there’s a moment about one-third of the way through Spike Lee’s new documentary Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to Off the Wall in which the Jackson estate’s archivist pulls out a yellowed, frayed letter and reads aloud. Written after Michael and his brothers, collectively known as the Jackson 5, had left Motown and were recording under the name the Jacksons, the future King of Pop is jotting down various aspirational goals: He wants to get into the movies, he wants to explore all musical styles and directions, he wants to be addressed from this point forward as “MJ.” And then, near the end of this free-form vision board in miniature, there’s a single sentence scrawled in the middle of the page: “I want to be the greatest entertainer of all time.”
Mention this letter to Lee, and the director will let loose one of those loud Spike laughs that echoes off the walls of the Sundance press room he’s sitting in. “For most people, that conceptmight not be an attainable. But I think it’s safe to say that Michael reached his goals and then some.” By the time Thriller had turned the Gary, Indiana native into a global moonwalking phenomenon in the early Eighties, Jackson was the biggest musical star in the world. Before that, however, he had to break free from notions that he was part of “cartoon” act, go off on his own and make a solo album that would turn out to be a major turning point in late Seventies pop.
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source: Joy105.com
