Once he was not just considered a joke or creep, instead we knew him as an amazing talent who made beautiful music.
This is how I am choosing to remember Mr. Jackson.
Update: I wanted to embed this Thriller video earlier, but the embedding was disabled so I could not. But I just I want to provide this link because it is both my daughter's and my favorite Michael Jackson video. I cannot tell you the number of times my four year old baby girl played this on our VCR, and danced across the living room.
Wow! Well that memory certainly choked me up.
I choose "Human Nature," from the same album. A troubled soul, now at rest.
ReplyDeleteSP must be highly annoyed that the deaths of Farrah and Michael will distract some people from that... that... idolatrous cartoon!
Thank you. There were tears in the eyes here when we read the news, I'm MJ's age, my 21yo daughter was actually crying. She's now blasting his music.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing talent he was.
He did not have an easy childhood at all. I loved Michael Jackson. In 5th grade, my mom took us to a Jackson 5 concert and it was just amazing! I had a poster of him over my bed and kissed it night. Seriously!!
ReplyDeleteThen in college when Thriller came out, wow! He was one of the most talented musicians ever to live in America. Yes the last years have been hard, I am not going to think about them either..
I am watching some of the thriller videos now. What a talent......... I can't believe he just died like that. He is only one year older than I am. SO SO sad!
perfect choice Gryphen. I want to remember the Michael Jackson from the Thriller years and earlier successes. I've alway thought something happened in his younger years that gave way to the man we've seen today. Rest in peace Michael. Dance with the angels.
ReplyDeleteI watched this live. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMichael Jackson did not get a fair shake. Rest in peace, brother.
Michael Jackson was an icon.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gryphen. Regardless of what people think about his personal life, he *was* the 80's. Truly talented, and he will be missed.
ReplyDeleteI never considered Michael Jackson as a joke or a creep - merely child-like with incredible talent. So sad. Mourning Michael and Farrah in one day is hard.
ReplyDeleteI heard that he died of a heart attack so that's probably drug related. Life has been hard for Michael for a while now because he missed his little boys terribly.
ReplyDeleteSorry Gryphen, to rain on your parade but pedophilia is just not my bag.
I was a huge fan too in the Thriller years, but I have already mourned his passing years ago when I could no longer bring myself to listen to him sing, believing the alleged harm he had done to little boys. I firmly believe that the way he was brought up by his father did permanent damage to him, and so I have always, despite believing the allegations against him, felt compassion for him as the little boy who was abused.
ReplyDeleteI did not shed any tears for him today, which surprises me because I cry at just about anything; however, as I said, I had already mourned his passing years ago, and I think this end was inevitable.
I am sorry for his family and his children.
Oh, and I think my favorite, after the Thriller album, was "Man in the Mirror".
Michelle you know how many hearts you have touched with your talent!....Amazing singer and one hell of a performing artist!..What can I say just an amazing soul all around.
ReplyDeleteRest in peace.
This is surreal.... I just can't believe it.
ReplyDeleteThe first record I ever had was the Jackson 5. Woke up early on Sat. mornings to watch the cartoon show.
Watching the TV now is weird... they are showing the UCLA med center. I attended UCLA when MJ was at his peak in the 80s. So strange... so sad....
I need to go find my iPod and listen to his music....
There is a dance instructor in Canada that organizes a world Thriller Day in late October every year. She is out to break a Guiness world record by having people do a simplified Thriller dance on the same day all over the world. Parts are broken down for learning and they are on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she'll get in the record books this year. It would be a fine tribute to a talented singer. And in time, perhaps we can start to forget the....other.
I NEVER believed in those charges against him. Just brought on by people who wanted his money.
ReplyDeleteBut, anyway, he was a great entertainer and am glad to have been to 2 of his concerts; 1 having been the Jackson 5, way back in the day.
So sad a loss.
There is something very wrong about the announcement of his death. I started getting announcements @12:30 PT! I was still getting them at 1:30PT when I left my house to run errands. I saw on KO they are saying his official time of death was 2:30 Pt? No freaking way. The original report said MJ was found unconscious and paramedics couldn't revive him and he was pronounced DOA at hospital. Now I hear Jermain's dr. worked on him?? Weird. Another "get rid of drugs" Heath ledger? Somethings not right.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for his kids but I think now they will have a change for a better life, Although it will take years of therapy. JMO.
It doesn't matter what happened to him the LA police are incompetent and bought off.... ie: Marilyn Monroe,OJ,robert blake and many others.
Oh...RIP Farrah.
crystalcalgirl, have you made adjustments for any time differences?I don't know where you are located.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, I love this video too, but in the close-ups on his face, it seems that you can see his anguish in his eyes even then. Such a talented and sad life.
Such a sad day, losing both Farrah and Michael!
ReplyDeleteI will always love and appreciate his talent, from his early days as that cute little boy in the Jackson 5, to the later "Thriller" days.
crystalwolf, my thoughts on the announcement times--I guessed they were waiting til all the family had a chance to be there or be notified, before going public with the news? Although I was seeing it all on Twitter before it ever made it on CNN or MSNBC.
ReplyDeleteI have thought for years that Michael was addicted to narcotics, either for a real illness or an imagined one. I also wondered if he had a connective tissue/autoimmune type disease. Also with all the surgeries he could have gotten addicted. I guess we will find out now. I also never saw any compelling evidence that he was a pedophile. A lot of people in the autistic community think he had Aspergers Syndrome, which could explain his social disabilities and closeness with children. I know because it happened to me, that being wrongfully accused of a crime is devastating. The stress can kill people. I of course don't know if he was guilty or innocent.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I don't understand the way that his death has negated, in most people's minds, the harm this man did to so many young boys.
ReplyDeleteJackson surrounded himself for years with young boys from dysfunctional families. So many of those children told their parents what occurred to them in the locked, proximity-alarmed bedroom, and then had to stand by while the adults who should have protected them accepted payoffs and gag orders. This is a man who, by his own admission, provided alcohol and access to pornography to children. He was quoted in interviews ordering his own children not to look at him, or stand near him -- while proclaiming his love of all children. He refused to allow his children contact with their mother. He put his own child at risk of a fatal fall. He denied his children any chance at growing up as normal human beings.
I worked for families as a nanny for over a decade in California, including those with more money and power than god. The further up the structure you went, the more damaged and desolate the children, without fail. All I thought, when I heard the news was, "Now those children have a chance."
And many other boys will never be put in danger. No amount of past talent or personal health issues -- most of which Jackson brought on himself -- can or should excuse a life spent stalking and grooming unprotected children.
Anon @ 11:11,
ReplyDeleteExactly, and isn't it strange how pedophilia can be excused in the name of the catholic church and even worse, in the name of an entertainer has-been.
Priorities?