Songs in the Key of Jackson

My head's still spinning from the whirlwind discussion of key signatures in music as seen in the Fredösphere and elsewhere in the musical blögôstråtŏsphère. So let me put my pen down, turning briefly away from my opus-with-naught-but-a-title "The Song of Janus: Wittgensteinian Aspect-Change and Major/Minor Modulation from Schubert to Strayhorn", and take this moment to examine the personalities of different keys in the oeuvre of The Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson (before he mutilated his face and mutilated his soul). (Those who listened to the Osmonds instead [shudder] or weren't, like, born yet [sigh] can hit the snooze button now.)

G major: "Wholesome" says Fred. Yes, "The Love You Save" fits that bill quite nicely.

F major: "It barks" says Fred. Funny, that's just what Jackson Browne said about the Jackson 5's cover of "Doctor My Eyes". Also, Michael Jackson's "Ben" is in this key, but it skittered and squeaked instead.

A flat major: "Elegant" says Fred. And the millions of teenagers who turned "ABC", "I Want You Back", and "Mama's Pearl" into solid-gold hits agree!

B flat minor: "Romantic". Hmm...the Jackson 5 hit "Going Back to Indiana"?

B major: "Frenetic". This is a bull's-eye: "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough."

C sharp/D flat major: "Gorgeous, complex". Yes: "Rock With You"—the hit from Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" album, penned by the great Rod Temperton—more than earns this accolade.

D sharp minor: "Who the heck writes music in D sharp minor?" That would be the genius who composed "Dancing Machine", the official Jackson 5 jump-the-shark single.

There could be more, but in D minor ("on the sadness scale, this one goes to eleven"), we have the Jackson 5 single "[You Better Make Way for the] Young Folks"...which I will take as my cue to get off this bus. (On the eeuuww scale, this one goes to twelve.)

Comments

[Kathy]

I am a music ignoramus, but even I remember the Jackson 5, since I was, like, born at the right time. My junior high choir teacher played "Ben" for us to illustrate good (or at least better than we were doing) breathing techniques.

[Chan S.]

I'm perversely fond of "Ben". And your choir teacher was right, now that you mention it: ("With a friend to call my own / I'll never be alone / and you, my friend, will see / you've got a friend in me-e-e-e")...you can barely hear Michael Jackson taking a breath, and except for the last couple of measures, he's belting it out.

[Barry]

I also like Ben, but I don't know if Michael had good breathing technique (not that I could tell anyway) or just big lungs. It always impressed me how long Michael held a note at the end some Christmas song.

[Chan S.]

Barry, I am proud to confess that I own Michael Jackson's "Music and Me" album, on which he performs a number of Broadway show tunes...all at full belt, first note to end...lungs seem to be a good working hypothesis.

[Barry]

It's Christmas song season again and I heard the song I was talking about. It's I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause. At the end, he holds the word "night" for about 10 seconds.

The stuff to dislike about him seems to keep growing, but I have no complaints about his lungs as a kid.

[Mohammad]

Thanks for wiinrtg this. I'm sad about the loss of Michael Jackson and I'm even sadder at how we made him so fucked up. All that pressure he had to endure, hardest working man in sho biz and all that.