Chart Week: January 5, 1985
Song: “Centipede” – Rebbie Jackson
Chart Position: #24, 14th week on the chart. This was its peak.
This is at least the third entry in the RFTS series that is as much about the massive cultural impact of Michael Jackson as the highlighted song or artist.[1] This time we will see how Michael helped pull the least known of his siblings into the spotlight.
By 1984, eight of the nine surviving children of Joe and Katherine Jackson had achieved some measure of stardom. The boys had all been in The Jackson 5/The Jacksons, ruling the charts in the early Seventies. Jermaine had split off to build a solid solo career. Tito would become a key part of a famous Eddie Murphy bit. LaToya tried hard to make a name for herself as a singer, but was better known as tabloid fodder. Janet, the youngest, had a budding acting career and a couple albums to her name, with much more soon to come. Michael was the biggest musical star in the world.
The only outlier was the eldest child, 34-year-old Rebbie. Although she had appeared on The Jacksons’ variety show and served as a studio backup singer in the late Seventies, she was content to be a wife and mother rather than follow her siblings’ show business leads.
Once her daughters had all started school, Rebbie finally took the plunge, releasing her debut album in late 1984. Five of her brothers helped her record it. Marlon, Randy, Tito, and Jackie all helped write and produce several cuts.
It was the title track, though, that got the biggest assist.
Michael wrote, arranged, produced, and joined The Weather Girls on background vocals for “Centipede.” It was the obvious lead single and only Top 40 hit from the Centipede album.
It has always blown my mind that this was a Michael song. It sounds way closer to music Prince was making at the time than anything from MJ’s catalog. Or, rather, it sounded like a record Prince would write and produce for another artist.[2] “Centipede” is in the ballpark of what Prince-controlled groups like Vanity 6 were releasing in the mid-Eighties. Just as with Vanity (Or Apollonia. Or Sheena Easton. Or Sheila E. Or…), the slinky sexuality embedded in “Centipede” hides the fact that Rebbie did not have off-the-charts vocal talent.
Rebbie wasn’t parading around in lingerie like Prince’s many female protégés, and Michael’s lyrics weren’t nearly as overt as Prince’s. Still, there’s no mistaking that “Centipede” is about sex.
The percussion seems more of Paisley Park than the Quincy Jones camp. They might be different drum machines than Prince’s beloved Linn LM–1, but their staccato sharpness recalls his preferred sound.
The pre-chorus – “In the quiet of the night…” – is all Michael, though. It sounds straight off of Thriller, especially with the soft horns in the background.
I also have to give attention to those brittle keyboard runs throughout the song. Maybe it’s just me, but I think of Toto’s “Africa” every time I hear them.
If you dive into the lyrics they are truly baffling. There is a snake, which is clearly a phallic reference. I guess the titular arthropod is supposed to represent female sexuality? Which seems like an odd choice. Especially when Rebbie sings, “Like a centipede you’ve got, a lot of lovin’ to touch.” That comes across as pretty phallic to me. And I don’t get why the person Rebbie is singing about is going to be crying so many tears after a visit from the snake and/or centipede. Are they tears of joy? Is something very wrong going on in this relationship? Some of the other lyrics are so clumsy that they seem written by a person with no actual sexual experience. I keep thinking of Steve Carell in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Insert your own Michael Jackson joke here.
Michael dedicated “Centipede” to his “mannequin friends,” which doesn’t make the lyrics any clearer, but might help the listener understand why they are so odd.
The video is a delightful mess. There’s an animatronic snake. A fluorescent centipede. And a tiger.[3] Where the fuck does the tiger come from??? None of the visuals clear up any of the bizarre lyrics.
I’ve always thought that “Centipede” was a bit of a jam. It does still sound cool. Rebbie could have done far worse than this for her one mainstream hit. It was an interesting writing exercise for Michael, both in penning lyrics for someone else and taking a different approach from his previous songs. I don’t know whether he intentionally followed Prince’s sound or it was an accident, something that was in the air when he was writing. Once you get that connection in your head, you can’t shake it, and the record suffers for it. 6/10