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In retrospect, making 11-year-old
Michael Jackson into a sex symbol was maybe not such a good idea, but it made for some great records with his brothers in the first half of the '70s.
Anthology is the first compilation in ages to treat the Jackson 5 as a band rather than a franchise--meaning no solo records, though
Jermaine's cover of
Shep and the Limelites' "Daddy's Home" gets gerrymandered in via a live-in-Japan recording--and as an album act rather than just a factory for turning The Corporation's songs (like "ABC" and "I Want You Back") into hits. It includes all their big singles, but it also plumbs the archive for noteworthy B-sides and album tracks, of which there turn out to be plenty: some ridiculous (a make-way-for-the-new-generation anthem called "The Young Folks," hollered convincingly by a prepubescent Michael), some startling (who'd have thought they covered
Funkadelic?), some both (a bouncy take on
Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes"). The second disc is especially juicy, documenting the 1973-74 period when the Jacksons fell into the hands of producer Hal Davis and turned out some fantastic, long psychedelic-funk jams, eventually streamlining their new approach into the megahit "Dancing Machine."
--Douglas Wolk
Product Description
See all 21 tracks on this disc
