The Jackson 5: Lookin' Through The Windows - 1972

We start here with the album that saw child prodigy Michael Jackson's voice deepen and broaden in its range. It is a (comparatively) mature album, in that it is not completely aimed at the younger end of the teenage market. It is a pretty standard early seventies Motown album - a selection of original singles, some original album cuts, three covers and a cover of a song made famous by other Motown artists. The album has been re-released in superb seventies-style Motown stereo, which I love. The cover art shows the boys looking suitably "adult" and serious. 

Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's 1968 hit) is covered excellently, making you not wish you were listening to the more familiar one, but able to appreciate this version. Lookin' Through The Windows was a superb, harmonious, catchy and soulful single, deservedly a big hit. 

Don't Let Your Baby Catch You, while being a bit of an ABC remake, also has some funky bass and wah-wah guitar on it beside that trademark bubblegum sound, hinting at the moves into more funky material that were to come over the next few years. Subtly, this was a bit of a transitional album. 

To Know (the single - from the next album - Corner Of The Sky's 'b' side) is a delicious, slow tempo soul groove, written in an Al Green mode by Deke Richards, with Michael's voice showing those slightly deepening tones. The bass and brass sounds are wonderful on here. 

The boys' cover of Jackson Browne's Doctor My Eyes is a poppy but funkily rocking success. It also was a big hit single. Little Bitty Pretty One, a fifties cover, features all the boys on shared lead vocals and is vibrant, catchy and singalong in that fifties sort of way. It does, however come over a little incongruously.

The appallingly titled Ee-Ne-Me-Nee-Mi-Nee-Moe (The Choice Is Yours) is actually an enjoyable enough piece of Jackson 5 fun, but it already sounds considerably more "retro" than the rest of the album's material, harking back to 1969-1970. If I Have To Move A Mountain finds Michael still in high voice mode on a syrupy ballad. I would put money that it was a track that dated from earlier sessions. Don't Want To See Tomorrow has a Spanish introductory vocal and some Latin rhythms before it settles into a pulsating Motown groove. It has a great funky break in the middle too. 

Children Of The Light is such an early seventies, fun track. It is funny that I listen to this every now and again, dating back to when I was thirteeen-fourteen and Michael Jackson was the same age. Now he is long gone, and I am an ageing man. I do find it beautifully nostalgic, though. I Can Only Give You Love is a typical Jackson 5 number, all the brothers joining in and a really hooky refrain and rhythm. Good stuff. 

Overall, as Motown albums go, this is certainly not a bad one, it is possibly superior overall to similar ones put out by artists such as The Supremes or The Four Tops from the same period.

Popular posts from this blog

ROXY MUSIC

Image
  For many people, Roxy Music mean  the Radio Two stalwarts of  Jealous Guy, Love Is The Drug, Avalon, Dance Away  and  Oh Yeah! , performed by Bryan Ferry in a white tuxedo and played in lounge bars throughout the land.  For others, however, it is the strikingly innovative band that exploded on the scene with the single  Virginia Plain  in the late summer of 1972 that floats our boat.  They are a band of two distinct halves, like Fleetwood Mac (actually they had three) - the pre 1975 incarnation and the post hiatus one of 1979 to 1983.  I like both of them, as it happens, but it will always be the early years, those five great albums and the singles that do it for me.  In 1973, along with David Bowie and Mott The Hoople, there was nothing my fourteen year-old self liked better. I found a danceable solution to teenage revolution..... Did anyone really know what hit them in September 1972, when Roxy Music appeared on the scene with t...
View Full Post »

Tom Waits: Small Change - 1976

Image
  This was the album which saw the voice deepen and get more deliberately (seemingly) croaky and brought out many writers' gargling with concrete/razor blades/broken glass quotes. It certainly gave Waits an unforgettable, once heard, never forgotten character.  Backed here by a jazz trio of saxophone, bass and drums, along with some string orchestration, Waits' piano and whiskey paeans to night time street low life images and characters are reaching their first peak.  Just listen to the marvellous strains of  Tom Traubert's Blues  (later covered convincingly by Rod Stewart). I love the song and its multifarious images - I never, ever tire of it. Waits apparently wrote it after a night on the whiskey - it certainly did the job. What a song. A candidate for his best ever.  "Good night to the street sweepers, the night watchmen, the flame-keepers, and goodnight Matilda too."  My goodness, Waits could pen some lyrics. The old jazzy vibe is still there too ...
View Full Post »

TOM PETTY (with The Heartbreakers & solo)

Image
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers came on to the scene in 1976, after a few years gigging as Mudcrutch, and because of the time they emerged, they were considered punk. I guess they had a swagger and wore leather jackets, but they were no Ramones. They were, quite simply, a Southern States US rock band, albeit with a penchant for short, concise, sometimes fast-paced rock songs. Their influences were The Byrds, The Rolling Stones and even 60s pop bands like The Searchers.  Click on to the images to read the reviews. Tom Petty You're Gonna Get It Damn The Torpedoes Hard Promises Long After Dark Southern Accents Let Me Up Into/Wide Open She's The One Echo The Last DJ Mojo Hypnotic Eye Full Moon Fever Wildflowers Highway Companion Best Of Anthology American Treasure Live Anthology
View Full Post »

The Ohio Players: Skin Tight - 1974

Image
The Ohio Players were a kick-ass brassy n' bassy funk band that peaked in the mid-seventies. They were also a hit with teenage boys such as myself back then due to their erotic album covers. Those were the days.  This was The Ohio Players' fifth album and it was the one that really brought them mainstream attention. Its production was slicker and smoother than on previous albums and the album's six tracks were all over five minutes in length. Extended, jazzy, brassy funk was becoming popular and this album led the way as many people got the funk. Groups like Tower Of Power, The Meters, Kool & The Gang and, of course, James Brown enjoyed similar success. It also influenced subsequent artists such as Rick James. Their over-the-top flamboyant image must have had an effect on Earth, Wind & Fire and The Isley Brothers too - soon, all funkers were donning the Elvis-style suits. They do look awfully dated now (even to me), almost like looking at Victorian sepia photos once...
View Full Post »

Fleetwood Mac: Then Play On - 1969

Image
  This album, from September 1969, the last to feature  Peter Green  and barely featuring  Jeremy Spencer  saw  Fleetwood Mac  shift direction away from searing, guitar-driven, gritty blues to a slightly more psychedelic, laid-back, hippy style.  The blues is still there in a lot of the guitar sound, but there is definitely far more of a hippy dreaminess to the group's sound now. It is the beginning of the more gentle rock sound that featured on the series of albums that would take the band up to their huge sea change in 1975.   The sound on the album is ok, but it is not quite as good as on the previous albums. It could probably due with losing a couple of tracks as it is a bit sprawling, but that is nit-picking, really. The cover also gives a clue as to the future direction, as it has gone very proggy.  Two  Danny Kirwan  tracks from the  English Rose  album from earlier in the year appear again -  One Sun...
View Full Post »

ELVIS COSTELLO

Image
  In the summer of 1977,  I was doing some student work in a bakery in Aylesbury, Bucks, when a colleague came running up, excitedly telling me that "Elvis Costello's coming to  Friars !" (the local rock club). I had never heard of Elvis Costello. His enthusiasm intrigued me so I went to the gig, despite not having heard any of his music. It was the "Stiffs" tour featuring Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric. Costello headlined and played an impressive set.  After that, I bought the  My Aim Is True  album and then, the following year brought  This Years Girl .  Many more live experiences of Costello and his excellent band The Attractions would be forthcoming over subsequent years as this quirky, bespectacled and passionate artist became one of my favourites.  He was an ideal new wave anti-hero - odd-looking yet possessed of a superb instinct for a piece of wordplay in his lyrics. He also knew his music and was influenced by country music, Stax soul, ...
View Full Post »

Roxy Music: Roxy Music - 1972

Image
"Is this a recording session or a cocktail party?" - Dr. Simon Puxley   For many people, Roxy Music mean  the Radio Two stalwarts of  Jealous Guy, Love Is The Drug, Avalon, Dance Away  and  Oh Yeah! , performed by Bryan Ferry in a white tuxedo and played in lounge bars throughout the land.  For others, however, it is the strikingly innovative band that exploded on the scene with the single  Virginia Plain  in the late summer of 1972 that floats our boat.  They are a band of two distinct halves, like Fleetwood Mac (actually they had three) - the pre 1975 incarnation and the post hiatus one of 1979 to 1983.  I like both of them, as it happens, but it will always be the early years, those five great albums and the singles that do it for me.  In 1973, along with David Bowie and Mott The Hoople, there was nothing my fourteen year-old self liked better. I found a danceable solution to teenage revolution..... Did anyone really know what h...
View Full Post »

DAVID BOWIE

Image
Where do I personally begin with David Bowie? Let's try.... On the 6th of July in 1972 when I saw him on  Top Of The Pops  doing  Starman . I was thirteen years old. He was completely new to me. Funnily enough, I had no memory of  Space Oddity  from 1969, despite knowing a lot of chart songs from back to the mid-late sixties. That one had strangely passed me by. Now, in 1972, though, I was like many, fascinated by what I saw on the TV.  Contrary to many people's experience, who found their parents despising him and his glam/androgynous appearance, my Mother loved him. A few months later I was really into the  John, I'm Only Dancing  single and my relationship with David Bowie was taking its first baby steps.  In December 1972, I have this memory (included in my  Aladdin Sane  review).  The Jean Genie  single, with its killer riff, had crashed into our collective consciousnesses back in those dark winter weeks. I distinctly...
View Full Post »

THE ROLLING STONES

Image
  Ah, The Rolling Stones. Where do I start?  I guess I was first made aware of them as a seven or eight year-old in the 1966-67-68 period when they started to appeal to my heightening sense that the all-conquering Beatles were goody-goodies and The Stones were proper bad boys. My developing tastes found this to be an admirable thing. Even at that age, there was a nascent feeling that if the older generation - parents, teachers and the like, even the judiciary - despised them, they must have something about them. Ironically, though, my Mother loved The Stones.  Then, of course,  there was the music - loud, punchy, riffy, buzzy and singalong, but not in a  "she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.."  way, but in a  "he can't be a man because he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me"  style. The Stones always had a healthy cynicism and a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour that appealed to me no end.  Not only that, there was the look - the cockiness, the l...
View Full Post »

U2: Songs Of Innocence - 2014

Image
"We got some of the songs halfway up the hill, three-quarters of the way up the hill. A lot of times, we just couldn't get them up to the top of the hill" - Bono   Coming five years after their previous album ,  No Line On The Horizon , this album seriously ran the risk of being just "another U2 album". You almost got the impression that they felt they had to put something out to keep up their "best band in the world" reputation, but had sort of lost their mojo in creating it.  This album had a slight sense of trying too hard to come up something about it, but its is not without its good points, however.  The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)  is a big, muscular industrial chugger and nothing like The Ramones, of whom it is supposed to be a tribute to. It is quite dense with a few crashing guitar parts, but it is certainly no breakneck punker.  Every Breaking Wave  is an insistent, bassily beautiful slow burner, with a fine, tender, clear vocal from Bono. Th...
View Full Post »