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Human Nature for Michael Jackson
June 29th, 2009
Michael Jackson was definitely an icon. With a few musicians, I’ve had moments when something in one of their songs impressed me so much, I thought, “Wow, I have to listen every single song this person has ever recorded.” That happened to me the first time I heard Bob Dylan’s Tangled Up in Blue, The Who’s Bargain, and NWA’s Boyz in da Hood (yeah, I’m on board with gangsta rap). I suppose that inclination hasn’t been limited to musicians either – I experienced this after reading Kerouac’s The Town and the City, his shot at a Thomas Wolfe, family-themed legacy novel that is far from his best work – I found something in it for me, though. But the first time I was blown away enough to decided to follow someone’s entire output was after hearing Michael Jackson’s Human Nature. The Thriller album was a smash hit for virtually every song on it, but to me, Human Nature was something new. There is a sincerity about the human condition in that song that can’t be faked. It’s a gorgeous singing performance – almost a whisper, really – and I think in many ways it’s as close as Michael Jackson ever came to recording … him. I don’t know how the song was captured, but I’ve always wondered if he sang parts of it in the booth, alone.
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