Tag: Michael Jackson

audio review : PYT [ Pretty Young Thing ] ( song ) … Michael Jackson

Feminists may object to the term, but I don’t think Michael Jackson gives a damn. He’s too enthralled with the girl he just met. The setting isn’t clear; it’s nighttime in what seems to be a big city with lots of lights; but the crooner has already fallen in love.

In lust is probably more like it. It’s her Pretty face he’s mostly focused on as strong sexual overtones fill the air. Even more pungent is the funk of the disco groove, which sounds suspiciously like Carl Carlton’s Bad Mama Jama, banging away in the background.

my rating : 4 of 5

1982

audio review : Thriller ( album ) … Michael Jackson

audio review : Beat It ( song ) … Michael Jackson

As funny as it would be, this isn’t a song about masturbation. When Michael Jackson says Beat It, he’s telling some boy to scram because it’s not worth risking his life fighting those other boys. There’s one of him, too many of them and “No one wants to be defeated.” I just love the way he harmonizes that last part.

A lot of guys, perhaps the boy’s father or older brother, will criticize Michael Jackson for telling him to run like a coward, especially with rock music this kick-ass blaring in the background; Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo alone would destroy those little punks; but the point is that he’ll live to fight another day.

my rating : 5 of 5

1982

audio review : Thriller ( album ) … Michael Jackson

audio review : Baby Be Mine ( song ) … Michael Jackson

The title reminds me of Valentine’s Day. That would make it a cold February night as Michael Jackson offers to warm a girl in his arms. He already has her at his place. Now he wants to “share my feelings in the heat of love’s embrace” and “show you all the passion burning in my heart today.”

Rod Temperton is to blame for those lyrics. Quincy Jones is responsible for the slinky disco groove, which is upbeat enough to dance to and sensual enough to seduce to. Michael’s trying to have sex with this girl. “Only you and I can make sweet love this way,” he confesses, “There’s no more I can say.”

my rating : 5 of 5

1982

audio review : Thriller ( album ) … Michael Jackson

audio review : They Don’t Care About Us ( song ) … Michael Jackson

“All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us,” the refrain, a ghetto street chant, goes, but what is it saying? That upper class white people (“they”) are generally apathetic toward (“us”) blacks? Michael Jackson, who one could jokingly say went from the latter to the former, suggests so.

“I’m tired of being the victim of hate,” The King Of Pop declares, “You’re raping me of my pride… for God’s sake.” The best bit is the one about Martin Luther King, which is harmonized to perfection before the final chorus section, where this anthem starts to sound like another Michael Jackson classic.

It could’ve been just that, but the guitar break, which serves as a bridge, is jarring. Not to say there shouldn’t be a guitar break; there absolutely should; just that there should be a better, or at least more fitting, one. The song also goes on for too long at the end. It should end at about the 04:10 mark.

my rating : 4 of 5

1995

audio review : History ( album ) ... Michael Jackson