Song Review

I’ve decided that the song of my summer, through my own repeat play on my iPod and through its random play on radios and loudspeakers in unexpected venues (waterpark, baseball diamond, restaurants, etc), is Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye.”

I will first preface my recent experience with this song by explaining my childhood obsession with the Jackson 5. I had a tape and would shut my door and sing and dance to “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “The Love You Save” exclusively–in falsetto, imagining myself as the little sister member–clearly ignoring Janet or the fact that any girl, especially a little white girl without vocal talent or coordination about 30 years too late to the party, would probably not be a welcome sixth member. This didn’t matter. I had a great time being in the Jackson 5!

So I guess I burned out, or was disillusioned by the miniseries, because it’d been about 12 years since me, Michael, Tito, Jackie, Marlon, and Jermaine had gotten the group back together. But, then this summer–after talking to a friend who had seen them live (can you imagine the luck?!?!), I had a little walk down memory lane and much to my surprise, landed on a song that I’d always fast-forwarded past as a kid.

It probably was the jazz flutes that turned me off before, but this time they didn’t bother me at all. “Never Can Say Goodbye” is the most beautiful song in the catalog! I was amazed once more by how Michael can convey so much emotional depth at such a tender age (I cite the lines–”Even though the pain and heartache/ Seem to follow me wherever I go…” and “There’s that same unhappy feeling/ there’s that anguish/ there’s that doubt…”). What did he know of effed up relationships and jerking women around at 12? Enough, I guess. I could feel his pain.

So I’ve been practicing my “ooos” and “Ohhhhs” and “go on, girl(s)!” and gotten to the point where I feel like the group’s reunion and my acceptance are imminent. I am the New Michael, naturally. And much to my surprise and the rules of biology, my ability to mimic his pitch has gotten better, not worse. It was meant to be.

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