"Victory" (the album and tour) is proof how something that should have been a slam dunk turned out to be a gigantic mess. Here is the set-up: Michael Jackson is just coming off the legendary successful "Thriller" album and rejoins his brothers -- including Jermaine, who has had a semi-successful career with Motown. To this day, I still don't understand how they screwed this up.

From the beginning, this was a comedy of errors. A few weeks before "Victory," Jermaine releases his Arista debut album (a terrible decision, because it compromises any appearance of a united front). Then Arista raises a major stink over the song "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming," a duet with Michael that was planned to go on "Victory." Eventually, the song ends up on Jermaine's album and was never released as a single. In fact, outside of his co-lead with Michael on "Torture," Jermaine is rarely heard on the album (likely because of the legal ramifications of the Arista-Epic tiff).

Then Michael apparently was worried about obsolescence from "Thriller," because his presence was limited. But it wasn't so limited that he was on the lead single "State of Shock" -- a song not with his brothers, but a duet with Mick Jagger! Then he contributes the mawkish "Be Not Always," which like "State of Shock" sounds like he recorded by himself. The legend was Michael received family pressure to do this album when he wanted to take an understandable break from "Thriller;" it certainly reflects in the quality.

As a result, "Victory" is basically a bunch of solo songs recorded to be some sort of demo for the other four brothers. Jackie, Marlon, Randy and even Tito have solo songs, which outside of Randy's "One More Chance" were unimpressive. The only song that sounds like a Jacksons collaboration is "Torture." Michael and Jermaine add vocal ad-libs to Jackie's song "Wait," but that likely was done separately in other studios.

In addition to being bad material, you knew after listening to "Victory" that none of these guys worked together -- which is the incredible letdown, given that The Jacksons were known as standout musicians, singers, writers and producers. The general idea was that Michael would sing lead on the majority of the songs and Jermaine would sing lead on several songs and with Michael, plus the guys would be writing and producing their own material -- the expectation was not Jackie would be singing songs produced by the guys from Toto!

If The Jacksons merely performed at their ordinary standards, this should have been a huge success. If they did a replay of their best album "Triumph," this album would have been a gigantic success. However, "Victory" was so poorly done and executed you wondered if Joseph and Katherine's boys intentionally wanted to screw up.
"Victory" (the album and tour) is proof how something that should have been a slam dunk turned out to be a gigantic mess. Here is the set-up: Michael Jackson is just coming off the legendary successful "Thriller" album and rejoins his brothers -- including Jermaine, who has had a semi-successful career with Motown. To this day, I still don't understand how they screwed this up. From the beginning, this was a comedy of errors. A few weeks before "Victory," Jermaine releases his Arista debut album (a terrible decision, because it compromises any appearance of a united front). Then Arista raises a major stink over the song "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming," a duet with Michael that was planned to go on "Victory. " Eventually, the song ends up on Jermaine's album and was never released as a single. In fact, outside of his co-lead with Michael on "Torture," Jermaine is rarely heard on the album (likely because of the legal ramifications of the Arista-Epic tiff). Then Michael apparently was worried about obsolescence from "Thriller," because his presence was limited. But it wasn't so limited that he was on the lead single "State of Shock" -- a song not with his brothers, but a duet with Mick Jagger! Then he contributes the mawkish "Be Not Always," which like "State of Shock" sounds like he recorded by himself. The legend was Michael received family pressure to do this album when he wanted to take an understandable break from "Thriller;" it certainly reflects in the quality. As a result, "Victory" is basically a bunch of solo songs recorded to be some sort of demo for the other four brothers. Jackie, Marlon, Randy and even Tito have solo songs, which outside of Randy's "One More Chance" were unimpressive. The only song that sounds like a Jacksons collaboration is "Torture. " Michael and Jermaine add vocal ad-libs to Jackie's song "Wait," but that likely was done separately in other studios. In addition to being bad material, you knew after listening to "Victory" that none of these guys worked together -- which is the incredible letdown, given that The Jacksons were known as standout musicians, singers, writers and producers. The general idea was that Michael would sing lead on the majority of the songs and Jermaine would sing lead on several songs and with Michael, plus the guys would be writing and producing their own material -- the expectation was not Jackie would be singing songs produced by the guys from Toto! If The Jacksons merely performed at their ordinary standards, this should have been a huge success. If they did a replay of their best album "Triumph," this album would have been a gigantic success. However, "Victory" was so poorly done and executed you wondered if Joseph and Katherine's boys intentionally wanted to screw up.