Sparks from the Fire » Michael Jackson

This Is It

Peter Link — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:41:19 +0000

If you’re interested in talent, fascinated by greatness, love Pop music and even if you don’t, run, don’t walk, play hooky from school, skip work and go see Michael Jackson’s movie, “This Is It”. I did last night and I’m going to go back and see it again tomorrow night.

I’m going to take a night off from my presentation of the Ira Awards because I’m just so filled up with the incredible experience of seeing that movie. I must have broken out in tears and sobs of joy and wonder about 15 times during the movie – no exaggeration. For me, it was a completely overwhelming experience.

You can say what you want about his personal life, but Michael Jackson is the great talent of our time. He wrote tremendous Pop songs, he sang so purely, so sweet, so funky and so incredibly rhythmic that it makes me laugh out loud at the wonder of it, and the man is right up there with Gene and Fred, and Mikhail and Rudolf for that matter, as a dancer. This man’s talent doesn’t ooze out of him, it pours. He is, for me, the consummate performer of our time.

Last night’s movie proves it, and it was just the rehearsal! That’s right! Michael never made it to the performances and so, through the wonderful world of film, we’re allowed to attend his rehearsals and see the man create, watch the mind at work, see how he attends to every tiny little detail and get a glimpse at just how greatness is attained.

Much of the time he is marking (a relaxed 75% energy performance that often performers do in rehearsal when they want to save their voice), but even in the marking we see the greatness, the stunning energy of the man readying his 50 performance tour at the age of 50.

I absolutely loved the way he used silence in both his music and his dance. This is one of his “tricks”, but it produces incredible positive tension, drama and fascination. He is an absolute master at stagecraft and is, of course, surrounded by the best in the business – the tech crew, his director, Kenny Ortega, his totally cookin’ band led by musical director and keyboard wizard and funk-meister, Michael Bearden, and a hoard of some of the best dancers I have ever seen.

This movie, this entire experience was a gathering of some of the greatest talent in the world led by the King, himself. The respect that they show Michael in the film and the love and appreciation that they have for his amazing talents bring even another thrilling insight to the film. They just love the man.

I’ve always said that the experience of putting on a show is really, at its core, the experience of putting on a show of love. First the cast has to love the work, the content itself, then, as they develop it in rehearsal, they have to fall in love with each other and the director and the costume designer, the set designer, and stage manager.

Then when they finally get to performance they have to fall in love with their audience and if they’ve done everything right, the audience loves them back. They laugh, they cry, they see life on new dimensions. In the end, the audience stands and applauds, sending that love back up on the stage and completing the circle. The cast bows and sends it back out and the circle of love goes round and round.

When the audience leaves, they say to one another and to the rest of the world, “I loved that show!”

Well, I loved that show. And I just love Michael Jackson and thank God for his gargantuan way-showing talent. Yes, you’re right, I’m running out of adjectives, but in the end, there’s no way to describe this experience. You have to see it, to believe it.

The human race lost one of its best in Michael. Thank God for this film. It has captured a musical genius at work.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.

Even More Inspiration

Michael Jackson

Peter Link — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:11:53 +0000

God stands at his conveyor belt. The unborn babies come down the belt one by one as God stands with his hypodermic needle injecting life into the babys’ butts. He knows he has to push the plunger each time only down to the red line, but even God gets tired of this routine, loses concentration and consequently sometimes his thumb slips and He mistakenly pushes the plunger all the way down past the red line. “Oops”, He says, “there’s another performer!” And he tosses that baby over into another bin.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was one of these. In fact, you might say that with Michael you had the one where God’s thumb slipped the most. For about a decade he was arguably the most talented man on the planet and definitely the world’s greatest performer.

In my lifetime I would place Michael right up there in the top 5 with The Beatles, Judy Garland, Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra. We watched Thriller until many of us knew all the steps. We totally rocked out to Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough, I’m Bad, and Billie Jean, and my favorite will always be Man In The Mirror. That music stop into the big key change will ever be the epitome of great pop music. Michael was a great rocker, but the King Of Pop.

On top of it all he was a great innovative dancer, right up there with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. It wasn’t just Thriller that thrilled. Every time I ever saw Michael dance, my jaw would drop at this wondrous human being. The rhythm that poured from his body and his music was way beyond the rest of us mere mortals.

I was a fan. I was in awe of his talent. I loved him for being a super human performer and then I came crashing down just like the rest of you as he went over some mad crazy edge in his life and lost his balance. I laughed at him and dissed him and pitied him and finally shook my head and walked away from him as he became more and more confused with his own identity.

He never really had a boyhood — he was always out there entertaining us – and so in his adulthood he turned to playing with boys, hanging out with them and God knows what else.

He was a consummate performer, always trying to make the song, the step, the move new, better, best and he often succeeded. So it was only natural that he try to remake himself and his look new, better, best. For a minute there, when he had his long hair and his glove and his white socks, he succeeded again. But he couldn’t stop tinkering and for some reason thought he might try to make his make-up permanent. He was great, but he wasn’t God, and he found that out the hard way – losing his nose in the process.

You had to just shake your head at his personal life and just hope that he could get through the bizarre periods and on to the next great album.

Quincy Jones, Michael’s friend and producer on Thriller said of Michael, “I’d never seen so much focus in my life.” Kobe Bryant, LAs basketball star said, “One of the things he always told me was don’t be afraid to be different,” Kobe wrote. “He’s saying: ‘It’s OK to be that driven, it’s OK to be obsessed with what you want to do. That’s perfectly fine.’”

Michael was willing to pay the price – and he did.

Looking back, it was a tragic life. I’m not going to try to figure it out. Stardom is a tough road to traverse, a heavy load to carry. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It throws us so far beyond the realm of human normalcy on so many confusing levels.

Most great performers are naturally instinctive people whose talents radiate from that naturally instinctive core. Fame totally confuses the issue and separates the consciousness from that naturalness because fame is just so unnatural. It takes a rare individual who can handle that. Most of them can’t and that’s why we see so many of them come crashing down.

Michael Jackson’s talent was a gift to us all from God. I’m choosing to focus on that side of him and let the rest be forgotten. Michael was one weird being, but I’m willing to let that part of him die and focus on the gift.

So play that video again and let’s all smile as Michael moon walks across the stage. Play that Man In The Mirror song again and let’s all wait for the key change and go “Aaaaaaahhhhhh” together. Put up Thriller one more time and let’s just watch the guy dance. I’m sure God sits in heaven today watching Michael’s videos and massaging His thumb.

Even More Inspiration

Top 3 Inspirational – Part 2

Peter Link — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:46:54 +0000

We continue the adventure of our Top 3 Inspirational pieces of music by category. Yesterday we covered Classical, Rock and Folk; today we’ll try to cover Pop (Nearly impossible to pick the top 3), tomorrow on to R&B and Broadway and who knows what else.

The Beatles

Please remember that these are my personal most Inspirational songs – not necessarily my favorites, but the ones that have had the most Inspirational impact on my life as a composer and music listener.

Here goes.

POP
1. Hey Jude – The Beatles / John Lennon and Paul McCartney

In 1968, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia Lennon separated due to his affair with Yoko Ono. Soon afterwards, Paul McCartney drove out to visit Cynthia and Julian, her son with Lennon. “We’d been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life,” McCartney said. Later, Cynthia Lennon recalled, “I was truly surprised when, one afternoon, Paul arrived on his own. I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare… On the journey down he composed ‘Hey Jude’ in the car. I will never forget Paul’s gesture of care and concern in coming to see us.”

I was on my way out the door, rushing to an important appointment and very late. Hey Jude came on the radio for the first time. Announced as a new Beatles song, I just had to stop for a quick listen to the first couple of bars before rushing off. I stood, briefcase and coat in hand, transfixed as the song played – all 7 minutes of it. When it was over, I calmly walked back to the phone, called my appointment and cancelled it. Then I changed the course of my life and went out and bought the single.

2. What A Fool Believes – The Doobie Brothers / Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins

The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 14, 1979, remaining in that position for just one week. However, the song received 1980 Grammy Awards for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

“What a Fool Believes” was one of the few non-disco No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 during 1979.

From the totally catchy fresh new style of the opening chords which launched a thousand hits, to the whiskey/gutter tough melodic sound of Michael’s instantly identifiable voice, this song captured a sound, feel and groove that I aspired to and fell in love with and tried to emulate over and over for years. But it was Michael’s genius and Michael’s sound and nobody ever done it better.

3. I Get Around – The Beach Boys / Brian Wilson and Mike Love

As far as researchers can gather, the instrumental track was recorded on April 2, 1964. The session, produced by Brian Wilson. The vocals were recorded during a session eight days later on April 10. The lead vocal features Mike Love on the verses and Brian Wilson on the choruses with backing vocals from Brian, Carl & Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and Alan Jardine.

Brian Wilson was my hero. His Pop song writing was the best of an incredible time in Pop music history. The era belonged to the Beatles, but the Beach Boys were right up there. This song captures the vocal style genius of Brian’s work which was heavily influenced by The Four Freshmen, one of my favorite groups as a kid. With Brian’s fantastic falsetto leading the way and his tight harmonies like no other Pop group out there, the Beach Boys set the table for my own harmonic style. Simply a great sound.

Honorable Mention – I Wanna Hold Your Hand – The Beatles / Lennon and McCartney

In September 1980, Lennon told Playboy magazine:
“ We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u/ got that something…’ And Paul hits this chord [E minor] and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that—both playing into each other’s noses.”

This song broke the 1/4/5 chord progression barrier that had been Pop music’s unwritten law throughout the 50s. It’s why the song sounds so fresh, because we were all so used to the same old chord progression that literally thousands of songs had used. Then along came this song and broke it all open. Again, the genius of the Beatles. Pop music would never be the same.

RUNNERS UP
It Might Be You – Stephen Bishop / with music written by Dave Grusin, and lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman
The First Time – Roberta Flack / Ewan MacColl
Killing Me Softly With His Song — Roberta Flack / Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel.
Man In A Mirror – Michael Jackson / Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett
Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
Don’t Stand So Close To Me – The Police / Sting
Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys / Brian Wilson
Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones / Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Help, I can’t stop. Too many great songs to choose from. Too many life moments defined by the music. Whoever said I could do this as a Top 3? Impossible.