"ABC": A Narrative on Brotherhood
W e were headed to the Winco grocery store on one of our bi-weekly morning shopping trips. Mom always listened to her iPod in the car. She never hit shuffle, which made the songs she chose to play on our adventures truly special. As we made our way through the mundane, these songs began to stick to me in different ways. They started out as little earworms, like the piano licks at the end of each verse in “Sweet Home Alabama.” Somewhere between the age of 4 and 5, The Jackson 5’s classic single “ABC” was an early hyper-fixation of mine. Even the album cover, which really didn’t have much going on visually and by all accounts, is quite boring to look at– kept my attention. Apart from the deep indigo background, playful choice of font, and even the band as they stood collectively, what truly stood out to me was the undeniable presence of a then-young Michael Jackson. He was the music, in all parts and in essence, and he stood at the forefront of it all. As the young...