First a little context, I was around 10 when I received this wonderful gift and I had already been experimenting with my cassette recorder which was a gift given to me the previous Christmas. I would put my recorder next to my Dad's huge (or so it seemed at the time) Fisher speakers in our living room and record the Top 40 with Casey Kasem. The quality was not all that great, with the variables of the FM radio reception and my inexpensive microphone but I was starting to expand my musical environment and that was the key. I had been taking piano lessons for around 4 years and due to my gift of almost perfect pitch I could pick out songs from my recordings and dissect their composition. It seems so foreign to look back now but at that time there was no MTV, no Walkmans or iPods, stereo equipment was beyond my allowance and odd job capabilities, no VHS tapes, Live concerts were out of the question (too expensive combined with dubious influences) and I didn't know anyone who played a musical instrument other than the piano. But all that changed when I could listen to the pristine arrangement of the song ABC coming from the 3" speaker in my tape recorder. Unlike the radio, I could stop the song, rewind it to listen in greater detail, and this allowed me to start picking up the parts of the song that I had never been aware of before.
For instance, check out the drumming on the song, ABC. The kit is pretty basic, very similar to what Ringo was playing in the Beatles, but the bass drum and the bass instrument were locked in step, creating a rhythm section that struck deep in your soul. Than you had the hooks that were stacked in this song. Everything from the call-and-response "buh buh buh buh buh buh" and the vocal interjections that would become the trademark of Michael Jackson's career. The electric guitars carried the song but during the chorus they would give way to the piano's three chord answer to the vocal, "ABC".
I guess what I'm trying to say is that this was the first song where I started to be aware of the building blocks of the instruments and the vocals. Later as I studied other great songs such as, "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot and "Make Me Smile" by Chicago just to list a couple of examples, I then begin to realize the importance of arrangement, how instruments would clear out leaving space for other sounds and how all of this was an extremely complex dance requiring talented musicians, vocals, producers and engineers. All of this study lead me to a better understanding of how bands really work and how critical each piece of the arrangement was to the success of the song. From the song, "Make Me Smile", I discovered my love of dynamics and suspension chords (which this song has in spades). Of course, this song also has one of the greatest drum parts (Danny Seraphine) starting with the intro of the song and driving all the way to the finish. Combine that with Peter Cetera's walking bass parts (first made popular in the 60's by Paul McCartney with the Beatles) Terry Kath's unique rock lead voice and perfect rhythm guitar playing, tight three part vocal harmonies, and a brass section that kicks this song's energy to another level and you have what I believe is one of the greatest songs of all-time.
In bands that I played in the 80's and 90's it became apparent that the foundations of great musicians, unique vocalists, gifted songwriting, a band that shared like-minded goals, and a visionary producer / engineer / manager were rare commodities. But there were moments, rare moments, where everything came together, the band was in a pocket, the vocals were peaking at the exact right spots, and everyone was united in their quest to make great music and those fabrics in time were unparalleled. No one was overreaching, everyone was aware of what everyone else was doing, the monitors were accurate, the PA was tuned, the audience was responding and boom! Magic. It was not something you could ever replicate, or even try to force into reality, it just happened. And I think back to my earlier days and my little tape recorder and I realize that my little part of that experience would not have been possible without the gift of that Jackson 5 cassette. Thank you Uncle Rick and Aunt Theresa for helping to project me on a study of music that continues today.
