Don't Start Now

Warner Records, under Warner Music Group. A clean ending. Better than a song that begs to be kept in a bad hold.

Warner Records put it out. The group is Warner Music Group. The song is a woman refusing a return to something that already failed. That refusal is worth more than another chorus about not being able to quit.

It is still a dance record. Use the refusal. Do not make the club the school.

The eight

Industry
7/10
Disco played with discipline. Someone charted every hit.
Household
5/10
A bad tie, cut. Not yet a new household, but the cut is sane.
Piety
3/10
No reverence. A boundary, which is a start.
Courage
6/10
She does not go back when it would be easier.
Republic
4/10
Private life. The boundary is the civic lesson, scaled down.
Temperance
5/10
The dance floor is there. The decision is the subject.
Truth
6/10
She says what changed and does not blur it.
Stewardship
5/10
A picture of leaving a mess. Not a whole pattern for a life.

Live historicallyIf the house is stuck going back to a thing that already failed, this is the one to put on, and then to talk about.

Song · Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and YouTube Music · 1983

Epic · Sony Music Entertainment

Billie Jean

Epic, under Sony. The bass is a masterpiece. The story is a man who will not be claimed.

Epic released it. Sony owns Epic. You can separate the playing from the plea. The playing is why it is still here. The plea is a man insisting a woman and a child will not be allowed to attach themselves to him.

Dance if you already know what the song is. Do not learn fatherhood from the chorus.

The eight

Industry
9/10
A bass line people can hum forty years later. That is work.
Household
4/10
A mother and a child are the accusation. He spends the song refusing them.
Piety
3/10
The dance floor is the light he trusts.
Courage
5/10
He says no. Whether he should is the question the song will not sit in.
Republic
4/10
A private scandal, danced in public.
Temperance
5/10
The groove is controlled. The life in the lyric is not.
Truth
5/10
He may be telling the truth. He is also building a case.
Stewardship
6/10
The record is inherited. The alibi is not a model.

Live historicallyPlay it for the bass. Then ask what a man owes a child if the chorus is wrong.