The King Of Pop
Posted: June 25th, 2009 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 79 Comments »
The following is a thoroughly unformed thought about death, childhood and how Billie Jean is not my lover. Vincent Price makes an appearance too. It’s time to get back to my vacation.
The thing I understood about Elvis when I was young was that he was famous. Crazy famous. The kind of famous that only a handful of people have ever been — Elvis, Muhammad Ali, Jack Kennedy, Will Rogers, Babe Ruth, the Beatles, that kind of iconic famous. I knew, of course, what Elvis did — King of Rock and Roll and all that — but by the time I knew him he was a cartoon character, a fat sweat-hog who wore capes and sequins and and collars you could parasail with, an overgrown leftover from the 1950s who was so buzzed on drugs or jelly doughnuts that he hardly seemed real.
Sure, I heard the songs. You couldn’t escape Elvis songs (or Beatles songs) when my generation was young — Jailhouse Rock, Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, whatever. My mother would play her one Elvis album, the bizarrely titled “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong” album, and I still hear those songs in my head — A Big Hunk of Love, Don’t, Wear My Ring — I heard them again and again. I didn’t dislike his music … some songs I liked quite a bit. But none of it meant anything to me. I was baffled how this silly man’s death could have an impression on seemingly sensible middle aged adults, like my mother.
And it was only later that I understood: I had heard the songs, but I had not heard — I could not hear — how the music SOUNDED. I wasn’t of that time. I was not 17 or 13 or 10 when Elvis was new, when his voice clashed against the sounds of the time, when the sound of an Elvis guitar crashed through in those days when young people dreamed and raged and combed their hair against bathroom mirrors and shook the back seats of cars. These are (more or less) the things that young people of every era do, of course, and I have always believed that many of the world’s biggest Elvis fans, born 10 years later, would have been the world’s biggest Beatles or Stones or The Who fans and, born 10 years later, would have been the world’s biggest Led Zeppelin or Bruce Springsteen fans or Lynyrd Skynyrd fans. It has always seemed to me that the point is not the musical style. The point is the time and finding that music that grabs the moment, clutches today, the music that breaks from the past and tells a whole generation: “All that other music is old. You are young. This is your time.”*
*My two daughters love, love, love, love the ludicrous but harmlessly catchy Hannah Montana song “Hoedown Throwdown.” They might someday be embarrassed by that song — and that someday might be in six months — but for now that goofy little song does for them what songs have done for young people for a long, long time … and someday that goofy little song might make them remember.
There were always people I liked a lot more than Michael Jackson. But that’s not the point … Michael Jackson was the inescapable musical power of my childhood. Springsteen had the Born in the U.S.A. chapter and Madonna had this knack for being everywhere and Van Halen blared and numerous irresistible forces like REM and U2 and Elvis Costello and Depeche Mode and the Smiths played in the dark corners.
But it was Michael Jackson’s time. No one was even close. If you had asked me in 1983 — if you ask me today — if I was a Michael Jackson FAN, I would say no. Not a fan. No way. Never saw him in concert and never would. Never spent much time talking about him and never would.
But then I would have to tell you that, without even thinking about it, I could recite the entire exchange between Paul and Michael on “The Girl Is Mine.” Without … even … thinking …
Paul: Michael, we’re not going to fight about this, OK?
Michael: Paul, I think I told you, I’m a lover not a fighter.
Paul (sighs): I’ve heard it all before, Michael. She told me that I’m her forever lover, don’t you remember?
Michael: Well, after loving me, she said she couldn’t love another.
Paul: Is that what she said?
Michael: Yes, she said it. You keep dreaming.
Paul: I don’t believe it.
Then again, I could — without a moment’s hesitation — sing every single word to the preposterously sappy, “She’s Out Of My Life,” where Michael starts breaking down at the end of the song. I spent a pathetic number of hours trying to learn how to moonwalk — never quite got there — and I know the entire Vincent Price bit from Thriller (Creatures crawl in search of blood/to terrorize y’alls neighborhood). I remember staying home to tune in when there was the world premier of the “Bad” video. I can go through the Thriller album in order (Wanna Be Startin’ Something, Baby Be Mine, The Girl Is Mine, Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, Human Nature, P.Y.T., The Lady In My Life), and I could do the same with Off The Wall, and I can tell you that I too am starting with the Man in the Mirror and I can keep going like this for an embarrassingly long time … and, remember, I’m not really a Michael Jackson fan.
This is what I mean by inescapable. Look: I’m not musically intelligent enough to tell you what made Michael Jackson’s music different from the past. I can’t speak to the quality of the music … let the critics argue about that. But I can tell you that whenever I went to the swimming pool in the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, “Human Nature” was playing on the radio. The opening guitar strains on “Beat It” — Eddie Van Halen, of course — still evoke a trip to the lake I took with high school friends. The sounds of “Off The Wall” can be so powerful, I can almost smell a sunny afternoon in 1981, just as my family had moved, just as I was about to enter high school, when I was afraid of just about everything. Michael Jackson for better and worse overwhelmed my shaping years, when I was a young kid just trying to figure out what I could do and where I belonged. I couldn’t say Michael Jackson helped me get anywhere. But, he was always there, always, like the weather.
I found out that Michael Jackson died while on our family vacation, while sitting in a Toronto hotel room that overlooks the baseball field at the Rogers Centre. His death hit me a bit harder than I expected — well, maybe harder is not the right word. In fact, it’s not the right word — his death didn’t hit me hard at all. I didn’t cry and I didn’t go searching for the “Heal the World” video on YouTube … in that way, I really don’t care.
But it hit me differently than I expected. It’s more like, well, let me just say this is been an interesting family vacation. Without intending to, the vacation has been a visit back through childhood. I took my daughters to the amusement park, Cedar Point, where my parents had taken me a hundred times. I took them to Niagara Falls, where my parents had taken me and various relatives every six months or so. I took the family to my old neighborhood, which grows smaller and more desperate every time I come back. I taught the girls how to play Ms. Pac Man. And I took them all to the old ice cream stand where we would go after every Little League victory.* The place was called “Cream-o-Freeze” back then; now it’s the Dairy King, but it’s still the same, and it’s still serving chocolate dipped in chocolate on a waffle cone, which is what the world is all about.
*Coaches wouldn’t take us for ice cream if we lost … there was no political correctness in those days.
The trip has been more nostalgic than I expected or wanted … I don’t want to be the sort of 42-year-old man who looks back and reminisces about stuff that wasn’t all that great in the first place. But, I’ve come to realize that, in a way, that’s part of what being 42 is about. It isn’t that childhood is so great or so lousy. It’s all of that. To me the point is that there’s a certain feeling that goes with being young and full of hope/fear/grief/anger/loneliness. The sunny days of my childhood were bright yellow. It’s cool, I think, to get a whiff of that brightness again.
For the last 20 years or so, Michael Jackson has been a clown. A creep. A freak. He became so bizarre that, at some point, even the jokes about him stopped being funny — no joke could fully reach his weirdness. His musical tastes, which had been flawless going back to his Jackson 5 days, led him astray in later years. He became tone-deaf — he insisted on being introduced as “The King of Pop,” which in addition to being stupid also diminished him: Who wants to be known as the king of Pop? And then, of course, there was all that spooky stuff with the kids.
If you grew up in the last 20 years, you would probably only know Michael Jackson for being famous. You might like the music, you might not, but either way you couldn’t hear it. There were only a few years there in the early-to-mid 1980s when you could have truly heard the music. I happened to grow up in those years. So, yeah, I was sad when I heard the news. He was a part of my life. It’s not like I want to hear Thriller again. But I wouldn’t mind hearing it again for the first time.
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Circle me billie jean?
He was a peak value guy, certainly. One of the highest peaks.
I was still young when Michael Jackson went from the superstar that people fawned over even in The Simpsons to the ex-star that became more like a joke than anything else. I’ve never been much of a fan of his, but he’s always been a figure that remained always in the background. I can’t say I’m too devastated by his death like most of the people I’m friends with on Facebook, but it just feels weird to think that he’s dead.
Anyways, I’ve been a bit starved for updates, but it’s good to know you’re having fun on your family vacation. I can’t wait until I’m able to relive my childhood in family vacations.
Oh, and I probably won’t make it in time, but circle me Bert.
I couldn’t recite the songs in order but I spent too much time trying to moonwalk…know too many lyrics of songs that I don’t really care about…and he was a part of my life, too.
The weirdest thing I remember is the Victory Tour. I remember that being the first time I ever heard of ticket scalping. I read an ad in the KC Star for 4 tickets plus a Michael Jackson pillow for $200 or something astronomical. I asked my Dad and he explained how ticket scalping is illegal and this idiot has figured out a loophole. Weird what we remember…
Enjoy Canada. I’ve never been…always wanted to go and quote the McKenzie Brothers and tell some Canadian to “take off. you hoser” and ask someone else, “How’s it goin, eh?”
Good stuff, Joe. For what it’s worth, I was born in 1984, and for reasons I can’t explain or understand, this is hitting me WAY harder than I would have expected. I guess it’s kind of like you with Elvis. Since I was old enough to realize, Michael has always been the most famous person in the world.
There’s something so quintessentially American about the tragic success story that was Michael’s life. His life wasn’t a journey from a low to a high to a low, but a constant jolt of the highest highs and the lowest lows, from childhood through global icon status. His isn’t a story of perseverance and success; Michael, due to a confluence of circumstances, never had a chance to be what he wanted to be, even while achieving more fame and fortune than just about anyone. One lesson I take from his life, unfortunately, is that you can achieve every goal that you think you have and still be absolutely miserable.
Having gone on a family vacation in the summer of 1983 with stops at Cedar Point and Niagara Falls, I found this post particularly evocative. Joe, you say “wouldn’t mind hearing it again for the first time.” I feel like I just did after reading this. Thank you.
I’m learning that respecting the past while not wallowing in it is also what being 35 is about. For me at least. Thanks Joe, the fact that you, Margo and your kids exist and thrive makes me happy. Enjoy the rest of your vacation.
I have to ask, what’s wrong with your old neighborhood? You lived near Cedar Center, right? They’ve got the new mall, and they’re rebuilding the shopping center. I visit S. Euclid about once a year, and while my parents say it’s going downhill, I just don’t see it.
Will Rogers…he was the guy who played Urkel, right??
Great article Joe & very well said!!
I grew up in the 80’s & have always loved Michael’s music – I remember seeing the Thriller video world premiere on MTV, our parents took us over to a friend of theirs & we saw it at their house – in my opinion it will always be the greatest video of all time. Billie Jean is probably my favorite song of all time – I remember him doing the moonwalk on the Motown show for the first time & sat there in AWE!! I have never stopped listening to him & probably never will.
I think it really drives home to me the fact that I am really getting older!!
RIP Michael!
Nice Joe. I too am 42 and right there with you brother. RIP Michael.
39 here… Great stuff–really summarizing his impact on people our age, yet not glossing over the stuff during the last 20 years that turned many against him and his legacy…
Thanks for putting into words my thoughts…
As always, Joe, outstanding post.
I think everyone “wakes up” at a certain point. What I realize by this is that before such and such a date, you remember basically nothing, but after such and such a date it’s more vivid. I stirred in 1990, when my younger sister was born. I woke up right about 1993 or so, when I started going to kindergarten. I wasn’t old enough to “be there” for Michael Jackson’s emergence as a musician, when he became MJ. However, I was wide awake for the first and second sexual harassment/assault or whatever happened. I’m not here to discuss that.
At the time of these incidents, Michael Jackson’s music hadn’t really registered with me. What can I say, my musically world was basically Limp Bizkit or Kid Rock or whatever garbage was on MTV. Maybe I wasn’t completely stupid, b/c I did find Nirvana and Pearl Jam in those days, but I think that was an accident. At any rate, I knew of Michael Jackson as the circus freak you speak of, while vaguely recognizing he was important. In any case, by about the time I was ending high school and hitting college, I wisened up. I opened my ears to what may parents had been telling me for years was actually good. That’s when I discovered Led Zeppelin, CCR, Skynyrd, AC-DC, the Stones, and so on and so forth.
However, Jackson stood out. My parents, who in a musical sense pretty much wish the 80’s had never happened, were still Michael Jackson fans dating all the way back to that precocious young kid who sang with his family. They told me that circus freak was brilliant in the mid-80’s, so I finally stopped merely hearing and starting listening…and I’ll be damned. Michael Jackson was truly a musical magician. To be honest, NOTHING you hear sounds like Thriller or Bad or Billie Jean or Black or White. Hip hop borrows from him, some R&B echoes him…but nothing IS him.
So…I know of Michael Jackson in both forms. Unlike my parents, I witnessed the entire sad story backwards. To them, his story is that of an epic descent into the pits of human decay, one in which a person literally melts down in full view of the public. To me, I saw the meltdown first. I see him as a troubled, sad, human being who happened to have a remarkable talent. They saw him as a musical talent who was a troubled, sad, human being. I don’t know what to make of this. I don’t know if I ever will. I will say this…without Michael Jackson, my life and this world would have been different. I don’t know if it would be better or worse. But I know for a fact it would be different. Celebrities are not supposed to be this important to us…and yet they are.
I have another point…and this one is not nearly as long…
I wish I had been alive for the British Invasion, or perhaps Elvis, or even MJ, or had been “awake” for the emergence of grunge rock. But I wasn’t. Looking back on my formative years, which range from about 1997-2005, there isn’t a single act that I can look at as a truly important. Maybe when I’m old I’ll see one.
Kids of my generation grew up on pre-packaged MTV and whatever acts looked good in videos or sounded good on highly processed, platinum records. I got the aforementioned Limp Bizkit, but also all the crumby boy bands and the teeny bopper blondes, who largely went on to rehab, strange impromptu Vegas weddings, more rehab, and all kinds of other (and I don’t mean this insensitively) shit-shows. Really, looking at it, I guess there’s Eminem…but he turns off a significant portion of the population just based on his choice of genre. Maybe Elvis overcame this, but at any rate…
I’m not enough a musical expert or anything of the sort to explain this further. I think it simply comes back to the fact that music, whether we realize it or not, forms us in some kind of indescribable way. I’ve been formed, largely, by music with no lasting greatness factor, and for this I’m a little sad.
There are few people that you can really, really, REALLY refer to as an icon. Frank Sinatra was an American icon, as was Elvis. The Beatles certainly were an American icon (even though they’re British, their impact was every bit as big in America) and Michael Jackson also fits the bill. These people shaped a generation and the future of music.
Whether or not their music was your style, you couldn’t help but be impacted by them. Joe you nailed it. Here was an artist who was able to break with the past and begin a creative revolution. Michael Jackson the man may or may not be missed; but his music will always be appreciated.
I think you hit it on the head-You could not escape him. Even if you were (like I was) a rocker, you still knew all of Michael’s songs, and tried to moonwalk (at home, with no one around) That Christmas I received the Thriller album as a gift from two different relatives-not because I had asked for it of course. They simply followed this logic: He is a teenager, he loves music, Michael Jackson IS MUSIC! therefore he must want this album.
I love the part about it being your time! I am a lover of music, and my tastes run the gamut from the 50’s songs my mom remembered to music the younger kids are surprised I know (and crank up!) but I believe everyone’s absolute favorite music is whatever they loved when they were 12-18. And the most popular stuff is love it or hate it, a part of your makeup.
As always Joe, you brought Jackson’s death into good perspective. I was never a fan of Michaels, but have always appreciated talent. I went to a concert in the late 80’s, and really enjoyed it. He was talented but was also very troubled, broken, and fragile. I wouldn’t consider him a role model, but know the media blitz is on the horizon. He will be compared to all the “greats”, and will be called the greatest; all the while totally disregarding the bizarre foundation from which he operated – and I mean truely bizarre and very suspect.
Where were all his “fans” when he was spending himself from super-rich to reportedly 1/2 billion in debt, strung out on pills, fathering children in a strange fashion, etc., etc. I would just warn everyone to beware – once the Jackson family recovers, there will be a MJ blitz the world has never known. Money is to be made here, and mark my words – they will make it. The same family by the way who screwed him up in the first place
“He was a peak value guy, certainly. One of the highest peaks.”
Strongly disagree – treating him as a peak value guy doesn’t give enough credit to his early work.
Stuff I remember:
ALL of my classmates had the Price monologue memorized.
Everybody stayed home to watch the Broadcast premier of the video. I even remember a commercial that made fun of the idea of listening to the video on the radio “oh my god his eyes!”
The cartoon, of course. Did they go into space? or am I confusing the Jackson 5 with Josey and the Pussy Cats?
Michael…what a guy. When I heard that early this morning, It brought me some serious pause…I just had to let that sink in for aminute. I ‘heard’ Michael’s music, but when the kids and the bad behavior showed up, I shook him off. I always liked his music though. At my sister’s wedding when I was like 5, my brother did the MJ dance routine and I sat outside the crowd and cried. Not because my brother had teh attention, but because he could imitate Michael so well!
I wont ever tell my baies about who Michael Jackson was, or what he did, I will just let them hear the music. Let the find out about it on their own, if they care to. He was a human who was swallowed by his own fame and ego, and I think he has finally found some peace after all these years.
Finally it seems, what the man was searching for for all these years (surgery, children, comebacks, et al) seems to have ultimately eluded him. At least he can rest in peace…
One of the reasons I keep coming back is Joe’s amazing knack for summing up in two sentences something that would take lesser talents five paragraphs to explain.
“The sunny days of my childhood were bright yellow. It’s cool, I think, to get a whiff of that brightness again.”
It perfectly sums up what nostalgia means and explains why certain things resonate so deeply. Joe and I are nearly the same age and, based on his columns, have had similar experiences (as most people our ages can claim). My reaction to Jackson’s death was pretty much the same as Joe’s. A strong sense of disbelief, followed by a feeling that part of your childhood has died.
Part of life is death. We all consciously realize that and, when people die, we grieve. But it’s a different feeling when, bit by bit, someone or something from your childhood dies. The ballpark where you played baseball every summer for five years is plowed over and turned into a factory. The mall you went to every weekend from age 11 to age 18 closes down because a new one is built. The movie theater you remember as brand new because you went the first weekend it opened closes and becomes a deserted reminder that nothing lasts forever. Someone like Michael Jackson … someone you never met … dies, and it leaves another little hole in your heart. It’s not because Jackson, the person, died, but it’s because another part of your childhood is truly gone.
I’m almost 40, have two children and have had a full-time job of some sort almost half my life. I’m closer to my 25-year high school reunion than I am to my actual graduation. And yet … there are days when the memories are so strong, so vivid, it’s as if the 17-year-old who played pickup basketball as soon as he got home from school happened just yesterday. And Michael Jackson, for better or worse, was part of that.
I’m 37, and what I think people need to understand…and what Joe has put much better than I could…is that he was a star of the biggest kind. Never before and never again will anyone in the world be more famous than Michael Jackson.
Elvis changed music.
The Beatles saved the world after Kennedy
Nirvana ushered in an Era
Springsteen stands the test of time.
But NOBODY was a bigger STAR than Michael Jackson…for all the reasons Joe has mentioned. The man almost single handedly made MTV what it is today. The clothes, the dance moves, the songs, the personality…as people have stated, the man was everywhere. Anybody else in the world, the whole focus would be on his weirdness and his scandals. But he was so big, he even outlasted those.
I’m with you Joe…I’m not a fan…never was a fan; but I am sad today because a piece of my youth died. Funny how that can
I was not going to read a single piece on Jackson’s death, but here you go and write one. A damn fine one, too, might I add.
I was born in 1984, and I’m one of those people for whom Michael Jackson has always been a famous, preposterous, clown, one who probably molested kids, and definitely did some untoward things with them. Not to mention the plastic surgery, the crappy late-period music (“We are the World?” Come on…), the fact that he was, somehow, both black AND white. I can’t even say my parents had particularly strong feelings towards Michael Jackson, as they were too old. Frankly, while walking to my office this morning, I thought “this is going to be a very annoying few days to read the news. I do not care about Michael Jackson.”
But reading this, I understand. Sort of. I can’t say I’m going to be sad about it at all, and I’m sure when I open up my Sunday paper, and see his sweaty, creepy, surgically-ehanced face staring at me, I’m going to cringe, just a little. I still do not want to talk about him or his death at parties, and may still find it difficult to do so without smirking. But I get it, a little.
An inciteful post Joe. Like much of your writing, it conveys a depth of feeling with your thoughtful framing enableing us to to ingest the relevance….of time….of celebrity impact….of musical importance on your life.
I will suggest that another thing may have occurred ……less obvious in the moment. The timing seems to be right for you….a successful young father of 42.
A death….indeed, a single death seems to raise the “awareness” level…….much as the proverbial light coming on…..of your own mortality.
I have discussed this theory with many very bright people who concur. I am 22 years older than you and the death that impacted me that way was Pistol Pete in ‘88. Having played against him twice in his sophomore(my senior) year, his sudden passing signaled a personal and abrupt ending of an already diminishing feeling of invincibility.
It also invoked a reflective awakening within me that lead directly to a trip for me and my family similar to the one you are experiencing now.
Jackson was, for a decade or so, the most famous man on the planet……a daunting burden that exacerbated an already distorted perspective. Better men than Michael have failed to carry that burden well. He is a truly legendary cultural figure of the last quarter of the century.
His death at a too young age is a sad ending to a brilliantly shining life of creative energy.
Michael Jackson’s OPS+ in 1983 was like 275.
I’m 37 and also was never truly an MJ fan. I was shocked at how hard his death hit me.
I don’t have anything coherent to say that hasn’t already been said by Joe and other commentors above, but I do want to post a link to the transcendent MJ performance of Billie Jean on NBC’s Motown 25 special.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VASYhabHkM
To me this is one of the most electrifying moments in TV history and is MJ at his absolute peak. I remember watching it with my parents as if it aired last week.
Although I’m not blind to the fact that MJ later became at best a freak and at worst a vile child molester, this is how I’ll choose to remember him. This is our youth.
EXCELLENT article! Excellent. It mirrors my sentiments and helps me understand better why I love the songs of my past so dearly.
Thank you, I admire your writing.
I’m 15 years older than Joe. I was never much of a fan of Michael Jackson except to say that when the Jackson 5 were at or near the top of the charts, it was always a wonder to me how this young kid was carrying this musical family group with his incredible singing. Talk about pressure to perform! When he was at his peak in the ’80s I was then surprised how one of my nephews who wasn’t even a teen yet idolized the guy and knew all of recent music (but not the Jackson 5 stuff).
I’ll leave with what I heard yesterday on local talk radio…Only in America can a poor black boy from Gary, IN become rich and famous and later die in Los Angeles as a rich white women. Only in America…..
There won’t be another Michael Jackson. There can’t. And the reason there can’t be another Michael Jackson is that he was the last in a line of musicians whose music was universally listened to. I don’t care what color, age, or musical tastes you had–in 1983 through, say, 1988 you KNEW Jackson’s songs. it was like the air your breathed and the water you drank.
Music now is way too fragmented, careers way too short, to ever have another artist capture the attention (if not the love) of a nation the way Jackson did.
I’m with you Blue. The star-making machinery that was in place in 1983 doesn’t have the same influence that it used to.
Network TV and Top 40 radio were at the peak of their popularity, and cable – and therefore MTV – was achieving critical mass. I bet many if not most readers here who are old enough to remember when their family got cable got it within 18 months of Thriller being released.
It was an unprecendented convergence of an immensely talented man deciding he wanted to become the biggest star on earth, and all the platforms being in place for him to do it. Media is way too fragmented now for anything like it to ever happen again. The music business can barely mint new stars at all, let alone global stars who cut across race and generations.
Blue – I completely agree. After reading Joe’s post, I was trying to come up with a comparable figure from my teen years (circa 1997-2002), and could not come up with one. Sure, pop music still existed, but by then things had fragmented enough that it was easy to ignore – which I did, because while Michael Jackson was truly excellent at his peak, N’Sync was just awful no matter how you slice it.
Jackson’s death was weird in my house. My wife is devastated, I’m ambivalent, and my kids basically said “Who?” Such is life.
As a 40 year old, I had already been hit hard by the death of Farrah Fawcett. I felt really old yesterday when I heard of her death. Surely, this woman (who I will always recall as she was in 1977, when I was 8 and I didn’t quite understand why I felt “funny” when I looked at her in her red bikini) couldn’t be dead, and further couldn’t be 62 years old?? Where have the years gone?
And then Jacko died too. And like many others here, I was shocked at how much that affected me. I was NOT a fan at all, yet I remember the first time I saw the “Thriller” video (believe it or not it was at school). I never went to a concert, heck I never bought an album, yet play the first few notes of one of his songs from the 80s and I can sing along. And yes, I tried to learn how to moonwalk (and remember the name of the kid in our school who could moonwalk).
Your article hit the feelings I felt right on the head. Thank you Joe.
One correction, Fawcett wore a one piece swimsuit in that famous poster, not a bikini (my excuse on the mistake, which felt wrong as I typed it, is that I did not spend a whole lot of time looking at her stomach area when I viewed that poster)
Joe, I don’t know how you do it, but you have this amazing knack for making me care about stuff that I just normally wouldn’t give a crap about…
Hope you’re enjoying T.O., and remember – the glass in those hotel room windows is NOT one-way…
Joe, great (as always) synopsis of the feeling those of us in our 30s and early 40s got last night. Even if you would in no way call yourself a fan, Jackson is in your DNA somewhere. If we could get a frame by frame view of each of our lives passing before us right before leaving this mortal coil, no doubt Jackson will be in there somewhere.
Blue and Mikey at 29 and 30, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing since last night. There just won’t be an entertainer, at least not a musician, like that again. It’s odd to think about how omnipresent Top 40 and MTV videos (as well as the commercials … with so few networks you couldn’t miss the MJ Pepsi commercial!) were back then. Nowadays, between iPods, 500 channels, satellite radio, easy Internet access allowing you to explore music that you would have been ignorant of 10 years ago, and music kingmakers’ need to bleed any hot act dry (just imagine an act as hot nowadays as Jackson was in his peak putting out four albums over a THIRTEEN YEAR PERIOD!), we’re not likely to see the likes of Beatles/Elvis/Stones/Boss/MJ again.
Funny how your best piece of the year was done on vacation.
Thanks Joe.
Jackpot. Count it.
“One correction, Fawcett wore a one piece swimsuit in that famous poster, not a bikini”
Right – that was Heather Thomas.
Hopefully all those childhood MJ jokes will finally die.
I also was not a Jackson fan (I’m only 20, so I only knew of the weirdness that always occurred), but nevertheless I grabbed today’s Star Tribune and read the cover story on his life and death.
That was a phenomenal post that articulated a lot of what I wish I’d said myself. Thank you for writing it.
[...] night, Joe Posnanski [LINK: http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/06/25/the-king-of-pop/ compared the response of those born in the last 20 years, for whom the slick, shimmering Michael [...]
Thanks Joe.
Between you and Hallmark, I’m not sure which has expressed my feelings and emotions more often in the past few years. Hallmark writes a lot of options and I get to pick the right one.
You however seem to be able to express what I’m feeling the first time.
I was an unabashed Michael Jackson fan. I did go to the Victory tour when it opened at Arrowhead. I did own Off The Wall and Thriller. I also always turn up ABC, Rockin Robin, The Love You Save, and most of the Jackson 5 songs you might hear when driving through Missouri or Kansas and find an Oldies station.
The end of my comments got cut off:
I am trying to separate Michael Jackson’s work from his “off the field” life. I think it is not unlike great athletes who are the best at what they do but are also human and even quite a jerk off the field.
Your article helps.
I’m 37 years old and I am ashamed to admit that I love “Hoedown Throwdown.” I am prone to liking this type of music (I’ve always been a “pop” guy), but this one is truly embarrassing.
Amazing how a perfect pop song can connect with certain moments in our life and bring the memories back as effortlessly as a captivating chorus & hook
I grew up right in Michael Jackson’s wheelhouse (I’m 37) and everything Joe said about him and his music is dead on.
But I am completely baffled by the sentiments regarding him. He wasn’t a great talent/athlete who gambled, who did drugs, who treated his wife badly or who was mean to the media (the greatest of all sins, sometimes). He molested children. It doesn’t matter what else he did, that’s the bottom line. (Please don’t waste the effort talking about how he wasn’t found guilty. He wrote a lot of checks. Even his version of what he was doing was way, way over the line.)
We forgive celebrities and athletes for so many things and try to ignore their faults because they’re human. We focus on ‘what they did on the field.’ Sometimes that’s fine. No in this case.
Joe, this is a great piece about music, youth & nostalgia. I was born in ‘75, so I was in elementary school during the Thriller days, but everyone (and I mean, everyone) that I knew owned that album. I’m not a fan of Jackson, himself. Like you, I wouldn’t even call myself a fan of his music. But hearing those old songs really does transport me back to my childhood…
One example: my family usually ate to local pizza place in my hometown about once a week (Tuesday night special or something). That pizza restaurant was, in my mind, one of the coolest places in the world because of 3 things: bbq pizza, a space invaders arcade game, and a jukebox which always seemed to be playing “I want to rock with you…”. To this day, I can’t hear that song without smelling the pizza baking.
E #47: I couldn’t have said it better. His perversion has and will continue to get a pass from all of those who care only about his amazing talent and celebrity status. Before the weekend is over I’m sure we’ll hear some incredible excuses for his criminal behavior with kids.
Isn’t that what is great about music? It can take you back in time, good or bad. You remember summer break from school and listening to the radio and when you hear that song now it takes you back to those moments when your life was so much simpler and worry free.
[...] likely be little more than self-serving and unnecessary. Especially when so many other people are doing it so much better than we could hope to. Go to those links. One reminds us that Michael Jackson was [...]
Joe- I understand what you are trying to say, but for me it was the Beatles. No serious, new and important music has been written and played since @ 1972. All else is repetitive, redundant and at best a pale reproduction of the music that moved my generation( which apparently is not yours.)Michael Jackson was weird, sad and helpless. His music was upbeat without meat to it.Nothing he did was as meaningful as Buffalo Springfields’ “For What It’s Worth”,CSN&Y’s”Chicago”,The Who’s “My Generation” and “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” and the list goes on.He did Pop-it was marshmallow. Tastes sweet, but no substance.He entertained, but he did nothing important. If he made you happy, good on him.He only helped you ignore the important stuff.
What utter self-serving Boomer rot, Sean.
What insubstantial, vacuous criticism, Blue
Sorry, Sean, but I’m with Blue on that one. You need to re-read your post. It comes across as very arrogant–maybe not your intent, but that’s the way it reads. You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, of course. My opinion is that the music you mentioned was all done by people (Beatles excluded) that were trying to make a point and “say” something “important” with their music. “Yeah, we’re serious musicians! Look at the words to our songs!”
Okay, so it’s settled…Jacko could dance like nobody’s business. Dylan, Young, Stills, Crosby, Lennon, Townsend, Daltry, et al, not so much.
See, that was easy!
Sean’s sitting on his porch, shaking his fist at all the great music from the last 35 years and yelling “Get out of my yard!”
Crotchety old man.
Thanks for writing this. It was exactly how I feel about Mr. Jackson and his music. It’s all terribly sad.
When I was nine years old, we were poor and there were four things on the planet that my consumerist little soul wanted:
A Jordache sweater with the embroidered horse emblem
Calvin Klein Jeans
Thriller
That Olivia Newton John album that no one knows the name of, anymore. One of them.
For xmas that year I got a cassette dubbed copy of Thriller, that I wore out. Best xmas ever.
Couple of things, and I apologize for length:
To address blue and mikey at 29/30, I think you’re wrong; the problem we have now is that there just isn’t a truly iconic musical talent with the “ability” to become “popular” in the same way as the Presleys, Jacksons, Madonnas, and Beatles of the world. At the same time, the music industry has geared itself toward pablum rather than true talent in a way it didn’t used to. The record companies back then would certainly throw us a producer-driven slab of pop, but they didn’t try to create franchises out of them; it was the quick buck now with no attempted investment in the future. And the main reason for that is that the media companies are targeting demographics in a way they never did.
Nowadays? They’re praying that Miley Cyrus continues being a cash cow for decades. But if a truly great artist popped up and caught everyone’s attention, they’d be Michael Jackson all over again, and probably even moreso with the way the media operates now. Because the thing about the truly iconic artists is that everyone listens to them… not just teenaged girls (Miley, Britney, etc), or disaffected youth (hello, emo), or 20-something professionals (Coldplay). U2’s probably the most recent full-spectrum blanket, although one might make an argument that Green Day’s trying really hard to get there now.
Addressing Joe himself:
I am 43, and by the time Jackson really took over, I had already had my moment of musical maturity. For me, Thriller was a case of me trying to convince my more snobbish friends that this really was a great piece of music, regardless of your genre preference. And, indeed, there were a lot of people in my “musical age group” who took to Thriller precisely because of Eddie Van Halen.
You mentioned that people take what they’re listening to when they’re 10 (or so) and hold on to it, but that’s not really true. I mean, when I was 10, I was listening to Barry Freakin’ Manilow and the Bay City Rollers and Disco. But I think, more importantly, that the genre of music which is taking hold when you’re that age does tend to color you for life. Sure, Manilow and the Rollers and Disco were the “biggest” things when I was 10 (or seemed to be, anyway), but that same time frame is when bands like Styx, REO, Journey, Skynyrd, Genesis, Van Halen… and, yes, Bruce Springsteen were first building their careers. People a few years older than me worship Zeppelin (who I like just fine, but they were all but done before I got out of grade school, and truly were before I got to high school). People a few years younger worship Jackson (who exploded as I was about to graduate, and thus had already developed my tastes).
People our age, Joe… I think we sort of fell in the gap between them, and thus have a totally different perspective. I appreciate the “iconic” acts, but they didn’t land where I could properly “obsess” over them like I did with Genesis before they sold out. I get the sense that you also appreciate them in the same way, but they aren’t Bruce. But these folks here who are around 39-40? Michael was a hanging curve right down the middle.
Thank you, Joe. So poignant. I have an incredibly strong memory of listening to “Off the Wall” in, of all places, the high school gym. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was never a fan either, but in that moment, it was perfect, it was a great album. Michael Jackson was everywhere in those days, and somehow, oddly, (I’m 47), knowing the Jackson 5 when I was a kid and so was Jackson, and coming of age when he seemed to, he was one of us… something like how you speak of Elvis, he wasn’t tired old Led Zeppelin, or showbiz McCartney or a pretend-rocker like Billy Joel. He was real, and coming into his own, like I hoped I was.
I can imagine how hard it is for people who weren’t in those exact places and times to see Michael Jackson as different than the incredibly strange person he seemed to become. But again, while I avoided “popular” music like the plague, he was everywhere. I had the opportunity to put together an extensive set of oldies for release last year, and it forced me to listen to a lot of 50s music… and I just had no idea how cool Fats Domino was, for instance. Or Jerry Lee Lewis. New ears… there was a time when there was no “Happy Days” or “Fat Elvis”, and as you wrote, I was able to get a sense of how that music blew everything else out of the water for those who were meant to “hear” it.
So there has always been, and always will be, a soft spot in me for Michael Jackson. Not because of what he did, but because he was. Play “I Want You Back” and be 8 years old, one more time.
sean @ #52
“Joe- I understand what you are trying to say . . .”
Sorry, pal. I don’t think you’ve grasped at all what Joe was trying to say. I’m with Blue, Bryan and Dave on this.
boomer rot. well. michael jackson’s always been a little, poppy kid, to me. once he moved beyond that, he was a sharp dance music kid, for all of one album. and then the weird started creeping in. when i think of michael happy, he’s a little kid, not even a teenager yet.
what joe said was that there’s it, you hear it when you’re a kid, and it’s it. for those of us older than joe…it’s still true, it’s still the same…but it ain’t michael jackson. john lennon, maybe. keith richard, maybe. dylan, maybe.
and that’s no more boomer rot than you young punks will be facing in another ten years when your opinions and formative icons don’t resonate with folks ten years younger than you. it’s not rot, it’s just life.
i think of michael, probably not really happy at all, but astonishing…astounding…as a child prodigy. and for those of you too young to remember that? you really don’t know what you missed…
It is about nostalgia, no question. A lot of Jackson’s music was so upbeat and positive, it became almost like a part of my nervous system. I would feel invincible after listening to it.
For those of us who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s Jackson’s death is just another reminder that time is relentless and shows no favors to anyone, even someone as famous and as talented as he was.
Someone once said to Emanuel Lasker, a world chess champion and philosopher, “We all lose in the end, don’t we.”
Lasker responded, “I believe that’s the intention.”
The videos also were part of what made him a legend. Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean all came out pretty close together.
And “Just remember to always think twice (don’t think twice, don’t think twice)
One more thing: Recently rewatched that Motown 25 Celebration where Jackson performed. Pretty amazing how into the crowd was considering Smoky Robinson, Stevie Wonder, etc. had performed that night. That moonwalk may have been one of the best moments in the history of music on TV.
[...] I think this guy explains the nostaligic effect of MJ better, for me, for many….Michael will always [...]
Yeah, Michael Jackson was probably the most famous person in the world. He was the first huge act to take advantage of the early ´80s spread of cheap video technology to places like Bangladesh and Zaire where they never even heard of the Beatles or Elvis. That tech breakthrough and Jackson’s career peak coincided perfectly, making him the first truly worldwide celebrity. (Madonna would probably be the second.)
I don’t feel any nostalgia for Jackson. I’m 43, and as a kid I didn’t listen to pop radio. I never watched much TV either. By the time I was about 16 I was into Dylan and Phil Ochs and the Stones, and Jackson’s music didn’t make much impression on me. Sure, I heard it, you couldn’t avoid it, half the kids at Shawnee Mission South were listening to Q104, but it just wasn’t, and isn’t, my thing.
Of course, the guy’s personal story is sad and twisted. That happens to a lot of famous people. Elvis was a pillhead, Lennon was a junkie, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin, Woody Allen married his adopted daughter, James Brown and Chuck Berry both committed multiple felonies, Phil Spector shot a B-movie actress, Pete Townshend digs kiddie porn, George Michael cruises public bathrooms, and let’s not even get into Jim Morrison. But being a habitual child molester is pretty sick.
He molested children.
Repeatedly.
For years.
I’m with Juancho on this one (two postings before mine). I’m 46, so just old enough that I was in the middle of college when Michael Jackson was big. I listened to other music. I didn’t watch MTV because it was (always) crap. So Michael Jackson was basically meaningless to me — just another pop star who did goofy things to remain in the spotlight — and I’m shocked that so many thoughtful people have respect, reverence or affection for him.
All you 30 and 40-somethings remember rock station KY-102 right? I distinctly remember them playing “Beat It” when the song first came out. Mostly because of EVH’s guitar solo, but still…Michael Jackson on KY-102?? Seems strange to think about it now but that’s how ubiquitous he was back then.
MJ is old news now.
The way more important, way more awesome Billy Mays is dead.
He could sell sand to the Taliban.
KY played “Beat It” because of Van Halen and they played “The Girl Is Mine” during the late morning show (larger female audience, somewhat mellower music) because of McCartney. But, yes, it is true that KY102, the home of Journey, Foreigner, REO, Styx, Boston, and all that other crap I suffered through during high school, used to play Michael Jackson. Better than Huey Lewis and the News, I guess.
MJ was mainly played on Q-104. It was always a big fight on the bus between KY, Q, and the Fox.
Juancho #67 –
I certainly cannot, and will not, dispute your contention that lots of famous people are “sad and twisted”. I can, however, dispute your “evidence” of this contention.
To name just two:
Woody Allen did NOT marry “his adopted daughter” (presuming you mean Soon-Yi Previn, not his first wife, Louise Lasser — though Ms. Lasser was also not his adopted daughter). Soon-Yi is the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Andre Previn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Allen#Soon-Yi_Previn
Pete Townshend does not “[dig] kiddie porn”. According to The Guardian, he was “falsely accused of accessing child pornography”. Scotland Yard admitted that after an extensive four-month forensic investigation of Townshend’s computer and other seized materials that they found NO evidence of child abuse images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend#Legal_matters
Also, while Jerry Lee Lewis did marry his 13-year-old cousin, obviously that was legal at the time and place the marriage occurred (otherwise, how could it have been a legal and binding marriage?). What exactly is “sad and twisted” in your mind about getting married legally?
Please save the spurious allegations and condescending moralizing for some other site.
Like the author of this column, I do “hear” the music when a cut from “Thriller” comes on the radio. It brings me back to a time in my life that I thoroughly detested, and reminds me of people I’ve spent the past quarter-century trying to forget. Nothing against the late artist, but when “Beat It” or any of the others comes on, I turn it off.
Aw, c´mon, Dave. Woody married a college-age girl who’d grown up in his family. That’s gross. As for Townshend, you buy that crap about him downloading that stuff in order to investigate child pornography? Yeah, right. As for Jerry Lee, there’s a lot of stuff that’s legal but not exactly the kind of thing you ought to do. Marrying your thirteen-year-old cousin is among those things.
I see nothing spurious or condescending about saying that doing that stuff is wrong. And “moralizing” seems to be your code word for saying that some behavior is moral and some is not. Well? Some is and some isn’t, and everyone has his own code. Diddling little kids goes against mine. I don’t know about yours.
And as for “save it for some other site,” you can kiss my butt on the Capitol steps. This is an open forum and unless Joe bans me (fair enough, it’s HIS site), you’ve got no right to tell me to shut up.
Great piece Joe. Michael Jackson was truly one of a kind.
If you list the top singer/dancers of all time Michael would (of course) rank#1 – he’d rank #’s 2-10 too.
Jackson’s career probably mirrored Barry Bonds closer than anyone else’s; brilliant early on, a lull period where he was still good but not the best anymore, but then with a little help (plastic surgery/steroids) suddenly reemerged as a complete titan, with a stunning, historical peak. And following that, a dissolve into lawsuits, accusations, and an unpleasant, too-soon ending.
At his peak, Jackson was selling one million albums a WEEK. At his peak, Bonds had a .609 OBP for a YEAR.
Anyway, great column. It stirred memories of my own childhood.
I may be a bit late with this, but I need to acknowledge this brilliantly written article.
You have truly conveyed the sentiments of the generation and without being judgmental at that, Joe.
Funny how old songs bring back time. Michael Jackson’s music was the “soundtrack” of my childhood and teenage years. He was there with “Got to be there” and “Never can say goodbye” when my mom died in 1970. Sang “One day in your life” when I broke with my first boyfriend, was rocking with “Rock with you” when I dated my boyfriend who would later become my husband. Shocked my 2 yr old daughter with the “Thriller” video. I was not a fan too, but there he always was, singing in the background of each defining moment of my young life. So that his death, to me, was like the death of a long lost childhood friend. Give it to the psychotherapists to analyze, but that was how I felt.
Thanks again for this wonderful insight.