#1013. Lineage of Song: “Rockin’ Robin”

Michael Jackson

 

Bobby Day

Classic bit of music making and Michael Jackson lore. Still absolutely wild to think Jackson persevered his childhood roots to become one of the greatest artists ever. Still not surprising it took a huge psychological toll on him. Still disappointing that the culture at large couldn’t understand that. My X feed is still full of a more recent parallel in Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu, whose early training in figure skating eventually became a personal comeback that bursts with inner passion.

Watching these videos back, I can hear Buddy Holly in Bobby Day’s voice, and the emerging maturity in Michael Jackson’s, everything he eventually suppressed, even his face. By the end of the ‘70s he was already pursuing his separate path, highly visible in The Wiz, in which he’s definitively broken free of the Jackson 5 image and become more flamboyant, on the cusp of his ‘80s peak. How all of this developed into the man as he was by the ‘90s…it’s all right there in the open, even more so than Miley Cyrus, whose own transformation from child star to rebellious and highly sexualized performer feels far more crassly tragic, yet she’s given a free pass somehow…