Confounding to the Last
2009 June 26
I don’t have much to say about the passing of Michael Jackson, but I wanted to make some note of it. I grew up with his music, and even after it became apparent that his mind was doing terrible things to him, no one could deny his enormous talent. Scandal and strangeness aside, he’s always been a presence.
Rest in peace, Michael.
My baby book says that I used to sing, “ABC..” Cute. Shame his life turned out like it did.
It is, really. Maybe he would have been better off if he had been less successful.
It still hasn’t sunk in but I’ve read a lot of wonderful blogs with various takes on how he’s impacted lives and I am still getting teary with each one. It’s sad. He’ll be missed.
I don’t feel his loss on a personal level, although obviously many many people do. His death is more momentous to me than a celebrity death usually is though, probably because we are roughly contemporaries and because his life seemed so much unhappier than we all would have predicted so many years ago.
I am outraged that MJ stole Farrah Fawcett’s thunder like that.
Outraged.
Too much? Sorry.
It reminds me of the way Johnny Cash had the bad manners to die on the same day as John Ritter! Or the other way around! Regardless, I was acrimonious!
Thank-you for that. The stupid cable news focused all day and night on the negative shit from his later years. I turned it off. I have fond memories of growing up with his music. He is one year younger than I am.
He’s five years older than I am, but for the longest time, my friends and I thought we were the same age as Michael because Joe Jackson lied about all those kids’ ages for years. I doubt that I saw this particular appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, and yet I do remember that purple hat. That was the image that came to mind when I learned he’d died.
I have always been a fan and had long hoped for a MJ resurgence. Sadly, it will now likely happen, but he will not be around to enjoy it. I hope he is able to rest in peace.
Amazon is reporting that he’s the #1 artist in downloads today; I would guess that’s probably true on iTunes as well. I have the Off the Wall LP (LP! I am ancient!) packed away somewhere, along with my memories of doing the bus stop and making the record (record!) skip.
“Off the Wall” was one of the very first albums I ever bought! My best friend and I used to make up dance routines to the songs – I loved “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.” Yes, I am ancient too! haha
A high school boyfriend sang Rock With You to me over the phone once, and I actually found that charming (!). Such is the power of Michael.
(I am editing this response to add that he didn’t sing the ENTIRE song. That would have been creepy.)
When he was brown he was phenomenal. He jumped the shark with Neverland Ranch and pet monkeys, but that never changed the fact that he was an amazing thread in the tapestry of our musical quilt.
I’ve been listening to some of the Jackson 5 songs the last couple of days, and I do think he was a better singer when he was younger. In later years, his voice gets a little thready; I don’t know if it’s because he can’t really maintain that falsetto, or if the plastic surgery affected his voice.
Really well said. The journey from that amazingly-talented kid to who he became is a strange one, but the kid was talented. I never owned one of his albums or even listened to him much, but I know what you mean about his being a presence– when I saw the headline I was immediately sent to a specific day of my past; someone I knew had bought the Thriller LP and she carried it around in public like it was an accessory.
It’s really hard to reconcile even Thriller-era Michael with the person he was in the last ten years or so. I watched the Martin Bashir interview a few years back, and it was just very sad more than anything else.
Johnny Cash and John Ritter died on the same day, too? Why don’t I remember that??
Regardless, I thought sort of the same thing as Claire (minus the outrage part). I’m convinced that wherever Farrah is, she’s saying, “Are you kidding me? Are you freaking KIDDING ME??” Poor woman should have gotten the tribute spotlight for more than a couple of hours, no?
By the same token, Ed McMahon would like people to know that he is currently deceased as well.
I was amazed at the amount of news coverage this warranted. He was relatively young, and this was unexpected…But still – Was there nothing else to report that the warranted non-stop coverage? Also, why were so many people camped out outside the hospital?
That said, Thriller was one of the first cassettes I owned. I was a fan in the 80s and early 90s…Then, not so much.
It is very sad and it’s too bad he never got to have his comeback tour.
I remember when Elvis died and the reaction now is not so different from that. The news coverage is not even really that different except that now there are so many more news outlets and 24-hour stations, so even though it’s more in sheer quantity, the level of attention is about the same, I think. The interest on the public’s part is also enormous; Google got so many news searches in the hours after his death that they actually shut down for a bit, thinking it was a cyber attack. I guess some artists just inspire this kind of reaction on death, particularly when their contributions were huge and their lives tragic.
He was so clearly troubled–whatever he may or may not have done wrong, it’s all just sad.
His solo album, “Ben,” was the first album I ever owned. I loved that song, particularly, and I played it over and over on my plastic portable record player. (Remember record players? They just…played records. Heh.)
I still have a record player, but the stylus is all wonky. I am not entirely sure how to go about replacing it, although it hasn’t really been an issue for, oh, 19 years. Do you remember those little plastic disks that went in the center of the big hole on 45s so you could play them? I was quite envious when I saw that my friend Lynette had a record player with a little pop-up 45 adapter. So fancy.
I remember the plastic disks for the center of the 45’s. Does anyone have one of those so I can play my Shaun Cassidy, Olivia Newton John and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts 45’s? Oh, I suppose I’m going to need to borrow a record player too. Then I can play my Bee Gees album while I’m at it.
The first memory of Michael Jackson that comes to mind for me was when I was in 6th grade and Off the Wall came out. The girl who sat in front of me was a huge MJ fan. She had a t-shirt, a jacket, her notebooks had the Off the Wall cover printed on them, and she had Jheri curls which dripped grease all over my desk and totally grossed me out. But she was one of the “tough” girls and I was too scared to tell her to wipe her grease off of my desk. I just tried to keep my books and paper clear of it.
That’s not grease; that’s activator! Actually, for all I know, activator IS grease. Jheri curls were so awful. That’s one thing from the 1980s that I hope never makes a resurgence. It’s bad enough that Madonna’s still hanging around, looking increasingly like she sleeps upside down in a crypt.
No doubt Michael Jackson was amazingly talented. His dancing was phenomenal, and he worked really hard at it. I’m glad you did the clip from when he was still a sweet kid.
He really was amazing on stage. I’m sorry I never got to see him perform live, although his face had been painful to look at for the last few years, so I doubt I would have gone to see him now anyway.