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Jon Quijano

The website of St. Croix Valley photographer and storyteller Jon Quijano

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73. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson

As a drummer, there is one thing I especially love about funk. That is that, for this music, every instrument is actually percussion. That's the beautiful principle at work in "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." The most melodic instruments are the strings, and they still hit their staccato, percussive points. The guitars are about the click. The horns are about the punch. The bass and drums are one funk organism. The vocals of the chorus are pure percussion - soon Michael Jackson would be writing songs with almost no lyrics at all, just his own patented sounds, like his mentor James Brown. That is extremely hard to pull off. Notice almost everyone who sings a Michael Jackson song avoids hitting all the rhythmic utterances and grace notes of the original. When I hear someone try to, it's funny.

Incidentally, the long falsetto verse vocals sound Prince-esque. Prince's first album came out the year before this song. Maybe the rivalry was already forming and deriving its mutual benefits.

Michael Jackson departed from pure funk/dance/disco music beginning on the Thriller album, adopting rock elements to give his sound an even wider appeal after the Off the Wall album failed to sell as well as he dreamed. The success of "Beat It" almost assured the rock elements would be pushed to the breaking point on Bad.

I just wish Michael would've had the self depreciation to put all that aggrandizing aggressive stuff away for a spell and just get another funky dance album recorded before all was said and done. Nothing of his later music seems to have gone back to that lightness. And why would he feel like providing the world with escapist fun by then?

Well, there was only one time for the 1970s anyway.

tags: Michael Jackson, music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 03.29.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 

28. “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

That is a custom-made drum set that opens this song. As in, the materials of the set were assembled to have the unmistakable sound we all know.

Michael Jackson had the bassist play the bass line on every bass the guy owned before selecting one to be on the recording.

Every song on the Thriller album had this kind of insane attention to detail. It was like a NASA mission, for tunes.

That is why every person who sees this post knows every detail of this song. We all love the drum and bass, the keyboard, the funky guitar. We have all sung every note, even tried our hand at some of the impossible-to-imitate little embellishments he obsessively dropped everywhere.

Have we all attempted to moon walk to this song? I admit I haven't. I could maybe keep up with the voice of Michael Jackson, but the moves were best handled by professionals.

Michael Jackson wanted Thriller to be massive, successful, a crossover between cultures, all of that. It was also just one of the greatest tributes to the human imagination, with songs like “Billie Jean” an absolutely unique vibe, vision, phenomenon, memory, leap.

tags: Michael Jackson, Billy Jean, Music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 02.01.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 

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