Michael Jackson

The king is dead (in case you somehow hadn’t heard) and I think he would be pleased by the outpouring of coverage and consumption that has followed in the wake of his passing. Michael Jackson, by his own admission, just wanted to be loved…albeit loved on his own sometimes eccentric terms…and the breathless (and all too often lurid) media coverage, the lionization by fans (both those who stuck by the self-anointed “king of pop” through thick and thin and those who fell by the wayside along the way), and the booming sales of his music would have doubtlessly pleased him to no end.

In much of the world…and especially here in America…we regard our celebrities as royalty (something that proves a double edged sword for those put up on the pedestals) and no one reveled…and reviled…that status more than Michael Jackson.

His life was magical, strange, amazing, sad, imaginative, delusional, and, yes, thrilling…his death is something of a circus. But that’s par for the course and, again, I don’t think that he would see this as a bad thing.

The king is dead…and when all is said and done…when the circus has left town and the stranger aspects of his rollercoaster life have receded into the background…we’ll be left with the magic he strove so hard to present…with the astonishing dancing, with the quirky but entertaining videos and little films, with the often wondrous music. And when all is said and done, that’s cool with me.

Smokey Robinson and Linda Ronstadt

From the Motown 25 special, Smokey Robinson and Linda Ronstadt duet on "Ooo Baby Baby" and "The Tracks of my Tears".

A Time to Love

It’s been 10 years since Stevie Wonder dropped Conversation Peace, his last studio album. This new disc is therefore a very welcome release indeed (the album is available as a download...on Rhapsody, iTunes, etc.... now with the CD due out in stores on October 18^th.)

A Time to Love is, as a matter of course, very upbeat and very tuneful…that is to say classic Stevie. Wonder does things his way…no songs featuring rappers, no samples…and we would expect no less from him.

The album leads off with “If Your Love Cannot Be Moved”, a soulful strut of a duet with gospel singer Kim Burrell, and as the title implies the rest of the 15 tracks all have to do with love (Stevie’s favorite subject.)

The first 10 tracks all deal with romantic love…including the lovely ballads “Moon Blue” (with a lovely piano solo harkening back to “Ribbon in the Sky”) and “Passionate Raindrops”, “From the Bottom of my Heart” (another sweet love ballad featuring some fine harmonica work by Wonder and a rousing chorus), the funky “Please Don’t Hurt My Baby” (a song about a remorseful cheating lover who’s trying to protect his loved one from finding out the true which features witty banter between two groups of background singers…one male and one female), and the slow burning groove of “Tell Your Heart I Love You”.

There’s a slight shift in tone with the inspirational “Shelter from the Rain”, a track that’s been dedicated to the Hurricane victims (with fees from its download going to charity.)

The thickest slab of funk comes here from “So What the Fuss?” featuring background vocal by En Vogue and some guitar work by Prince.

The album finishes with three classic Wonder appeals for peace love: the lilting “Can’t Imagine Love Without You”, followed by “Positivity”, the sprightly paean to looking at the glass as being half full, and closing with the stately title song, a duet with India Arie featuring Paul McCartney on guitars.

Is this a classic album? Probably not. But who cares? It’s soothing, satisfying, joyful musical journey by an artist who’s been delivering the goods for decades…old school soul that defiantly refuses not to sound like just some sad exercise in nostalgia. That’s good enough for me.

So What the Fuss

Ah yeah, now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. "So What the Fuss", the lead single from Stevie Wonder's upcoming A Time to Love disc (due out the first week of next month), is a funky R&B jam that is both old school and contemporary-sounding at the same time. It's a bit preachy, a bit funny, very insightful and knowing, and it has a groove so smokin' that it just won't let go...in other words, it's vintage Stevie.

The single, which features Prince on guitar and En Vogue on backing vocals, is a tonic to my old ears. It's been nearly a decade since Stevie dropped a new collection ("dropped"...I'm so hep I scare myself sometimes :-) and I'm looking forward to the new CD even more than I (a lifelong fan of the man) was already.

Bring it on, Mr. Morris, bring it on.