On the Record: Jay-Z

I Want You Back - The Jackson 5

Michael Jackson Someone In The Dark

Love In The Jackson Camp : Why Michael Seemed Out Of It

Love in the Jackson family always seemed to be complicated. Everyone was with people they weren't married to. At least on the men's side of the family. Michael, looking from the outside, seemed to view this activity with complete disgust, and disappointment. From his own father, to his brothers, they, more than anyone else, gave Michael reason to distance himself from relationships. It is not because he was gay, or just didn't like women. But some of the women who were involved with the Jackson men, were not the type Michael himself would be involved with.
 First of all, Michael was religious. He really did believe in monogamy. So, extra martial relationships were tantamount to disobedience to God. But in 1984, things seem to come to a head.
 There is the Paula Abdul connection. Many people do not know that Abdul was having a serious affair with Jackie Jackson. The two met up when Jackie hired Paula to choreograph the Jacksons' "Torture" video. In fact, Paula would be instrumental in many of the videos put out by Janet for her "Control"  album.
 Michael was angered by Jackie's affair because he has strong feelings about infidelity. "Michael is disgusted when he sees anyone he knows who has a wife or fiancee' involved in any sort of philandering," said his former band director James McField. "All of that really upset Michael. I've heard him make comments to people. I once saw him go up to a guy who was looking at pictures in a dirty magazine and say 'I should tell your wife. ' To him, just looking is bad."
 Of all of the sister-in-laws, Michael was closest to Enid Jackson, Jackie's wife. Now, he would be losing her because of Abdul. Paula always said publicly that Jackie and her were just friends. But Enid said, "I found out for sure that they were having an affair when she called me at home and told me herself." There were many things that were going on that verified the affair, but it is safe to say that they were together, seriously.
 Michael Jackson lived in a world where most of the men he knew were philanderers. His mother had to deal with Joseph's relationships, among with the knowledge of a child born from one of the "other women." From a child, Michael had seen both Jackie and Jermaine use women as sex objects. Michael, was still a devout Jehovah's Witness, and saw the behavior by some of the men in his world totally wrong, and the results, devastating. So, at twenty-six, Michael was afraid of romance, and sexual love.
 Photographer Francesco Scavullo recalled Michael asking him, "What do you do about falling in love? Are you afraid they're just after you for what you can do for them?" Scavullo answered "Michael, you can't live your life that way. You have to take a chance."
 Michael said, "I'm scared because of what I've seen The men in my family don't know how to treat women. I don't want to be like my brothers."
 So much can be said about the various relationships with different members of the Jackson family, and the mental, emotional, and financial toll it took on all parties.But with Michael, the question was always, "What's his situation?"

 Comedians would make jokes, making Michael look like he was gay. If anything, the more people speculated, the more famous he became. But Michael, it seems, just added fuel to the fire, and left himself open to blatant lies about his sexuality. True, it's personal, but being evasive, proved to be one of his faults.
 Thank you J.Randy Taraborelli "Michael Jackson- The Magic and the Madness" pgs. 378-382

Michael Jackson remembered - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Michael Jackson remembered - Americas - Al Jazeera English

The Victory Tour Debacle

The story about the Victory Tour is so complicated, so many things and people involved, circumstances and situations, it's hard to put it all down. But it's enough to say that the experience was not a positive for Michael, his family, nor the fans.

One thing is for sure, Michael, after years of putting out the image of the happy and wholesome Jackson family, was now being manipulated by his family and other unsavory people. Though that was not her intention, Michael's mother, in convincing him to tour for the sake of his brothers, despite his feelings against it. Don King, for making the promotion and tour a side show experience. His brothers, who only wanted to make a quick dollar, and lots of it, with little care, or concern, for the details. Lawyers, representing all sides, making an easy buck.

What was the real deal about the ticket debacle? Joe Jackson, Don King, and Chuck Sullivan, who was the head of Stadium Management Corporation, and who's family owned Foxboro Stadium, came up with this "brilliant" idea. Tickets for the tour would be $30 each, but you had to buy lots of four tickets. When you ordered the tickets, names would be chosen at random by a computer drawing using coupons cut out of newspaper ads. People had to send a $120 postal money order, plus a $2 service charge for each ticket, and the coupon, in a "standard Number Ten envelope" to the ticket printed in the advertisement. WHEW! BUT, that didn't guarantee you would get the tickets. See why people were upset? While acts like the Rolling Stones' and Bruce Springsteen were selling $16 ticket, Michael felt that their should have been $20, but he was outvoted. The tickets were too high for white middle-class kids, let alone kids from the inner cities.

If you got the tickets, you didn't know which show you were going to, until two days before the concert, and that's if there was not a delay in the mail. If there was, you could get the tickets after the concert.

Michael was besides himself. "We got to get as much as possible for the tickets," one of the brothers said. "The sky's the limit."

"No, " Michael argued. "That's not the way to do it. There is going to be a backlash. The ticket shouldn't be more than twenty bucks each. And the mail order idea is terrible."

The media, rightfully had a field day, though they didn't know what was happening behind the scenes.

Frank Dileo told Michael about his brothers, "Their only concern is their present. To make as much as they can, while they can. You have a career that's going to be longer than this tour. They probably won't."

But it was a letter, published in the Dallas Morning News that really struck Michael hard. Eleven-year-old Ladonna Jones wrote that she had been saving her pennies to see Michael's show, but she couldn't afford the four tickets. "How could you, of all people, be so selfish?"

"That does it." Michael said. He called a meeting with Joe, Don King, and Chuck Sullivan. "Change the ticket policy. It's a rip-off. You know it. I know it. Now change it. Or I won't tour."

They made plans to change the system.

There later was a press conference which Michael announced that the ticket system was wrong and would be changed. He also was going to donate the money that he made from the tour to charity, and two thousand tickets in each city would be donated to disadvantaged youths.

Michael said, "We've worked a long time to make this show the best it can be. But we know a lot of kids are having trouble getting tickets. The other day I got a letter from a girl in Texas named Ladonna Jones. She'd been saving her money from odd jobs to buy a ticket, but with the current tour system, she'd have to buy four tickets and she could,'t afford that. So, I've asked our promoter to work out a new way of distributing tickets- a way that no longer requests a $120 money order. There has been a lot of talk about the promoter holding money for tickets that didn't sell. I've asked our promoter to end the mail-order ticket system as soon as possible so that no one will pay money unless they get a ticket." This was implemented by the tour's third stop in Jacksonville.

Why did he decide to donate all his money to charity?" one reporter asked Frank Dileo.

"Because he's a nice guy," Frank replied.

Thank you J. Randy Taraborrelli "Michael Jackson- The Magic and the Madness" pages 364-368.

My First Album

If I'm correct, it was an L.P. (long-playing album, for you youngsters). "Got To Be There, " by Michael Jackson. I remember getting my allowance, and walking to (now I'm really showing my age) J.M.Fields, and buying it. OMG!! He was so gorgeous on the cover. Oh, and the album was excellent !!