The 500 - #203 - Bad - Michael 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: #203
Album Title: Bad
Artist: Michael Jackson

Genre: Pop, Funk, Soul, Hard Rock, R&B
Recorded: Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Released: August, 1987
My age at release: 22
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #194, moving up 10 spots
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Man In The Mirror

Four years ago, as we navigated the unpredictable Coronavirus pandemic, my wife and I discovered the Disney+ program WandaVision. The nine-part mini-series was the first television program released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and set after the events in the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame.

One might expect this to be typical superhero fare. After all, it featured Wanda Maximoff (aka: Scarlet Witch) and the android Vision, two characters well established in the MCU. However, it was the promotional trailer release that piqued our interest and convinced us to subscribe to the newly available Disney streaming service. This short video, shot in black and white, featured the song Twilight Time from 1950's vocal group The Platters. The vid depicted our former heroes in a situational comedy setting eerily reminiscent of I Love Lucy episodes (1951-1958).

Screen Capture for the Official Trailer to WandaVision.

Ten minutes into the first episode and we were hooked. The show was part sit-com, part mystery -- think I Love Lucy meets The Twilight Zone (1959 - 1964). We had so many questions:

• Why are these 2020 characters living and hiding their superpowers, in the idyllic world of 1950s Westview, New Jersey?
• Why is the show leaning on the campy and cliche television tropes from that era?
• Why was Vision alive? Thanos had killed him in Avengers: Endgame, right?
• Who is the mysterious person whose hand is shown in a television studio in the final credits, watching the final credits?

  

  Final Credit screen capture featuring a mysterious onlooker.

Our delightful bewilderment continued when the second episode featured the same characters appearing in a fictional world that had all the trappings of a ‘60s era sitcom -- clearly reminiscent of the Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1967),...including promotional material.

WandaVision shot (left) compared with the Dick Van Dyke Show promo.

It soon became evident that WandaVision was going to be a mysterious and nostalgic trip through the decades, depicted through the tropes and cliches from situation comedies in each. Wisely, the Disney channel released the episodes weekly rather than dropping the entire series for viewers to binge watch. Consequently, there was plenty of time for online speculation and for fan predictions and theories to percolate.

Wanda's changes through the episodes/decades.

At the same time, January to March, 2021, I was teaching remotely. I had started the year with a delightful group of Grade 7 students in person. However, as our province, Ontario, entered the second wave of the pandemic, we reluctantly returned to online learning. Always on the hunt to engage students and build community, I thought about ways the WandaVision premise could connect to our learning. Then, I was struck by a plan.

• What if each student was assigned a random decade and found a song that others might enjoy.... a "Bop"?
• The student could then, privately, send me a presentation slide which would feature the song as an embedded YouTube video.
• Included on the slide would be three bullet points of research -- about the song, the artist, the album or the themes in the lyrics.
• I would present the slide (in order to keep the student identity private) and would play the song throughout the week in our virtual learning environment.
• At the end of the week, we would use a Google Form to vote each song from the chosen decade as a Bop or Flop. The top two songs, or any song receiving 60 per cent Bop status, would remain in our class playlist.
• We would then reveal the students who chose each song and created the accompanying slide presentation.
• I began by sharing three songs from the ‘40s in order to provide an example to guide them.

  

  One of my example slides - Stardust by Artie Shaw -- it was voted a Bop.

The activity was a hit. My students were excited to have their songs shared and hear the music chosen by classmates from the ‘50s through to the 2000s. With six decades over six weeks, this turned out to be a wonderful way of bonding the class during a time of dreary isolation -- short, bleak winter days coupled with another pandemic lockdown. It also connected to multiple curriculum expectations -- visual literacy, writing, research and history.

The success of this collaborative WandaVision music project in 2021 prompted me to make it part of my regular program and, for the fourth year in a row, it has been received enthusiastically. The eclectic playlist we create throughout the unit never fails to delight me. Songs ranging from Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes (‘50s) to I'm A Believer from The Monkees (‘60s) to Earth, Wind and Fire's September (‘70s) bring diverse sounds to our work periods. With literally thousands of popular songs from which to choose, each year takes on a slightly different tone. One artist, however, has consistently made the cut every year -- The King of Pop , Michael Jackson.

The King of Pop - Michael Jackson.

One year, a student locked into ‘70s Michael, performing with his brothers, The Jackson Five, on the soft rock ballad I'll Be There. Another discovered the disco/funk audio splendor of Rock With You from 1979's Off the Wall (#68 on The 500). Another class found Jackson's work from the ‘80s with the hard rock dance track Beat It, and the title track from this week's record, Bad.

Cover for the single, Bad, from Michael Jackson

Bad, the single, exploded into the pop culture zeitgeist on August 31, 1987, when the 18-minute video premiered on a primetime CBS special called The Magic Returns: Michael Jackson. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the short film was, in part, inspired by scenes from the musical West Side Story. Shot in a Brooklyn subway station, the protagonist Darryl (portrayed by Jackson) is a young man returning to his old, tough neighbourhood after being away at a private school on a scholarship. Darryl is greeted by his former street gang, which included actor Wesley Snipes in one of his first roles. At first, the reunion is friendly, but becomes awkward when Darryl's street credibility is challenged. In an attempt to show the group that he is still "bad", Darryl considers robbing an elderly man before having second thoughts. The dance sequence that follows, featuring the song Bad, has become iconic, as has the leather outfit Jackson wore as Darryl.

A screen capture from the Scorsese directed short film, Bad.

It is, like many things from the ‘80s, a piece of pop culture history that has aged imperfectly. When we watched the video in class there were a few chuckles and a lot of questions. However, by week's end, the song was voted a Bop and became part of that year's playlist rotation.

That's the thing about Jackson, he fearlessly took risks. It was a message I deliver often in our Grade 7 classroom, "swing for the fences with your artistic endeavours".  If you are brave enough to push your creativity to new limits it is worthy of respect, even when it doesn't work out. This was not, I reminded them, dissimilar to the risk they took by picking a song during our WandaVision music challenge. They knew it might be a Flop -- and that's okay.

Admittedly, Jackson had more hits than misses in his career. In 1991, the album Bad became the second best-selling record of all time, eclipsed only by Jackson's previous record, 1982's Thriller (#20 on The 500). Bad had only had nine tracks on it, and seven of them were singles, with five songs hitting #1 on Billboard charts. The first single from the album, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, was a chart-topper in June, 1987. The final song released as a single, Liberian Girl, wasn't promoted until July, 1989 -- 25 months later. For anyone who lived through "Michaelmania", it felt like he was an constant artistic force.

Single cover for Liberian Girl - released in the U.K. in 1989.

I plan on sharing the WandaVision Music Experience with my students again in the next school year. Although pandemic lockdowns and virtual learning seem to be a strange thing of the past, the unit still builds community through the coldest and bleakest days of winter. I am always surprised by the interesting choices that students make and I am keen to see if Jackson's streak continues in 2025.

The 500 - #228 - Paid In Full - Eric B. & Rakim

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: #228
Album Title: Paid In Full
Artist: Eric B. & Rakim
Genre: Golden Age Hip Hop
Recorded: Three Marly Marl's Home Studio and Power Play Studios, New York. 

Released: July, 1987
My age at release: 21
How familiar was I with it before this week: A few songs

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #61, moving up 167 places since the 2012 list.
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Paid In Full (Coldcut Remix)

The term "The Golden Age" comes to us from Greek Mythology. Specifically, it is mentioned in a poem written by Hesiod (c. 750 - 650 B.C.E.) in a didactic almanac of sorts entitled Works And Days. It described the decline of a state of people through a series of ages -- Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron. It was written when, according to Hesiod, human existence in its final stage would be a time of toil and misery. He described the Iron period as a time when "might makes right" and evil men use lies to be thought good. Humans no longer feel shame when committing sin, children dishonour parents and war is the norm. Sound familiar?

Conversely, the "Golden Age" is the period when peace and harmony prevailed, food was plentiful and death came peacefully, late in a vigorous and rewarding life. The term has, over time, morphed somewhat. Not only is it used to describe a time, sometimes imagined, full of peace, prosperity and harmony, it is also correlated with a time when a specific art, skill or practise was at its zenith.

As a kid, when I'd hear about "The Golden Age" of something, I would get the feeling that I'd missed out. Adults in my world and on television talked about The Golden Age of …Hollywood, Comic Books, Television, Radio or Science Fiction, and I couldn't help but wonder "what would that have been like...to be there...to exist in the thick of that miraculous time?”

The Golden Age of Comics (1938 - 1956) was a period I found particularly fascinating as a kid.

However, I've since realized that "The Golden Age" is not something one understands "living through" until well after it has departed. It is a construct developed in retrospect. Indeed, I have lived through, and feverishly participated in, “The Golden Age of Arcade Video Games" (1976-1984) and didn't recognize it as such until reflecting on it nostalgically in the late ‘90s. Indeed, I invested thousands of dollars into the fad...a quarter at a time.

An assortment of classic arcade video games from that 
Golden Age.

I also lived through The Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986-1993) and, in contrast with my financial and emotional commitment to arcade games, I actively railed against it. Like many twenty-somethings, I brimmed with a caustic cocktail of ignorance, intolerance and bombast. A quarter century later, not only have I softened my attitude, I’ve become a fan of this era in music. It was an emotional evolution that has been supercharged by my journey through The 500 list.

However, during The Golden Age of Hip Hop, there were a few songs and artists that managed to crack my armour of intolerance. Eric B. & Rakim was one such group, and the title track from this week's record, Paid In Full, was a song I quietly enjoyed.

Interestingly, it was not the original version of the song that made its way around my  youthful auditory disdain. It was a remix released in October, 1987, by English electronic duo Coldcut, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. The seven-minute version was dubbed Paid In Full (Seven Minutes of Madness-The Coldcut Remix). The extended name is not surprising, as Tony Harrington detailed in his 1998 book, Invisible* Jukebox. The landmark remix "laid the groundwork for hip hop's entry into the mainstream" and became Eric B. & Rakim's breakout hit outside the United States.

Paid In Full was the debut record from DJ Eric B. (Eric Banner) and rapper Rakim (William Michael Griffin Jr.) who met in Long Island, New York, in 1985 and were soon composing. The first song they wrote together, Eric B. Is President, was recorded in the home studio of  DJ and producer Marley Marl (Marlon Lu'Ree Williams). In my October, 2023, post I discussed the impact that song had on the evolution of hip hop. The lyrics were clever and Rakim was the first successful artist to incorporate multi-syllabic rhymes that crossed the musical bar line.

The song Paid In Full, is also clever lyrically and musically. The narrative eschewed the typical hip hop structure of the time -- hyper machismo, boastful and often rife with obscenities and references to a criminal world. Instead, Rakim eschews that approach and instead exposes his vulnerability as a struggling artist who hopes that his penchant for rhyme and hard work will lead to "righteous" (his word) financial redemption. The song is shrewdly built around beats and musical motifs from three Funk and R&B sources:

Ashley's Roachclip by The Soul Searchers (1974)

Don't Look Any Further by Dennis Edwards (1984)

Change The Beat (French Female Version) by Beside (1982) 

The Coldcut remix contains a staggering 25 samples from other audio sources including the haunting Im Nin'Alu from Israeli singer Ofra Haza who has been dubbed "The Madonna of the East".

There are some tracks on the debut Eric B. & Rakim album that are a bit dated -- Extended Beat and Chinese Arithmetic have not aged well. However, as evidenced by my classroom students' reaction to it, the song Paid In Full, stands-up. When a much younger colleague heard me playing it one morning before school, she asked who it was.

"This is Eric B. & Rakim", I answered, "mid-eighties hip hop".

"I like it," she replied.

"Yea," I said, "It holds up".

Quietly I thought, "it should", it is, after all, from "The Golden Age of Hip Hop." I can't say I lived through it, but I was grumpily adjacent.

The 500 - #363 - Substance - New Order

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. 

The 500 - #369 - Louder Than Bombs - The Smiths

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. 

The 500 - #410 - Time Out Of Mind - Bob Dylan

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's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 411

Album Title: Time Out Of Mind
Artist: Bob Dylan
Genre: Country, Blues, Rockabilly
Recorded: Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida
Released: September, 1997
My age at release: 32
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Not Dark Yet

Recently, I watched Beastie Boys Story, an unusual documentary in that it was filmed while being presented in front of a theatre audience. Surviving members of the band, Michael "Mike D" Diamond, and Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz, were co-hosts on a stage with a coordinated multimedia presentation playing behind them. Together, the pair recounted their 40-year friendship and the history of their Hall of Fame hip-hop group. 

Near the end of the documentary, as they discussed the retirement of the band following the death of bandmate and friend Adam "MCA" Yauch, Horovitz shared the following quote: "I'd rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever."

For various reasons, I thought about this quote a great deal, particularly how it resonated in context with Time Out Of Mind, the 30th studio release by legendary musician and songwriter Bob Dylan. Dylan has 11 records on The 500 list, including two in the top ten. Consequently, I will be writing about him regularly over the next eight years. Frustratingly, I grew up an anti -fan. In my younger, less tolerant days, I regularly did a hacky impersonation of him to my friends to amplify my disdain. My dislike for Bob Dylan is well documented in my social circles.

Here's the thing. I understand his popularity and appreciate his mountainous talent. He is a multi-instrumentalist and phenomenal songwriter whose brilliant lyrics draw from a broad range of social, philosophical, political and literary influences. He is an important part of American entertainment and was an integral force in the counter-culture of the sixties that led to positive change through the civil rights movement and beyond. How could I not admire this living legend?

He has received ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Nobel Prize for literature. He has a special citation from the Pulitzer Award and has been inducted into multiple Halls of Fame. He is a singular force in the world of art, literature and popular culture. 

Bob Dylan receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama (2016) 

I get all of that, but, I could never get "it" -- that special magic that Dylan's music seems to hold for his legions of die-hard fans. I've tried. My roommate Brendan from Teacher's College played Dylan records all the time in our townhouse. In fact, on a 14-hour road-trip from Thunder Bay to London, Ontario, he and I took turns picking cassettes from our respective collections. He tried his best to get me to see the light Dylan was shining -- It just failed to illuminate me and, as each cassette played, I sat transfixed to the road ahead...waiting disinterestedly for either it, or the journey, to end.

The 14-hour drive from Thunder Bay to London

Consequently, when the record became the next on my list, I played it with begrudging reticence. I thought to myself: "I'll give this the necessary two listens, get a quick post hammered out (probably about that Thunder Bay to London trip) and move on."

Several days later, I have played the record at least six times. I admit, it is fantastic and will certainly be part of my regular rotation for years to come. I was transfixed by the moody and atmospheric music on my first few listens. As I dug deeper, I immersed myself in Dylan's dark, rich poetry -- full of clever turns of phrase, literary connections and well-measured figures of speech. This record is an absolute delight and I suddenly find myself saying..."I finally get that elusive it".

Naturally, I wondered why it took me this long. Perhaps it was because Dylan wrote and recorded Time Out Of Mind when he was exactly my age? Maybe it was the introspective themes of love, loss and mortality (which haunt me daily) are at its core?

Who know?

Who cares really?

"I'd rather be a hypocrite than the same person forever". So, I willingly accept that my disdain for this artist was poorly placed.

    

  

The 500 - #464 - Def Leppard - Hysteria

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

My plan (amended). 

• 1 or 2 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 464

Album Title: Hysteria
Artist: Def Leppard
Released: August, 1987
My age at release: 22
How familiar am I with it: Very Familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Pour Some Sugar on Me - selected by my friend Steve (Lumpy)
Great Lyric: (It's not that kind of record)

When I was in high school, about 1984, I was dating a girl named Maria. That summer her cousins from New Jersey visited. The oldest was a 12 year-old. He was a short, squat kid built like a fire hydrant with an alarmingly deep voice. He sounded like a grandfather with a two-pack-a-day habit and I found this gravelly voice, coupled with a thick New Jersey accent, fascinating. Consequently, I eagerly engaged him in conversation.

At one point, at a backyard BBQ, he ambled up to me and aggressively queried ...
"You like The Flippah?"
Confused, I sought clarification. "The Flipper?" I asked.
"No...Tha Flippah, Thufflippa" he repeated with angry, old man consternation. "The band...Thugh Flippa"
Then it struck me... "Are you saying Def Leppard", I guessed.
"Yea", he said excitedly, "Duh Flippah...you like them?"

As you might imagine, I have now adopted that inflection whenever the band's name comes up. Just last year I was excited to learn that Tha Flippah was to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and last month Tha Flippah performed in my town.

To answer that young man's question more completely, I liked Def Leppard a lot in high school. Their album Pyromania was blasted in the cafeteria and at countless parties when I was in Grade 11. However, it was an earlier album, High 'n' Dry, that blew me away. I distinctly remember getting a ride home from a party with my pal Terry (still a close friend today.) He had a blue AMC Gremlin with an incredible sound system and he cranked the instrumental Switch 625 as we weaved through subdivision streets. 

A picture of the actual car (Thanks Terry)

I still fire up that song when I need some headphone-infused-cardio-inspiration on the elliptical at the gym.

This album exploded on the music scene in the late summer of 1987. In a recent post about Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love record (released October, 1987) I mentioned getting a job delivering pizza. This album was the soundtrack to many of those delivery trips. 

My friends and I liked it -- but didn't love it. The production was slick and like nothing we had ever heard. We were also fascinated by drummer Rick Allen's ability to play after losing an arm in an automobile accident a few years earlier. It seems that, during his recovery he had developed custom pedals that he could play with his feet to compensate for the missing limb.

After listening to Hysteria again this week -- it hasn't aged well. The production I once called "slick" now seems over-produced and heavy-handed. There is certainly a feeling of nostalgia listening to a few of the songs but I'd rather go back to that High 'n' Dry record -- when they still had a straight-up, less-produced 70s rock sound.

The 500 - #472 - George Michael - Faith

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

My plan (amended). 

• 1 or 2 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 472

Album Title: Faith
Artist: George Michael
Released: October, 1987
My age at release: 22
How familiar am I with it: Very Familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix:  One More Try (picked by my great teaching colleague Kim Asen)

Great Lyric:

I'm never gonna be your star

I'll pick up the pieces

And mend my heart

Maybe I'll be strong enough

I don't know where to stars

But I'll never find

Peace…(Kissing a Fool)

There was no escaping Wake Me Up Before you Go Go in the summer of 1984. The dance pop hit was ubiquitous and it arrived on the same year Much Music (Canada's MTV) debuted. Consequently, the video aired relentlessly and "Choose Life" shirts could be spotted everywhere - usually on teen girls.

As you might imagine - I was not a fan at 18 years of age. In retrospect, I know I was jealous and not just because George was alarmingly good looking. I was most envious when I discovered that he had penned the song Careless Whisper at the age of 17.  As a sax player, I quietly went about learning the iconic riff - usually in the music practice rooms buried in the back of our high school. I remember thinking, "it would be great if a girl wandered by and heard me play it" - but I was equally mortified by the prospect of my rocker friends catching me noodling out those notes ... badly (I never could quite get that beautiful tone).

I was surprised to see Faith make the cut on The 500 - I am a much bigger fan of the 1990 release Listen without Prejudice - Volume 1 and I think it is a better record. Granted, Faith was groundbreaking and the video for I Want Your Sex was daringly controversial & determinedly racy for the time...in fact, it was only aired late at night and was often preceded by a warning on the screen. Flirting with open sexuality in the heart of the AIDS crisis was certainly risque - perhaps even brash. The choice to include a shirtless Michael writing the words "Explore Monogamy" in lipstick on the back of girlfriend and video model Kathy Jeung seemed to send a mixed message and was, perhaps, a little too transparent an effort to seem genuine.

At the time, I was in University and working part-time as a server & driver at Fluffy's Pizza (Home of the Pizza Monster...I'm not kidding - I wore the costume). The restaurant had a "projection screen" television which was the size of a large armoire and MuchMusic was always aired when a game was not on. The bussing station gave me a clear view and I am not exagerating when I say that I saw that video at least 300 times. That, and Bad by Michael Jackson.

Me & my mullet in 1987 making Fluffy's Pizza 

I was tremendously saddened on Christmas Day, 2016 to learn of his early passing. He was an extraordinary talent and I am sure that there would have been a renaissance and tour in his future. I was even more gutted when I learned about his many charitable contributions (all anonymously given) to everything from AIDS research and Children's Charities. I also really liked this video from the BBC Red Nose Charity, filmed a few months before he passed. He demonstrates his silly side and a wonderful bit of self-depricating wit in an early version of the now popular Car Pool Karaoke with James Corden.

I'll remember him well and listen to his albums frequently. At the very least, I am reminded of his work every Christmas with the tradition of playing #Whammageddon. After two losing years, I tasted sweet victory in 2018. Here are the rules.