The King of Pop, Michael Jackson

Ok, so a post about the demise of the one and only Michael Jackson had to make it's way to my blog. After all, he was about to stage his final, grandest, curtain call summer concert- This is it! Could you just imagine what kind of concert it might have been? How sad!

Where were you when you heard that he passed away? It's a bit embarrassing, but from all places to find out he passed away- I found out about it from Perez Hilton! What a shame! I remember, the night before, a friend left me an offline message about Farrah Fawcett's death and gave me a link to the Perez site. So I clicked and saw the news of her death. I was shocked, but I managed to go to sleep. A few hours later, I woke up and grabbed my MacBook like I always do. I still had Perez Hilton tab open and read that Michael Jackson passed away. I couldn't believe it. My husband, an avid MJ fan (he has all his albums in his iPod) was still asleep. I really didn't give it much thought, so I just semi-screamed, "OMG, Michael Jackson died!!!". He woke up disoriented, shocked, and bummed. All of a sudden, a rush of memories came over me. I remembered those first times I heard his music.

I remembered Give Love on Christmas Day, and how the street kids would go caroling on our doorstep and and mix up the lyrics from:

"People you don't know, smile and nod hello..."

to

"People you don't know, buying special gifts..."

Then I remembered my sisters playing the Off The Wall album non-stop, and Rock with You was the song being replayed most of the time. Then on a trip to Japan in the early 80's I remember Michael Jackson being in a scooter commercial. I just googled "Michael Jackson Japanese Commercial" and voila... I found it!


By the time Thriller came out, the amazing 20 minute music video was the talk of the town. I was in the 7th grade, and every class somehow had a group of girls (I was in an all girls school) practicing the dance during lunch break and dismissal time. Then one idle weekend at home, also sometime in the 80's I remember my sisters and I videoed our eldest sister, Mica dance to Beat It, complete with tight pants, white socks, short jacket, white glove, wet curly hair and aviator shades!

Just about 2 weeks ago, when I had to buy some bulbs in the Home DIY shop, they were playing some MJ music in the store. My 3 minute trip ended up being a 15 minute stay! I wanted to listen to the whole album! At the counter, I just ended up asking the cashier to pull out the CD cover for me to see what album it was. It was The 25th Anniversary of Thriller.

Oh well. Somehow everyone has their own memories of Michael Jackson. He may have been troubled, but he was such a talented, timeless artist. Even my pre-teen nephews have been doing the moonwalk for the past 3 years!

With all the Michael Jackson mania following his death, I just discovered this one old Jackson song which I never remembered listening to as a kid. It's That's What You Get (For Being Polite).


What a sad and beautiful piece. Check out the lyrics of this song.

Thanks for all the good times Michael!