Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  No doubt, Berry's declaration would have been news to Joseph.

  By January 1971, twelve-year-old Michael Jackson understood that entertainment was a difficult business. He had witnessed as much for the last couple of years, but still managed to take in his stride the pressures of recording, touring and making television appearances. His success was still too new to be anything but a constant thrill. ‘This is the best thing that ever happened to us,’ Michael said of his family's accomplishments. ‘Miss Ross has told me that people in show business can get hurt. I don't see how.’

  At this time, Motown issued The Jackson 5's fifth single, ‘Mama's Pearl’. On a stylistic par with their previous upbeat singles, this one featured Michael in the lead again, of course, surrounded by his brothers offering an occasional lead line through the verses. There were buzzing guitars on the choruses, and the Corporation's swirling production throughout.

  From the beginning, there had been some hesitation about ‘Mama's Pearl’. Deke Richards had decided to have Fonce Mizell and Freddie Perren work on it without him to see what they would create. Deke walked into the studio to find Michael singing the lyric, ‘He said what's mine is his and his is all mine…’ What they had come up with for Michael was a song called ‘Guess Who's Making Whoopie (With Your Girlfriend)’, which was about girl swapping, certainly not the right image for the youngster. Deke had Fonce and Freddie rework the lyrics – not the track – and, in a short time, they came up with ‘Mama's Pearl’.

  Even though the record ‘only’ went to the number two on Billboard's chart, it was number one on Cash Box's, so Berry was satisfied. In the UK though, it only peaked at number 25.

  The year had been off to a sentimental start when, on 31 January, The Jackson 5 returned to Gary, Indiana, their hometown. At this time, Jackie was nineteen; Tito, seventeen; Jermaine, sixteen; Marlon, thirteen; and Michael, twelve. On behalf of Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher's re-election campaign, the group was asked to perform two concerts at Westside High School. The distance between Gary and Los Angeles can be measured in miles, but the distance between Gary and stardom can only be measured in light years. Going home as stars, the Jackson brothers arrived in grand style, in a helicopter that landed in Westside High's parking lot where two thousand students had gathered in subzero weather to greet them.

  Both concerts were sell-outs. Fifteen thousand lucky ticket holders came to pay homage to five homeboys. Two years ago, many of these same neighbourhood kids had thrown stones at the Jackson house to taunt the group as they rehearsed; now they were sharing in their success, proud to know that they'd all come from the same streets. As the spotlights revealed the Jacksons in their rainbow-hued regalia, the group's fans could not be contained. The gym was packed to the rafters with what was probably the noisiest audience the boys had so far encountered. There were so many flashbulbs popping at once, it looked as though flocks of fireflies had come to swarm.

  After the first concert, Mayor Hatcher escorted the Jackson family back to their former residence on Jackson Street, which had, for the day, been renamed Jackson 5 Boulevard in their honour. A sign was placed on the lawn in front of the old homestead at 2300 Jackson Street: WELCOME HOME JACKSON FIVE. KEEPERS OF THE DREAM. Afterwards, as the limo pulled away, fans hurled themselves at its tightly closed windows. Inside, the boys smiled and waved, amazed at the frenzy. Their next stop was city hall, where the group was presented with individual keys to the city. The boys had returned home as heroes, symbols of hope. In his speech that day, Mayor Hatcher said he was honoured that ‘The Jackson 5 has carried the name of Gary throughout the country and the world, and made it a name to be proud of.’ Joseph could not have been more proud of his boys. He stood at the podium and said, ‘One thing I have always told my boys is that you're either a winner in this life or a loser, and none of my kids were ever gonna be losers. I'm proud to say that they proved me right.’

  The Jackson 5's next single, ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’, would be released in March 1971, and peak at number two a month later, selling almost two million copies. It only managed a number thirty-three positioning in the UK though, so Gordy was becoming a little concerned about the group's international appeal. Still, it was a memorable record. The song's writer, actor Clifton Davis, recalled, ‘This was an emotional song that meant a lot to me when I wrote it. I was worried that Michael might not understand the lyrics of pain and heartbreak. I recall him asking about one of the lines. “What's this word mean? Anguish” he asked me. I explained it. He shrugged his shoulders and just sang the line. “There's that anguish, there's that doubt,” he sang. And I believed him.’

  Joseph and Katherine Buy an Estate

  On 5 May 1971, after the boys returned from another national tour, the Jacksons moved into their large estate at 4641 Hayvenhurst in Encino, California, the one in which Joseph, Katherine and miscellaneous other Jacksons (who aren't Michael and Janet) still live today.

  Joseph and Katherine purchased the property for $250,000; they moved in a day after Katherine's forty-first birthday. Katherine had asked Joseph not to sell the two-bedroom home in Gary, ‘just in case the family fortunes took a turn for the worse and they all had to move back to Indiana.’ Although Joseph didn't think that such a reversal of fortunes was likely, he decided to rent, rather than sell, the house, at 2300 Jackson Street. (Today, the property is worth roughly $100,000, and still owned by the family.)

  Joseph and Katherine had never made as large a purchase as the Encino estate and were naive as to how to go about it. Joseph wanted to pay cash for the estate (‘At least, then we own it and no one can kick us out.’), but he didn't have that much capital. Anyway, Berry Gordy convinced him that the family needed as much of a tax writeoff on the property as possible, since their income was increasing monthly, and that the interest on a loan could be written off their taxes. Although Joseph decided to put down as little as possible on the Encino property, because his credit profile was not a good one he had to raise nearly 40 per cent in order to qualify for a mortgage. That was a lot of money for a down-payment: $100,000. Berry offered to lend Joseph and Katherine the funds, but Joseph declined. ‘If we're going to live in that house, it's gotta be ours,’ he told Berry. Motown already had too much control over his kids; Joseph didn't want Berry also to have a vested interest in the family home.

  In the end, Joseph did manage to get the $100,000, but he had to secure a large advance on his sons' future earnings. Of course, that advance came from Motown… which was, Berry.

  Encino, which is a thirty-five-minute drive from downtown Los Angeles, is one of the wealthiest communities in Southern California and home to many celebrities. The two-acre Jackson estate, resplendent with eighteen citrus trees and countless exotic plants, was guarded by an electronic gate and flanked by a guest house, playhouse and servants' quarters.

  Johnny Jackson and Ronny Rancifer, The Jackson 5's drummer and organist, moved into the household with the rest of the family. This arrangement occurred because Joseph and Katherine were concerned about the influence both boys – but particularly Johnny – were having on their sons. Both youngsters liked to spend what little money they were given, rather than save it. They were also smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor. Joseph had considered letting them both go, but decided that it wouldn't be fair since the boys had been a part of the band since the early days in Gary.

  ‘The house had five bathrooms and six bedrooms,’ recalled Susie Jackson, Johnny's former wife. ‘Jackie and Ronny shared a room. Tito was with Johnny, Jermaine with Marlon, Michael with Randy, and LaToya with Janet. And then there was one left for Joseph and Katherine, so there were a lot of people living there’.

  The family room had a recessed floor surrounded by a wraparound couch. The walls were lined with numerous plaques, gold and platinum records signifying million-selling singles and albums. One reporter noted that the room resembled ‘a cross between a motel lobby and the foyer of a Sunset Boulevard record company.’

  The grounds
contained an Olympic-size swimming pool, a basketball half-court, a badminton court and an archery range. The tranquil surroundings promised limitless peace for such a famous family. Hopefully, here they could be soothed and refreshed in their time away from the invasive eye of the public.

  Plans were made to add a hundred-thousand-dollar recording studio and a twenty-five-thousand-dollar darkroom.

  Jackie Jackson's Datsun 240 Z was usually parked in the driveway, along with Katherine's new Audi, Joseph's gold Mercedes 300 SE convertible, and the family's huge van.

  ‘We had fun up the Big House,’ said Susie Jackson. (In time, many of the family's relatives referred to the Jackson estate as the Big House because they felt it had become as much a prison to the Jackson sons and daughters as it had been a home.) ‘It wasn't all drama and backstabbing. There were parties and, in the beginning, we had a special closeness. I remember a lot of fun times when they first moved in. Every time you were in that house, they were roasting peanuts.’

  Though Katherine enjoyed the opulent estate and other aspects of her new life, she missed Gary. Simply put, she was not as happy as she thought she might be in Los Angeles. She missed her old friends and relatives.

  If Southern California had to be her new home, Katherine would not allow the glamorous surroundings to influence her or her family to act in a pretentious manner. She was determined to maintain a sense of normality around the household.

  Also, the Jackson family did not hesitate to show their appreciation to people who had helped them in their careers. Instead of small, intimate gatherings, they preferred large, ostentatious affairs where quantity was the most important consideration. Katherine looked at these parties as come-on-overs. Only instead of root beer and pretzels on the back porch, she put out a lavish spread at the family estate. Always a gracious hostess, she made everyone feel welcome. Joseph's pride in the house was obvious. He would give tours to anyone who seemed interested. In August 1972, after The Jackson 5 finished their engagement at the Forum in Los Angeles, Katherine and Joseph held just such a party at the family home for about fifty press and show-business friends.

  Katherine and Joseph did not disappoint their guests. The twelve-foot-long buffet offered hamburgers, roast beef, chilli, shish kebabs, fresh chilled fruit and seafood. Pastries were heaped on a cart decorated with red and yellow roses. In the middle of the family's oval swimming pool, Joseph floated a huge J-5 logo made of roses and tinted carnations. For entertainment, The Jackson 5 challenged The Temptations to a basketball game. The Jacksons won.

  (This writer was a guest at many of the Jackson family's ‘come-on-overs’ between the years 1976 and 1981 at the Jacksons' estate in Encino.)

  The Jacksons' phone number would be routinely changed by the phone company every month to guard against outsiders having it. Nevertheless, the number always got out. Once, a girl from Newark called to talk to Michael at two in the morning – just one day after the new number was assigned.

  As always, Joseph limited phone calls to five minutes and would not hesitate to use a strap on any junior family member who broke that rule, pop star or no pop star. To say the least, the children were well disciplined. In fact, the boys were known in Hollywood circles as the best-behaved youngsters in show business. ‘You sometimes thought they were too nice,’ said one reporter. ‘It was as if something was wrong somewhere. They were sort of spooky.’

  Jermaine has recalled that when the family moved into the Encino home their familial closeness began to dissipate, simply because there was so much space. ‘We were real close when we had the other homes, before Encino,’ he remembered. ‘In Gary, we had two bedrooms, one for our parents and one for all of us. You had to be close. You felt that closeness as a family. But in Encino, the place was so big we had to make plans in advance to see each other. I think that Michael, in particular, was unhappy there. He felt, as I did, that we were all losing touch with each other.’

  In June 1971, The Jackson 5 released another single for Motown, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, which went on to sell 830,794 copies, not as many as previous efforts but still respectable. A month later, the group taped its first television special, Goin' Back to Indiana, for ABC-TV. (It would air in September.) Later, they would even have their own cartoon series, that's how popular they'd become in such a short time. (The Jacksons' actual voices were heard in musical numbers, but their dialogue was provided by young black actors.) That summer, The Jackson 5 performed fifty shows on tour, the longest series of one-night performances ever attempted by the boys. ‘I wish for once we could finish a show and not have to leave before the end because of the crowds rushing the stage,’ Michael complained. ‘We have a real good ending, but we never get the chance to do it.’

  At Madison Square Garden in August of that year, the show had to be stopped after only two minutes when the audience stormed the stage. ‘Return to your seats, please,’ a frightened Michael begged. Ultimately, though, the group had to be extracted from the crowd and rushed away from the premises. The show resumed after the audience calmed down. Sixty minutes later, when the concert was over, the Jacksons sprinted to waiting limousines, without finishing their last number, in order to get away as quickly as possible. The audience went berserk. Once the fans realized that the group was gone, they surged on to the stage like an angry mob, sweeping away police and security men, and swarming the dressing room looking for their idols.

  This was a heady time for the boys from Gary, and they were never again to be as close as they were during these early days – nor would they have as much fun. Insulated from outsiders by the Motown representatives and their father, they had only each other for company. To occupy their free time, they enjoyed dropping water balloons and paper bags filled with water from hotel-room windows, having pillow fights with one another, and playing Scrabble, Monopoly and card games. (They gave Jermaine the nickname ‘Las Vegas’ because he became such a skilled card shark.) Michael has fond memories of tag-team wrestling matches and shaving-cream wars with his brothers while they were cooped up in hotels, ‘or fast-walk races down hotel hallways once our chaperone was asleep,’ he said. Michael, who was twelve at this time, was quite a prankster. He liked to phone room service, order huge meals, and then have them sent to the rooms of strangers in the hotel; and he especially enjoyed setting up a bucket of water as a booby trap above the doorway to his and Jermaine's room (they always shared quarters), drenching whoever happened to walk into the room.

  ‘Mike always blamed me,’ Jermaine recalled with a grin. ‘He loved practical jokes, locking us out of our rooms in our underwear, squirting us with water pistols. They were almost always his idea. We had so much fun. It was all fun, all the time.’

  Indeed, success was sweet and innocent for The Jackson 5. ‘We don't have no gold records,’ Michael once told me during this time, a sad expression on his face. Then, after a beat, he explained, ‘They're all platinum! Ha-ha!’

  Occasionally one of the Jackson brothers would show some interest in the opposite sex. Backstage at the Hollywood Bowl, when the group performed there, Berry Gordy's sixteen-year-old daughter Hazel had her arm around Jermaine, also sixteen, and seemed to be nibbling on his ear. Joseph watched with great interest and pulled Jermaine aside.

  ‘What's the deal with her?’ he demanded to know.

  ‘I don't know,’ Jermaine said, shrugging his shoulders. ‘She likes me, I guess.’

  At first, Joseph was annoyed. Then, he became thoughtful and nodded his approval. ‘Berry's kid,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Hmmm. Not bad. Not bad at all.’

  During the concert, Jermaine decided to dedicate his solo of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ to ‘Hazel, for her birthday’. The audience's reaction was lukewarm. Whereas he usually got a standing ovation for the number, this evening it seemed that the female fans in the crowd did not appreciate Jermaine's honesty about his friendship with Hazel.

  Jermaine recalled, ‘My father pulled me aside, I remember, and he said, “You'd better not do that
again.” And I said, “You know, you're right. I'd better not.” And I didn't.’

  Michael's First Solo Record

  Joseph Jackson always had his eye on the competition, namely the Osmond Brothers, a family group from Salt Lake City, Utah. In June 1971, MGM Records released ‘Sweet and Innocent’ by the youngest member of the group, Donny Osmond, as a solo act. That record's success all but guaranteed him teen-star status in the predominantly white teenybopper magazines. Because of their colour, The Jackson 5 could never be perceived as teen idols in those magazines, despite all of their success and good looks. Though the Jacksons would make occasional appearances in magazines like 16 and Fave, the Osmonds and other white stars like them dominated the pages of such publications. This practice chagrined Joseph, who viewed it as racism.

  After Donny Osmond's hit, Joseph decided that Michael should also record a song on his own. He and Berry Gordy decided to release a song called ‘Got to Be There’, as Michael's first solo, instead of as a group effort as originally planned. Michael would still be a part of the group, just as Donny was a part of The Osmonds, but he would now also be a solo Motown artist. ‘Then we can all make more money,’ Joseph reasoned. Joseph never dreamed that he had just put into motion a plan that would one day separate Michael not only from his brothers, but from him as well.

  ‘Got to Be There’ was issued in October. Although it would not reach the top of the charts, it was a reality check of sorts for the Jackson brothers when they saw that Michael could crack the Top Five on his own. In England it was a number five hit, and stayed in the Top 50 for almost three months. Globally, ‘Got to be There’ sold 1,583,850 copies.

  This lushly produced and orchestrated, mid-tempo love song was the perfect vehicle for launching Michael's solo career; it's surely one of the most beautiful songs in Motown's publishing catalogue. At the time, it was the envy of many artists whose flagging careers could have been salvaged by such a versatile, well-tailored number. Instead, it served to bolster the enormously popular lead singer of The Jackson 5.