Hi,

I see there have been a few books written about Michael Jackson, but it has been hard to figure out which one is good and which ones are fluff.

I am looking for one about Michael Jackson similar to Peter Guralnick's books about Elvis.

I would like to hear if anyone has read some and what your thoughts were?

I admitt it's been a while but I remember enjoying J randy taraborellis book. Maybe because he was rather neutral on the subject and not too much of an ass kisser.

Taraborelli's book was sorta gossipy and painted many of the Jacksons in a bad or bitchy light. It was quite the romp of a read, though. I still have a copy. The whole thing about Janet and whoever else going to an office to rough someone up or whatever - what the actual hell?! hahaha

It's crazy that he's written so much about the Jacksons, yet they continued to let him hang around them. If anyone reads that book, take it with a grain of salt.

I remember reading one called Unauthorized, but I couldn't tell you who wrote it or how good it was. Been two decades since reading that one.

A lot of these other books, much like the plethora of horseshit written about Prince since he died, aren't worth it. I ain't buying every book written about Prince just because it's about Prince. I see people posting pics of their bookshelves with every dirty tampon that has the word "Prince" on it practically. I wanna hear from those he was close to in some fashion. Mayte. Steve Parke. Afshin Shahidi. The Revolution (they should do one the way the MTV VJs did their book I Want My MTV). Manuela. I couldn't care less what JoSchmo from the Org or Housequake or Twitter has to write in 325 pages about Prince.

The same goes for Michael Jackson. I wanna read a book by Janet. Lisa Marie. Or even Debbie Rowe. Frankly, I'd love to hear some Sheryl Crow stories, too. If Frank Dileo could tell the whole truth, he'd be one to hear stuff from. Or Quincy, but we know he's 50/50 on his version of things.

So I'm not sure who has a good biography of Michael Jackson. Maybe it's not been written yet.

Thanks.

That has been my take as well, there are some gossipy ones around alot I'm afraid. I agree it may have not been written. I was going to look into the one with his manager, I think the actor fellow. Also, one called the man and his music.

I have the one where it talked about all his music( All the Music) that I liked.

I have checked out some books from the library to read about Prince and M Jack.

I actually liked the Mayte book the best really.

Did not like Prince's incomplete "auto biography"

I was very excited about Morris Day's book until i read it and a little TOO much about his inner voice and Prince.

That Morris Day book was a freakin' joke.

The cover alone is a mess. As a person who makes designs here and there, I was tickin' hard on the utter lack of creativity for the cover alone.

Then, I started to read it. I snagged a free copy because I already had a hunch it was going to be a hot mess. I got three pages in and put it again. I've zero desire to go back to it.

I expected more from Morris.

There isn't a great comprehensive one at the moment, in my opinion

but there are better books about his work and the stories behind each album

Making Michael by Mike Smallcombe is one of the best books out there about him and includes commentary by people like Brad Buxer, Bill Bottrell, Jimmy Jam and others

Man In The Music [Second edition. Paperback] by Joe Vogel is great also and includes commentary from the ones above but also from John Barnes (who recently passed away), Rodney Jerkins, Buz Kohan,Teddy Riley, Bruce Swedien, and Brad Sundberg

TrivialPursuit said:

That Morris Day book was a freakin' joke.

The cover alone is a mess. As a person who makes designs here and there, I was tickin' hard on the utter lack of creativity for the cover alone.

Then, I started to read it. I snagged a free copy because I already had a hunch it was going to be a hot mess. I got three pages in and put it again. I've zero desire to go back to it.

I expected more from Morris.

The Morris book is about 500 times better than that heap of shit The Beautiful Ones. You should give it another try. I wasn't into the occasional phantom Prince narration device, but I found it to be pretty great if you're interested in Prince-adjunct personnel. It's about Morris' life, not Prince's. Prince was a big part of Morris' life so he was a big part of the book.