Moonwalking never touched my heart

[ladyapple27]

I've never owned a Michael Jackson record, nor do I have plans to buy one. 

In death, Jackson is being heralded as on of the most influential singers of all time and as an ambassador for race relations. Baloney! Jackson was a child prodigy who later squandered his talent. True, he was a pioneer in music videos and created some highly entertaining and influential ones, but that makes him an entertainer, not a great singer. He was better at grabbing headlines than creating truly great music. Sales alone do not make a song great. 

How can Jackson be considered a uniting force between blacks and whites when he couldn't accept being black? It's ironic  that he's an African-American icon who felt the need to bleach his skin and narrow his nose at great cost to his health.
 
There is no merit to the claims that he was the force behind uniting black and white music genres. That process began before Jackson ever set foot on stage. Hank William, Sr. crossed the tracks to take guitar lessons from Rufus Payne, a black street musician. Elvis was influenced by black R&B and blues singers and publicaly acknowledged his debt to them long before doing so became fashionable. Ray Charles made unforgettable crossover albums. In the 50s and early 60s, kids in the Jim Crow South couldn't resist black music and defied authority to get their hands on it.  Although the skewed charts of the times hid the fact, Little Willie John's version of "Fever" outsold Peggy Lee's version by 2 to 1. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Little Richard enticed white middle class kids with new music that blended musical styles. Sam Cooke and Clyde McPhatter brought black Gospel influences into pop music, a legacy that will never die. A comprehensive list of those who drew on American musical styles to create new music and use art to overcome racial boundaries is endless.  Thank God that the triumph of music over racism began long before the 1983 release of Thriller.  

Comments

[scoobiedoggie.livejournal.com]

While I agree with most of what you said here and think the media is going extremely overboard on MJ, I did enjoy his music and was looking forward to seeing what he came up with next. I am sad at his passing but I believe he was suffering from many mental problems and is probably better off to have died young then to continue on his current path.

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

I admit to enjoying the Thriller video and to actually listening to some of his music. I just object to calling him one of the all time great singers. He may have had the potential, but he never made it. Many lesser known singers produced better work.

To be fair, everyone at the college I attended had a copy of Thriller and played it day and night, which fueled my dislike of Jackson's music. I could listen to the Boss day and night w/o complaining, but not Michael Jackson.

I also was unimpressed with the crotch-grabbing. Sad to think that that move is one of his legacies to the music industry.

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

I sincerely wish that somebody had actually been able to get help for Michael Jackson. He was desperately ill, and nobody did much about it because so many people made a living off of him. I do believe that he could've produced truly great music had he been well.

[brak55.livejournal.com]

I really can't argue with anything you've said, especially the last paragraph. You are absolutely right about the way that the R&B versions of songs were pushed to the background in the 50's in favor of pop versions.

I will say, though, that history has (for once) been very kind to the original artists. I've heard the Chords version of Sh-Boom many, many times in my life but the Crew Cuts version (supposedly the bigger seller) only once. Little Richard's Tutti Frutti is a radio staple where I am guessing the "bigger" version by Pat Boone hasn't been played on any radio station in the last month.

We have, for once, overcome our fear of the unknown, in this case "Race Records" (as they were called at the time) and realized that they are the authentic versions of songs and not the horribly watered down pop covers.

I sort of understand the coverage of Jackson. He was, for about six or eight years, an entertainment phenomenon and quite deservedly so. Aside from his strange quirks, Off the Wall, Thriller and (to a lesser extent) Bad were classic albums of pop-R&B/dance music. He had amazing showmanship (Karen and I saw him during the Thriller tour) and was a very good dancer.

Unfortunately, his life got stranger and stranger over the years and it hurt him, especially here in the U.S. (Europe, Japan, etc. never pulled away from him the way we did).

He did nothing, that I'm aware of, for Race Relations. He WAS an ambassador to the world for awhile through his music. He was a pioneer of music video (with the help of some very talented directors like John Landis). I think one of his biggest influences was to the world of dance. On last nights "So You Think You Can Dance" producer/judge Simon Lithgow talked at length about Jackson's influence on modern dance and the fact that there were very, very few contestants over the five seasons (and they are all professionals) that didn't list Michael Jackson as an influence.

All in all, though, he was mainly just an entertainer who made many people happy. As Elvis Presley was the same. I do think you will see the same sort of long-term reaction for Jackson that you did (and still do to an extent) for Presley.

An interesting posting on Jackson from ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=42291868&blogId=497035326

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

Re posting: Of course, I cried when I read it. I hate sad endings.

The first thing that I thought of when the announcer said "cardiac arrest" was Elvis Presley. Remember that hot summer day when he died? My father left the radio on all night long listening to the tributes.

My friend Nancy, a psychologist, told me about seeing Elvis during his last appearance in Greensboro, NC. He was obviously ill, yet mesmerizing. She longed to go backstage and talk to him; she wondered what his story was.

For my friend Duck, Hank Williams' untimely death was a major shock. He still remembers seeing Hank in person in a small venue and being unable to take his eyes off him. Every New Year's Eve, he listens to Hank in tribute, a habit that I've acquired. I find a lonely road-in short supply these days-and drive around listening to Hank and musing about music, our icons, and how time slips away.

It's amazing how many magnetic performers end up destroying themselves. The contrast between swaggering confidence and fearful vulnerability that draws us to them also rips them apart.

Have you read the Peter Guralnick biography of Elvis: Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love? Both books are good. Ironically, the books were among the last gifts I ever gave my father, who was among those who bought Elvis' early Sun recordings.