The Jacksons - Walk Right Now

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Just heard this for the first time. It was a single, it's by a very famous band, it's absolutely terrific - so why isn't it more famous?

So this is a thread to talk about "Walk Right Now", or the Jacksons, or how really good singles which you'd think would become 'standards' somehow don't.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe it is famous, by the way, I'm just going by i) relative difficulty of finding it on soulseek vs "Can You Feel It?", say; ii) lack of mentions on ILM (one, by Arthur).

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

That's off the "Triumph" album isn't it? Never knew it was a single.

The album is great, not as good as the mighty "Destiny" however.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Top 10 in 1981 - in the UK anyway, don't know if it was picked as a US single.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in the UK in 1981. Top 10, eh? My memory must be going.

Can you sing a bit of it for me?

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Indeed, one of their (and his) greatest moments. I think I prefer this track even to anything from Off the Wall (which I adore too). It's a perfect bridge in some ways between the fluid disco of OTW and the hard-edged crossover of Thriller. It might also be the first example where Michal sounds bitingly angry and paranoid. Good call. (Another great one from that album--not sung by Michael, though: "Your Ways.")

― s woods, Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Lee -

"I! Don't! Care! What you're sayin'
Walk! Right! Now! I'm not playin'"

something like that anyway, it's all about the voice as Scott says and those massive stacatto strings.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:37 (twenty-two years ago)

+ it has SIRENS on and how can you argue with that!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

There are TONS of great Jackson 5 songs that were never big hits, or at least that a lot people don't know nowadays. Or at least that I had never heard before I bought the records. The Love You Save, Mama's Pearl, and practically all the second disc of the Motown comp where they morph into a super-heavy-funk dance band.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I know the one you mean now.

Scott's comment about it being "the first example where Michael sounds bitingly angry and paranoid" explains pretty well why I kinda go off MJ after Off The Wall and Destiny, I prefer his sweeter, naive sound. At some point he started to sound all tightly wound like he needed a good shit or something. Also, there's a pomposity to "Triumph" that's a hint of things to come ego-wise (Danny Baker did a good piece on the Jacksons for NME when the album came out and he mentions the big orchestral opening to "Can You Feel It?" as an example of that)

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the video for Can You Feel It is proof (& anticipation) enough ego-wise, I still love it though.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

One of the best things about Triumph (which I can't wait to listen to again when I get home) is that you DO get the "sweeter, naive" stuff ("Everybody" and "Lovely One"), but also the first (to my knowledge) major signs of tightly-wound MJ paranoia ("Heartbreak Hotel," "Walk Right Now"), classical-disco bombast ("Can YOu Feel It"), and one of the eeriest sounding r&b tracks I've ever heard ("Your Ways"). It's a good balance, and a more eclectic (if maybe more scattershot) mix of songs than Off the Wall. I hear what LondonLee is saying, also, but the two paranoid numbers come by their paranoia rather more...hmm, if not exactly innocently then maybe without so much affectation? (which makes sense if I'm correct about it being the earliest hints of this in his music). (Yeah, I know--"Ben.")

The weird thing is, I loved "Walk Right Now" so much when I first got this album, I don't think I've ever listened to the two or three songs that follow it!

Also, uh, the concept of "rhythmic danger" to thread.

― s woods, Thursday, 12 February 2004 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't want to derail this thread by delving into MJs psyche but this has made me think of "That's What You Get For Being Polite" off 'Destiny' which I think was the first solo-written song MJ recorded. Even back then I thought it said a lot of things about him but now, well, a psychiatrist would have a field day with this:

Jack still cries day and night
Jack's not happy with his life
He want to do this, he want to do that
You want to be kind, but ends up flat for love
For love

He tries so hard to give a lot
He wants to be what he is not
Love's not harsh and love's not bad
And what's he doing for love is so bad
(He wants to be so bad)
(He wants to be so bad) All the time getting in
Things he can't get out
Something deep inside of him
Eating up the pride of him
That makes him buy things for the girls
(That's what you get for being polite)
(For being polite)

Jack still sits all alone
He lives the world that is his own
He's lost in thought of who to be
I wish to God that he would see just love
Give him love

He tries so hard to give a lot
He wants to be what he is not
Love's not harsh and love's not bad
And what's he doing for love is so sad
(He wants to be so bad)
(He wants to be so bad) All the time getting in
Things he can't get out
Something deep inside of him
Eating up the pride of him
That makes him buy things for the girls
(That's what you get for being polite)
(For being polite)

(Jack still) Tryin' to make you happy, but...
(Jack still) Tryin' to make you happy, but...
(Jack still) Tryin' to make you happy, but he's not, but he's not

(Jack still) Tryin' to make you, but don't you know he cries
(Jack still) Don't you know he's scared
(Jack still) It's often for his love, it's for his love
Don't you know he often cries about you
He cries about me
He cries about you (You) and me (And me)
And every little thing that's in his way
He cries about me
He cries about you (You) and me (And me)
Know that he deserves to cry

(Jack still) Don't you know he cries
(Jack still) Don't you know he's scared
(Jack still) It's often for his love, yeah, yeah
Don't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you know
Don't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you know
He cries, he cries because there is a lack of love

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Speaking of lesser-known Jacksons/J5 records, as someone was, I'd nominate "Looking Through The Windows" as a major fave (even though I think the intro is nicked from "Shaft").

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 17:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember hearing it in clubs a lot but never on the radio. I have a really distinct memory of dancing to it 20 years ago--well, more than that, probably-- at the afterhours club Berlin in NYC with my friend Linda from Ohio and wondering why it wasn't a bigger hit, like "Can You Feel It". Do any other old-timers remember it from clubs?

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 13 February 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

Wow, I did a search here for "walk right now" not expecting any results at all and what do I get but a thread in which I actually partook.

Anyway, reviving because this song is soooo good (and seems to be entirely overshadowed by "Can You Feel It" and "Heartbreak Hotel" from the same disc).

― sw00ds, Friday, 10 July 2009 05:28 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYvIKsIPrOs

― sw00ds, Friday, 10 July 2009 05:37 (sixteen years ago)

I was pretty much leading the charge in the "let's act like dicks about the slavish revisionism and media oversaturation regarding the death of Michael Jackson," being that I've never really been a fan and that most of the music that I appreciated growing up served as the ANTIDOTE to crap like Michael Jackson. THAT ALL SAID, on a long train trip yesterday, "Can You Feel It?" by the Jacksons -- featuring prominent contributions from the formerly gloved one -- came on (yes, it's on my iPod) and I have to say -- it does indeed rock. As I grooved, I felt guilty.

So yeah, Michael Jackson was an insanely fucked-up, damaged and fairly creepy individual who probably molested a few little kids, .... but he did have his moments.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 10 July 2009 15:25 (sixteen years ago)

alex <3 michael

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 10 July 2009 15:29 (sixteen years ago)

Bear in mind, AlexNYC fairpay etc, that a lot of why the Jacksons were great had to do with the other jacksons.

I sez.

― Mark G, Friday, 10 July 2009 16:09 (sixteen years ago)

WRN has that wonderful funky guitar a la 'Can you feel it'

Something about The Jacksons reminds me of S Club 7... (chronologically unsound, but not for me, of course). Early singles full of joy and innocence, sparkling with hookage, later on heavy, sexy, 'serious' dancefloor monsters a la 'Dont Stop Movin'.

― Henry Frog (Frogman Henry), Friday, 10 July 2009 16:38 (sixteen years ago)

six years pass...

Yes, now that you mention it, it is super weird that this song not only wasn't huge but doesn't seem to have made a splash at all or lingered in hardly anyone's memory.

― Don't Forget To Reince Your Priebus (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 1 March 2016 20:54 (ten years ago)

oh wow i didn't know there was a whole thread dedicated to my favorite song

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Tuesday, 1 March 2016 20:55 (ten years ago)

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