Lost Jackson Five tape discovered over 40 years later
September 18th, 2009 by Rodney Carmichael in Music news
This was supposed to be the story of the Jackson Five’s first single, cut in Chicago in 1967. But while he was writing it, Jake Austen picked up a trail leading to a tape nobody knew existed: the earliest known studio recording of Michael Jackson and his brothers. — Chicago Reader
“The Jackson Find,” the cover story that appeared in last week’s Chicago Reader (sister paper of CL Atlanta), is a killer piece of investigative music journalism. It details writer Jake Austen’s discovery of what could likely be the first recording by the Jackson Five.
The song, “Big Boy,” is actually an earlier, and possibly better, version than the one released by Steeltown Records in 1968 — one year before their first Motown release.
What you’re about to read is not only a detailed account of the Jackson Five’s Steeltown session but also convincing evidence that by then the group had already been in development with one of Chicago’s most important black-owned labels—an episode previously completely lost to history.
Besides the actual recording, the story uncovers how Joe Jackson was infamous for making side management deals with anyone who he thought could get his boys closer to the top.
During this period the people who thought they were managing the Jackson Five could’ve fielded a baseball team. They included Keith, Spann, Jones, a Chicago policeman named Luther Terry, whom Spann describes as “an individual that had thought he had some latitude . . . but didn’t,” and New York lawyer Richard Arons, who reportedly struck his deal with Joseph when the boys went east to play Harlem’s Apollo Theater in May 1968. It was their first pro gig at the theater, booked by soul singer Joe Simon, who takes some credit for discovering Michael as a result—but the amateur-night audience that applauded the Jackson Five to victory in August 1967, on their first visit, deserves at least as big a share.
With all the people who’ve been credited with discovering the group — from Diana Ross (yeah, right) to Motown group Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers — it’s fascinating to finally get the real deal.
Read the full story and listen to Jake Austen’s interview on Chicago’s 91.5 (WBEZ-FM)
(Jackson Five photo from the collection of Jake Austen; photo of “Big Boy” reel from One-derful Records by Jim Newberry)
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