This is one of my favorite classic rock songs and I’m a big classic rock fan, not just physically. And one reason why it is one of my favorite classic rocks, is because of the singer and Janet Jackson simply nailed this song and I don’t know anyone that could’ve done a better job of singing this song other than maybe Tina Turner. And another reason why this is one of my favorite classic rock songs, is because it’s sung by someone who is not a classic rock singer, at least full-time. Janet is primarily a rhythm and blues singer and does a great job. But here she shows her great versatility.
I think the really great talented singers can sing more than just one style of music. Tina Turner would be a great example of that who is both a rhythm and blues and classic rock singer and also combines those two great sounds into blues rock. Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews does the same thing and I’m big fans of both. Janet with Black Cat becomes a rock star in the real sense. Not in the pop culture sense of someone considered awesome or cool. But someone who is a great singer rock singer. Who has great material and delivers it beautifully.
To be completely honest with you, if you were to judge The Pleasure Principle as just a song and listened to Janet Jackson just sing the song standing in front of a microphone and without the dancing, we are not talking about a very good song.
I’m a Janet fan, but the song itself is not that great and maybe that is just part of the era that it came from which is the 1980s, which wasn’t a very good decade for American music rhythm and blues, or anything else. And I think this song is somewhat cheesy compared with the 1990s which was great decade for American music.
I’ve seen this video and heard this song countless times and I’m still not sure what this is about. But if you judge the song by just the video, this is a great video, song or no song. The music to the lyrics are very good and you throw in Janet herself and I don’t know if there is a better singer/dancer than Janet Jackson. Easily one of the best musical dancers of all-time and one of the sexiest as well if not the best of all-time.
Janet is a very attractive beautiful baby-face woman with a great body. Who almost thirty-years later after this song came out, she hasn’t lost a thing anywhere. And if anything she is a better entertainer now than she was in 1986.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen new JJ videos. But Come Back To Me is part of Janet Jackson’s 1986-87 Control album. Her first album as an independent musical artist. Janet, is 20-21 at this point, but if you see her face you think she was 13-14. A classic baby-faced sweetheart who’ll always still seem like a kid and be able to come off as a girl instead of a grown woman. If you’re familiar with the song The First Night from Monica, which I believe came out in 1998 it sounds very similar to Come Back To Me. Both songs are about new romances with the woman trying to tell her new boyfriend that they should wait and not get down right away and spoil whatever they may have working for them. Which is easier said than done when you’re talking to a guy in his teens who cam’t wait to get down especially with a beautiful girl he’s just met and is getting involved with. And Come Back To Me could easily have been delivered from a 15-16 girl, 17-18 even, but it’s coming from a 20 year old woman. But again to go back to Janet Jackson she’s always seemed a lot younger than she actually is in actuality.
One of the best classic Rock songs I’ve ever heard, just listen to the guitar and it comes from a rhythm and blues singer. Which might sound strange, but if you listen to lets say the rock band Aerosmith and how Joe Perry sounds on guitar and then listen to Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Jimmi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and then listen to a Janet Jackson, or a Aretha Franklin, the Blues Brothers, the sounds are very similar.
The beat is similar, but different enough that you know that it’s two styles of music and not one style with two different names. I think it would have been a stretch for Janet to play and sing to country or classical music, but rhythm and blues and classic rock and perhaps even hard rock, are very similar. Which is one reason I love both and are really the only two sounds of music that I listen to at all.
I’ll listen to Aerosmith just to hear Joe Perry on guitar. And Aerosmith is a great classic rock band and they’re more than just Joe Perry, but Perry alone by himself I believe is all you need to hear to know that they’re a great band. Janet sounds like a great rocker chick here and I believe at least part of that has to do from going to r and b to classic rock.
A great version and you really get to see Janet Jackson’s versatility in her music adding classic rock to her rhythm and blues sound. Black Cat really is a classic rock if not hard rock sound that is performed by a rhythm and blues band. But where you also get Janet’s performance and dance team. You generally don’t see classic rock and hard rock bands with dancers and with vocalist dancing around on the stage and doing rehearsed dances. It’s generally a lead vocalist singing on stage and moving around to some extent and moving with their bandmates, but you generally don’t see them dancing around together. Blues rock is where you mix in classic rock like say something from Aerosmith and mix that in with rhythm and blues. Like something from Janet Jackson, to use as an example. The Dave Matthews band does that, Bruce Springsteen does this, Eric Clapton does this, Elvis Presley did that, Jim Morrison and The Doors did that combination. But with Black Cat you get a classic or hard rock song and sound played by r&b band with an r&B singer. And they did a great job with that.
“What have you done for me lately?” Another way of saying what have you done for me, period. Where have you been. It’s one of those things that people say when someone who isn’t very close with them suddenly appears out of nowhere and asks for help. And someone might say, “why should I even care and help you, where were you when I needed you, what have you done for me lately?” Janet Jackson is a very good communicator and app at using her music to communicate a broader message. Her 1989-90 album Rhythm Nation was about race relations in America and is a perfect example of that. This is not one of my favorite songs, but it’s a great song in the sense that the message is clear. And is about someone perhaps in Janet’s life who perhaps hasn’t been there for her lately and perhaps that person was once close with her and what’s she saying in this song about that person is essentially where have you been. And “What Have You Done For Me Lately” I believe is her way of delivering that message.
A great sexy performer, who can sing and dance and an absolute pleasure to watch perform. Whether you’re a fan of Janet Jackson or not and I like some of her songs and not a fan of others, she always gives you more than your moneys worth in concert and when she performs. I could watch her dance and perform with the sound down or being there live but death and still enjoy her performance. She’s a great dancer and always has great energy and I believe is perhaps at least the best performer when it comes to both dancing and singing at the same time. She has a great ability to sing while in rhythm and what I mean by that is she sings while she’s in motion and I believe brings more to what she’s saying with her movement. You can’t hope but to check her out when she’s singing because she moves so well and is so great to look at. A beautiful baby-face woman with a great body and great style and you can’t help but check her out when she’s performing. Assuming you’re attracted to women anyway. And to sing her sing a song that I really like, like Black Cat or Love Will Never Do, just makes her that much better for me.
I think the Rhythm Nation album is Janet Jackson’s best album. Black Cat is a great classic rock song is also a great video. Love Will Never Do is a great love song. (If that is what you’re looking for) The tour and concerts are great (not that I ever went to one) just from seeing them on YouTube. Whatever you think of Janet Jackson and I’m a fan, but not her biggest fan, I believe you have to give her credit for being a great live performer. She’s a great entertainer, because she has the voice, she looks great, beautiful, adorable, great body, she moves so well and is a great dancer. But The Pleasure Principle similar to Justin Timberlake’s I’m Bringing Sexy Back song, I just don’t get the point of it. Where did sexy ever go and what is The Pleasure Principle. Great video and again she looks great doing it performing it with her singing and dancing. But what’s the point of the song? Or is it just some pop culture catch phrase that she was hoping would catch on and just rely on that. Instead of thinking it was a real song with real substance.
This weekend as music fans we’ve mourned the lost of Whitney Houston. Who I consider is the voice of at least my generation. And there’s a separate post about her today and I want to take the time with this blog, to share my thoughts about another very talented musical artist, who’s still alive and very well and from the same generation. Which is a credit to my generation, which is perhaps better known for our style and not substance.
But in Janet Jackson’s case she’s known and should be known for her great talent as a performer. As a singer and dancer and even a songwriter, but also one of the sexiest and best looking performers not only of our generation, but also ever. A women who combines, beautiful baby-face looks and with a great tight sexy body to go with it.
Janet Jackson has a keen intelligence, who knows the world around her. And what’s important and what she thinks about it and what she believes needs to be said. That perhaps isn’t said enough, overlooked perhaps, or communicated in a way where the most people possible can hear and understand it. This is what Janet Jackson is about and why she’s gone as far as she has to the point I believe her music and act, has topped her brother Michael.
But Janet probably doesn’t have the same popularity as far as the number of great songs she’s produced. She’s completely involved in producing her own music. Because she knows better than anyone what she’s trying to communicate. When I think of Janet Jackson and her music, I think of songs like Black Cat which is a great classic rock song. She performs this song as well as any classic rocker. Even though she’s basically a R&B Singer and a great one.
And that’s another thing about JJ, her versatility. Her ability to combine two great sounds into one song. Another song from JJ would be Love Will Never Do, again the same Rhythm Nation album. Twenty years later still her best album another very sexy video shot on a beach, the actual song Rhythm Nation. Where she sings about we are all members of the same world basically. So lets us make the most of it.
Janet Jackson combine both physical beauty, sex appeal, intelligence, talent. All into one package and can communicate all of these abilities as a singer, dancer and commentator on world events as well as can be done right now and one of the best ever. Whitney Houston is the voice of this generation, but Janet Jackson is the best spokesperson as far as how are generation looks at the World.
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