WHAT HAVE I DONE FOR YOU LATELY?

 

I was debating whether to post a preview of any of the new book I’m working on – it’s now rambled on to about 550 pages and growing – but finally I decided to drop a chapter into the blog.  The basic theme of the book is this – for every member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF) I will do an entry.  These will not be a straightforward biography or discography of the artist – you can get that by going on to the RRHOF website itself, or Wikipedia.  Sometimes it will focus on tales from the artist – but other times it might just take their work as an excuse to go off on tangents.  So, the entry for The Band discusses “Big Pink”, (the house where they did a famous residency with Bob Dylan).  It then goes on to discuss other famous addresses in rock music – like 826-830 St. Louis Street in New Orleans – alleged to have been owned by a certain Mrs. LeSoleil Levant – whose name literally translates to “Rising Sun”. Then there are The Cars, whose song “My Best Friend’s Girl” somehow leads to a discussion about songs where best friends’ girls “complicate” things (“Jesse’s Girl” being one example), and then to a general review of songs about friends. 

It’s turning in to kind of a weird book.

That’s not the half of it.  I plan on making the whole thing into an interactive e-book.  This means that in addition to the text there will be live links to the songs referenced in the entries.  This will make the experience of “using” the book “multi-media” – you can read and listen at the same time.  There’s either a bit more work involved, or, if the spirit moves – you can relax and let the sound do the work.  Who knows if it will "work" at all – but it is fun to write.

So, I decided to give a bit of a sneak preview.  When I did that I promised myself that I would choose an entry that was hard for me to write.  I was not a huge Janet Jackson fan, which makes it difficult to write a section on her, but I did grow to appreciate her contribution – and especially her effort – when doing the research for the book.  I also found a chance to go off on one of those tangents mentioned above. So, without further ado, here is the very rough draft of the entry for RRHOF inductee, Ms. Janet Jackson.

 

Janet Jackson

Year Inducted:  2019

RRHOF Link:  Janet Jackson | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (rockhall.com)

Notable Songs:  “Rhythm Nation”, “Control”, “Nasty”, “Miss You Much”

You Gotta Hear: “What Have You Done For Me Lately”

Janet Jackson - What Have You Done For Me Lately (Official Music Video) - YouTube

 

The easiest question to ask of someone who appears in this book is “…why do they belong in the RRHOF”? 

Look – it’s not an illegitimate question.  The fact is – it should be asked of everyone on this list.

Everyone. 

For some the answer will be relatively straight forward.  Chuck Berry is on this list because without him what we know as “rock ‘n roll” probably wouldn’t exist.  Jimi Hendrix is on this list because he mastered the instrument most closely associated with the genre.  Bob Dylan?, The Beatles?, The Stones? – the answer is easy – but you still ask the question.

For others you have to work at it a bit more – but that does not mean that the answer isn’t there.  Laura Nyro?  Sceptics will point to her close association with David Geffen – who has a great deal of influence in the selection process.  Dig deeper and it becomes apparent that there is more than that – Nyro’s song writing abilities, the reach and scope of her work, its influence and legacy – all make her inclusion fully justifiable.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t others out there more deserving who have yet to get in – but that is where people make a mistake.  That’s a different question altogether.  When you raise that issue you are not asking why someone like Nyro is in – you are asking why “X artist” is not.

And so we come to Ms. Jackson.  Her selection to the RRHOF was greeted with a high degree of that same sort of scepticism.  Is she really rock ‘n roll?  Is she mostly famous for being from a famous family – or her music?  Beyond that – should she be in but someone like Christina Aguilera – who sold as many records and followed much the same career path – not be in?

To this I would answer, in turn – “yes”, if you use the broad definition that the RRHOF uses for everyone else, “no”, in that we’re not talking about inducting LaToya here - and “maybe”, but, again, that’s another question.  If you asked me whether Janet Jackson would have immediately popped in to my mind as a Hall of Fame inductee – I honestly would have to say “no”.  But if you ask me whether (given my propensity to see absolutely nothing wrong with having a “big hall”) I think she is deserving of the accolade after having done the research for this book – well, then I’d have to answer “yes”. 

Here’s why.

First off – let’s do away with the “family connections” aspect of this issue right away.  There are as many reasons to think that Janet Jackson’s family ties led to a certain degree of prejudice against her being taken seriously at all as there are reasons to think those same connections may have led her to being taken too seriously. Someone like Andy Gibb had a string of hit records and a famous family, but no one is pounding the table for his enshrinement.  The easy road would have been for Janet to issue a few records and then fade into the background.  She didn’t, and the reason why she didn’t comes down mainly to the fact that, when confronted with the possibility of cashing the check and living in the comfort of celebrity – or trying to stretch and risk being seen as a laughingstock – Janet Jackson had the guts to take a few chances and ended up getting the last laugh.

It’s often forgotten that Jackson began her musical career under the same sort of closely held family guided control that the rest of the family did.  She issued two forgettable bubble-gum pop collections before breaking away from the domination of her father, Joe Jackson.  It was the next two albums, tellingly entitled “Control” and then “Rhythm Nation 1814” that vaulted her into super stardom.  Spawning hits like the reference song “What Have You Done For Me Lately”, “Nasty”, “Miss You Much”, “Rhythm Nation” – and many others – the “sales” side of Janet Jackson would never be questioned again.  The woman has sold over 100 million records.

More than that however was the scope and reach of the music that was being turned out.  With these releases – and with the music put out over the ensuing decade – Jackson never stood still.  Personally – I remember several times hearing a song and asking someone who it was - “Janet Jackson” would be the reply.  “That’s Janet Jackson?” I’d say – until finally I got the picture – being surprised by Janet Jackson was not surprising.  The music may not have been the world’s most influential – but it certainly showed that the person who was making all these million selling records was being influenced. She was listening.  Janet Jackson deserves to be in the RRHOF because, despite coming from a background where she could have easily succumbed to a formula – she didn’t. 

Here’s one example – and it leads to a topic that is one of my favorites.  Janet is often applauded for including elements of traditional R&B, pop, funk, jazz, classic rock and even classical in her music.  This is actually true – take the last two for instance.  In her song “Someone to Call My Lover” Jackson draws upon the “classic rock” influence with the riff from America’s “Ventura Highway”.  That one is easy to pick out. 

Someone To Call My Lover - YouTube

Listen closely though – there is something else at work behind the song that takes a while to recognise.  The recording is also heavily influenced by Erik Satie’s classical masterpiece “Gymnopedie No. 1”: Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1 - YouTube

The use of classical music in pop is not a phenomenon restricted only to Janet Jackson – but it puts her in some pretty good company.  There are those who feel that The Toys’ “A Lover’s Concerto” is the best of all the girl group compositions of the 1960’s.  Amongst those would perhaps be a certain Mr. Holland and Johann Sebastian Bach:

The Toys - Lovers Concerto - HQ - YouTube 

Minuet in G Major - Bach (Petzold) - YouTube

Mr. Holland's Opus - An effective music classroom teaching - YouTube (Look for the appearance of William H. Macy Jr. – man, that guy’s in everything).

The Toys were kept from the number one spot only by the offerings of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.  The latter were by no means shy when it came to making use of classical elements, perhaps most famously when John Lennon heard Yoko Ono playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.  Never one to travel in a straight line John essentially flipped the chords backwards and used it as the basis for what is perhaps the bands best piece of three part harmony “Because”, which appears on Abbey Road. 

Because (Remastered 2009) - YouTube

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement) - YouTube

The list of such songs is nearly endless. The Mindbenders (and later on, Phil Collins) had a hit with Carol Bayer Sager and Toni Wine’s composition “A Groovy Kind of Love”. At the time it was written the term “Groovy” was a newly minted word – but the tune itself was straight from Clementi’s “Opus 36, No.5”

The Mindbenders - A Groovy Kind Of Love (1966) - YouTube

Clementi - Sonata No. 5 - Rondo. Original version of "A Groovy Kind of Love" (1797) - YouTube

Opera is by no means exempt from inclusion in the world of popular music.  Elvis took “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” from Martini’s “Piacer D’Amor”

Can't Help Falling In Love ('68 Comeback Special 50th Anniversary HD Remaster) - YouTube

Angela Gheorghiu - Martini: Piacer d'amor - Barcelona 2004 - YouTube

In the 1970’s there were many songs, like Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Nut Rocker” that  were less incorporations of classical compositions than they were straight forward popular interpretations of the actual works. (actually this was a remake of an early 1960’s hit for “B. Bumble and the Stingers”) B.Bumble & The Stingers - Nut Rocker - YouTube, (ELP would go on to record a number of other re-arrangments of classical numbers, like Aaron Copeland’s “Fanfare for a Common Man”) . Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Fanfare For The Common Man - YouTube

Other examples include Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth of Beethoven” from the Saturday Night Live soundtrack Walter Murphy - A Fifth of Beethoven - YouTube, and Deodato’s recording of Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra”: Deodato - Also Sprach Zarathustra HQ audio - YouTube.  However there were still instances of songs that took the classical tune and built a wholly new song around it, such as Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” Eric Carmen - All By MySelf (HQ) - YouTube which was based on Rachmaninoff’s “Concerto No. 2 for Piano” Rachmaninoff S.- Concerto № 2 for piano and orchestra «All by myself» - YouTube.

Warning to all – a Barry Manilow reference is coming up.  We’re all about appreciating Any kind of music that’s out there but Manilow seems to raise the ire of a certain class of rock fans, so consider this a heads up if you fall in to that category.  One night, while listening to music and enjoying a bit of wine, Barry fell asleep and woke with what he thought was a brilliant song running through his head.  Only after beginning to compose did he realize it was just a rewrite of music he had been listening to before snoozing – Chopin’s “Opus 28, No. 20 (Prelude)”. No bother – he went on to write one of his biggest hits “Could It Be Magic”. 

Could It Be Magic - YouTube

Frédéric CHOPIN: Op. 28, No. 20 (Prelude) - YouTube

Want something more recent? – How about Maroon 5’s “Memories” which gives more than a tip of the hat to Pachabel’s “Canon In D Major”:

Maroon 5 - Memories (Official Video) - YouTube

Canon in D (Pachelbel) played by Per-Olov Kindgren - YouTube

Or there is Nas’s “I Can” which once more calls on Ludwig Van to supply the underlying melodic hook from “Für Elise”

Nas - I Can (Official HD Video) - YouTube

Beethoven - Für Elise - YouTube

Then there is Mika’s “Grace Kelly” which incorporates elements of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville – Largo al Factotum”: 

MIKA - Grace Kelly (Official Video) - YouTube

Il Barbiere di Siviglia: "Largo al factotum" (Peter Mattei) - YouTube

So, Janet Jackson joined a list of many when she did the same thing with her music – a fact that, as previously stated, stands her in some good company – and proves she was not inclined to take the easy road. This is a big reason why the one she did take justifiably ended up at the RRHOF.