Jackson 5 vs Michael Jackson solo

Jackson 5 were overlooked when they were at their best (Enjoy Yourself, It's Good to Be Here, Blame it on the Boogie, etc).

MJ solo only had 2 good albums. I have no nostalgic love for Bad and beyond.

jackson 5 were brilliant but are prob best served with a greatest hits comp. i have soulsation and mjs solo motown anthology and theres too much filler. never persevered with the proper albums for this reason. jacksons didnt really get going til destiny and triumph both of which are great (destiny does have more than a few clunky lyrics when mj tries to say something 'important'). the philly intnl period had a few decent singles though (show you the way to go/enjoy yourself).

some of the weirder motown filler is intriguing, though. their cover of 'i'll bet you' by funkadelic is a jam, as is their doomy stroll through the opening minutes of isaac hayes' 'walk on by'...

ill bet you is great yeah. youd think it would be a bad fit but it totally works... some of the other covers though, just dont sound right.

(tho ill bet you wasnt a cover was it - their version came out pre-funkadelic i think)

seriously? that's crazy... yeah, a lot of the covers are hit and miss, you're right. that's the case for 60s motown lps, often - i'd reccomend everyone at least hear the miracles' full lengths from that era, to experience smokey's most-queasy cover of 'wichita lineman'

Jackson 5 did a couple really great singles, but Jackson alone made more classic stuff. Plus he had more artistic control, which to me is very important and important to stress.

xpost - Funkadelic versh was a mere month ahead of J5.

Presuming we're counting both the J5 and "The Jacksons", I gotta go with the originals, since I lose interest with solo MJ after Bad. But I've never heard any of MJs solo Motown stuff aside from the hits, so who knows?

i do like a lot of the filler, from the p-funk cover to their version of "doctor my eyes" (!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj71HPMSOsY

I don't know how it is I did not find out abt Dancing Machine sooner

Actual performance & not just a montage of that fucking incredible robot action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIJIu1Ozz3g&feature=related

Dancing Machine is a great song, but when you see 16 year-old MJ busting out the robot on some of the old clips, it becomes a something else entirely. It's probably the performance I've watched the most times since he died. Everything that was great about the Jackson 5 is on full display throughout. Although "genius" is a word that's thrown around so much that it's almost lost any meaning, he was one. Since his death, I've noticed a real cultural divide in how Michael Jackson is remembered. To most people, the adult Michael Jackson just kind of appeared on the scene fully formed in 1979. Sure they remembered the early J5 singles, but they probably hadn't heard much between then and Off the Wall. But by that time however, he had been a superstar in black America for a solid decade. In one of the clips of "Dancing Machine" circulating on YouTube it shows the J5 on an old talk show - it might be Merv Griffin - But in it, young MJ walks into the crowd during an interlude and tries to encourage different members of the audience to sing along with him. Most look quite uncomfortable, and not all that pleased to be in the presence of a guy who was soon to be the most famous person on Earth. Even in 1974, or whenever that clip is from, there is no way that he could have just waded into a crowd of black fans. He would have been torn to pieces by hysterical girls. In their costumes, choreography, instrumentation, and certainly Michael's dance moves at that time, the J5 were much more identifiably "black" than solo MJ. The only point I'm trying to make with that is that I think the answer to this question depends largely on who you ask. Certainly, there will be a generational divide as well. Taking into account the decline in quality and quantity of music he released after 1987, there are most likely a lot of people who associate him more with the sad sideshow his life became than with the little dynamo singing his lungs out while popping, locking (years before anyone had heard of hip-hop) and gliding across the stage. His solo albums changed the world, and Thriller will always be a favourite of mine, but it's 12 year-old Michael Jackson who still gives me chills.

Jackson 5 easy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4sEPwZoSoQ&feature=fvw

got this on vinyl: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_My_Summer_Love

it's pretty crazy, vintage early '70s michael vocal tracks redone with synthy, corny 80s backing tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-Ec-46b9E

http://www.showbiz411.com/2010/06/22/jackson-five-surprise-273-new-tracks-discovered

Jackson Five Surprise! 273 New Tracks Discovered
By: Roger Friedman in Celebrity // June 22nd, 2010 at 3:48 AM EDT

Howard Mann, the Toronto entrepreneur who bought a warehouse full of Jackson family paraphernalia, has a surprise for Michael Jackson fans and the singer’s estate.
He has the masters to 273 unreleased Jackson tracks. Some are Michael alone, some are duets with superstars like Tina Turner, and some are with the Jackson family.
A good chunk of them come from the 1975 CBS variety series featuring the whole family.

is this for real..?

Jackson 5 compilation of unreleased songs, "Come and Get It: The Rare Pearls," goes so unbelievably hard for a collection of random unreleased original/cover material.