Janet Jackson has some ambitious plans for her upcoming tour. “My true goal is to try at least do every single that I’ve ever had. So, I’ve got to figure out a way to fit this in two hours, and yet give them enough of each song so that they don’t feel hungry for more of that song in particular.” Wow! If we generously qualify “single” as songs with American-released videos (and ignore some airplay-charting B-sides), that’s still more than 30 tracks. Seeing as how she’s probably too proud to just ignore everything she’s done since the wardrobe malfunction, I’ve got five post-Rhythm Nation 1814 (the singles on that and Control are unfuckwithable) songs that she might think about just yelling the title of in the middle of a medley.
“Because Of Love”
I completely forgot about this top ten hit, and listening to it now, I’m not surprised.
“Twenty Foreplay”
You’re not going to have R. Kelly join you on stage, are you? Please don’t sing “You’ve made love to my mind/ Now you gotta take me from behind” or discuss how you’ve both felt the “warm explosion” unless he’s there to nod along.
“Every Time”
Britney has to do her treacly piano number named “Everytime” because she doesn’t have “Let’s Wait A While,” “Come Back To Me,” “Again,” and all the other good ballads Janet does. And that’s why Janet shouldn’t do hers.
“Just A Little While”
I actually think Damita Jo is a solid album–she better pull out “All Nite (Don’t Stop)”–but the first single was a serious backfire, with Dallas Austin trying to put Janet’s breathy voice over a guitar riff Pink probably rejected. “Black Cat” shows she can rock, but this shows that she can’t rock sweetly.
“Call On Me”
You know, even if Nelly is standing backstage, please don’t do this. Just let the beat play while you’re off changing outfits.
And here’s one track that should be performed, even if it wasn’t really a single.
Seeing as how she’s explored her sexuality for the last 15 years, she might want to flip things for the age of Obama with a little “Ignorance? No! Bigotry? No!” How can someone who spent her early twenties wearing shoulder pads and announcing her autonomy be so determined to stay a sex kitten into middle age? I’m not suggesting that she should be mocked as a cougar because she’s really into physical pleasure, but it’s clear that audiences are aching to see a different dimension.
Janet Jackson - Because Of Love [YouTube]
Janet Jackson - Twenty Foreplay [YouTube]
Janet Jackson - Every Time [YouTube]
Janet Jackson feat. Nelly - Call On Me [YouTube]
Janet Jackson - The Knowledge [YouTube]
“Rhythm Nation 1814 (the singles on that and Control are unfuckwithable)”
Amen.
i don’t think i ever even heard that nelly one. and again’s okay, but i think anytime anyplace is better as far as poetic justice era balladry.
will she be doing anything from dream street, do you think?
She should just tour with Jellybean Johnson and the Time, and do 120 minute versions of “Black Cat” every night. Acid should probably also be involved.
Because of Love and Twenty Foreplay are both solid representations of “Classic Janet”, I’m seeing this upcoming tour 2x and I’d be delighted to hear both of them.
Great call on the rest of those choices, I personally can do w/o anything from 20yo or Damita (save ‘All Nite). Anybody going to this tour will be going *despite* her last 3 albums, not because of them.
Come on J, just give us the jams!!
LOL my snarky friend just told me
‘”the title of this should actually be “Five Albums Janet Jackson Shouldn’t Bother Relearning for Her Tour”‘
On the contrary - I think she could make the lesser singles more lean and then incorporate them into a bathroom-break medley.
“State of the World” and “The Knowledge” got a good deal of unsolicited Top 40 airplay in the waning days of RN1814. You’re right that they weren’t really singles, and hence they didn’t chart on the Hot 100, but I think that’’s only because A&M had already mined that record for seven Top 10 hits (including four No. 1’s) already. Even in those days when the race between labels was to see who could score the most hits off one album (from Michael to George M. to Def Leppard to Paula Abdul), seven was generally considered the limit.
Sigh - then around 1991-92 a couple of label reps coined the term “album cannibalization,” and we swung to the era of deleted singles, unreleased singles, hit “album cuts” and as little as one overplayed radio track promoting an album for as much as a year. I’ll take the days of too many singles over that any day.
Oh, BTW, “Call on Me” was not a pop hit but was a huge R&B No. 1. No way she won’t play it, especially in big cities.
“When I Think of You” is hands-down, the greatest of all of Janet’s singles. Word.