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"Juke" Magazine Interview

“Juke” Magazine, Ray Telford, “The Macca and Jacca Show” (March 29, 1980) (archived)

October 1976 - When Wings' tour hit Los Angeles, Paul McCartney threw a huge party at millionaire Harold Lloyd’s huge estate. It was a typical Hollywood star-studded guest list, with every poseur and hanger-on fighting tooth and nail and promising anything, anything, to get in.

The Hollywood gossip columnists were a bit puzzled that Paul specifically requested that The Jacksons be invited. At the time they were going through a low ebb in their career, but McCartney got their home number and made a personal invitation, specially asking Michael to come along.

Now Michael Jackson is a very shy cat. He rarely ventures out of the family’s huge grounds at the San Fernando Valley. He does not do dope or touch alcohol, and hardly drives. He attends church every Sunday. He is very uneasy among adults unless they are, like him, born on the stage. He prefers the company of young children and animals, in their back garden he has llamas, peacocks, a giant aviary full of exotic birds, and even a puma or two.

However, the Wing commander insisted he went along. He sat in the corner drinking orange juice and chatting mostly with his brothers. Paul and Linda made their way through the throng of well-wishers to MJ. “I’ve written a song for you, and it goes like this”, and whistled a song called “Girlfriend”. Explained Paul, “I’ve always loved your style, and this will suit it perfectly.” MJ nodded. “Yeah, I really dig that, when can we get together on it?”

McCartney said that he’d have to fly back to England a few days later. He reached in his pocket for a pen and scribbled out two rarely given-out phone numbers--one of his London home and the other to his Scottish hideaway. “Call me, and we’ll talk about it.”

But as things go, Jackson never did get back to him. Paul thought he was disinterested, and the song eventually appeared in his dismal 1978 album “London Town”. Interestingly, a lot of reviewers, obviously unaware of the circumstances, did comment that Paul’s song “Girlfriend” was “very reminiscent” of young Jackson’s vocal style.

February 1979 - Michael Jackson started work on his solo album “Off the Wall”. After years of battling to get their own ideas in their records, the family took a chance with a self-written, self-produced album called “Destiny”. Luckily for them it had worked, for in America the album shot into the Top 10 and brought the Jacksons back into the spotlight.

It was suggested that Michael work on his own album, writing and possibly producing. “But I wasn’t ready to do that yet. I could write a lot of the songs, but I still needed someone who would have the patience and ability to help me express what I wanted, to be sympathetic to my ideas.”

He rang up an old family friend, Quincy Jones, one of the first jazzmen to dabble in rock and soundtrack work (he and Jackson had worked together on Michael’s first feature film “The Wiz” to ask him to recommend someone.

“Well, Smelly, (Quincy’s nickname for MJ) I’ll do it.”

Jackson readily agreed, attracted most by the fact that Jones was so versatile in his musical styles. They worked together, Quincy slowly bringing out the younger musician’s ideas, always encouraging him to stamp his own identity on his music. One day when Michael arrived at his home, Quincy told him, “I have got this amazing song for you. It’s written by McCartney and you probably haven’t heard it, but I think you’d do a great job on it. He went over to his studio, picked out London Town and set the stylus down on “Girlfriend”. Michael remembers just freaking out at this series of circumstances.

Together Jones and Jackson made one of the finest albums of 1979. Although initially ignored by Australian rock press and radio, even the most hard-core of hard rock writers from the rest of the world acknowledge it was a simply superb album. While “Destiny” sold 3 million worldwide, “Off the Wall” has now done 41 million.

All of a sudden, people are dubbing Jackson as “the superstar of the ‘80s” and suggesting that his incredible charisma and unique showmanship would make him “the black Sinatra of the ‘90s”. This year already, in the American Music Awards (January) and the Grammys (February), Jackson walked away as top R&B/soul male vocalist, with “Off the Wall” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” also grabbing relevant awards. One again institutionalized racism reared its ugly head: Incensed that he was nominated only for the black-oriented R&B and soul classifications instead of the more general rock categories (and why not, since the single and album did top the rock charts as well), Jackson was originally going to boycott the awards but was talked back into it by Quincy.

McCartney now wants Jackson to write some songs with him. Particularly impressed by “Off the Wall” (he sent him a telegram stating “your version is better than mine” as soon as he heard the album) McCartney originally wanted Jackson to write the songs and possibly sing on his solo albums. But what with hectic schedules, Paul has also finished his solo LP. But he is adamant that the collaboration will take place. So too is Jackson.

“We’re definitely going to be writing songs together, sooner or later. And there’s no reason why Paul and I won’t sing a duet together.”

But just when the collaboration will take place is hard to tell. The whole Jacksons schedule has been thrown in confusion. They were originally going to spend March and April recording their next album; but with brother Randy injured in a car accident, no one knows how things are affected.

At the same time, Jackson’s exquisite dancing on his film clips has aroused more attention from the Hollywood movie moguls. Fred Astaire commended his dancing style, and Jane Fonda wants to work with him on different film projects.

“The Wiz was a nice thing to do, but I’d like to also do heavy dramas, and try my hand at comedy. But I’m determined that if I do films, it’ll be done properly. Fred Astaire told me how in his movies, he’d rehearse some dance sequences for at least three months. These days where everything is so rushed and mass-produced, like a fast food chain, that no one worries too much about perfection.

“I come from a long tradition of black artists that have supreme pride in their work. I owe it to them to keep the line going.”