Thursday, June 25, 2009

August 29, 1958 to June 25, 2009


There are a few people I hope to one day meet and have in-depth conversations with. Jada Pinkett Smith, Jill Scott, Barrack Obama, Prince and Ann Curry are just the ones off the top of my head.

Michael Jackson was one of them.

Not because of his superstar status—then again, maybe that is a part of it… His life was nothing less than fascinating, an anomaly of sorts. How can one person touch so many lives? I mean really, when I say ‘Everybody knows who Michael Jackson is” I can say that and mean it. Of course when you start singing and dancing on television before the age 6, a lot of people will know who you are, but Michael Jackson was the epitome of famous. He took fame to heights others will only ever wish to reach. Way beyond record selling concerts and scores of Grammys, NAACP and AMA awards. There is just something about a person who can do what he did; be so famous and yet such a mystery to the world.


You'll Never Make Me Stay So Take Your Weight Off Of Me

I Know Your Every Move

So Won't You Just Let Me Be

I've Been Here Times Before but I Was Too Blind To See

That You Seduce Every Man

This Time You Won't Seduce Me...

Lyrics from: "Dirty Diana"



When I think of Michael Jackson my first thought is of my Thriller Album—actually I believe it belonged to my mother… Playing it in the basement of my grandparents 1940’s brick bungalow on the old record player that had multi-colored disco bulbs that lit up when the music played. Very retro indeed. The album opened up like a book and inside the “King of Pop” lay with a baby tiger while donning a dapper white suite. For some reason I will always remember the way his left arm looked. The two slim bones stood out on the inside of his wrist and as a 5 year old girl that scared the bejezzus out of me. Thinking back now, I think it showed a glimse of his frailty.

Then I think of that fly gangsta lean he does in the middle of the ‘Smooth Criminal’ video, you know the way he and his surrounding dancers look as though they are being pulled down to the floor by invisable strings, first to the left then to the right…pure perfection.


As I, Turn Up The Collar On My Favourite Winter Coat

This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind

I See The Kids In The Street, With Not Enough To Eat

Who Am I, To Be Blind? Pretending Not To See Their Needs

A Summer's Disregard, A Broken Bottle Top

And One Man's Soul

They Follow Each Other On The Wind Ya' Know' Cause They Got Nowhere To Go

That's Why I Want You To Know

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror

I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer

If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place

Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change...

Lyrics from: "Man in the Mirror"


He infused some pretty hard rock into numerous songs he wrote. Opening up a whole new genre to many people who may have never listened to heavy guitar riffs from people like Slash or Steve Stevens, Michael Jackson was a proverbial music bridge. “Dirty Diana” and “Give in to me” are both at the top of my all time favorite MJ song list.

The ups and downs of his short life will no doubt be broadcasted on every news stand and television channel for at least the next month, if not longer. No one will ever know what happened behind closed doors on that ranch in California but I have my opinions as I’m sure you do too…

So Just Leave Me Alone
Leave Me Alone(Leave Me Alone)
(Leave Me Alone)Leave Me Alone
Leave Me Alone
Stop It! Just Stop Doggin' Me Around (Just Stop Doggin' Me)
('Cause There's A Time WhenYou're Right)
(And You Know You MustFight)
Who's Laughing Baby, Don'tYou Know, Girl
(It's The Choice That WeMake)
(And This Choice You WillTake)
Who's Laughin' Baby...
Lyrics from: "Leave me Alone"


For now, let’s remember that this man was just a man. A son, brother, father and to many a friend. No different from you or me but at the same time so very different from anyone who has ever lived. Maybe that was the problem; he was a tormented soul, a genius that will never be fully understood. Surrounded by people who didn’t understand how big his heart was—or did and took advantage of the fact, how naive he surely must have been at one point. When you’ve never really been out in the world, alone to fend for yourself, never teased at school, been in a fist fight with a bully--if you were never able to walk down the street as a “normal person” I think you can’t help but to not know how to ‘be’.


Love is a feeling

Give it when I want it

Quench my desire Cuz I'm on fire

Give it when I want it

Talk to me woman

Give in to me

Give in to me...

Lyrics from: "Give in to me"


I don’t like to think about my own mortality but in times like this I can’t help it. It’s happening on a more frequent basis now that 30 is right around the corner. Memories of people I love who are gone now, along with specific events sprinkled throughout my life could truly have a Michael Jackson music score. Singing off key all the lyrics to "Bad" in the car with my friends or watching the full length Thriller video at the neighbors house and being petrified of the Zombies. T-shirts, backpacks, folders, view finder-- you name it, I had it all …
I just wanna touch and kiss
And I wish that I could be with you tonight
You give me butterflies inside, inside
and I All I gotta say is that I must be dreaming,
can't be real You're not here with me,
still I can feel you near me I caress you,
let you taste us, just so blissful listen I would give you anything baby,
just make my dreams come true
Oh baby you give me butterflies...
Lyrics from: "Butterflies"


The sadness his biggest fans are feeling can’t even come close to what his siblings and parents are feeling at this very moment. Simply because they will always have the smell of his shampoo in their nose and his touch on their back.
Years from now a gentle wind will blow and it will carry with it a gust of memories that will overtake and make them think only of him.... Memories of his smile or of him in his favorite shirt, eating his favorite meal or maybe a joke he told that will still make them belly laugh like he’d just told it….



Night creatures call

And the dead start to walk in their masquerade

Theres no escapin the jaws of the alien this time(they're open wide)

This is the end of your life

They're out to get you, theres demons closing in on every side

They will possess you unless you change the number on your dial

Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together

All thru the night Ill save you from the terror on the screen,

Ill make you see

That this is thriller, thriller night cause I can thrill you more than any ghost would dare to try Girl,

this is thriller, thriller night So let me hold you tight and share a killer, diller, chiller

Thriller here tonight...

Lyrics from: "Thriller"


My hope is that Lisa Marie Presley will reach out to Michael Jackson’s 3 young children and help them cope with the same kind of loss she too suffered as a young child of an iconic figure.
For the select few who got to be a part of his every day, I hope they didn’t take that for granted.


You got to get it right while you got the time….