MICHAEL JACKSON
I was in LA last Thursday June 25th, which was a date I already had burned in my brain because it was my mother’s birthday, when I was looking for a parking spot in Studio City. I like to run the AM news radio (1070-980) when I’m in LA because it keeps me up on all the goings on, lets me know where not to drive, and gives me a bit of a nostalgic rush from the old days of city (if you can call it that) living. I had an hour to kill in-between meetings so I went to one of my favorite places to buy wine (name???) which is also conveniently across the street from Aroma Café where I could get a rad smoothie on this hot ....Los Angeles.... afternoon. As I was slowly driving on the side street where I could usually score a parking space, I heard a news bulletin that said something like this…”We are getting word of some sort of activity at the rented house of Michael Jackson. There was word that someone was gravely ill.” It was at that moment that I thought to myself “He’s totally dead.” From that moment the reports were coming in about every minute with some new detail. This was very early on, before anyone really knew this was happening. If you were watching CNN or some other TV news you would not have been in this loop. I found a good parking spot a block and a half away from the wine store and pulled in. I opened the windows, killed the engine and opened the door just enough to hang my leg out while I listened to the news flashes come with increasing intensity. It was like a game of Tetris that was stacking up faster and faster right before your eyes. ”We are now getting word from TMZ that Michael Jackson was found by the paramedics at his home unconscious and not breathing…” I just knew where this was headed and before I could think of calling my friend Holli, it happened… “TMZ is now saying the fifty year old King of Pop is dead…” Wow, that was big. Even though it didn’t seem that far fetched to me, we are talking about a guy who I figured was taking a certain amount of scripts and liked to sleep in some sort of hyperbolic chamber. Still, this was no ordinary famous person falling off into the unknown quantity off death. This was one of the biggest pop stars of all time, maybe the biggest. I called Holli and started yelling in her machine so she could hear me from the pool. When I told her to turn on the TV and that Michael Jackson was dead, she yelled loudly “WHAT!!!!” I’m not a big fan of TMZ, I think their TV show is lame and scummy low. But, I totally get that they now have this city wired. They have moles all over the place and get news before a lot of other regular news outlets do. And are not afraid to “Decision ..2000”.. it CNN style. Most other news outlets are gun-shy because of that whole ....Florida.... thing with Gore and dick-head. So my take on them under these circumstances was that they might just have it right. I started texting everyone I knew that MJ was dead. Most replied with “what???’ or “WOW” or “who’s MJ?” I went into the wine shop and told them what I had heard, I got a semi stunned reaction. Then when I went to Aroma Café, which was packed as usual, I could tell no one knew. They had ESPN on and I looked at the crawl screen but saw nothing. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be the messenger when suddenly a guy behind me said “Hey, my friend just heard a weird rumor that Michael Jackson is dead.” I noticed a sense of “no way…” or “right, whatever…” falling over the room. It was then that I spoke up and said “Yep, it’s true” I got the room totally freaked and in disbelief. All cell phones came out and were being hastily dialed for more info about this impossibility…
I remember the night I first heard “Billy Jean”. I had just finished the absolute worst trouncing ever given to me by the opposite sex. I was engaged to be married at a very young age to someone even younger. We had moved in together and were planning our wedding and future lives together, or so I thought. She dumped me the day after Christmas and that sent me into the biggest tailspin I have ever been in. When the dust had settled between the two of us (but not for me personally- I had much more self destructing to do) I had only one last task to perform, go pick up my records from her at her new, and very cool apartment in a groovy part of Hollywood (we had been living in a not cool part of the “Valley”). She pointed to a stack that she had prepared of my LP’s and then dropped the needle down on, what was then, a brand new record. “This is my favorite song right now.” Then I heard the sound that would haunt me for years to come. The phat synth bass riff wafted through her small apartment and I was bitch-slapped by a pop song masterpiece. I hate that she knew about that record before me but that was par for the course for her (her dad is a famous TV actor and she was always one of the “kewl kids”).
A year or so before that Michael Jackson came into the record store I was working at in ....Sherman.... Oaks. It was the beginning of his “mask wearing” phase. Marci, a cool punk rock girl, had the presents of mind to have him sign a copy of “Off The Wall” for her. I was not as smart.
Fast forward to now. There are a lot of people who are commenting on Michael Jackson’s place in history. Was he the greatest artist ever? Was he the most important black man of the last 50 years of pop culture? Was he the most influential artist ever? Music is a funny thing, just like other artistic mediums, everyone has an opinion on it, and in certain aspects of a conversation regarding music, no one is right or wrong in their opinions. But if you study it for your life’s work, just as when someone studies film for their life’s work, your opinion might have an elevated relevance and credibility. In my humble “I’ve studied music my whole life” opinion, I think Michael Jackson was a true genius. He was a full blown cultural icon. I happen to love The ....Jackson.... 5 and think that “Off The Wall” and of course “Thriller” are brilliant records. I don’t really feel that way about some of his other works but THAT IS STILL MORE THAN MOST ARTISTS. Was he the most influential artist? Well it depends on who you think is being influenced. As far as the amount of sheer listeners and real fans, he is as big as it gets so that is a lot of people that are being “influenced” by his music. As far as influencing the actual music lexicon, he has influenced many with his style and there are arguably many artists that were sent in a new direction when they heard ”Off The Wall” and for damn sure “Thriller”. But was he the most influential musician ever? I suppose one could argue, whether you like these bands/artists more or not, that bands like The Beatles (NOTHING has been the same since they hit the rock-pop scene), The Sex Pistols (made all the huge corporate rock bands of the day like Journey and STYX irrelevant in a matter of weeks and helped set in motion a new wave of music for the next decade), and more recently Nirvana (it was as if they walked up to the chalk board and erased everyone’s name off the list of what was cool and made them not cool- bye bye hair bands), and Sugar Hill Gang or maybe Grand Master Flash (who ever you want to place as the first big influence at the beginning of the Rap/Hip Hop movement that is truly the biggest game changer of the past thirty years and rules to this day), were all more influencing to the shape of music to follow them. One could say that Michael’s music wasn’t that type of influence, but that doesn’t make those other artists better, just possibly more influential in changing the direction of music to come. What he DID influence, and more than ANY other musician- EVER, was the art of dancing while singing. He was the Sex Pistols/Beatles/and Elvis all rolled up in one. He made it “not good enough” to just spin around and sway together in time while you sing. He took all the street moves of the day and put a nuclear war head on them, then destroyed everyone. Yes, I can remember where I was when I saw “THE MOVE”. There hasn’t been a new dance move to this day that was more jaw dropping than the moon walk. That is straight up BAD ASS.
The other BIG influence he had was to break the hold that white rock/pop bands had on MTV. There weren’t any black artists (that I remember- Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” was about that time) on MTV. Not only did he get on, he blew the whole thing wide open with the “Thriller” video. I remember waiting around a ..21”.. color TV for the highly anticipated first airing of that epic video. But for my money, “Beat It” was THE VIDEO. I love that video and that was also a song that you would have to give him credit as a first big cross pollenization of R ‘n B with hard rock. That is a classic and it is a high water mark in music history. So, as far as videos go, he was a pioneer and as such a huge influence on that genre.
Michael Jackson was an all around incredible performer. He is of SUPERSTAR ilk and will never be less than that. I put him on the top shelf with The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Billie Holiday, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, etc., but for different reasons than maybe a Miles Davis. Miles was about accelerating in one very pure aspect of music. Michael was about being an all around entertainer dynamo. He was bigger than life. As far as influencing people of the world go, I don’t know if there is anyone who is more loved around the world for his music.
There will never be another Michael Jackson and the world of music is worse off because he’s gone.
I guess I don’t give a damn about where other people or even I put him on the musical totem pole. I was sad when I heard the news and I am sad that he’s not coming back. I can promise you that I will be rocking out to a lot of his songs this holiday weekend………………………….j