The Number Fortys: Rebbie Jackson - "Centipede"

In The Number Fortys, we review whatever song was sitting at #40 on the Billboard charts. We began in the first week of January 1984, right around the time this writer became cognizant/obsessive about music, and will continue until we get bored. The seeds for the idea came from Tom Breihan's Number Ones column over at Stereogum. However, we here at k-postpunk believe that the bottom is more interesting than the top (and obscurity is more interesting than either). Also, if you want to read the Number in the title as meaning "more numb," I think that's totally understandable at this point.

The oldest of the 10 Jackson children, yes those Jacksons, Rebbie was 34 when she released her debut album. This was the first single, and the only Top 40 song she would ever have (it would reach #24). It is incredible, both exciting and strange all at the same time.

Her brother Michael, at this time the most famous musician on the planet, wrote and produced it. And yes, it sounds like he contributed some background vocals too. On the back of the single, Michael dedicated the song to his "mannequin friends." Here's his crazy-ass lyrics in full.

Your love is like a raging fire
You’re a snake that’s on the loose
The strike is your desire
But when the centipede is hot
You’re bound to feel the fire
But when the centipede is hot
You’re bound to feel the fire

I feel, oh yeah, a longing for your touch
Like you crawled into the bathroom window
To give him all your love
Like a centipede that’s hot
The fire is in your touch
Just like a centipede you’ve got
A lot of loving to touch

Don’t you know
In the quiet of the night
Is when the snake is in the crawlin’
And the moon starts to glow then disappear
When the time is really right
Is when the centipede is crawlin’
You’ll be crying in the night
So many tears
And crawlin’ like a centipede
(Centipede)

You came to strike him with your love
Like you crawled into the bathroom window
To bite him with your love
Like a centipede that’s hot
The fire is in your touch
Just like a centipede you’ve got
A lot of lovin’ to touch

(Chorus X 3)

Beats the shit out of me. The video's just as weird (what does a tiger have to do with...anything?). But regardless of all that, the song is pretty fucking great. I love the syncopated guitar, and that synth run at the end of the chorus is divine. Is it the greatest song ever written? Nah. But it's exactly what I was hoping I'd find when I started this column, a song from out of nowhere that grabs me.

Interesting note about Rebbie, she was groomed for music stardom just like the rest of her siblings, but she bailed on all that to get married when she was 18 and move to Kentucky. Like most people who grow up in abusive domestic shitshows, she could not wait to get out of there. Rebbie's dad, Joe, whose punches led Michael to develop the moonwalk in order to avoid being hit so much, not only objected, he refused to walk her down the aisle. Rebbie and her husband had three children, and stayed married until her husband's death of cancer in 2013. All of this suggests that Rebbie was a very smart woman with a good head on her shoulders.

Anyway, Centipede is a jam, a surreal disturbing jam.

Score: 7

THE NUMBER ONE

You like candy? Of course you like candy. Everyone loves candy. Even if it's empty. Even if it makes your teeth falls out and causes type 2 diabetes and mood crashes. This song isn't a pastry. It isn't a donut or a cake. It's Fun Dip. It's flavored powdered sugar you shovel down your throat with a stick made out of solid sugar that you eat after you run out of the powder. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (I tried not to type the words; I feel stupid typing the words) is gloriously, deliriously empty. It is a never-ending pleasure that quickly sickens. It's impossible not to enjoy. It's impossible to be moved. It's too catchy, too perfect, not to have been a hit. It's too devoid of anything else to do anything at the top of the charts besides sit there. How do you evaluate something that is simultaneously inescapable and effervescent? You put it right in the middle, the statistical average of a 10 for form and 0 for content.

Score: 5.