The pop star who never impressed David Gilmour: “It wasn’t great”
The difference between the rock scene in the 1970s and 1980s is one of the starkest jumps in music history. Some of the biggest names in music were still relatively big, but the arrival of MTV shifted everyone’s focus from the live stage to the music video, and now, the most photogenic rock stars were the ones earning major hits on the radio. David Gilmour may have steered Pink Floyd through most of the decade after Roger Waters left, but he admitted that the spectacle Michael Jackson put on didn’t seem that interesting at all.
Then again, it’s not like Jackson was willing to compete with what Pink Floyd were doing. Despite their internal chemistry taking a few dents, most of the progressive rock giants’ works were about taking the listener on a journey with vinyl and only occasionally putting together something that could be qualified as a singer.
For Jackson, the single was the key to everything, and looking through his music video reel for Thriller, he clearly knew what made people want to dance. From the horror theme of the title track to the carefully choreographed scenes from ‘Beat It’, Jackson wanted to turn his music into something almost cinematic, as if every video deserved its own individual world premiere half the time.
The music video might exist forever, but Jackson won the hearts of millions a lot more on the live stage. In fact, his appearance at the 25th anniversary of Motown concert could be considered one highlight from his music video career, being the first time that he introduced the moonwalk to the world and left people with their jaws on the floor.
There was no greater attraction than Jackson, but Gilmour wasn’t all that impressed with what he saw, saying, “I saw Michael Jackson in an indoor arena in America, and it wasn’t great. When I see something like that, I think, My God, put ‘me’ in charge for a week, and I’ll turn this into something ‘good’! There’s no doubt in my mind that I could have turned something like the Michael Jackson show from a pretty average to pretty damned good, given a few days and bucks.”
However, whereas Jackson comes from the world of raw dancing ability, Gilmour was a lot more interested in making a massive light show instead. For as many times that theatricality got in the way on the tour for The Wall, the guitarist clearly had a handle on the medium when he flew solo after he left, including recreating pieces of Dark Side of the Moon when they played the album in full on their later tours.
It might just speak to the different kinds of performers that they are. Gilmour was looking to tell a story to some extent whenever he went onstage, but Jackson could get by just playing the hits half the time, even if it meant performing a few dance steps and not exactly hitting everything on pitch every time he got onstage.
When you look at it solely on raw musicianship, though, Jackson was still more than ready to go toe-to-toe with his peers. He probably couldn’t make the kind of epic journeys that Pink Floyd could, but there’s something to be said for artists who take weird musical concepts and turn them into the catchiest tunes in the world.
