WHEN the Jackson brothers signed to Motown in 1969, they found themselves victims of a glorious culture shock: pulled from the amateur-hour stages of the Midwest and the East Coast for a new life in the sun-drenched, star-studded El Dorado of Hollywood.
“Riding down the street, seeing movie stars,” remembers Jackie Jackson. “At cafés, sitting outside eating, we’d say, ‘Wow, look at that car, look at this car!’ It was exciting to see for us, little boys from Gary, Indiana.”
“It was nothing to go down on Sunset Boulevard,” adds Tito Jackson, “passing the Whisky A Go Go, and see ‘Jimi Hendrix tonight’, or ‘Tonight: Smokey Robinson’.”
Even more striking than the palm trees or the movie stars, however, was the influence on the brothers of Motown boss Berry Gordy,…
