The 500 - #259 - The Velvet Rope - Janet Jackson

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #259
Album Title: The Velvet Rope
Artist: Janet Jackson
Genre: R&B, Trip Hop, Pop
Recorded: 3 Studios (Minnesota, New York, Los Angeles)
Released: October, 1997
My age at release: 32
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not At All
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #318, dropping 59 spots
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Got 'Til It's Gone

Over the past 45 years, singer, songwriter, dancer and actress Janet Jackson has carved out a remarkable career. The youngest child of North America's most famous musical family, The Jacksons, she has sold over 100 million albums and holds the record for the most consecutive top ten entries on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart by a female artist.

Jackson's socially conscious and sexually provocative lyrics are as ingenious as the many genres of music from which she draws the inspiration for her unique sound. Additionally, her high-energy, elaborately choreographed and technically innovative stage productions have become legendary.

Lights and lasers on Jackson's 2023 Together Again tour

However, despite these accolades and her mountainous success,  she might best be remembered for a brief, but controversial, moment during the half-time performance at the 2004 Super Bowl. Her right breast, covered partially by a star-shaped nipple shield, was revealed to a television audience that exceeded 90 million in an event that has been memorialized by the unfortunate and lazy moniker "nipple-gate".

In brief, "nipplegate" occurred at the finale of Jackson's performance when, joined by singer Justin Timberlake, the duo sang his popular song Rock Your Body. The final lyric in Timberlake's hit is "Bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song". Consequently, the plan was for the former N'SYNC vocalist to tear the leather breast cup off Jackson to reveal red, lacy "lingerie" underneath.

Jackson, performing with Justin Timberlake at 2004 Superbowl

However, when Timberlake crooned the final lyric and pulled on her bustier, both the black leather and red fabric came free, momentarily revealing Jackson's breast. Some speculate that the "mishap" was intentional. However, both Timberlake and Jackson have maintained for 19 years that it was a legitimate "wardrobe malfunction".

Jacson, covering up, moments after the "wardrobe malfunction"

Jackson's breast was visible for less than a second. But that was enough to spark discussions (and outrage) that eclipsed an exciting main event --Tom Brady and the New England Patriots winning their second NFL Championship, 32-29, against the Carolina Panthers. The internet was inundated with searches in the days that followed, crashing Janet Jackson's site. In fact, YouTube co-founder and creator Jawad Karim has stated that he was inspired to create the video platform after "having difficulty finding footage of the wardrobe malfunction online.

In a survey following the event and Jackson' apology, it was clear that the majority of parents were not troubled about the mishap, with only 17 per cent indicating they were "very concerned". Perhaps it was the mili-second “exposure” that irked publicity-minded politicians because the White House got in on the act by issuing a statement and the U.S. Congress went on to hold hearings into the prime time television flub.  Adding to the outraged Washington frenzy the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an investigation into this "shameful display", eventually fining broadcast company CBS half a million dollars. FCC Chairman Michael Powell also issued a statement, saying: "Clearly someone had knowledge of it. Clearly it was something that was planned by someone." Despite not being able to determine who the "someone" was, Powell’s statement continued, "'she' probably got what 'she' was looking for", ostensibly ascribing all the blame to Jackson.

CBS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Les Moonves was reportedly "obsessed" with ruining Jackson's career because he considered her apology insufficient, according to the 2021 documentary Malfunction: The Dressing Down Of Janet Jackson. Indeed, Moonves blacklisted her music and music videos from all CBS/Viacom media outlets, including MTV, VH1 and more than 200 radio stations. From the sidelines, it seems incredulous that the sight of a patch of female flesh would inflame someone to such drastic action.  Incidentally, Moonves was fired from CBS in 2018 after being credibly accused of sexual harassment, intimidation and assault.

Les Moonves when Chairman and CEO of CBS

What about Timberlake? Well, unsurprisingly, a familiar double standard was at play and it only elevated his career. He remains one of the world's biggest selling artists and returned to host the Super Bowl Half Time show 13 years later.

Timberlake at the Super Bowl in 2017

In his detailed examination of the event and the fallout, journalist Johnny Harris aggregated data from 200 news articles of the time of the Great Uncovering in 2004. He learned that only half of them mentioned Timberlake in passing" and one-third failed to mention him at all. Additionally, Harris examined the language used by reputable media outlets, including the New York Times and Washington Post. A clear pattern emerged where the media chose words to portray Jackson as the sole perpetrator and provoker, while framing Timberlake, who actually removed the breast cup, as an innocent victim.The Boston Globe was carried away, noting: "Justin Timberlake reached over to that infamous right breast of Janet Jackson". Infamous?  It's as if Jackson was a mythological siren using her irresistible feminine charms to lure the 22-year-old Timberlake to a rocky shore of decadence.

As the hoopla built around the event, my clever friend James jokingly, but poignantly, commented, "I'll never understand how anyone could be angry about a boob?" True enough. Not only are they beautiful, they sustain life and half the population have them -- more if we count fat guys.

At the time, I didn't think much about it all, but since the tempest in a bra cup nearly two decades ago, I have come to understand better how shabily women are treated by the media. The Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee sex tape theft which resulted in illegal videocassette copies being sold to the public is another case in point. Anderson was painted as shameless and whorish, while Lee was celebrated as cool, virile and well-endowed.

The TV series Pam & Tommy helped me rethink the 1995 events

Although I regret the jokes I made (or laughed at) in the past, I am pleased with the progress I've made as a human over the 19 years since "nipplegate" and the 28 years since the Pam and Tommy Sex Tape. Anderson and Jackson have soldiered on and both report that they are happy with their place in the world. Jackson is currently on her 10th concert tour, called Together Again, and it is selling out stadiums, arenas and ampitheatres in 37 cities across North America. As my students would say -- "You slay girl!"

 **The Velvet Rope was Jackson’s sixth and was certified triple platinum in both the U.S. and Canada. It was my first time listening to it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well worth a listen.

The 500 - #260 - Stardust - Willie Nelson

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #260
Album Title: Stardust
Artist: Willie Nelson
Genre: Various - Country, Folk, Jazz, Pop
Recorded: Enactron Truck Studio, Willie's driveway, Malibu, California
Released: April, 1978
My age at release: 11
How familiar was I with it before this week: A Couple Songs
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Georgia On My Mind

In 1977, Willie Nelson went for a morning  jog on the beach near his home in Malibu, California, and happened upon musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger Booker T.  Jones. It was a  fortuitous meeting. Nelson was familiar with Jones' work, particularly with his time fronting the instrumental funk/R&B band Booker T. and the M.G.s  (Memphis Group) The pair struck up an easy and collegial friendship.

Booker T. (front) and the M.G.'s.

At the time, Nelson was riding high, enjoying the critical and commercial success from a string of popular releases, including his 1975 record, Red Headed Stranger (#183 on The 500). That record made Nelson one of the biggest artists in the country genre and also gave him mainstream recognition.

Album cover for Red Headed Stranger.
We'll get to it in November, 2024

Nelson was not afraid of taking chances. Earlier in the ‘70s, he had abandoned the country music establishment in Nashville and moved to Austin, Texas, to develop his own sound. Along with contemporaries Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. he eschewed the staunchly conservative limits of the Nashville Sound in favour of a growing sub-genre of music dubbed "Outlaw Country". The Nashville Sound, which had originated in the 1950s, blended the smoother elements from popular music of the time, including string accompaniment, backing vocals and slick production. Outlaw Country stripped the music back to its roots, from turn of the century cowboy ballads to the blues, honky-tonk music of the 1940s. He augmented the emerging style by incorporating elements of jazz, folk and southern rock into the sound.

Nelson’s chance meeting with Jones during his Malibu run spurred him into taking another risk.  At 44, he wanted to record an album of American pop standards from his childhood and asked Jones for help. They  started with an arrangement of Moonlight In Vermont, a 1944 jazz standard  previously been recorded by a who's-who of ‘50s and ‘60s crooners, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.

The executives at Columbia Records, with whom Nelson was contracted, were hesitant to publish and instead encouraged him to release another record in the outlaw country vein. However, Nelson's contract gave him artistic liberty to record what he wanted. Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Columbia Records, Nelson to approached Canadian guitarist and record producer Brian Ahern who owned the Enactron Truck Studio, a mobile recording facility housed inside a portable trailer parked in nearby Hollywood Hills. In December, 1977, the truck was relocated to Nelson's driveway and recording began.

Ahern (back) at the soundboard of the Enactron Truck Studios (1978)

Nelson selected songs from The Great American Songbook, a "loosely defined canon of significant 20th Century American jazz standards, pop songs and show tunes", including Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust (1927) and Georgia On My Mind (1930); Irving Berlin's Blue Skies (1926); and Someone To Watch Over Me (1926) by George Gershwin.

Once again, Nelson's instincts were right. The album went to the top of Country charts in the United States and Canada and even fared well on the popular music charts. It has been certified platinum five times (more than five million units sold in the United States). It is also at #260 on the 2012 edition of The 500. In November, 1978, Willie was featured on the cover of Newsweek with the title "King Of Country Music".

This got me thinking. If I was as talented as Willie Nelson...and had an incredible arranger like Booker T. Jones at my disposal...and a state of the art recording studio parked in my driveway...what songs from my youth would comprise my album?

I limited myself to songs I loved before I turned 15 (in the summer of 1980) and which could be arranged into a style similar to the tracks on Stardust. As I mowed the grass recently, I mentally sorted through dozens of songs from my youth and settled on the following list of 10 tracks. 

I'd love to hear your list in the comments below or through social media.

Consider Yourself -- Oliver Soundtrack

All Shook Up -- Elvis Presley

Lido Shuffle -- Boz Scaggs

How Deep Is Your Love? -- The Bee Gees

Don't Bring Me Down -- Electric Light Orchestra

Surrender -- Cheap Trick

Honesty -- Billy Joel

Renegade -- Styx

Freewill -- Rush

More Than A Feeling -- Boston

Similar to Stardust, I gave my record a one-word title from one of the tracks, Freewill. Below is a mock-up of my imagined album cover, replete with my pseudonym Marc Quinn.

How about you?

The 500 - #261 - American Beauty - Grateful Dead

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #261
Album Title: American Beauty
Artist: Grateful Dead
Genre: Folk Rock, Country Rock, Americana
Recorded: Wally Heider Studios, Hollywood, California, U.S.A.
Released: November, 1970
My age at release: 5
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #215, moving up 46 spots since 2012
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Ripple

Since 2003, I have used the 1999 American teen drama/comedy (dramedy) television series Freaks and Geeks to help me deliver the health curriculum to Grades 7 and 8 students. Set in 1980 in the fictional Detroit suburb of Chippewa, Michigan, the show focuses on 16-year-old Lindsay Weir and her 14-year-old brother Sam as they navigate the challenges of high school life.

Promotional poster for Freaks and Geeks.

The story begins in September of Lindsay's Grade 11 year. An honour student ("mathlete") and model citizen, Lindsay is experiencing an existential crisis following the recent death of her grandmother. She begins to explore her more rebellious side, eschewing her academic friends to spend time with the "freaks", a group of slackers who prioritize parties over scholastic pursuits.

Protagonist Lindsay (brunette-center), flanked by (l-r)
her "Freak" school-mates.- Daniel, Kim, Ken & Nick.

Juxtaposing Lindsay's high school experience is her brother, Sam. He and his two best friends, Neil and Bill, are "geeks" -- non-athletic, conventionally "uncool" high school freshmen who are fans of Star Wars, stand-up comedy, Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games and the movies of Bill Murray.

Protagonist Sam (center) flanked by his best friends
Bill (left) and Sam.

The wonderful thing about period fiction, such as Freaks and Geeks (set in 1980, but filmed in 1998), is that it never seems dated. Consequently, the show works as well teaching the Ontario Health Curriculum in a  2023 Grade 7 classroom as it did with 7/8 students two decades earlier. Additionally, young viewers are better able to see themselves in the choices the characters make, good or bad, without being concerned about aesthetic similarities (fashion, music taste, pop culture).

Sam, Bill and Neil discuss life's big questions often.

Typically, I screen an episode weekly between October and February. Every episode lends itself to specific curriculum expectations we've already discussed. This isn't simply "TV watching". We pause episodes at key junctures and critically examine character choices and motivations. Over the past 20 years, I have painstakingly built lessons and activities that connect to the issues addressed in the show. These include bullying, underage drinking, marijuana use, body image, nutrition, pornography, peer pressure, gender roles, and relationships.

The perils and pitfalls of high school dating is an important
source of conflict, and comedy, in the series.

Freaks and Geeks lasted only one season on television because the network, NBC, badly handled its release and broadcast. Shortly after the decision was made to pull the plug, the show began to find an audience and was lauded by critics -- even receiving Emmy Award nominations for writing. Decades later, it still tops magazine and online lists of TV Show That Were Cancelled Too Soon, and has steadily built a loyal, cult following.

For educational purposes, that  single season is perfect for use in the middle-school classroom. Students connect with the realistically written and complex, sometimes contradictory, characters and the final episode is ideal for discussions about, "What would have happened next?"

Without giving away any spoilers, the album, American Beauty by Grateful Dead, plays heavily into the final episode and sets in motion events that would have been explored in the aborted second season. The record, the fifth by 'The Dead' and third of four on The 500, is introduced to the protagonist, Lindsay, by her guidance counsellor, a former hippie, Jeff Rosso (portrayed by Dave "Gruber" Allan).

While discussing opportunities for her academic future, the caring and supportive Rosso, surprises Lindsay with a lyric from the album's title track, Box Of Rain, saying:

"Maybe you're tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted with words half spoken
And thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do?
To see you through?"

As you might imagine, Lindsay is nonplussed by this unusual segue from her guidance teacher. However, Mr. Rosso presents her with a record and says: “When I was in college...I’d put their album American Beauty on whenever I was stressing out. It always helped.” He lends her the record, hoping it will help her find some comfort and guide her choices.

Lindsay looking at American Beauty record sleeve (see scene here).

A short time later, we see Lindsay in the comfortable confines of her bedroom, playing the album and connecting with its content. Eventually, all her inhibitions melt away and she begins to dance around her bed as the music plays. The short montage brilliantly captures an experience familiar to many teens; that beautiful moment when one discovers music that "speaks to them" and connects to their spirit.

Lindsay feeling the groove of Box Of Rain in her bedroom

Although I would have been about Lindsay's age in high school, I didn't discover Grateful Dead until after I had graduated. I knew a few "Deadheads", as they are called, particularly during my time working in restaurants as a twenty-something. It was played at parties and I was invited to attend Dead concerts during the late 80s and early 90s. Another opportunity missed.

Grateful Dead performing live in 1990

It wasn't until I watched that scene from Freaks and Geeks that I decided to take a serious look into American Beauty. It was the year 2000 and, although it did not inspire me to dance around my apartment, I still felt a connection to the music and the lyrics. It is a wonderful record and well worth a listen. Much like the series Freaks and Geeks, the record captures the exuberance and freedom of youth while still firmly planted on a road toward maturity and wisdom. If you haven't had a chance, I recommend taking in both the series and the record. I'm a little envious of the journey that will entertain and inform you.

The 500 - #262 - Self-Titled Debut - Crosby, Stills & Nash

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #262
Album Title: Self-Titled Debut
Artist: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Genre: Folk Rock, 
Recorded: Wally Heider Studios, Hollywood, California, U.S.A.
Released: May, 1969
My age at release: 3
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #161, moving up 101 spots since 2012
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Sometimes, late at night when my "old man bladder" rouses me from slumber, my thoughts drift toward the negative and I am filled with overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, failure and existential dread.

Sometimes, horrifyingly, this is coupled with sleep paralysis -- I am "conscious" but unable to move, with an intense pressure on my chest that restricts my breathing and holds me in place. As my students would say ... "Pure Nightmare Fuel".

There is no logical reason for any feelings of dread. I live a wonderful life with a beautiful wife, good health, a purposeful job I love and enough money to be comfortable.

I'm not alone, researchers say about 11% of the North American population suffer nocturnal anxiety, parasomnia and disruptive sleep disorders. Consequently, I sought help from professionals. My family doctor prescribed a low dose of mirtazapine, a mild, anti-anxiety medication with sleep promoting benefits. He also directed me to a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) clinician.

Unlike psychoanalysis or interpersonal therapy, CBT is a time-limited, problem-focused and goal-oriented form of psychological treatment. I attended only three sessions and the strategies I learned made a world of difference. I get to sleep more easily. More importantly, I stay in the deeply resting phase of "low wave sleep" (N3) more often and, if I wake prematurely, I am able to drift off again with fewer incidents of dread creeping into my psyche. More importantly, sleep paralysis is now an annual event, rather than a monthly one.

I'm a realist, I suspect the mirtazapine is doing the heavy lifting with my treatment. However, the CBT strategies are not without merit. These are particularly effective when those clouds of dread permeate my psyche, on any occasion. Often, it is the specter of mistakes, indiscretions and the reckless misjudgments from my past that persist and haunt me most. Bad decisions I made, sometimes many years earlier. Their gloomy voices echoing through my mind, reamplifying embarrassment and shame:

• Why did you do that?
• Why would you say that?
• Why weren't you smarter? more patient? kinder? more respectful? less-judgmental?

During these times, it is a single lyric from the opening track, on the debut record from Crosby, Stills & Nash that has served as a mantra while I allow those thoughts, like a cloud in the sky, to pass over my mental horizon -- granted, with a small pronoun variation.

"Don't let the past remind you of what you are not now."

The lyric is from the song Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, penned by Stephen Stills, one-third of the aforementioned Crosby (David), Stills, and Nash (Graham). It appears on their self-titled record from 1969, an album that was introduced to me in high-school by my friend Don Robertson. It, along with the group's second record, Deja Vu (#220 on The 500), played frequently when the two of us lived together in a London, Ontario townhouse in 1993.

My 1993 roommates - Don (left) and Steve Mackison.

Stills wrote the song about his then girlfriend, singer, song-writer, and actor Judy Collins. The title is a play on words "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes" but is composed in four sections or movements, imitating a classical music suite - hence the double entendre.

Stills and Collins (1968).

The lyrics reflect on Stills' thoughts about Collins as he prepared himself for the couple's imminent break-up. Stills and Collins, who met in 1967, had dated for two years. In the summer of 1969, Collins was appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival in a musical production of Ibsen's Peer Gynt and had fallen in love with her co-star, Stacey Keach.

Collins and Keach in costume for a promotional
photograph from Peer Gynt.

Stills has, in subsequent interviews, made it clear that he knew their break-up was "imminent", saying, "we were just a little too big for one house". However, the lyrics, particularly in verse 9, petition Collins to save the relationship.

"Change my life, make it right

Be my lady."

Prior to the release of the record, he brought his guitar to Collins' hotel room to play the song for her. In a 2007 interview, Collins recounted the event, saying,

"I told him, 'Oh, Stephen, it’s such a beautiful song. But it’s not winning me back.'  I’ve always understood that people have to write about their lives. Most of all, I felt the song was flattering and heartbreaking – for both of us. Neither one of us walked away from that relationship relieved."

And, of course, there is that lyric that has stuck with me for decades and eventually became a consequential mantra

"Don't let the past remind us of what we are right now".

In context of his song, Stills is attempting to ease the pain of separation. He may be addressing Collins (or, perhaps, himself) about letting go of the great love they once had in order to accept the new reality of a life without each other.

Cover for the single release of Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.

Unlike Stills, I am not lamenting an unrequited love, but that short lyric is also a way of moving me forward. Psychologically, I am letting go of the worst version of the man, and sometimes the boy, I used to be. It is a way of forgiving myself the regrets of my past, in order to embrace the person I am now. A better man...who needs a good night's sleep, free of anxiety and dread.