Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Eliana (class of 2024) and features a selection of songs recorded live.
Best Live Performances
There’s an endless number of incredible live performances, but these are some of the ones that top my list. I suppose being able to see the real thing would be better but a YouTube video is a close second, right?!?
Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever at Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25, 1983) – An even bigger cultural reset
Rihanna – “Love on the Brain” (Live at Global Citizen Festival 2016) – Performance I would have traded my left kidney for to see live
Beyoncé – “At Last” (For Barack and Michelle Obama – Inaugural Ball January 20, 2009) – A defining historical moment that never fails to bring tears to my eyes
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.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
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.
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.
This special edition of Arachnophonia features contributions from students in Dr. Joanna Love‘s MUS 235 class: “I Want My MTV: Music Video and the Transformation of the Music Industry.”
Michael Jackson. Lionel Richie. Quincy Jones. The trifecta of musical genius that came together in 1985 to write and produce the song “We Are the World,” a collaboration of Jackson, Richie, and 43 other popular artists at the time. This feat was accomplished within a short period of time, only six days of recording in total, much to the surprise of almost everyone in the music industry. Brought together for the sake of raising awareness to the famine in Africa and support the humanitarian efforts going on to aid those affected by the famine. The musicians brought together to perform this song spanned all different ages, and all different genres of music, ranging from the King of Pop himself, to Cindy Lauper, to Bruce Springsteen. All already with successful careers and star status, and all worked with each other to help create a song that would go on to win four Grammys (1986), two MTV Video Music Awards (1985), one People’s Choice award (1986) and one American Music Award (1986). A song- and music video- of this caliber drew the attention of millions, so it comes as no surprise that there was a behind the scenes DVD documentary showing what went on during the making of the song.
Willie Nelson’s signed sheet music and poster with all of the other artists’ autographs
Directed by Tom Trbovich, with the help of producers Craig B. Golin and Howard G. Malley and distributed by Image Entertainment in Chatsworth, CA, “We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song” is a DVD documentary that shows what happened the night of January 28, 1985 on the last recording session of the song. Tom Trbovich was known at the time for his directing work on “The Bette Midler Show” and “Laverne and Shirley,” but the documentary happens to be his best known work. In a two disk, 54 minute long DVD set, Trbovich set out to help the audience understand the amount of effort and work put into the creation of the now iconic song. Narrated by Jane Fonda, the documentary takes the viewer step by step through the final day of recording, from the group all together recording the chorus, to the solos (i.e. Michael Jackson, Diana Ross), to Stevie Wonder bringing in two Ethiopian women to tell the artists what the song and the fundraising meant to them and for their country. Next, it jumps to a segment focusing on the introduction of Ray Charles (to add some soul to the song) and then to the individual interviews of some artists involved. The documentary ends with a message from Lionel Richie to the viewers, giving them the information on where the funds from the song will go to in terms of helping the humanitarian efforts in Africa, and then cuts to the music video.
Artists(from left to right) Paul Simon, Kim Carnes, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross arm-in-arm
In my music class (Music 235 I Want My MTV with Dr. Love), our final paper for class is to connect two music videos of the past and present and how the interwoven meanings in the two videos transcend the time between them (the political and/or social meaning within both songs and videos). The past video that I chose to use is the music video shown at the end of the documentary, ‘We Are the World’ by USA for Africa. This documentary is one of my main sources, because not only does it give me all the information on the music itself (instrumentals, production) but also explains the meaning behind the song, why it was written and the circumstances under which the song was written and shows all the artists that were a part of the effort to create the song and the purpose of the song.
The biggest portion(s) of the documentary that I am going to focus on is the segment with the two Ethiopian women and the ending segment of Lionel Richie reaching out and talking to the viewers about the need for the support for the humanitarian efforts going on in Africa at the time. The underlying message of the song and the music video that I want to focus on is the way the coming together of so many successful, house-hold names was for the purpose of raising awareness for a cause that was close to the heart of the writers (and performers). These two segments will be the most helpful as they show the impact the two women had on all the people and the gravity of the success behind the song and what the impact of the song could be on the people affected by the famine all over Africa. Lionel Richie’s short segment of the individual interviews is a plea for help, for people to help their fellow people, until their fellow people stop dying of hunger. He closes the documentary before the music video starts with,
“Anything you can do, if you have any feeling in your heart at all about human life and the celebration of life… give of yourselves…give what you can.”
Besides being a source for all things musical (videos included) this can also be helpful for other topics, for example, global consumer culture, as music can connect people from across the globe, and from a statistical and monetary standpoint, the sales coming from the song can show how relevant the song was in different countries all around the world and how people bought the track once it came out, and how those sales can be tracked from when the song was released up until this very day. This might be labeled as a music documentary and might be housed in a music library, but the uses of the video spread far out from just the topics of music.
“We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song” is a music documentary. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a behind the scenes look at what happens when people come together to try to make a difference in the world. And no, this is not a pitiful attempt to get people to feel bad about what they may be doing to make a difference. This is showing people the proof of what happens when people of all different backgrounds, with talents of all kinds come together and create something they can only hope can make a difference to the people who need it.
