IFLTS: 'The Love You Save,' the Jackson 5

Posted on Jun 26th 2009 3:15PM by Gaylord Fields
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'The Love You Save,' the Jackson 5
From 1970's 'ABC'

As a bubblegum-chewing and -listening 9-and-a-half-year-old urban black kid in mid-1970, I was as predisposed to fall for the pop-soul sticky chicle of the Jackson 5's third Motown single (and third No. 1), 'The Love You Save' as a boy could be. Though Michael Jackson was chronologically two years older than me, in some ways he came off as younger than I am, yet in the most obvious way -- his otherworldly voice and poise -- I'm still to this day comparatively a child.

Akin to its white bubblegum counterparts, the song's lyrics entendre on a double level -- in this case as a parable about traffic safety (for us youngsters) or as a warning about sexual promiscuity (for the older set). That is, until the middle bit, in which Michael accuses the song's protagonist of making out with Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell and Christopher Columbus in succession -- the song's first sign of musical genius. The second is the "truck driver's modulation" near the end, as the song vaults into a higher key, propelling me heavenward as well. Add some complementary vocals from J5 relief pitcher Jermaine, and you have the musical reason why, almost 40 years later, I'm still occasionally in my own Peter Pan phase.

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