CHRONICLES OFTHE PAST - "Captain EO"

In September / 1986 Caption EO opened up in both Disney Epcot in Orlando, FL and Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. This was a new 3-D adventure film / video starring Michael Jackson as Captain EO. The film was produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

This attraction was in the Magic Eye Theatre, it lasted 17 minutes and you would pick up your 3-D glasses before you went in to observe the special effects. If you were a Michael Jackson fan or even a special effects fan, then it was worth the wait because the lines were long. Captain EO was a movie-based attraction that had a run of over a decade at Disneyland.

So why am I speaking about Captain EO? Obviously if it's my BLOG, then I had to have SOMETHING to do with it. Well yes I did. If you had a chance to see this film in it's hey day because Michael Jackson was the star of the film you know that there had to be 'singing' (hint, hint) and dancing.

As in many of the other sessions that I've spoken about, it all starts with a telephone call. John Barnes is a great keyboard player / arranger and John and I had met on SWITCH'S first album when John was called in by Jermaine  Jackson to play some keyboards on our project. John and I had stayed in touch from that time on over the years and had become good friends. Well he was the producer / arranger for the song, 'We Are Here To Change The World' and I was called in with a group of other Los Angeles singers to sing background.

It was a BIG DEAL. This wasn't like a normal session. I had already met Michael from working with Jermaine, actually we, SWITCH,  had met the whole Jackson Family when Jermaine started working with us and we've all remained friends over the years.  But this session had video cameras there and we all had to sign a disclaimer about the recording session, so it was a little bit bigger deal than the norm. Michael was there along with an entourage of other dignitaries.

The reason for the disclaimer was because Disney was putting out "The Making Of Captain EO" and  they video taped the recording session. You can YouTube "The Making Of Captain EO" and watch the different sections of the dancers, the actors, and the singers, our recording session, and you'll see me in the video back in the mid-80s. When "The Making Of...." video came out showing the various stages of Captain EO, I got a lot of telephone calls from friends saying they saw me.

As always we like making the recording sessions fun. When you're having fun at any endeavor you're relaxed and you do your best work. That's exactly what we did, we had fun singing the backgrounds on those couple of songs.

Captain EO as I mentioned ran for over a decade at the Magic Eye Theatre. It was replaced with another popular film, that I'll speak on later. The attraction that replaced Captain EO also lasted for over a decade and I had the privilege of being a part of that attraction as well. So even though you didn't know it I ended up staying a part of the Magic Eye Theatre for over 20 years. You'll have to tune in to a future BLOG to find out what the attraction was.

Since February / 2010 Captain EO has reopened at Disneylad as Captain EO Tribute. Even though technology has changed drastically, it was still nice to be part of history with Captain EO.

Until Next Time - Phillip