Remembering Michael Jackson

I was moved last weekend when I saw two quarter aged Chinese American adults jamming to Michael Jackson's music strictly using their two acoustic guitars and personal voices. It seemed like they were in this vibe, just belting out numbers from the times when MJ was in Jackson 5 like "Ben" to his more popular solo numbers like "Smooth Criminal," "Human Nature," "Rock With You," and my requested number "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough." I still laugh cuz it reminds me of that scene where Chris Tucker steals the scene at the karaoke club. Well, digression aside, here's the down low of how I was introduced to MJ's music.

It's the early nineties. I'm a first grader at my quaint suburban elementary school. There was this White kid name Mike who loved to sing PopEye the Sailor Man and had an older sister in an upper grade. He showed me this book about "Thriller" and he'd talk about that music video where MJ, wearing his signature red jumpsuit, had these eyes that turned like opaque. I was like wha?

Then one time when I was in sixth grade, there was this fifth grader who was dressed up in this black and silver marionette uniform. People thought she was MJ but she'd be pissed, stating "I'm JANET Jackson, MJ's sister! Gosh!."

Moving forward, it's sophomore year in high school. It's the class competition and every class from frosh to senior has to do this dance number. We shuffle into the large auditorium back when the bleachers were wooden and varnished. Now they're plastic and safer. I suppose there were tiny cracks where people's stuff could slip through or people could fall down. Anyways...

The lights dim, and the voices start to 'simmah down,' as Conan O Brien used to say when he had his show, and then the snare starts the vibe and the electronic organ throbs like a heartbeat. The tempo sets the scene and some strings come outta nowhere, indicating some mystery and pretense. Then MJ's voice starts to tell his story about this girl, "Billy Jean" .

Then the vibe changes into a cautionary tale, and the sophomores, my class, start to synchronize, twirling their plastic bowlers and meeting each step with the tempo in the background as MJ keeps telling it as it is, this tale of broken hearts, undetermined patrimony and denial. The song lyric that draws my attention is when MJ's say "remember to always think twice." Then his own voice revertebrates and says otherwise "DON'T think twice." Then there's the cool guitar instrumental that's all bass. Not as cool as "Beat It," but still swell, pretty swell and cool.

So rewind, its fourth year in high school. I'm a senior now and those I Love the 80s episodes on vH1 are pretty popular. I start to think I was alive during the Eighties but I wasn't. I watch 80s flicks starring the Brat Pack, wanting to Feris Bueler and trying to tell the Principal that I think he 'stole his wardrobe from Barry Manilow." So I'm watching all the Michael Jackson music videos, and I must say my favorite by far is "Beat It." That Van Halen guitar solo. Hands down awesome.

Then cue to the near present, I hear about the sad news, the sudden and tragic death of MJ and the world is in mourning both far and wide. Ultimately, it reminds me of how MJ still survives in my memory, as an entertainer, an artist, and most of all as a musician able to manipulate sound and translate it through his dance. A pop star that shines despite the dark emptiness of space.

One time I walked through a busy intersection donning my slim black fedora and this gentleman muttered " Like that hat, you look like MJ." I suppose there are copy cats, wanna bes and imitations of MJ like those generic marital arts films that proliferated after the master Bruce Lee

As I sit here and listen to this computer interpret the grooves on a compact disk using a laser beam, it all starts to collide, these moments listening and processing MJ's legacy, his music and how he made an impact on American and world pop music across the seven seas. Everyone know's MJ's songs. In fact, I still remember hearing "We Are the World' playing all across the school on them horrible 70sish loudspeakers with that crackle and static.

When the essemble starts to fade out, MJ's siren-like voice chimes in 'we are the world, we are children, we are the ones to make a brighter day, so let's start giving...it's true we make a brighter day just you and me....' What a powerful message for world unity.

You know, I remember that time when Leslie Chung left our world and my Cantonese teacher C.M. played one of his songs to memorialize him. A bunch of ABCs like myself probably didn't know what he was saying but I just remember the whole class being entranced by that voice.

I suppose the next time I hear some off key person trying to cover an MJ song on karaoke, or a group of people are doing the electric slide to 'Beat It' it's like MJ the man may be gone, but his music remains in our hearts, in our voices and our thoughts as we ponder and interpret his music. Which reminds me of writing and how it records our experiences and thoughts but it can only be seen and read. Whereas music can be sung, it can be recorded and it can be performed. Brings it all to whole another level.

So I guess I'll listen to some more of MJ's music spanning his musical career from the Jackson 5 to his solo artist days of Thriller.

There's a quote from a Japanese film I saw way back where a musician mutters something along the line of how artists can write their own endings. Pretty subversive and yet interesting in a critical perspective.

Just thought I'd blog about MJ since I'm listening to his music. That's all for now.