So I'm sure everyone's heard the news already about Michael Jackson's death. It's been on the news nonstop since it happened, and at first I was a little amazed at the coverage it was getting. After all, for about the last fifteen years the man has been a living joke, a sad cautionary tale of the price of fame and easy fodder for Family Guy and Robot Chicken jokes. As soon as I heard the music though, played more and more as the day went on, I remembered that there was a time when all of us, myself included, thought Michael Jackson was pretty cool.
I wasn't even a year old when Thriller came out, but it speaks to its enormous popularity that I can still remember the aftermath. One of my earliest memories, in fact, is of running in terror from the Thriller video when Michael morphed into the werewolf. (If you must make a "Children are instinctively scared of Michael Jackson" joke, here would be the place, I guess, but c'mon. The man's dead.) I don't think I got up the courage to watch the video again for almost ten years.
But the other stuff, I'll admit, I liked quite a bit. My friends and I went through a phase when we were in 4th grade (when the Dangerous album came out) where Michael Jackson was just about all we listened to. (If you must make a "Ten year old boys and Michael Jackson" joke, here is probably the place, but again, why not let him rest in peace?) I bought all his albums (on the exciting medium of cassette tape!), watched the videos, rented the Moonwalker movie, tried to do the dances. Better still, I was (an am) a proud owner of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker for Sega Genesis, a kingly game if ever there was one. Michael turned into a spaceship. Seriously.
It's a really odd life to try to get a handle on. On the one hand there's that guy I remember from the 80s and early 90s, the guy that was weird, sure, but still a brilliant, best selling musician. On the other, there's the sad, pasty faced skeletal man-child he's become ever since. And it's sad for me, someone who remembers (however vaguely) the years when Michael Jackson was actually cool, actually a source of inspiration and entertainment. It's sad that he never got to do his comeback tour, which might have revived his image somewhat. But what's sad, really, tragically sad, is knowing that, even at 50, the guy probably lived too long. He'd made himself into such a freakshow that people forgot what a great entertainer he had been.
There will be Wacko Jacko stories flooding the tabloids for years to come, and I'm sure before too long we'll get to hear from his children and others who will reveal new oddities and scandals. As for me, I'm doing my best to remember him as he was. If they put him on a stamp, I sure hope they use the young version. My favorite Michael Jackson song back in 4th grade was almost certainly "Smooth Criminal" and today it's as good a reminder as any of what a great talent the man was, and why so many people are so shocked at his loss.
It's still an amazing song, isn't it? That's the Michael Jackson I want to remember. It's a tragedy that's become so difficult. At least he's finally at peace. Unless he comes back as a zombie.
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