The Jackson 5

I started out early yesterday morning to drop of a donation and afterward I went inside to see if I could find some plaid flannel shirts. I wandered around and found a few more items and walked pass the media area. I started with the pictures worked my way down the books, DVDs, and came to the music area. As I was flipping through the albums I came across three of 'The' Jackson 5 albums that me and my sisters used to sing-a-long to. I was so tickled as the memories began to surface. I cleaned them and sang down memory lane. It's amazing that I remember the words even. I'm sure Johnny heard me singing my heart out 3:00 o'clock in the morning.

 

I can understand that. Whenever I run out of things to do I can always start pulling YouTube songs, and waste a whole evening. My Jackson 5 favorite was "Never Can Say Goodbye."

 

I liked most of his their recordings. My likes go back a bit further and the summer of 1966 I was assigned to the C/1st/506th/101st. I was there just a short time before loading up and going to West Point with my company and an Arty Unit. I went advanced party and flew but the company and arty came by train. I can't tell you how pretty West Point is in summer and winter. There was a large training area outside main post up in the high ground looking down on West Point. There was a large lake and an encampment for troops to sleep and eat. It had those steel rounded buildings like the marines used in Gomer Pyle TV show. One extra large on that was a large Mess Hall for everyone there at that encampment.

I spent one night there at that camp and I was asked if I wanted to be temporarily assigned to the Arty Unit because they were short handed and came in a very small group so I said sure. Best decision I ever made because I went to the West Point Provost Marshall's Building which was two stories high with the guest barracks on the top floor. It was primarily used as a visiting sports team barracks for when West Point hosted a sporting event like football or basketball. There was a big outdoor patio on each end of the floor of the two sections of barracks. You could walk out and stand there and look out over the old West Point Football stadium and also see the hudson river. The old stadium is still there but a new fancy one was built and also that encampment is there but all the trees that hid it from site from main post are gone and the camp was extended, the lake is still there but it all looks so different now than it did 57 years ago. They have made massive change with new buildings.

The thing I loved most being there at that time was you could walk up the walkway heading out of the Post which passed in Front of the main halls of West Point. You could stand there and place your foot on top of the rock wall with the old cannons still lined up as they were during the revolutionary war. That is why the place was named West Point, it was the point that the British would be stopped from coming up river to New York and the colonies. They never tried because their spies had told them what awaited them. The British ships could not elevate their guns high enough to fire on West Point , plus there was a huge steel chain dropped across each bank that would destroy any ship sailing into it.

Well back to the music my favorite music of that era was the Temptations and it was being played at every corner of New York City and Harlem. I and another solider walked halfway thru Harlem on a Saturday after hitchhiking a ride from West Point. We knew we had a bus on Sunday evening to bring us back but we didn't want to wait until Friday night to catch the ride to New York. We wore uniforms of course and it wasn't long before a man and his two sons stopped to pick us up. They were going to Yankee Stadium to watch a ball game. His two sons had long hair which we had never seen before on a man or a boy. The Father would speed up and then speed down and one of his sons told us he did that to save gas !

Just one great hit to end my long winded story.

 

I like several songs by the early Jackson Five. Without any thought, I can say it was later when Michael did Billie Jean that really impressed me. Of course, his dancing was phenomenal, but the beat and the music is unforgettable. Jose Feliciano's version and guitar work on Billie Jean is also superb.

My favorite soul singer is Patty LaBelle. Her singing of "New Attitude" is the best ever.

 

I wasn't a big fan of The Jackson Five but I really loved Michael on his own. What a talent, gone too soon.

Von, music can transport me back in time like nothing else. Some songs make me so melancholy that it's almost hard to listen to them. I can just picture you singing and dancing around in the wee hours of the morning.

 

Yes who would have known Michael would blast off like a rocket.

 

Not all artists.

 

There are several stories about who Billie Jean was including one by Quincy Jones and another by Tito Jackson. Those that have read the original lyrics say they are very hostile and definitely about a real woman named Billie Jean.

Quincy said Billie Jean was about a girl who climbed over Michael's wall one night and when Michael woke up she was laying out by the pool. The woman gave her name as Billie Jean to security and then accused Jackson of having impregnated her.

 

Thye kid and the man were talented,