Michael Jackson Read Online Free PDF

‘Climb Ev'ry Mountain’ from
The Sound of Music
a cappella for his class. The other children were impressed as much by his self-confidence as by his talent; he received
     a standing ovation. The teacher started to sob. Katherine attended the performance with Joseph's father, Samuel, who was not
     a sentimental man, yet even he was moved to tears by Michael's mellifluous performance. ‘I don't know where he got it from,’
     Katherine said of Michael's prowess as a singer. ‘He was just so good, so young. Some kids are special. Michael was special.’
    Five-year-old Michael had so much energy and charisma that Jackie, who was twelve at the time, decided his younger brother
     would become ‘the lead guy’. That was perfectly fine with Michael; he enjoyed being the centre of attention. However, Jermaine's
     feelings were hurt. He had been the lead singer of the group, and now suddenly he wasn't good enough. Some family members
     have theorized that one of the reasons he stuttered as a child was a lack of confidence. Still, Jermaine would support the
     family's decision because Michael was so obviously a natural entertainer. However, it must be said that it always seemed that
     Jermaine competed with Michael, especially as an adult, often trying to best him.
    ‘He became this great little imitator,’ Jermaine would remember of Michael. ‘He'd see something – another kid dance, or maybe
     James Brown on TV – and next thing you knew, Michael had it memorized and knew just what to do with it. He loved to dance too.
     Marlon was a good dancer, maybe better than Mike. But Mike loved it more. He was always dancin' 'round the house. You'd always
     catch him dancin' for himself in the mirror. He'd go off alone and practise and then come back and show us this new step.
     We'd incorporate it into the act. Michael began choreographing our show.’
    ‘Finally it was time for us to enter a talent contest,’ Michael recalled. ‘This is something I remember like it was just yesterday.
    ‘Everyone on the block wanted to be in the talent show and win the trophy. I was about six years old but I had figured out
     then that nobody gives you nothin'. You got to win it. Or, like Smokey Robinson said in one of his songs, “You got to earn
     it”. We did this talent contest at Roosevelt High School in Gary. We sang The Temptations' “My Girl” and won first prize.’
    The boys also performed their rendition of the Robert Parker hit song, ‘Barefootin'’. During a musical break in the middle
     of the song, little Michael kicked off his shoes and started doing the barefoot dance all over the stage, much to the crowd's
     delight.
    ‘After that, we started winning every talent show we entered,’ Michael said. ‘It was just going from one thing to another,
     up, up, up. The whole house was full of trophies, and my father was so proud. Probably, the happiest I ever saw my mother
     and father was back there in Gary when we were winning those talent shows. That's when we were closest, I think, back in the
     beginning when we didn't have anything but our talent.’
    By 1965, Joseph was making only about eight thousand dollars a year working full-time at the mill. Katherine worked part-time
     as a saleswoman at Sears. When Joseph wanted to start spending more money on the group – musical equipment, amplifiers, microphones – Katherine
     became concerned.
    ‘I was afraid we were getting in over our heads,’ she would recall. She and Joseph had vociferous disagreements about finances.
     ‘I saw this great potential in my sons,’ Joseph once told me, in his defence. ‘So yes, I did go overboard. I invested a lot
     of money in instruments, and this was money we did not have. My wife and I would have heated arguments about this “waste of
     money”, as she would call it. She'd yell at me that the money should have been put into food, not into guitars and drums.
     But I was the head of the household and what I said was the final