You know, I was-
Mind-blowing.
Yeah.
That is a vocal performance that only Michael Jackson could do.
That's a perfect track.
It's a perfect track.
I'm going to put it out there.
It wasn't until I was a teenager that I discovered this specific
track. I said, "Is that Michael Jackson?"
Woo!
Hey, Adam.
Yes.
You know what we're doing today?
What?
We're going to look back at some of our favorite moments.
Yep.
No, over here.
Oh.
Yeah.
Okay. Sorry.
But we're looking back in time.
Oh, okay.
What would you say is our favorite period of Michael Jackson?
The greatest run, if we were to isolate three albums.
"Off the Wall," "Thriller," "Bad."
Yeah. That's what we're looking back on.
Every moment with these albums is amazing, but these are some that stand above the
rest.
So stick around. You'll see it and you'll hear it.
"Thriller" at the time,
when it came out, was and still remains one of my all-time favorite.
I think "Thriller" is as close as a perfect pop record that's ever been made.
I think we can all agree that it should be talked about in that-
Yeah
... in that sense. But I didn't really know "Off the Wall" because it was a little
bit before my time.
Yeah.
"Thriller" was so massive, and then "Bad" was so massive.
Oh, yeah.
Those two specifically, and I love "Dangerous," too, by the way.
Don't get me wrong.
Yeah.
But that run, "Thriller" and beyond, kind
of just took over my early childhood. Michael Jackson was my favorite artist.
Danced in my kitchen every night to "Thriller" when it came out.
And it wasn't until I was a teenager, like 16, 17, that
I discovered this specific track.
I forget where I heard it, but I said, "Is that Michael Jackson?"
Mm-hmm.
I was into jazz at the time, so I was like, "This is a different sensibility than
'Thriller.' This is less pop. This has more of the things that I'm into right now."
And it was this.
Woo.
Perfect.
Yep.
Girl, close your eyes. Let that
rhythm get into you.
Don't try to fight it. There ain't
nothing that you can do.
Relax your mind.
Lay back and groove with mine. You've got to
feel that heat. And we can ride the boogie.
Share that beat of love. I want
to rock with you.
The hand clap. The hand clap.
Yeah.
Sunshine. I want to rock with you.
Big forehand clap.
Yeah, it is big forehand.
All night. We're going to rock the love away.
I don't know-
Second verse.
Big-ass verse.
A perfect disco track. Perfect pop track
...
forever. Girl-
It's a classic
... when you dance. There's a magic that must be love.
Again, the Seawind horns here. Jerry Hey.
Just take it slow. We got to suffer through some-
It's like a summer breeze coming from the seawinds.
When you feel that heat.
Mm. Uh. Oh
... and we gonna ride the boogie.
Share that beat of love.
Man.
I want to rock with you.
That bass drum sound.
Perfect. Perfect.
The sound, oh my God.
Dance with you.
The whole track is magic.
Yeah.
Sunshine. I want to rock with you.
The harmony here.
All night.
The horns
... we're going to rock the night away.
The bridge.
The bridge. I know. It's like…
And when the groove is dead and
gone.
Oh, the bass here. Listen.
We'll be there. And know that love survives.
So we can rock forever.
I love this little segue, a little instrumental.
I remember I was like, "Damn, what is that?"
These sparklies.
Bong.
Louis Johnson.
I want to rock with you. I want to rock with you.
Modulation. Oh, no, second time.
Wait for it. Save it.
Yeah.
Boom, boom, boom. Oh.
I want to rock with you. I want to
rock with you.
There we go.
Yeah.
Little bop off one beat. Why not?
Yeah. Sunshine. Rock with you,
rock with you. All night.
Man.
Dance with you.
When they finished tracking that, they must have just handshakes all around,
break out the cigars. They had to know that they just killed that.
Yeah.
This might be the best song on the album.
Are we at the apex of the album?
We might be at the apex. And this was, again, not written by
Michael.
And this was like the fourth or fifth single.
I don't know if it was the biggest hit.
It felt like at the time it was the biggest hit.
But we're talking about "Man in the Mirror," right?
We're talking about "Man in the Mirror."
Yeah.
It was written by — excuse me — Siedah Garrett.
Yep.
And Glen, is it Ballard?
Yeah, Glen Ballard. And they were like a songwriting team.
Ballard? Charlie's a Ballard?
Ballard.
Ballard. He's a mallard duck.
Okay.
Yeah. Siedah Garrett, very interesting story because there's a
little connection with friend of the pod, friend of Open Studios, John Beasley.
Hey.
Who — legend… Well, really, Siedah Garrett said this, actually. First
coined the phrase, well, he didn't coin it, but he first brought it to Siedah
Garrett's attention years before.
Wait, Beasley?
Beasley. Beasley.
Our-
Yeah
... open studio mentor session-
Yeah
... teacher, Beasley.
My number one sub, and Diane Reeves for many years, and now music-
Now Diane Reeves, music director.
Great jazz pianist from LA. Yeah. He was doing some songwriting with Siedah Garrett
several years before this, and was on the phone-
Baby Beasley.
Baby Beasley, right.
The bee's knees.
Wow.
We got all sorts of names.
Okay.
And he said something about "Man in the Mirror" and that caught her attention.
She wrote it down. Years later, when Glen Ballard came in, he's like, "I got an
idea."
Great.
"Doom, ding, doom, ding, doom." With that intro.
She immediately was like, "Hold on." And she went back and found in her notebook-
Cool
... and that's how the title came about, so.
The panning of the shakers, yeah.
"I'm gonna make a change
for once in my life."
And these are real claps, I think.
"It's gonna feel real good."
As opposed to the, which makes a difference.
"Gonna make it right.
As I turn up the collar on my favorite
winter coat. This wind is blowing my
mind. I see the kids in the street"-
This was sharp, too
... "with not enough to eat. Who am I to be blind"-
Yeah, sharp. They pushed it
... "pretending not to see their needs?"
It's like the 442s, they push everything up.
"A scar has disregard"-
Ah
... "a broken bottle top"-
Man, the little harmonic backgrounds
... "a worn out man so poor."
What a melody, man. This here?
That's with Siedah Garrett singing.
"Follow each other on the wind, yeah, no"-
Gorgeous
... yeah.
"Because they got nowhere"-
And then here.
"to go. That's why I want you to know.
I'm starting with the"-
Filling it in!
Enter-
The filling games.
Don't worry. He's a superhero
... this way."
And then-
"And no message could have been any clearer"-
Bring the blues into it. Let's bring a little diminish
... "if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then
make a change."
Ah, walk down.
"Na-na-na, na, na, na."
I got to, sorry.
This is a perfect track.
I got to back it up.
I forgot about this.
So, we talk about the snare drum. The entrance of the snare drum after the first
chorus-
Yeah
... is one of the great moments. This might be my favorite.
"Starting with the man in the mirror.
I'm asking him to change his ways."
So, there's a little piccolo snare?
Yes. "And no message could have been any clearer."
That's playing on all four beats.
"If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself-"
Right? Dot, dot, dot.
"Then make a change." Ah.
"Na-na-na, na, na, na."
It's coming in hot.
Incredible. Incredible.
"Uh-huh. I've been a
victim of-"
Oh.
"a selfish kind of love."
The lyrics are killing on this, too.
"It's time that I realized-"
I want to talk about the lyrics.
Yeah.
Because I think it's interesting.
Yeah.
Ooh.
Controversy.
What's that?
Controversy.
That's next. Next on the list is controversy.
"Oh, well, you may find-"
The pre-chorus is magical
... yeah. "Somebody's broken heart."
This here.
"And a washed out dream."
Oh, back down.
"They follow the pattern of the wind, yeah, no."
Man, what a melody.
Yeah, unbelievable.
"They got no place to be. That's why I'm starting with me."
Oh, filling games starting to get in there.
He started to add some stuff, see if anyone noticed.
He's like, "Cool, I got it."
Oh.
"And no message"-
Every time Michael performs this live here-
We're going to spin
... diminish
... "if you want to make the world a better place"
The dance moves come out.
Oh, yes.
You know what I mean?
Oh.
Check out filling games. Whoa,
whoa,
whoa. Woo.
"I'm asking him to change his ways."
Oh.
"And no message could have been any clearer."
Let's take our time. Let's take our time.
"If you want to make the world a better place-"
Woo.
"Take a look at yourself-"
He changed that up too.
"And then make a change." Choir. Enter choir.
I'm going to-
We're at a lift.
Maybe the greatest lift ever.
Oh, it's so good. And it's an effortless lift, right?
It's not like, it's just-
It's on I will always love you-
It is
... territory.
It might even be above. "A better place.
Take a look at yourself and then make the change."
Oh.
"You gotta get it right while you got the time.
Now you close your hands-"
We're filling.
"Then you close your, your mind."
Woo.
"That man with the plan."
We're not even doing apex.
He's a cha- no. "That man,
that man."
You know what the apexes are, right?
Oh. "That man with the plan."
Oh, yeah. You know what they, oh, yeah.
"If you want to make the world a better place-"
But this is like-
"Take a look at yourself and then make a change"
... it sets it up.
Here it is.
"Na-na-na,
na, na, na."
"Na-na, na-na, na-na, na."
Oh, filling games fitting on that four. Come on.
"Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah."
Four.
"No, no."
Oh.
Oh, sit on it. Sit on it. Man.
"It's gonna feel real good, shame on."
Shame on indeed, Peter.
"Just lift yourself, you know."
Oh.
"You got to start with yourself."
Oh.
"Make that change. I got to make that change
today.
You got to. You got to."
Oh. Harmony third.
Hear that?
"You know
it. Make that change."
The melody.
"With the man, the man."
Man.
"You got to."
This is so much longer than should work, and it works.
Every second works.
Oh.
"You got to stand up. Stand up. Stand up.
Stand up."
Man, Michael Jackson's gospel chops.
Shit.
"Woo."
Man, unless — [unclear] — all this-
Make that change. Come on.
Make that change. You know.
We-
You know.
Yeah.
You know.
You
know. Make that change.
Damn.
Make that change.
Man.
That's a perfect track.
So we close out the album with
easily the most underrated track of the album.
Best track of the album.
And it is probably the best song on the album.
Can we just move right into-
I would like-
... desert island tracks. We might as well.
Well, let's, yeah. So your desert island track is?
"The Lady of My Life."
I would like to listen to this whole thing.
Another Rod Temperton classic.
A quiet storm-
This intro-
... classic
... totally quiet storm.
Almost smooth jazz-esque.
We got some more Greg. I mean, the band here is insane.
Jeff Porcaro's drumming on this.
Greg Phillinganes, Paul Jackson Jr. on guitar.
Yeah.
Jeff Porcaro on drums. David Paich on synths.
Steve Porcaro on synths.
Steve Porcaro on synths. Lewis Johnson on bass.
Yes. Unbelievable band.
Just put your trust in my heart.
And this is easy for them.
This is easy.
And meet me in
paradise.
Now is the time. Girl,
you're every wonder in this world to
me.
Hey.
You raise your dream within the way.
Hey.
Man, those lines.
So listen to my heart. Let your body close
to mine.
Man, this is such a romantic. I remember when I heard this-
Get the fuck out of here.
... song, I was like, "I'm a romantic."
And baby, through the years.
I've tried to write this song at least 30 times.
I wrote it a couple times.
Yeah.
So I promise you tonight.
But the balance of the arrangement is so great.
That you will always be the lady in my life.
And it's kind of...
Oh, it's that one to four. That's the smooth jazz.
Major one to minor 11, four.
Think back and I dare you not to cry.
You like a bridge?
Let's make this a night we won't forget.
Come on.
To the one minor? Get out.
You are the beat inside my veins, oh.
Oh.
I hear your tune, do a dance with me.
Jeff Porcaro. Oh, man, come on.
Two hearts full of ecstasy.
Imagine there's just this rain on the road, it's nighttime.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
You're heading down to the loop.
Yeah.
1984.
Oh.
And I will keep you warm through the shadows of the
night.
Let me touch you with my love.
I can make you feel so right.
And baby, through the years, even when we're old and gray.
It's so epic.
I'll remember those days.
And we're only halfway through the track, but we're about to bam for the second
half.
That you will always be the lady in my life.
Yeah, we're all good with that, though.
Yeah.
Like that's the end of the thing.
It's like a George Benson track. I mean, I know Rod wrote for George Benson, too.
Yep.
I want you to stay with me.
The rest, it's just jamming.
Oh.
A new, joyful sight.
Paul Jackson.
Hold up. I'm about to give you some perfect rhythm guitar. Bam.
You got it.
Oh.
Louis Johnson ahead in here. Oh.
You are the lady in my life. You are the lady in this
winter snow.
Oh.
You are the baby I want to touch, oh baby.
Come on.
Take me back and dare to dream. You are the lady through the day.
What? You got a little voodoo in here, maybe?
Man.
Yes.
You are the lady when the night is cold.
You're my lady and I love you, girl.
Percolating. Woo.
You are the lady I will always
need.
Man, the ultimate reward.
I want you, I need you, I miss you, I want you, babe.
Just the organic climaxing of it.
Stay with me.
Don't just go away now.
And the breakdown.
Shout out to Jeff Porcaro, too, on the drums. Unbelievable.
Perfectly controlling, percolating.
Oh, baby.
Phillinganes. Phillinganes knows what to do.
Don't go nowhere.
You're my lady.
Unbelievable.