Michael Jackson 1958 -2009 RIP
Michael Jackson “Human Nature” Mp3 (Sendspace)
There’s a reason I’ve held off posting about Michael Jackson. My grandfather passed away last week, so out of respect I’ve restrained myself from bringing up MJ to my mom who is the first person I wanted to turn to. Secondly, I simply didn’t know where to start.
Something I’ve never really talked about on here is how verboten pop music was in my household growing up. Chalk it up to a strict father with an incredibly uptight WASPy pedigree. I mean, Wagner bordered on too modern for him. However Ella Sings Gershwin was allowed, and Cole Porter. But you get the picture, there was a lot of shame directed at most contemporary stuff.
On our weekly family trips to Tower Records my dad would head straight to the back to the glassed in classical music section (where patrons could blast the 1812 Overture at will). I would stick like glue to my mom’s side. My angel, my heroine, and the best dressed aerobics instructor of all time - would siphon popular music into our house with the excuse that it was for her exercise class, knowing full well that I craved every sweet note of pop music that pumped out of our speakers. Because of her standing up for us, our wall system that held the stereo equipment was pretty schizo - think stacks of Lyona Boyd classical guitar right next to a giant ghetto blaster.
So at Tower I’d get to stand on my tip toes flipping through 45s in the bin every week, and thanks to her I would always get to leave with something inexplicably awesome. I specifically remember the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Men at Work, El Debarge, Devo, Lionel Richie or Kim Carnes. My mom would walk out with a full length- the soundtrack to Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop and Running Scared, all the early Madonna releases, I in turn would get to take the LPs to show and tell at school. For some reason I never valued my 45s enough to bring them in. What I wouldn’t give to get back my Madonna “True Blue” single on electric blue transparent plastic. Damn.
*Anyway* one of my mother’s curatorial choices was Thriller, and it was one of my proudest moments when i turned up at school to share it during Show and Tell. Actually I wasn’t the only one bring that particular record that day, but luckily since my name starts with an ‘A’ I beat that bitch to the front of the class. As a result I got to bask in the glory of displaying the gatefold sleeve on my lap while the sounds of “Thriller” flooded the two classrooms. Life was never the same, and I drifted off at nap time hugging the record.
Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” Mp3 (Sendspace)
Here is the aforementioned original record (first pressing!), which my mom was kind enough to let me keep. As you can see she did the mom thing and tagged it w/ our last name with a big fat Marksalot. Sighs, at least it was on his lapel. I should mention that with pre-Thriller MJ music (”Rock with You”), I pictured him in my head as Japanese. That’s what growing up in Hawaii will do to your preconceptions. I think we got MTV a bit later than the mainland too. Anyway that made the first time I saw the album sleeve even more incredible- this guy reclining in a white suit, WITH A TIGER CUB, just glowing. Hair sparkling. No one looked like him. So yeah, as a product of the 80s (not to give away my age entirely, let’s just say that Calvin Harris has no love for me) AND a music blogger, Michael Jackson passing was huge.
I’m not gonna front. I have been taking his persona w/ a grain of salt ever since the crotch grabbing and the windshield smashing at the end of the “Black and White” video. I remember just being like “Eww is that entirely necessary?” (Please see ridiculous uptight WASPy upbringing above. Obvs something got through). But for heavensake, the morphing in that video. Tyra Banks. Peggy Lipton. Plus what appears to be the Simone from “Head of the Class.” If I recall it was the first time the technology was utilized. You can’t say that Michael Jackson’s vision of world wide harmony ever faltered.
Thank HEAVENS to CEC from Disconap for the clarity: Michael Jackson was, is, and always will be the King of Pop. If someone had simply released only ONE of the songs off of Thriller, they would go down in history for birthing one of the greatest songs of all time. For me that album contains no less than 6 bonafide home run hits. If P.Y.T. doesn’t merit an episode of Behind the Music I don’t know what does. Or for that matter “Beat It,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Human Nature,” “Billie Jean,” and of course “Thriller.” Yes, this is a desert island album for me.
Like him or not, Michael Jackson was groundbreaking on several levels. On a musical platform, he matters. In choreography, he matters. In epic music video making with actual movie directors, he matters (Francis Ford Coppola directing Captain Eo, Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, the list goes on). In persona reinvention, he matters. In race relations, he matters. Seriously. He was the first African American to be accepted with heavy airplay on MTV. If not for Michael who would it have been and how much longer would it have taken? Michael was magic. See, even his Youtube videos are tagged with that, along with ‘magikal’ and ‘ilusion’ (PS Remember kids tricks are for prostitutes).
Rockwell featuring Michael Jackson “Somebody’s Watching Me” Mp3 (Sendspace)
But yeah, I admit, it “got weird.” I choose to remember the good times. Real Talk. Check out this clip of the Jackson 5 on the Cher Show. MJ starts to bust out around 4:32. You can totes see the beginnings of the moonwalk, and Cher tries to keep up but just resorts to the robot. Shout out to Papakilatube for the tip- if you’re not a subscriber of his channel, I recommend you do so now *HERE*
Michael Jackson “The Way You Make Me Feel” Mp3 (Sendspace)
As ABBA would say, thank you for the music. And to wacked out showbiz parents around the world, let this be a lesson. MSN has a nice slideshow of their fave incarnations *HERE*
‘Sup Magazine alum Jean Grae’s beautiful op-ed in the Village Voice is *HERE* &
Download your fave Michael Jackson from fellow bloggers via a Hype Machine search.
Luckily enough, thanks to Zach and TJ and the Tux from EVR we got into the Apollo Theater through the backstage entrance and into the memorial service, passing Spike and the Rev. Al Sharpton on our way in. See the rest of the photos *HERE*
