson 5, but Bobby Taylor deserves the credit for getting the boys onto the label.

After initial trepidation by the record label, Taylor’s insistence got the Jackson 5 the deluxe Motown treatment. A group of songwriters and producers known as the Corporation (a little on the nose, right?) set out to craft monster hits. They were determined to conquer America with yet another Midwestern Black vocal group.

It worked.

The Jackson 5’s first four singles all sailed to #1 on the pop and R&B charts in 1970. These songs were heavily influenced the psychedelic soul of Sly & the Family Stone and the Temptations. The Jackson 5’s take on psychedelic soul has been branded bubblegum pop and there’s some truth behind the moniker—I prefer the term sugar funk. “ABC” is a modern-day nursery rhyme. But the instrumentation is still amazing. The bass and fuzz guitar are not to be fucked with.

Key to the group’s success was obviously the lead vocals from Michael Jackson. They are legitimately amazing, but a key element was also Jermaine’s vocals. Regularly overlooked, his co-leads were often essential to turning monster hits into American classics. That’s the case with “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There”.

The lofty heights of 1970 were followed by relative disappointment in 1971. After four #1 hits in 1970, the brothers “only” had two singles reach #2 on the pop charts in ‘71. What a let down.

Ironically by 1972, when Motown’s LA move was official official, it was pretty clear, that America had finally cleared Jacksonmania out of its system. The hokey Goin’ Back to Indiana TV special in 1971 didn’t help matters. Anyhoo, from 1927 to 1975, the Jackson 5 had a grand total of ONE major pop hit. That would be the proto-disco jam “Dancing Machine”, which reached #2.

SIDENOTE: Motown did its usual bullshit in this era by detaching the lead singer from the group. That meant Motown sending out Michael Jackson solo albums in 1971 and 1972. As a solo artist, Michael Jackson did have a couple top 10 hits in 1972. The execrable “Ben” hit #1 while a chippy cover of “Rockin’ Robin” hit #2.

By 1974, like Stevie Wonder before them, the brothers were growing fed up with Motown’s overbearing control, especially when it wasn’t resulting in any consistent commercial success. The boys were now men—or at least unruly geriatric teenagers—and demanded more input.

They didn’t get it.

In 1976, four members of the Jackson 5 (Michael, Jackie, Tito, and Marlon) bolted for CBS Records. Only Jermaine stayed at Motown (he was married to Berry Gordy’s daughter). To replace Jermaine, youngest brother Randy was officially brought in. However, Motown owned the rights to the name “Jackson 5”, so the brothers continued on as the Jacksons. Losing Jermaine was quite the blow because he was actually a really good bass player in addition to being the only other Jackson whose leads vocals were capable of lifting up a song.

But when you got Michael, the show can still go on.

However, the Jacksons initially had the same troubles with CBS they had at Motown: no creative control.

On their CBS debut, The Jacksons, only two of the 10 songs were written by the brothers as Philly Soul maestros Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff controlled the scene. On the follow-up Goin’ Places, they still were relegated to writing only two songs. It just so happened that those two songs were the best ones on the album.

FINALLY, in 1978, the Jackson got to write and produce their own album: Destiny.

It was their first smash album since the early 1970s spawning the hits “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” and “Blame It On the Boogie”. Destiny went platinum, Michael was invigorated to restart his solo career… and well... that was the beginning of the end for the Jacksons! How ironic.

Michael’s solo Off the Wall in 1979 was a fucking juggernaut as I’m sure you know. Still, he was back in the fold for 1980’s Triumph, which was again self-written and self-produced by the brothers. It’s even better than Destiny, I think, but Michael’s solo stardom was undeniable. Thriller was released in 1982 and he became the biggest music star on earth.

A chaotic “reunion” album, Victory, was released in 1984 with Jermaine on board making it the only album to feature all six brothers. However it was hardly a group effort. The brothers mostly recorded on their own and wrote the songs on their own. 1989’s 2300 Jackson Street was more cohesive, but still no great shakes, either.

And with that the recording history of the Jacksons ended although four of the brothers still perform together today.

The original members of the Jackson 5—Michael, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, and Marlon—were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That kind of sucks for Randy who (co)-wrote some of their best songs when they finally got to produce themselves. Maybe that’s why he’s the one surviving brother not participating on tours.

Oh well, enjoy the albums. The stretch they had from Dancing Machine in 1974 to Triumph in 1980 (minus Goin’ Places) is pretty damn good!

Blame the ensuing album reviews on the boogie!

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