I feel like we should discuss our Michael Jackson memories. Normally, I’m not the sort of person to be affected by celebrity deaths, but then again, this is the first time someone famous has died who was such a constant presence in my life. Even though he hasn’t been truly popular in a decade, Michael Jackson was just always there.
So am I going to cry? No. Am I going to look for a copy of Moonwalker on DVD? No. But I am going to listen to “The Way You Make Me Feel Tonight” and feel wistful.
And I’m going to share this Michael Jackson-related memory. It’s my favorite:
When I was growing up, my mom was a second grade teacher, and during her school’s talent show in October 1984, she joined some other teachers in a recreation of the “Thriller” video. I was in first grade, and I remember being so excited to see my mom in zombie make-up and wild hair, dancing to the coolest song from the coolest video ever made. To me, it made my mom even more awesome than she already was.
So thanks for that, MJ.
Anybody else want to share?
23 responses so far ↓
1 Kevin Keating // Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Single best Christmas present I’ve ever received:
A Casio 100 keyboard and Michael Jackson EZ-Play songbook, from the “Bad” era.
My 5- or 6-year-old self fell in love – the first time of many – with music.
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
2 Tony // Jun 25, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I remember when “Give In To Me” first came out, and my sister and I swore that the lyric “quench my desire” was actually “quench my vagina.” I remember that moment being one of my hardest laughs as a child
Despite the silliness of that story, I must say I was a huge MJ fan, so he will be missed.
3 Collin H // Jun 25, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I remember watching Thriller on MTV as a little boy and loving it. The zombies were great and didnt scare me at all! I couldnt understand why my parents thought this would scare me.
Then it happened. The eyes. Those damn yellow contact lenses. They frightened me in a way that nothing else would. I could see them when I closed my eyes. I was convinced that those eyes were going to eat me somehow. When i’d watch the video again, I would leave the room before the end but I could still see them in my mind. They’ve lost their power over me now, but every time I see them, I’m reminded of when I was afraid of them.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about his passing. I do know that the first thing I thought of was The Onion article from a few years ago about investigators discovering the body of the real MJ buried at Neverland Ranch. The article was funny, as Onion articles usually are, but it also struck me that it was also probably true – the real MJ, the one the world fell in love with in the 70s and 80s, has been gone since around 1993 when the allegations began. Pretty much instantly, he went from lovable weirdo to terrifying weirdo.
I suppose thats why I have a hard time deciding how I feel about his passing. In my mind, theres two separate MJs – A good one and a bad one. Maybe someday I’ll be able to reconcile the two separate entities in my mind into a Composite MJ. For now though, I’m just going to put on some of Good MJ’s music and remember the half of the man that enriched the world through some of the best pop music, dance moves, and music videos of all time.
4 Erin Weston // Jun 25, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I remember dancing with my family in the living room to Thriller…but without fail, I would be hiding behind the couch by the end of the song…oh that creepy laugh – couldn’t handle it.
Thanks for letting us share Mark.
5 Sasha // Jun 25, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I loved Michael Jackson when I was little, beginning when I was about 4 years old. My first record was a Jackson 5 single we cut from the back of a Sugar Smacks box. They had that cartoon – the one that was a frame-by-frame copy of the Archies and the Brady Bunch – and I used to pretend they were my brothers. When I listen to Jackson 5 records now, what I know about their childhood and the strange person he became makes me a little sad. But at the end of the day there are few things better than a perfect little pop song, so I thank him for creating so many of those.
6 Jeff C // Jun 25, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I still rock out to the Eddie Van Halen solo in “Beat It.” Perfect melding of 80’s pop and hair metal in its infancy.
I think too much of Michael Jackson discussion gets caught up in the celebrity/”king of pop”/music video angle – his music really influenced a lot of pop songwriters and producers, though he was undoubtedly the beneficiary of two of the greatest producers ever, Gordy Berry of Motown and Quincy Jones. His music influenced a ton of late 80’s and 90’s pop – Usher, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys, and many others. Most of his hits retain a timeless quality – they’re just really good.
He was really the first totally mainstream black pop singer in American history. At the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, his celebrity paved the way for President Obama — it was the little kids who jammed out to “Thriller” and “Bad” and had always felt comfortable with famous black people that fueled his election.
Besides Elvis, I can’t think of another American pop singer who had a larger impact. Hopefully he will find in death the peace that appeared to elude him in life.
7 Michelle Kinsey Bruns // Jun 25, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Were me and my best friend Heather the only second-graders who thought the big Thriller poster hanging in the bedroom was “haunted” because no matter where in the room you stood, the eyes were always looking at you?
…. anybody?
(I would shortly thereafter become much more of a Madonna-worshipping 8-year-old, scary though that may be. But clearly this is a really sad end to what had become a really sad life.)
8 Madge // Jun 25, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Last year, a friend participated in the “world’s biggest Thriller dance” in San Francisco. He and I were scheduled to go for a big bike ride after this. My friend really didn’t plan out his time very well, so he went straight from the dance to my place, and we rode bikes without him changing clothes. He rode 30 miles with me, passing up spandex-clad Serious Bikers, while dressed like a Thriller zombie. That brightened my day and got many stares.
9 Kat // Jun 25, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Thriller has always been one of my favorite songs to run to. It’s just a whole story, like a great country song or a rock concept album or something, but you can DANCE to it and it’s awesome.
This death, I think, is particularly rare in that your generation wildly affects your view of it — but in a far more compressed time than normal. Literally a decade separates the Awesome and the Scary Versions of Michael Jackson. Earlier today, I wrote about the Gen Y/Echo Book/Millennial/Whatever approach to Jackson, and it’s tough to imagine a world with the absolute PERFECTION Jackson had in the 1980s when you were born in 1988 (which I was) and only know the 1990s and 2000s weirdness.
10 Mark Blankenship // Jun 25, 2009 at 10:41 pm
That’s a great point, Kat. I was just old enough to be aware of pop culture when Thriller was blowing up, and some of my earliest memories are of watching the sidewalk light up in “Billie Jean” and watching my up-the-street neighbors dance to the song “PYT” in their front yard. So to me, Flawless Michael Jackson is kind of synonymous with the dawning of consciousness.
But yeah, if I had been born just a little bit later, I would only know him as weirdie magoo.
11 Russ Jackson // Jun 25, 2009 at 11:10 pm
He will always be the king of pop to me, because that’s undoubtedly who he was in the 80s. It kind of makes me sad that there’s a whole generation of people who only know him as a freaky disfigured weirdo and accused child molester. I know he’s been the butt of many jokes but I was never fully comfortable writing him off completely. His influence in pop culture and music is undeniable, and I hope that’s what he will be remembered for moreso than what happened to him in the later years.
And yeah, Thriller scared me a little. The image of him turning back to face the camera with those damn yellow eyes is permanently seared in my brain.
12 Toph // Jun 26, 2009 at 3:55 am
Memories. Crown Victoria. Car phone. Cruising down the road with my dad. I must have been 8 or so. A creak. Footsteps. A howl. A beat. And then a synthesizer! The air conditioner blasting, my father and I rock out to THRILLER. One of the best memories I have of my father and I. So vivid. MJ’s death breaks my heart into pieces. So much joy thrust into so many lives. May he rest in peace. Long live the legend.
13 Christy // Jun 26, 2009 at 9:12 am
I can’t even tell you how much the death of Michael Jackson is affecting me. I have been crying on and off since I heard the news last night. I can’t believe he is gone. I’m not really sure it’s completely sunk in yet.
He was my first crush. My first dance idol. The first artist whose lyrics I learned. The first video I watched. I had a light purple t-shirt with the keyboard on it, like the one he wore in the Beat It video.
I had a microphone with his picture on the front of it that, when the stereo was tuned to the appropriate station, allowed me to do my own MJ karaoke at 4 years old.
The Thriller album (yes album… as in record album… and when you opened it up, there was that fabulous picture of him lying there with a tiger) was the first I owned.
I have choreographed and danced to Michael more than any other artist ever. And I will continue to do so.
I have written about what MJ meant to me in my blog, http://www.theblockisback.com. I’d love for anyone and everyone to read it, and leave your own comments there as well.
Let’s remember this man for the legend he was and always will be…
14 Michael Gilboe // Jun 26, 2009 at 9:36 am
When I was in grade school I had a disastrous experience at a week-lon summer “horse camp”.. That’s a long story.
But my parents rewarded me for sticking it out with my first cassette “boom box” of my very own. They also gave me two tapes… “Saturday Night Fever” (Lame… really, mom?) and “Thriller”.
I was just talking to one of my recording studio clients (24) who said it blew his mind when he was 10 years old and found out Michael Jackson wasn’t white!
There are two Michael Jacksons, and I am very glad I got to know the one that changed the world with his music and dancing, not as tabloid fodder.
15 Casey // Jun 26, 2009 at 10:58 am
The first cassette tape I ever bought with my own money was Thriller. I re-discovered it in college, and it remains one of the greatest pop albums ever made. If you’re ever at a party and the vibe has gone lame, put “P.Y.T.” on and crank it up. That bass line is so funky it can revive any dead event.
16 matthew from wolverhampton // Jun 26, 2009 at 11:10 am
rip michael you are missed and your in my memories
17 Mark Blankenship // Jun 26, 2009 at 11:54 am
If I’m not mistaken, Casey, you know this from experience, right? Something about a group of gay men who were putting on their coats, then tossed them aside when you put “P.Y.T.” on the stereo?
18 Casey // Jun 26, 2009 at 5:03 pm
This is true – I was at a party where a lesbian guest was killing everyone’s buzz by playing the Indigo Girls on the stereo (I know that sounds like an offensive sterotype, and it is, but it’s also true. Sorry.). I nicely asked if I could look at the CD collection, popped in Thriller, skipped to “P.Y.T.”, and promptly saved the night.
19 Jennifer // Jun 26, 2009 at 7:15 pm
My MJ memories and tribute: http://www.marvelouslycomical.com/2009/06/undisputed-king-of-pop.html
20 Laura Mc. // Jun 27, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Nothing super-defining, unfortunately, but I thought the Akon cover of “Startin’ Somethin’” was great!
21 Sunday Links: The last time we’ll talk about Michael Jackson here, I swear // Jun 28, 2009 at 10:31 am
[...] The Critical Condition had a nice group of INTELLIGENT (rare!) comments about Jackson’s death [...]
22 lkchiek zacc // Jul 6, 2009 at 10:32 pm
he is king of my childhood, i love him much than i do.
i dream just to watch him concert, but now i know i could fail rest of my life to see pop of the king. he also god of me, his sent by god to recuse the heart of the kids. he fail, couse god has forgoten the living live was greedy for power and $. fallen god fall in drug which make by guity and also make by guity of the human being, he still my god, living in my heart even though he goes to heaven.
michael i love u, go in peace. we will following you one day.
23 Carla Warren // Jul 12, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Well I want to start off saying im only 12. And I think it’s funny that people say he’s such a big icon (Which he is) but yet you say “Young People” Only know of his later days. I’ve been exposed to Michael Jackson’s music since i was 5 days old. “I’ll be There” is what my mom would sing to rock me to sleep. Michael is more than an Icon. In my opinion there’s no word to Express how this man Impacted the World. And I know just as Much about Michael as any Adult. As a matter of fact his music is playing downstairs on the TV. I am a Jehovah’s Witness as his mother Katherine so i can’t see the Thriller Video. But i have seen it. And i can’t sit through the whole thing it scares me. But, Michael was a good man and he managed to hold on to his youth and boyhood in my eyes. I watch him young on stage with his brothers and I go “WOW” now that’s a TRUE ARTIST. I just wanted to get it clear across to people like “kat” and “mark blankenship” that not everyone born in years later than the 1980’s are clueless about Michael Jackson. He’s my absolute Favorite artist. And, I “Never Can Say Goodbye” to Michael. He’ll live forever through his music and the hearts of MANY fans. He will be missed. “I hope you have peace Michael.”
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