Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by MUS 235 student Patrick and features a retrospective article about Michael Jackson first published in 2009 that is available via one of the library’s online resources called Rock’s Backpages. Thanks, Patrick!

Rock’s Backpages: “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough: Bruce Swedien Remembers the Times with Michael Jackson” by Daryl Easlea

In this article, Daryl Easlea details Jackson’s career from the 70s to the 90s in the context of Jackson’s recent (this article was written in the summer of 2009) death. Elsea himself is a critically acclaimed author, radio broadcaster, and DJ. Easlea discusses Jackson’s commercial success and offers a behind the scenes look at the musicality of Jackson’s work, primarily by including excerpts from Bruce Swedien, an audio engineer that worked with Jackson. This is important because it shows the range of Michael Jackson’s discography. In addition, it highlights the public reception of Jackson’s works while looking back on his life. While at times, Swedien himself gets bogged down in the specifics of the recordings, e.g. what microphone was used, this information can be crucial to artists influenced by Jackson’s sound that look to produce the same quality of music as him (even if it is not exactly pertinent to my research).

The range of Michael Jackson’s discography, however, is essential to my research for this project. While being crowned the “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson’s endeavors in various other genres made him an influential artist well outside the scope of just ‘pop’. Being the multi-faceted artist that he was, Jackson delved into genres such as rock, soul, R&B, funk, and disco. Easlea discusses how Swedien handled Jackson’s music with unprecedented care, which is portrayed in the crispness of the snare drum in tracks like “Billie Jean.”

This article is also important because it details the history of those who worked with Jackson and helped him cultivate his sound. Jackson had worked with the likes of Quincy Jones and Bruce Swedien as early as 1977 on The Wiz, but not exclusively on Jackson’s work until his solo debut album Off The Wall in 1979.

L-R Michael Jackson, Bruce Swedien and Quincy Jones

Both of these producers contributed to the genre-bending and futuristic pop sound of Off The Wall that made it a coming of age story for the Motown prodigy. Easlea makes few references to the actual music itself, but when he does, such as when he describes the ‘itching bass synth’ in “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, they are chock full of description. Easlea’s mention of Off The Wall and its success is important to my project because this was the album that saw disco out the door in its waning years and also introduced dance-pop to the mainstream.

From here, Easlea goes into great detail about Jackson’s professionalism and what it was like working with him in the studio (at least from Swedien’s perspective). Having recorded with acts like Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Dinah Washington, the Chi-Lites, Tyrone Davis, Buddy Miles, and Eddie Harris, Swedien still puts Jackson at the top of this list, which says a lot about Jackson’s raw talent, but also their chemistry together. Swedien recounts studio sessions with Jackson, describing him as always punctual and prepared, having committed all the lyrics to memory so he would not have to read them whilst recording. As a result, legendary albums such as Thriller were recorded in only three months with all the lyrics having been written before Jackson even entered the studio. Easlea describes the recording for Thriller as a “magical time”, with stars such as Rod Temperton, Eddie Van Halen, and Paul McCartney featuring on the album and adding range and an experimental element to Jackson’s music.

Easlea makes important notes of peculiar instrumentation used in Jackson’s recording sessions. One example is in the beginning of “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, where Michael Jackson and his siblings are playing soda bottles, by tapping sticks on the bottles. In the same manner, Jackson used a four by three piece of plywood with Masonite, known as the ‘bathroom stomp board’ on the Thriller’s opening track, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” Jackson also had drum cases set up that he would use as musical instruments. The use of these makeshift instruments only added to the detail of Jackson’s music and if anything comment on the ingenuity of his artistry.

Easlea also frames the scene during the recording of Jackson’s seventh studio album, Bad, which was also the last time Jackson worked together with both Swedien and Jones. He describes it as a literal zoo, with Jackson bringing his chimp, Bubbles, and boa constrictor, Muscles, to the studio along with him. Future researchers may apply this information when trying to find out what kinds of in-studio influences artists may have around them, and how much these things (or animals) actually influence the music making process.

Jackson with pets Bubbles the chimpanzee and Muscles the boa constrictor

It is interesting to note the transition Jackson undergoes in the making of these projects. Similar to Off the Wall, there is an air of independence in the making of Dangerous, as it was self-produced. Nonetheless, there was an emphasis on quality, as everything in this album was exaggerated from the moment the high energy drums hit on the album’s opening track, “Jam”. This focus on quality followed him into the recording of HIStory, where Swedien states that “the musicality never wavered,” no matter how much and how quickly Jackson’s life was changing.

Easlea shifts the focus to Swedien, who was still in mourning over the death of Jackson at the time, but was also excited to be working on Jackson’s newer songs, which had no designated plan or destination. Swedien recounts Jackson’s favorite song, and the one that best summarizes his work, “Smile”, which was a rendition of a Charlie Chaplin song. This song was sung with a full orchestra, which Swedien states is a feat that very few pop singers are capable of. On looking back on his career and history with Jackson, Swedien declares Jackson as the best — as a vocalist and musician, due to his ability to use his voice to continually push musical boundaries all throughout his career. He describes his instrument as the studio, and Jones’ instrument as Jackson’s ideas, which are two sentiments that can be expounded upon if someone were to do research on the work of producers and sound engineers both in relation to, but also independent of whatever artist they may be affiliated with.