Destiny

I am a Michael Jackson fan of 25 years. As a kid and teenager I was more into his mainstream material - his solo albums and singles. It took me a while to discover the Jacksons, which also has to do with the fact that you could not get Jacksons albums where I live. So my first copies of Destiny and Triumph were VERY poor quality copied cassette tapes. No wonder I did not listen to them much. That was many years ago and by now I have both Triumph and Destiny in original and good quality. And that allowed me to discover how great these albums are! And they are the type of albums those get better with each listening. Right now they are my favorite albums (along with Dangerous by Michael), which I keep playing on repeat.After leaving Motown and the two Philly albums, Destiny was the first album where the Jackson brothers got full creative control. Out of the album's original eight songs (if you buy the 2009 release it has ten songs, with two additional remixes) the Jackson brothers wrote seven (the only exception being Blame It On The Boogie) and they produced the full album.I would group the songs on Destiny into two categories: feel-good dance songs and songs which are about much deeper subjects. Subjects which were the recurring themes of Michael's whole oeuvre and life: loneliness, alienation, yearning to be loved and accepted, confusion, fear, being misunderstood, being used and abused. It's pretty revealing and heartbreaking at the same time that Michael had those feelings even at such a young age.By the way, I don't think you can learn tenth as much about Michael from so-called "biographies" (many of which are full of demonstrably untrue claims about him) as from his songs. If you are willing to open your ears to his lyrics you will find that he's surprisingly honest and revealing in them (later in his career as well).Out of the eight songs of the album I put the following songs into the feel-good category: Blame It On The Boogie, Things I Do For You, Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) and All Night Dancin.Written by Michael and Randy, Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) was the biggest hit single of the album reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #4 in the UK. Michael continued to perform it until his Bad Tour in 1987/88 and today the song is considered a classic. It was sampled and performed by numerous artists in concerts, including Prince or more recently Justin Timberlake.Blame It on the Boogie was the the album's other hit single - and the only song on the album that was not written by the Jackson brothers. It's also the only song of the album that has a video.Things I Do For You is another song that Michael continued to play in concerts until the 1987 leg of his Bad Tour. It's a fun song as well as All Night Dancin.As much as I love the dance songs on the album, to me the more intriguing material on Destiny are the other four songs: Push Me Away, Destiny, Bless His Soul and That's What You Get (For Being Polite).That's What You Get (For Being Polite) is about a character called Jack."Jack still cries day and nightJack's not happy with his lifeHe want to do this, he want to do thatYou want to be kind, but ends up flat for loveFor love[...]Jack still sits all aloneHe lives the world that is his ownHe's lost in thought of who to beI wish to God that he would see just loveGive him love[...](Jack still) Don't you know he cries(Jack still) Don't you know he's scared(Jack still) It's often for his love, yeah, yeahDon't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you knowDon't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you knowHe cries, he cries because there is a lack of love"The song is credited to Michael and Randy and I'm willing to bet the lyrics were written by Michael and that Jack is actually him. The song seems to echo Michael's eternal yearning for love and acceptance. But of course, it's not just about him - it's about all of us who ever felt that way.Bless His Soul is a precious gem. It starts with the verse:"I try to do what's right for meBut no one sees the way I seeAnd then I try to please them soBut how far can this pleasing go"Then later in the song:"Sometimes I cry 'cause I'm confusedIs this a fact of being usedThere is no life for me at all'Cause I give myself at back and call"The song is credited to The Jacksons, but once again the lyrics seem to describe Michael so well. On this song Michael shares the lead vocal with Jackie and they complement each other wonderfully. The highlight is when the bridge kicks in with Michael's awesome vocals:"The life you're leading is dangerousIt's so dangerous, dangerous allThe life you're leading is dangerousDoggone dangerous, dangerous, dangerous"The title track, Destiny is about yearning for a simple but happy life and about finding who you are. Also about escapism - which is another recurring theme in Michael's songs and vocabulary."I want DestinyIt's the place for meGive me the simple lifeI'm getting away from hereLet me be free, let me be me"Push Me Away is a love song, but when it comes to Michael romance isn't something light-hearted and uncomplicated either. As you can guess from the title of the song, the lover turns him down - pushes him away. Once again he feels rejected.To summarize, this album is an R&B classic. And it becomes even more intriguing in the hindsight, knowing about Michael's struggles in life. I don't know if people at the time of the original release of the album realized how deeply personal these lyrics are, especially to Michael, but in the hindsight it's not difficult to realize.

I had the vinyl and often picked it up wishing I could hear it again. Then I found the CD existed and snapped it up. The title track takes my breath away. I love it 'til today. The whole album is fab. There again, I never could fault Michael Jackson's genius and his brothers aren't half bad either!

I first bought this when I was the tender age of 17, brings back good memories - a time when I was in demand. Slightly dated now but a must to anyone's collection who likes soul.

Contains Blame it on the boogie & shake your body (down to the ground)

I have just purchased this album for the first time and cant believe I missed it.

Excellent

This is fab with most of the songs written by the Jackson's, it shows that it really was time for them to move away from Motown and put their own mark on their albums

it was lovely to listen to Michaels pure young voice in his teens fabulous memories really good tracks some i hadn't heard