![]() But the song’s effortless groove doesn’t rehash Saturday Night Fever as much as point the way forward: to 1980 and beyond, to a new lush era of pop-centric R&B and, pointedly, to Thriller itself. But “Rock With You” is, at best, “disco adjacent.” Sure, its arrangement contains plenty of touchstones, from a string part straight out of the Barry White playbook to the moment drummer John Robinson kicks into a disco backbeat just as Michael hits the “We can ride the boogie” lyric. Possibly an 11.) Jackson’s other self-penned compositions from Off The Wall, “ Working Day And Night” and “ Get On The Floor,” are unapologetic dance-driven workouts too. Michael sings about how he wants to be with his lover and how nothing. The swooping strings? The gurgling bass hook? Michael’s untethered falsetto? It’s nothing less than MJ eyeing the Bee Gees across a crowded nightclub and saying, “Game on.” (Obviously, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” is a hard 10. The lyrics of the song talk about the power of love and the joy that comes from dancing. Now Jackson’s previous #1 hit, the Off The Wall lead-off single “ Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”? That one is unabashedly, positively, one-million percent disco. Many critics point to “Rock With You” as the last disco track to top the charts, but that’s a misnomer. Michael Jackson - Rock With You (Official Video) 3:23 Lists Add to List. ![]() With his beautifully natural Afro and a light dusting of teenage acne, he’s no different from a million other African-American teenagers in the late ‘70s. The former child star smiling in these photos looks calm and relaxed, totally unencumbered by the crushing fame that would eventually swallow his life whole. You gotta feel that heat And we can ride the boogie Share that beat of love. As seen in Spike Lee’s excellent 2016 documentary, Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, pictures from this era are both deeply weird (Jackson sharing a booth with Woody Allen?) and shockingly unremarkable. Girl, close your eyes Let that rhythm get into you Dont try to fight it There aint nothin that you can do Relax your mind Lay back and groove with mine. Most days were spent on set, but nights often found him at Studio 54, just as the celebrity-infested nightclub was hitting its decadent, disco-drenched peak. Away from his family, his brothers, and his domineering father for the first time, 18-year-old Michael threw himself into work-and play. The year was 1977, and Jackson had relocated to New York City with his sister, La Toya, in preparation for his acting debut in Motown’s big-budget fiasco The Wiz. ![]() “Not everything is funny,” he says, “but sometimes, it is.For one all-too-brief moment in time, Michael Jackson led a normal life. Lenderman attempts the same thing in his work. Talking about people who influenced his sense of humor, he cites Larry David and the director Todd Solondz, both of whom are known for using their distinctive voices to make dark subjects feel more approachable. “Being really sad or upset while wearing a costume- that’s funny,” he says. I ask if this scene-featuring mopey guys in muscle suits playing beer pong-offers insight into what makes him laugh. 2,” where he describes a Halloween party that sounds like a huge bummer: “Nothing’s worse than dancing when you don’t wanna,” he sings. ![]() “Those were the first songs I wrote where it clicked for me: You can write about anything.” “I realized I couldn’t wait for something bad to happen to me to feel like I had something worth writing about,” he says, adding that the process that led to his 2019 Lucky EP was particularly revelatory. It was after this record, whose songs are uniformly slow, devastating, and beautiful, that Lenderman had a series of creative epiphanies. ![]() Although in his quest to stand alongside his heroes, Lenderman also remembers his father’s response to the music: “‘You’re not making any more of them sad-bastard songs,’” he says, laughing. “I’m glad the self-titled exists because it really shows people that you learn how to write by imitating people,” he says. When he listens back, Lenderman hears a warm time capsule of his old band and formative influences like Jason Molina. Never is his humility more evident than when we talk about his 2019 self-titled debut, an endearing and cozy-sounding record that’s getting its very first vinyl edition this December. ![]()
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