June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed “King of Pop,” has died this afternoon of a cardiac arrest.  He was fifty.

Many of us grew up listening to Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5.

From the time I was a child, wonderful pop songs performed by five brothers entertained us on the radio and at school dances.

A-B-C-1-2-3 and I’ll Be There are standards that convey security and groundedness.  They were fun.  They were joyful.  They were youthful.

They made you feel like everything was okay, and that the world was a friendly place.

I remember his solo career and the three big albums: Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.  Each was huge, and each was great.

Everyone loved Off the Wall.  Songs like Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough and Rock With You became part of my soundtrack for good times music.  It has been called “the last disco album,” signaling the end of an era that kept America dancing.

Thriller, to a large part, defined my high school years.  Everyone had it.  Everyone loved it.  High school girls at the Baptist youth group swooned.  Darla Rice, a girl in the youth group, lived and breathed Michael Jackson.  The value of this evolution into a higher standard of pop/R & B music poured into her soul and out to the rest of us.  We didn’t realize what was happening to us and the world of pop music; we only knew how much we loved it.

MTV wouldn’t play the videos at first.  It was a new phenomenon packaged for a white midwestern audience; it did not play black artists.  When Thriller hit, MTV could no longer ignore what was happening.  Video after video showed up on Cable Channel 32 in Fountain Valley, California where I lived.  Every kid knew every step of Billie Jean, through video.  We didn’t know how to dance it; we knew how to watch it, over and over again.

And then there was Thriller, the song.  Knowledge of the length of the video and how good it was going to be was all the rage.  And then it

happened: the MTV World Premiere.  It was like watching a pop horror movie, Vincent Price included.  I really didn’t understand it at first, this idea of a mini-movie formed around a song.

The hits were countless: PLT, Wanna Be Startin’ Something, The Girl is Mine (with Paul McCartney), Beat It, Human Nature, as well as the aforementioned Billie Jean and Thriller.  I believe it remains the second most selling album in American history, next to The Eagles Greatest Hits.  I love every song.

It even made it onto the rock stations.  One day after school in my kitchen, the DJ on KLOS came on the air to talk about Beat It.  It contained a guitar solo by Pasadena-native Eddie Van Halen.  The song was so tight, so rad, and so great.  It didn’t last long on rock radio, but it remains perhaps his most beloved pop standard.

Quincy Jones, Jackson’s producer, once described Jackson’s songwriting skills.  Michael did not read a lick of music and had no formal training.  But when he got together with Quincy, Michael had the whole song already laid out in his mind: every drum beat, every synthesizer sound, every bass beat, from beginning to end.  All the ins and outs and differentials.  He would dictate it to Quincy, and Quincy would just write it down.  No arguments.  This is where Jackson’s genius excelled more than any other of his gifts.  He was truly a modern-day Beethoven.

If the music wasn’t enough, MTV helped us younger kids understand the dance skills and stage presence of Michael Jackson through Beat It.

Go to YouTube right now and watch any of his Grammy performances.  I hope you will be blown away.

And who can ever forget We Are the World.  Last Tuesday night at my computer, I watched this video over and over again.  I had begun the evening with Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors, and went straight from there to Michael singing, “We are the ones who make a better place, so let’s start giving.”  Quincy Jones directed.  Everyone and their mother were there: Bobbie Dylan, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, etc., etc., etc.  It helped usher in a short-lived era of fundraising for well-deserved causes: starvation, unemployment, and the like.  It helped kids like me know there was a world out there that I knew little about.  It allowed me to become plugged into the needs of others.  It was gospel.

Bad then took the airwaves in college.  From the Smith Hall boys dorms at Azusa Pacific blared songs like the Way You Make Me Feel, Liberian Girl, I Just Can’t Stop Lovin’ You, Bad, Leave Me Alone, and my ultimate favorite video, Man in the Mirror.

The latter song spoke of our personal responsibility toward social change. I remember being an influential Christian college student watching images of Desmond Tutu and apartheid right there on the TV screen.  The melody as an R & B rhythm and soon evolved to embrace the fullness of the gospel music, choir and all, from which it had come from.  Michael had become truly inspirational to me no longer as a great dancer and singer, but also as an advocate of social justice.

As I write this last sentence, the song has come on KIIS-FM, which I am plugged into.

Although not quite a popular, the later album Dangerous gave us the title track as well as Heal the World and Black or White, two very strong anthems about recognizing our neighbor.  Again, great dance, great images, great music.

“Heal the world, maker it a better place for you and me and the entire human race.  There are people dying.  If you care enough for the living, make a better place for you and for me.”

750,000,000 albums sold.  13 number ones.  13 Grammys.  He is the most successful entertainer of all time.  And he recently sold out 50 shows in London.  Michael, God gave you gifts.  They were truly remarkable.

You used your gifts to entertain us.  The world seemed like a better place with you on the radio.

For younger people who came after this era, you may think a lot of this to be cheesy.  It is cheesy, but his music has toughed my soul like few things have.  It seems like I grew up with Michael Jackson.

His music has moved my feet, my hips, my arms, my heart and my soul.

Part of me has died today.  For those of us that have been moved all these years, part of us, this afternoon, has become born-again into eternal life.

~~~~

"The ultimate end of revolutionary social change is friendship." - Don Martinez