The Jacksons, "Victory" – Classic or Dud?

I love how the cover is pure prog. "It's a highway to ANDROMEDA, man!"

A big letdown after Destiny and Triumph.

The Event

I saw the Victory Tour in summer of 1984. We had decent seats on the field at The Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey. But my main memory is watching this row of guys with one dancing in the middle.

The Clothes

Tito wore a baseball uniform, I guess in tribute to the venue (see above). Otherwise the Star Trek goes to the mall look is an early manifestation of Michael's...ah whatever you want to call it.

Pretty much thought it sucked then, except for "State of Shock", which was (and is) amazing.

michael himself a tiny blip on the stage at neyland stadium (biggest football stadium east of the mississippi, or at least it was)

knew nothing except what was on "thriller" but - totally amazing, i felt i'd entered the spaceship that would eventually get me off this planet

"state of shock" w/mick jagger - was sort of like "superfreak", right?

$30 tickets were seen as outrageously exorbitant back then (in the mid-80s most acts charged $15 tops). but in addition to the high prices, the only way to get tickets was by mail-order lottery, and you had to buy a minimum of four tickets. there are a few chapters on the fucked-uppedness of the victory tour (which wound up playing to more than a few half-empty venues once the album tanked) in dave marsh's trapped: michael jackson and the crossover dream.

________

GOT to read that. Is it a new book?

nope, it was published in 1985. you can probably find it used/cheap on amazon. great book. marsh is easily my favorite music journalist.

Y'know what's interesting? The way their vaguely fascistic LP titles (Destiny, Triumph, Victory) almost tell a story as surely as brother Michael's similar progression from

Y'know what's interesting? The way their vaguely fascistic LP titles (Destiny, Triumph, Victory) almost tell a story as surely as brother Michael's similar progression from

The only problem with your thesis is that the first two titles were apt; it's the third where things start to look like a Leni Riefenstahl fever dream.

Evolution -> Departure -> Captured -> Escape

"Umm....let's see...Paul? Nope, worked with him already....Stevie's booked...oh yeah! I'll PICK THE LEAD SINGER OF THE ROLLING STONES."

During the recording sessions Michael, upon hearing Jagger miss all kinds of notes, apparently whispered to the engineer loud enough for Jagger to hear, "How did HE get to be a star?"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZFThn8SK47M&search=captain%20eo

The rimshots on "State of Shock" are making my ears bleed. More plz!

STILL haven't read that Dave Marsh book but here's the last chapter of it:
http://www.counterpunch.org/marsh08282009.html

The Victory Tour was the biggest and final concert tour of the United States and Canada by The Jacksons. Beginning July 6, 1984, and ending on December 9 of that year, the tour included 55 concerts to an audience of approximately 2 million. It was named after the newly released Jacksons' album Victory although none of the album's songs appear on the tour's set list (Marlon confirmed it was because Michael refused to rehearse or perform them).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Tour_%28The_Jacksons_tour%29

No joke, "Torture" was the most-played song on my ipod for a while - back in 2007 or something. First time I heard a clip from it on Amazon I laughed out loud in disbelief - sounds even more like a videogame theme than the opening of Journey's "Separate Ways." But once I heard it in full, I loved the electro-thwock sound effects and Michael's entrance (which totally destroys Jermaine's perfectly competent first verse) so much that I started playing it on repeat even though it's a more than faintly ludicrous piece of songwriting. And so it goes for about half the record, where "craftsmanship," aural design and expensive spectacle overwhelm some pretty thin tunes (State of Shock, Body, Wait). Then there's a perfectly competent but unexciting ballad ("One More Chance") and three other tracks that are just dismal. I'd go with both Classic and Dud - it's nowhere near "Triumph" and must have been a huge letdown after "Thriller," and your enjoyment of even the best tracks will depend on your tolerance for '80s kitsch. But three or four of these tracks are what I'd call "guilty pleasures" if I still harbored any feelings of guilt or shame about loving them.

Also, "vaguely fascistic LP titles" (re MVB above) is something I've been wanting to point out about those 3 records for a long time. The video for "Can You Feel It" (and Michael's later album cover for "History") just amplifies this under-scrutinized Jackson family quirk; it's not entirely unique to them, so maybe "quirk" isn't the right word, but the pop-superstar-as-ubermensch/savior thing is more overt with Michael and his brothers than any other artist I can think of.

Goddam I wish I'd been old enough to have seen one of the Victory concerts, though. I was one and a half at the time, and didn't get into MJ until just before the Dangerous era.

Excellent review. I feel the same about "Torture." I have vivd memories of watching the stop-motion video in which the Jacksons turn into skeletons (and Michael nowhere in sight). The track's opulence is overwhelming; it smothers you with its expense.

this album is lousy but i loooove "torture"

It's amusing how much Michael feels like he's merely guesting on this record rather than actually being in The Jacksons. Alfred was pretty much OTM in the OP - Michael's parts feel like just something he did on an off day from being one of the world's biggest stars.

"one of"??