The Robert W. Morgan Special Of The Week For 8/9/80 Radio Broadcast Album (USA)

Description:

Airdate 8/9-8/10/80.  Comes with no record cover.  Includes four page cue sheet which lists all 23 of the songs featured. Song excerpts include: Enjoy Yourself, Little Bitty Pretty One, Destiny, ABC, Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Rockin’ Robin, Mama’s Pearl, Dancing Machine, The Love You Save, I Want You Back, Goin’ Back To Indiana, I’ll Be There, The Boogie Man, Got To Be There, Shake Your Body, Ben, Ease On Down The Road, Off The Wall, Rock With You, Blame It On The Boogie, I Am Love, Never Can Say Goodbye.

The entire show is devoted to The Jacksons, with Michael and Marlon doing the full interview, with several interesting segments with Michael.

Side 1:

Michael talks about how he has always wanted to create “music for all races” and that if “politicians…couldn’t bring the world together, we’ll try to do it with music. That’s what I love about music.”

In the interview Michael says he “turned 21 yesterday” and discusses what it was like being a child star. “I don’t feel any age…Age is mental…How old would you be if you didn’t know your age? You would just be yourself…I’ve seen some 5 year old men, and I’ve seen some 30 year old children. And that’s how I see it.”

Michael and Marlon discuss how they had always wanted to produce and write their own music, and how many never thought they could do this until they proved it themselves. Michael discusses how Motown eventually would have allowed them to do their own music, but they wanted to do it “at that moment.” He says “We knew that we could do it, and wanted to do it, and we did it!” Michael also talks about how Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney had to appear in several movies back to back before they were allowed to do their own thing: “before you know it, they’re directing their own films…eventually, you want to do it yourself.”

Michael talks about using furniture and other things like cans and boxes around the house to make music and different sounds. He said he would “make music out of anything…a piece of paper, a bag…anything”.

Michael talks about coming from parents with a musical background, how his mother sang and played the clarinet in high school and his father was in a band (The Falcons) with his three brothers. He talks about how his uncles would come over and play music (with their father) by artists such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard and they would “listen in and learn”.

Michael remembers how they would do local talent shows in Gary, Indiana. He says he first knew they were really good when the crowd would be throwing quarters and dollars at them and they would do “splits” to pick up the money and put it in their pockets. They would only make $15/night for doing the show, so “Our pockets were so loaded from money, we couldn’t keep them up…Most of our money was made from people throwing money on the floor. We would be loaded with money!” Marlon and Michael also talk about how they used to sell their pictures to the audience for some extra money.

Marlon talks about how the brothers would travel with their band equipment, drummer, and keyboard player in 1966 and play seven shows a night at the Apollo in New York, and then move on to cities like Kansas City and St. Louis where they played The Regal Theatre and The Uptown. Michael talks about how they would do six shows a night for acts such as Jackie Wilson, James Brown, The Miracles, The O’Jays, and The Pips. They would do Amateur Hour, and “we would win the trophy every time!”. After they did The Regal, “Bobby Taylor and Gladys Knight told Motown about us”, and so they “decided to do a little audition”.

Michael then talks about meeting Berry Gordy in Detroit, and that all of the Motown stars including Diana Ross, The Temptations, and Smokey Robinson were there to meet them and watch them perform. “We did our whole show and they loved it, they really raved over it.” Diana Ross came over and said to him “I love what I saw…and that she would take special interest in our career”. Motown moved them to California and half the group stayed with Berry Gordy and the other half with Diana Ross, and they worked with them for about two years and “ate up all their food”.

Marlon talks about taking a helicopter to “Jackson 5 Day” in Gary, Indiana after their initial Motown success. Michael says “They look at you differently. They look at you as being a star, an entertainer…I look at me as being just a regular person, but very thankful. I’m different, because I do a different job than they do, and I’m happy to be chosen to do it.”

Side 2:

Michael and Marlon talk about the thrill of seeing themselves as cartoons on Saturday mornings, and Michael talks about loving cartoons even now. He says some kids would meet them and expect to see them in cartoon form, and get upset to see them as regular people!

Michael talks about touring England in the late 70’s with The Osmonds and how the brothers would find fans hiding in their shower, closets, and under their beds. Michael talked about meeting the Queen and that the Duke of England was “so cool”.

Michael talks about The Wiz and how family members watching it would get upset to watch the Crows torture him and see him get his whole body cut in half, and that his nephews “got mad and they left” the theatre.

Michael next talks about how after The Wiz, he called Quincy Jones one day to tell him he was getting ready to make a new album and asked him “Do you know of any producers?…He said…“Smelly, why don’t you let me do it?” and I said “That would be wonderful!…but I wasn’t hinting around.” Quincy Jones in an interview segment following the producing of Off The Wall says that Michael at 21 has “an old man’s sense of awareness…a gift…like he was tapped on the shoulder…Michael could be the star of the 80’s, ya know?”

Marlon talks about as brothers “we never fought before.” Michael says “But we’re no angels, I have a crooked 45 degree angle halo here, it’s cocked to the side.” Marlon and Michael talk about how they are so thankful to the fans for making them who they are today and that even though they had been in show business for ten years (and growing up with it seven years before that) that this was just “the beginning.”

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