(Clink Street Publishing – 2016)
New books about Michael Jackson have been frequent in recent years, and given the extent of the King of Pop’s world, it is not always easy for fans to find the book that meets their expectations. It is true that elements of his private life can please a large number of his fans but for me, the musical aspect shall influence my reading choice first.
With this in mind, my interest was tickled last spring by the publication of Making Michael by British author Mike Smallcombe. The latter had just spent the past five years fully involving himself into his project and getting eventually 65 interviews with MJ collaborative partners in order to completely document his book. This perseverance into work to obtain a finalized result could only draw my attention. Quite frankly I must admit that at that time, I was in the final stretch of my Let’s Make HIStory project containing interviews with the protagonists of the 1995 double album. So I wished our respective projects would not be of too much similarity, which would have been a coincidence mixed with bad luck. It is true that a total of nine collaborators (out of my 25 participants) appear in both books but their interviews are not used through the same concept. Mike Smallcombe’s approach and content illustrate a biography of Michael’s career while I mainly focus on the HIStory album. I shall not dwell any longer on this comparison – which it is not really, but rather a desire to make that clear to our potential readers – and go on and develop my opinion on Making Michael.
The first inevitable conclusion after reading it is to have finished the book and that really shows the interest it deserves. Indeed, it took me great concentration to read nearly 400 pages in the language of Shakespeare since the book has not been translated into French. I’m not fluent in English but the content of Making Michael, all along its pages, encouraged me to go to the end because I found it all exciting.
Yet it was not easy to achieve such a result by choosing to address this issue through a biography summarizing the King of Pop’s 40-year long career.
The trap would have been to do it conventionally, at the risk of repeating previous works and, ultimately, have no originality. This is however not the case because the author has followed his wishes and desires to bring a personal touch and stand out from other books.
He deliberately chose not to deepen his topic before the release of the Off the Wall album in 1979, preventing his work to get influenced by established codes. The priority was to discuss Michael’s solo and adult career and it proved successful since the result has been supported by Matt Forger, one of the superstar’s technicians, through his writing of a preface. It is true that the different accounts and extensive research the author made give a total immersion in the studio for the various King of Pop’s records, and that’s what interested me most in this book. As it might be expected by reading the list of participants, this work focuses on music and that should be acknowledged.
Still, Making Michael remains a biography and does not only deal with the studio work but also with the tours and the scandals that started in 1993 and in 2003.
As for me, although the latter topic may always resurface, I have always chosen to evoke it in the least possible way, not to bury my head in the sand but so that music remains the central topic. After reading Making Michael I have to admit that these terrible events had their influence on Michael’s career, like the elaboration of Stranger In Moscow started in September 1993 during the Dangerous Tour shows. I was not unaware of this fact, far from it, but I tended to eclipse and minimize those ordeals experienced by our idol.
I have no intention to spoil and give too much information related to Mike Smallcombe’s book but still I would like to add that emotion was present in the last pages. Up to this point, I have never managed to write about June 25th, 2009 and I am not sure to be able to do so one day. This is not easy but the author managed to go to the end of his biography, mentioning Michael still repeating on stage before his tragic death. I had not dived into the circumstances of this tragedy for a long time but I jumped back seven years, asking the same question again : why?
Looking back on this reading, it proves more than positive and everybody should support that type of work. The author has chosen self-publishing in order to keep his total freedom and that should be recognized as well. However, in this context, it is not necessarily easy to see one’s book translated into another language. For instance, Frank Cascio’s book was supported by a major publishing company and got a French version released. That’s one of the reasons that motivated me to write this review and give my contribution so that it shall get a positive response in France.
Félicitations, Mike !
https://www.mike-smallcombe.com/makingmichael