Michael Jackson

[UtahDan]

In the Summer of 1983, my grandparents bought the biggest Winnebago there was and took seven of the grandchildren on a tour of the USA. We drove from Atlanta to Ventura to Jackson Hole to St. Louis to Atlanta, stopping along the way over the course of six weeks, and spending tons of time in Jackson, where my grandma was born, visiting family. "The Trip" is legend in my family. We cousins grew far closer because of that vacation together than we ever would have otherwise. The RV had a cassette player, a big deal in 1983. My cousin Carrie Lynn had just bought the Thriller tape before we left. We listened to that album every day, repeatedly for six weeks. "Don't you kids want to listen to the radio?" "No, turn it over to side B, pleeeeeeeeeeease."

"Beat It" was our favorite song. Some of the hotels we stayed in (at times, sleeping nine people in an RV got to be too much) had MTV......we'd watch until the video for "Beat It" would come on and then roar with excitement.

In 1993, when I still saw the world in Black or White, I thought Michael Jackson was a child molester. In 2005, at the last trial, and after I watched the Martin Bashir interview, I felt that he was still a little boy...that he had been damaged when he was young, and that the evidence against him was all circumstantial. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. He was never convicted. While I wouldn't have let my kids go to Neverland, I still enjoyed his music, and he was a touchstone of my life. If I ever hear a song from Thriller, I can still see the black ink on cream plastic lettering on the cassette tape. My wife had the inside poster from Thriller on her wall, and she was in love with him. Her Barbie married her Michael Jackson doll, not Ken. I so desperately wanted a red jacket, though you couldn't have gotten me to wear just one sequined glove. Had my parents let me, I have short, curly, wooly, kinky hair, and I would've done geri-curl. I believe my father's exact words were, to a nine-year-old boy, "Hell no, son."

Michael Jackson was the biggest icon of the 1980s. Bigger than Madonna. Bigger than Bill Cosby. Bigger than all of them combined. He was, the King.

He's an inextricable part of most people of my generation's lives. He's one of the best singers we've ever had, especially in pop, and well, because his music is such a big part of my life, to paraphrase him, he's just another part of me.

That is a nice summation and pretty close to how I feel.

[il Padrino Ute]

Yes. Ska, which has been influential but thankfully didn't stick.

No Doubt is not ska.

[Donuthole]

No Doubt is not ska.

Not anymore, anyway.

[TripletDaddy]

No Doubt is not ska.

thank you. also, ska hasn't gone anywhere. Sorry, rudeboys.

[cougjunkie]

Sounds like Michael may have been murdered!

TMZ has a story now that essentially confirms the Suns report this morning, that Michael Jackson died yesterday after a overdose of the pain killer demerol.

“A close member of Michael Jackson’s family has told us Jackson received a daily injection of a synthetic narcotic similar to morphine — Demerol — and yesterday he received a shot at 11:30 AM. Family members are saying the dosage was “too much” and that’s what caused his death.”

Police would love to ask the doctor who administered the shot about all this, but he has apparently beat it (zing!):

…law enforcement is looking for a doctor who lived at Michael Jackson’s home — and the doctor is nowhere to be found … sources tell us a BMW belonging to the doctor was towed from Jackson’s home last night … the doctor gave Jackson an injection before he died.

That dude better run and keep running, because cops make a frowny face when you stab someone with a barrel full of drugs and then they die.

[Indy Coug]

Thank God we have outfits like TMZ to keep the world an honest and safe place.

[TripletDaddy]

Thank God we have outfits like TMZ to keep the world an honest and safe place.

TMZ actually scooped this story. It is pretty interesting how we now turn to such divergent news sources for our updates.

TMZ is actually a really big player in the entertainment biz.

[wuapinmon]

thank you. also, ska hasn't gone anywhere. Sorry, rudeboys.

Ass is ass, and class is class, who can Triplet Daddy de bigga bass, now? Ya lik-kim sum taym, ee da MAST. Mon, him wicket!. Don't meik him full up a class on rass, ya raggamuffin; CHO!

[myboynoah]

For most people under 30, they just know Jackson as the freak he became and can't understand how huge Jackson was between Off the Wall and Bad.

I'm 32 and Thriller came out in 1982 when I was five. I have a lot of early memories from that point in time especially given the fact I had two older brothers that were teenagers at that point so I definitely got a heavy dose of 80s music. There hasn't been any music act in my lifetime that has really been as big as Jackson was in the 80s. The only other musical act in the past 50 years that was bigger at one particular time than Jackson was in the 80s were the Beatles.

I'm learning so much today.

Jackson's contemporaries view him as a musician that successfully transitioned beyond bubblegum and then became a really sad oddball. They are saddened by his life, but not surprised it ended this way.

To genXers like UD, BatGirl, What is Happening, Man?, and CMBF, Jackson figured very significantly in their lives and the culture within which they grew up. They are sad and moved. They feel a real loss. They are the ones running to local Jackson shrines to pay their respects.

To the youngsters, Jackson is just a freaky-looking oldies musician. They watch the Thriller video and say, "What the ... ?" I don't even know if they really care. Jackson's image is eerie to my kids.


.

[Babs]

I'm learning so much today.

Jackson's contemporaries view him as a musician that successfully transitioned beyond bubblegum and then became a really sad oddball. They are saddened by his life, but not surprised it ended this way.

To genXers like UD, BatGirl, What is Happening, Man?, and CMBF, Jackson figured very significantly in their lives and the culture within which they grew up. They are sad and moved. They feel a real loss. They are the ones running to local Jackson shrines to pay their respects.

To the youngsters, Jackson is just a freaky-looking oldies musician. They watch the Thriller video and say, "What the ... ?" I don't even know if they really care. Jackson's image is eerie to my kids.


.

I think this is fairly accurate. Michael Jackson WAS the soundtrack of our childhood. Each song recalls a birthday party or a dance or a friend's stereo or an adolescent crush. He's why we all drank Pepsi and walked backwards. We imagined our sidewalk squares lighting with each step. We worried for him when his hair caught fire. We were inspired by his "We are the World," and his "Man in the Mirror" was an implicit challenge to us to think outside ourselves.

Plus his Black or White video showed us all how easily we can morph into little old ladies and naked models and gay guys.

Like his person or not, it's impossible to envision our childhood without his music. Every generation has one. He was ours.





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ps. could you at least reduce the size of the cartoon? That thing is huge!

[SeattleUte]

My take on Jackson (very much amateur psychoanalysis; sorry if others have said similar as I haven't read the above thread): I've observed that people who achieve spectacular success early in life become arrested in their maturity at the age of said succes. This is the terrible price of early unqualified success. It's interesting that people here in their twenties or thirties idenify with Jackson as of their generation (see fusnik's post) when Michael Jackson is my age.

Even in the golden years of the 1980's he was speaking in that high pitched childish voice (very much affected) and engaging in antics on and off the stage that at oldest resembled early teens and adolescents. (The "kid" in Thriller was in his late twenties.) (I'm ont surprised Colly Wolly is adicted to him and says "I can't help it.") His hero was Peter Pan which is of course very telling. "Neverland" was a pathetic effort to remain in that hardly pubescent age when he first achieved spectacular success and he was most beloved.

So, in Jackson's adolescent mind, any abuse probably would have been considered a circle jerk, not abuse. Moreover, as he prepared for his London tour the chasm between his physical 50 year old body and his thirteen year old spirit must have been unbearably painful. This must have finally brought home to him that he couldn't remain a child forever, which was unbearable. It's surprising he lived to 50. The poor guy. I attribute all his messed up persona to that early phenomenal success which completely distorted his world view and froze him at the age of that earliest success.

[venkman]

I'm learning so much today.

Jackson's contemporaries view him as a musician that successfully transitioned beyond bubblegum and then became a really sad oddball. They are saddened by his life, but not surprised it ended this way.

To genXers like UD, BatGirl, What is Happening, Man?, and CMBF, Jackson figured very significantly in their lives and the culture within which they grew up. They are sad and moved. They feel a real loss. They are the ones running to local Jackson shrines to pay their respects.

To the youngsters, Jackson is just a freaky-looking oldies musician. They watch the Thriller video and say, "What the ... ?" I don't even know if they really care. Jackson's image is eerie to my kids.


.

I'm 35, I was in 5th grade when Thriller came out. Many kids in my class were obsessed with Michael Jackson, but I wasn't and most of my friends weren't. I liked his music ok, and the Thriller video was sorta cool (I guess), but I didn't get what all the fuss was about. Mostly, I thought he was a skinny wierdo who sounded like a girl. Beat It was a cool song, but the video with him acting touch just made me laugh.

[wuapinmon]

I think this is fairly accurate. Michael Jackson WAS the soundtrack of our childhood. Each song recalls a birthday party or a dance or a friend's stereo or an adolescent crush. He's why we all drank Pepsi and walked backwards. We imagined our sidewalk squares lighting with each step. We worried for him when his hair caught fire. We were inspired by his "We are the World," and his "Man in the Mirror" was an implicit challenge to us to think outside ourselves.

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!

I love the man, and was horrified when his hair caught fire, and I agree with everything you said, but my love for him, was not enough to make me drink that vile swill.

[Colly Wolly]

Even in the golden years of the 1980's he was speaking in that high pitched childish voice (very much affected) and engaging in antics on and off the stage that at oldest resembled early teens and adolescents. (The "kid" in Thriller was in his late twenties.) (I'm ont surprised Colly Wolly is adicted to him and says "I can't help it.") His hero was Peter Pan which is of course very telling. "Neverland" was a pathetic effort to remain in that hardly pubescent age when he first achieved spectacular success and he was most beloved.

Don't know where you got addicted from. What I meant by "I can't help it" was I think there are "cooler" songs that he is done (Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller, etc), and Man In The Mirror is a sappier song, but I still think it's his best song.

[il Padrino Ute]

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!

I love the man, and was horrified when his hair caught fire, and I agree with everything you said, but my love for him, was not enough to make me drink that vile swill.

I think this is an accurate description.

I only poison myself with the Real Thing.