LP Review: Get It Together
Previous LP: Skywriter (D) Next LP: Dancing Machine (B+)
Released: 1973
LP Charts: #4 R&B, #100 pop
Rightfully spooked by the abominable Skywriter (D), Motown rushed out Get It Together a mere five months later. Normally I would despise such a move, but the company had to reassure fans that the Jackson 5 wasn’t washed up. Hell, here I am 50 years later and I need reassuring!
Skywriter sucked that badly.
And although Get It Together is swamped with covers (something I’m always wary of) at least the album does have a direction: psychedelic funk-rock for the dance floor. We ain’t sugar funkin’ no more. RIP sugar funk.
The Jackson 5 have finally made their first affirmative steps toward being a top-of-the-line disco act.
The title track opens the album and it’s hard to even qualify it as a song. I mean this in a good way. “Get It Together” (#2 R&B, #28 pop) is more of a looping groove. That certainly makes it great for the dance floor. The ballad “Don't Say Goodbye Again” is sweet soul, but even it begins with some hi-hat drumming before settling into ballad mode. Yet by the end of the song it is once again picking up tempo.
Even the relatively mellow cover of the Supremes’ “Reflections” still twitches with upbeat energy. That twitchin’ flows right into the funk-rock workout of “Hum Along And Dance”.
First done by the Temptations in 1970 and then by Rare Earth earlier in 1973, the song always managed to somehow get longer with each recording. 3:54 when the Tempts did it. 5:18 when Rare Earth did it. Now it’s 8:38. The song in no way justifies nearly nine minutes of aimless funk-rockin’. It could have settled for the Rare Earth runtime thereby accomplishing more with less.
Yet another lengthy funk-rock jam that doesn’t fully justify itself is “Mama, I Got A Brand New Thing (Don't Say No)”. Although it reverses the problem with “Hum Along And Dance” since its second half is more interesting than the first. At least it’s only 7:11. Those two long-ass funk-rock tracks were courtesy of Norman Whitfield, by the way.
On “It's Too Late to Change the Time” the producers remembered they were working with a vocal group and allow the Jackson 5 to once again shine on their own album. This song has a great lead from Michael and some of the richest backing vocals you’ll hear from the brothers.
Time for the THIRD cover of a Norman Whitfield production! “You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You)” is fine in the Jackson 5’s hands, but it pales to what Gladys Knight & the Pips originally did with it back in 1970.
However… HOWEVER… what this song does have going for it is the outro. The song slowly breaks down eventually leaving just blaring horns, ticking percussion, and sparse vocals invoking the chorus.
Then the vocals fade away too..
Then we have a segue with the horns and ticking percussion… then the beat kicks back up… and then Michael slowly sings “Ah baby, do it baby” and then the brothers sing those immortal words…
DANCING! DANCING! DANCING!
SHE’S A DANCING MACHINE!
Yes, this album ends on “Dancing Machine” (#1 R&B, #2 pop). One of the first bona fide disco smashes. Meant to played loud and danced to with no sense of self. You are a dancing machine. You have no control when the boogie hits you. You must move and groove. And this song had the beat to make you move and groove.
In Michael Jackson’s case, that meant busting out the Robot.
A cultural touchstone it was the fifth best-performing single of 1974 according to Billboard returning the Jackson 5 back to their exalted place as cultural trendsetters… if only for a moment.
ALBUM GRADE: C+
This album isn’t without some poor or middling execution, but it has the right idea that culminates in “Dancing Machine”. Thanks to that instant classic, the Jackson 5 found a new lease on musical life and purpose with dance floors as their new arena for growth.
Gladly, on their next album, the group would go further into the boogie.
Song Scores
Get It Together: 7.5/10
Don't Say Goodbye Again: 7/10
Reflections: 6/10
Hum Along And Dance: 5/10
Mama, I Got A Brand New Thing (Don't Say No): 6/10
It's Too Late to Change the Time: 7/10
You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You): 5/10
Dancing Machine: 9/10
Previous LP: Skywriter (D) Next LP: Dancing Machine (B+)