It was a hard choice, considering how many songs I've heard over the years, but this is probably the closest to being my favorite song ever that you'll find.
Like you, I am torn by the conundrum that appreciating Michael J.'s genius, in light of his personal choices, warrants.
I grew up in a musical family. I can appreciate the psychotic drive that drove Joe Jackson to emotionally cripple his family in the name of perfection. Though he was probably completely insane, his behavior toward his children as students is not a far cry from that of all music teachers to their charges. It is an extremely difficult discipline that offers no room for whining, excuses or, except in rare cases, creative whimsy. Probably like your first year in architecture school.
"Don't stop 'til you get enough" is my preference, but this isn't MY big day...
(Have you ever seen him interviewed? He's crazy brilliant... Musically, that is...)
"Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" is a killer song, but "Rock With You" is the first song that ever mattered to me.
I can remember riding to some mall with my mom and Aunt Garnetta in Garnetta's AMC Concord as 5-year-old and hearing that song on the radio and being incredibly happy. Unlike my other musical fixations (The Doobies, Olivia Newton-John) MJ's music has remained timeless and I still get happy when I think about "Rock With You"
Joe Jackson, I really feel, meant well for those kids overall. He and Katherine saw this as some way out of poverty, and it did work. Their kids are the biggest family of musicians on the planet. But they're all weird.
Michael gets the most attention because he was the biggest of all, but have you seen the others lately? Janet and LaToya hae gone from sexy to scary-looking, Jermaine looks like an Jheri-curled action figure, and the others are odd-looking trivia pieces (though extremely talented).
The craziest part about Michael Jackson is that, even though I wouldn't send my kids to his house under any circumstances (better safe than sorry) is that he probably closer to normal than the media would have us all believe.
It's no small coincidence that the movie "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" coincided with the sun being in Virgo. A lot of Virgos are nice, but somewhat odd, people that get bogged down in minutae so much they're almost totally unable to be "normal." For Steve Carrell's character in the movie, it was action figures; for MJ, it was obsessing over the face and the vitiligo while trying to carry on a music career.
His biggest problem, I think, is that he's so completely cut off from reality that he doesn't realize his public persona is killiug his credibility. In real life, most men do not look and act like that and spend inordinate amounts of time wth 12-year-old boys, but he's got no one to tell him to stop before he hurts himself, or in this case, his personal and professional images.
Well, it IS your big day....
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am torn by the conundrum that appreciating Michael J.'s genius, in light of his personal choices, warrants.
I grew up in a musical family. I can appreciate the psychotic drive that drove Joe Jackson to emotionally cripple his family in the name of perfection. Though he was probably completely insane, his behavior toward his children as students is not a far cry from that of all music teachers to their charges. It is an extremely difficult discipline that offers no room for whining, excuses or, except in rare cases, creative whimsy. Probably like your first year in architecture school.
"Don't stop 'til you get enough" is my preference, but this isn't MY big day...
(Have you ever seen him interviewed? He's crazy brilliant... Musically, that is...)
"Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" is a killer song, but "Rock With You" is the first song that ever mattered to me.
ReplyDeleteI can remember riding to some mall with my mom and Aunt Garnetta in Garnetta's AMC Concord as 5-year-old and hearing that song on the radio and being incredibly happy. Unlike my other musical fixations (The Doobies, Olivia Newton-John) MJ's music has remained timeless and I still get happy when I think about "Rock With You"
Joe Jackson, I really feel, meant well for those kids overall. He and Katherine saw this as some way out of poverty, and it did work. Their kids are the biggest family of musicians on the planet. But they're all weird.
Michael gets the most attention because he was the biggest of all, but have you seen the others lately? Janet and LaToya hae gone from sexy to scary-looking, Jermaine looks like an Jheri-curled action figure, and the others are odd-looking trivia pieces (though extremely talented).
The craziest part about Michael Jackson is that, even though I wouldn't send my kids to his house under any circumstances (better safe than sorry) is that he probably closer to normal than the media would have us all believe.
It's no small coincidence that the movie "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" coincided with the sun being in Virgo. A lot of Virgos are nice, but somewhat odd, people that get bogged down in minutae so much they're almost totally unable to be "normal." For Steve Carrell's character in the movie, it was action figures; for MJ, it was obsessing over the face and the vitiligo while trying to carry on a music career.
His biggest problem, I think, is that he's so completely cut off from reality that he doesn't realize his public persona is killiug his credibility. In real life, most men do not look and act like that and spend inordinate amounts of time wth 12-year-old boys, but he's got no one to tell him to stop before he hurts himself, or in this case, his personal and professional images.
Happy b-day Steve. Great site.
ReplyDelete-Grant
Thanks Grant.
ReplyDelete