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colinr0380 wrote:Poor, poor guy. Such a huge star and an extremely talented perfomer but the last couple of decades were certainly not kind to him.

Cinephrenic wrote:Regardless of his personal life, he was a musical genius and legend. Legends do die young.

Absolutely. The saddest thing about it all is that his greatest asset for the rest of his life would be his talent, as he never had enough time to even attempt to live a normal life. Some of the things he was accused of later on, were of course heinous and highly questionable, but that stuff comes hand in hand with not being able to reach that stage of normality that can make you separate the good from the bad.

A bit of comic relief from Rob Corddry's Twitter: "I wish it had been Michael Jackson that broke the story of TMZ dying. I can almost hear the high-fives."

HerrSchreck wrote:God, my big brothers spinning Goin Back To Indiana on their plastic record player when I was just a wee kid... Mama's Pearl, ABC, Got To Be There, Stop The Love You Save.., good god, it was the soundtrack to the inside of my apt when I was starting to become aware of myself as a kid.

I think I caught the end of his golden age, with the Moonwalker film and running home to see the video of Black and White on TV for the first time (and I've never done that before or since). Thriller and Bad are probably the most seminal of the early music videos.

It is a real shame about the rabid fans and all of the scandals that seemed to come about from a combination of reclusiveness, very poor advice from those around him (if he ever received any), and child-like naïveté.

What a shock.

Here's how I prefer to remember him.

Both of these deaths were shocking. Fawcett was wonderful. I tend to block everything in relation to Jackson off from the early nineties onward, but he was an impressive, dynamic performer in his prime.

Though not a massive fan, "I want you back" and "ABC" rate as all-time personal favs, and "Don't stop 'ti you get enoughl" and "Billy Jean" were pretty damn good, too!

Sad news when any bloke dies at an early age and leaves young children behind.

The biggest shock was when I bought my early-morning coffee. The woman behind the counter mentioned it a young-looking patron she must have known.

The patron (a girl of about 18 or so, I guess) didn't know who she was talking about.

Myself and the four or so other people waiting for coffee all looked at each other quizzicaly but said nothing.

When the woman behind the counter mentioned 'Billy Jean', the young girl finally had a look of kinda recognition, but was still uncertain about the person who performed it.

Man, nothing dates oneself more than losing two childhood icons in a single day. I had that Farrah poster as well, and I can vividly recall Thriller dropping while I was in middle school -- you simply could not escape that album for at least a year. My ma dug it as much as my brother and I did at the time, which is really saying something.

On a film-related note, it's difficult to understand just how groundbreaking he and his teams were relative to the video music format if you did not live through it and experience it first hand.

I can even recall the ubiquity of the pleather jackets and single gloves in the largely lily-white suburbs of northern New Jersey.

Fawcett's cancer was long and painful and cruel (as cancer often is), but the Jackson news is an absolute shocker. RIP.

I wasn't around or too young at the highest of his popularity, but that doesn't mean I escaped from listening and loving his stuff from back then. You can't.

jbeall wrote:What a shock.

Here's how I prefer to remember him.

Fucking a-men.

Watching this, it feels like it was a hundred centuries ago (compared to today), but also feels like it was just yesterday.

My 2nd oldest brother lived and breathed the J-5 (and my oldest brother is Michael's age)... this has got to be messing with his mind.

I wasn't alive when Elvis or Lennon died, but I get it now, in the same sad way that Ledger's death finally helped me contextualize James Dean's.

The level of tragedy and turmoil in the man's life was bizarre and unexplainable. I hope he found peace in some part of his existence before he passed away.

The testament to his musical talent is that someone of my age, who grew up when he was nothing but a punchline, is still devastated by his death. Utterly shocking.

My sister brought up an interesting point, what happens to The Beatles catalogue now?

And what happens to the Elephant Man's bones?

I wonder how his children will be in a few years, with him being close to bankruptcy a few years ago, would they be set financially until adulthood? I know he sold the Beatles catalogue a few years ago, but didn't he also sell most of his music rights for a lump sum a few years ago? Tragic day in the entertainment world.

Kinda reminds me of when Mitchum died, and then a day later Jimmy Stewart died and took the thunder.

Highway 61 wrote:My sister brought up an interesting point, what happens to The Beatles catalogue now?

It was reported earlier this year that he wanted to leave his stake (he still owned a considerable percentage) to McCartney via his will.

That would be one helluva class act if it comes to pass.

david hare wrote:

My 2nd oldest brother lived and breathed the J-5 (and my oldest brother is Michael's age)... this has got to be messing with his mind.

It's messing with you motherfucking net brother's mind something bad.

Jackson was 9 years my junior, Farrah was two years older than me.

And apart from anything else Jackson was the last personal link for me to Motown, and that whole 70s preAIDS era getting out Dancing and snorting and screwing, and Thriller was the last album I bought before meeting up with the current husband 25 - twenty five -years ago.

It makes you feel simultaneously old, and far FAR too young (to go.) It's totally fucking freakout.

Sorta brings home the gloomy truth that there is no such thing as time travel. You look at those great pieces of 70's audio & video, know all the great things going on beyond the borders of the screen at the time and and get that lurch in your gut & wonder how it could just be all over... finito-- wouldn't be so bleh if it didn't have to be compared to the Freeze Dried business of today.

Will be listening to The thriller album tonight. The four punch of Caraidine, McMahon, Fawcett, and Jackson is terrible. Worst June ever.

ZizouJuve wrote:Tragic day in the entertainment world.

Kinda reminds me of when Mitchum died, and then a day later Jimmy Stewart died and took the thunder.

Or when Bergman and Antonioni died on the same day two years ago.

Christ was that really TWO YEARS ago?

HerrSchreck wrote:Christ was that really TWO YEARS ago?

Almost... July 30, 2007.

I went into a movie, came out and heard "Bad" blasting from a taxi cab and knew it had been confirmed even before I passed one of the city's electronic news billboards. One of my strange fond memories as a child was when VH1 would have a Michael Jackson day and they'd run all his videos and his movies and specials and my mom would tape them and watch them over and over. Remember when a music video was an event and could pre-empt primetime TV? He was the last of his kind.

The Thriller music video may have been the catalyst to my film obsession, I remember watching a making-of feature on MTV for it and I loved every minute of it, I was about nine or ten and I found every interview about choreography, make-up, costumes, direction to be marvelous. I remember trying to do the moonwalk with a couple of my friends, seeing him do that was like watching a magician do a levitation act, I never could wrap my head around it. Anyway, RIP...

What kid born in the past thirty years hasn't tried to moonwalk?

Louis Theroux's brilliant special on his quest to interview Michael Jackson can be viewed on YouTube in eight parts, the first of which can be watched here. Jackson's people really screwed up when they went with the mocking Bashir over Theroux for that infamous disaster of a special

MJ was the Waylon Jennings of pop music.

The boy who never grew up by Roger Ebert.